<p>First of all, you should look at the College Counseling department’s fact sheet for the colleges, usually linked to their web page. It usually tells you the grades for the juniors at end of year, SAT scores, etc. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t be surprised if at many top BS, the freshmen get knocked about with grades across the board that are lower than the previous eighth grade year (when lots of them had report cards that were “straight As”). They then proceed to working their way UP to what you see posted for junior year. This is what I am putting together from anecdotal evidence parents at SAS have told me, and I think it fair to assume many of the “top twenty” or so schools are similar. Could be wrong about that; for any particular school, you need direct observations from within the constituency.</p>