Really? CC makes it sound like most schools do. If a school doesn’t then that alone may indicate how unusual the kid is.
I get the impresion that a lot of posters on here have little idea of the reality of school variability in this country. Frankly, I don’t think it’s at all unusual for AP scores to not be reported.
A few years back I actually downloaded several school profiles for comparison. They differ widely in what they report. There are some that are extremely informative. Others - not so much. Also schools will remove information that no longer puts them in a good spotlight or point out information in a way that frames the data in the best light. For instance, one particular school would previously report the number of AP tests by score such as number of 3’s, 4’s and 5’s. Suddenly one year, they collapsed the data into students scoring 3 or higher. I expect this was due to a steep drop in 4’s and/or 5’s though perhaps there were other reasons for this change.
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I would not be surprised if there were many schools where few students earning A grades in AP courses score 5 (or 4) on AP tests. If you look up “Houston Independent School District AP reports” and look for table 6B in the 2021-2022 report, you can see that the results were not great for the HISD. Probably most schools or districts with similar performance would not want to make that level of performance too public, so merely reporting the number of 3 or higher scores puts them in a better light.
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I think any of these outcomes tbh - clear info or hiding it like this - would make it clear that a 5 from an underperforming school is special. And who’s to say the lor did not in fact point out how special the kid’s achievements (we don’t know beyond the 4.0 but maybe he’s the only kid who got a 4.0 that year, or the last five years etc) were in school context anyway?
…which all goes to show, again, that it’s impossible to compare children.
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It may or it may not as I do not expect ad coms will assume much if schools don’t publish the AP statistics. The point is that letters of recommendation are likely to favor those students who go to schools where such letters are commonly requested. For a lower ranked school, students are likely to be at a disadvantage not only with guidance but also teacher recommendations.
In this particular situation, the student at the lower ranked school may be facing these types of disadvantages but for all we know the student manages to get a string of 5’s in several AP courses which was unusual enough at the school that it was remarked on in a letter while the 4.0 was not even commented on since it was unremarkable at the school. We don’t know and the poster does not seem to either. However, there are schools where a 4.0 is not unusual but a 5 on an AP exam is.
…just underlining the fact that WE don’t have enough information but clearly the adcom thought they did, and offered him a place.
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GREAT BOOK! That one and Valedictorian at the Gate
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I haven’t seen this suggestion yet, so I’ll say it in my experience as a HS teacher - sometimes for deferred students, the school will accept another letter of recommendation before the final decision is made. Does your son have a teacher who adores him, but who is teaching him [only] senior year so that the teacher has just now gotten to know him?
I write such letters frequently. They often work, including my most recent two (Dartmouth, Wellesley, both for amazing students who were deferred after early applications and who only had me senior year.)
The key would be a teacher who loves your kid, knows your kid, and knows how to write that kind of letter. Which means, looking up all about the college in question and going through all the ways that your son in particular is a real match (in addition to his other wonderfulness).
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Interesting. I don’t know if this was suggested previously but not sure how many posters would be familiar with this. I certainly wasn’t. Which again would be an example of knowledge that a school who understands the process of navigating admission to top schools would probably have at their disposal while a low ranked school that sends no kids to Ivy leagues would not know. Students at under-resourced schools often have a greater uphill battle to climb just to get even one foot in the door.
It’s a great idea though!
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Yes, in fact - not all of my students, in the same school, even knew it was an option. They were lucky enough to have teachers who had been around the block a few times in very privileged districts.
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Having followed this discussion, I’m not sure I fully understand what a privileged school is. This is an honest question. Do you refer to private schools? Or are competitive suburban publics considered privileged? Thanks.
Schools that are familiar with the process of sending students to top schools.
Not all privates are privileged. Some publics are far more privileged than some privates since it depends on the nature of the private school. For instance, if the focus of the private is on religion rather than on college admissions, then even some local public schools that have 1 or 2 Ivy or other top school admits a year would have more experience with the college admissions process than some private schools that send none. Yes, competitive suburbs would be considered privileged as would some charter schools though likely not as privileged as top private prep schools. Privilege is a gradation where some schools would have more than others.
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Interesting. So privilege is in the sense of having an established relationship of sorts with a particular university.
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Also, some types of high schools may be “privileged” in college admission knowledge for different kinds of colleges. For example, a religious high school may have better knowledge of colleges of the same religion than of colleges in general. “Elite” “feeder” private high schools may know about highly selective private colleges well, but may have blind spots in other kinds of colleges (e.g. service academies and public universities that are not the popular flagships).
However, a high school where few or no graduates go to colleges other than the local community college or less selective local state university is likely to be “unprivileged” with respect to college admission knowledge, including both where a stronger student may realistically apply and how to write recommendations.
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I would add that school “privilege” is also having faculty who are there for a long time, and who likely themselves have attended colleges considered desirable by the community.
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Would it help for the student to do that deep dive into the college website and provide the teacher with a suggested list of how he/she matches the particulars of that college? Or is that “too much”?
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Some attributes of privileged schools:
- Affluent parents who aren’t working multiple jobs each. One parent and/or nanny routinely available to coordinate life, get kids to school, etc
- Student doesn’t have to work to help support family
- Ample $ to investment in ECs
- Safe community with relatively low crime rates
- Access to quality healthcare, tutors, executive functioning coach, etc.
- Schools with high standards and expectations, and a high level of resources (libraries, science labs/materials), and rigorous curricula
- Teachers who are paid well
- Dedicated college counselors who understand college admissions
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Please take the conversation about “privilege” to PM or start a new thread!
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Sorry, posted just before you
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