My daughter just finished 10-th grade in a private high school in NYC. The GPA is not ideal, 3.7. The school does not give out A+ (max is 4.0), and does not give weighted GPA for advanced classes. What really matters is the relative ranking in one’s own school. However, the school’s policy is that they don’t provide ranking to the students, and don’t provide ranking to colleges either. In this kind of situation, how do you figure out her relative ranking? I have asked her dean about this but it’s not going anywhere. Thank you. Anxious.
They will report what percentile your student was in to the college.
If the school won’t disclose rank, ask the GC what types of schools previous students were accepted with similar stats as your child.
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This is specific to our school but sharing because maybe could help some others…
I looked at the program for our NHS induction ceremony and counted how many were inducted. It was about 1/3 on the class. My D’s GPA on the lower end of what qualified for NHS but not at the very lowest cutoff. So I assumed she is probably about top 25 percent. Not perfect but kind of an informed estimate.
If they don’t report, then there is none you can use.
I would calculate your gpa on a 4.0 scale - so an A is a 4, B is a 3.
Don’t worry about + or - to see how you fare. That’s apples to apples with the rest of the world.
From that, a test score and rigor, you can put together a suitable list.
Don’t worry about the rank. For your purposes, it doesn’t exist.
Good luck.
Thank you for the specific example.
Thank you, tsbna44. She has been taking all possible advanced classes. Math is one grade above so she will be taking Adv. Calc in 11-th grade, and linear algebra in 12th.
For my purpose, yes the ranking doesn’t exist. But people always say fundamentals matter in terms of college application, and you are competing with peers in own school.
Colleges will likely be familiar with a private NYC school and the typical grade distribution of its students – and you are correct that her relative rank (whether it is specific or not) is going to matter some.
Have you seen the school profile that it sends to colleges? It may show the GPA distribution, or the highest GPA, or give some kind of indication. I saw one private high school in NYC go as far as showing the grade breakdown for every single class offered! That’s extreme, but even without releasing rank some schools are still offering a lot of information.
As @momofboiler1 said, using Naviance or Scoir or the counselor’s insight can help to understand your daughter’s relative standing and reasonable chances. You can ask, “Where have unhooked applicants with similar grades and rigor to my daughter matriculated in the last 2 years?”
I think it is a matter of asking the right question at the right time. It may be that they don’t want your daughter worrying quite yet about her college list because it’s too early, so you could instead ask about how the counseling office helps students to develop college lists and what the timeline is for it. Perhaps they want to wait and see how her test scores are before they can make a reasonable prediction. (Even in a world that remains largely TO, a private school student from NYC will be expected to report scores in most situations.)
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Thank you, CCName1. I have not found the GPA distribution in our school’s profile. I did find some other schools’ distributions, they vary to certain degrees. For example, 3.7 could be a good GPA for some schools, but above average for some other schools.
We are definitely reporting SAT, and will be taking it in the 11-th grade. Will try to get around 1550.
Will ask the counselor the question regarding college list in the Fall. Thanks for the suggestion.
You don’t have a rank. Period. And It’s always good to see where like students attend. It doesn’t mean you’ll want the same though.
But like everyone you must have, most importantly, affordable and safe schools.
Once you determine the type of school - environment, size, major etc, you can build a fulfilling list.
It sounds like the students profile will be strong from all you are saying and you’ll have options from rejective schools at $90k per year (if full pay) and well respected publics as low as $20,000.
I don’t think you need to over analyze the students competitiveness. Even the most competitive, and it sounds like your student is strong, need a balanced list base on size, environment, major, selectivity and budget.
If the student will be a junior, it will be a great time next year to visit local schools of different sizes and environments. And perhaps some further away in spring - or if you are traveling further on vacation, earlier. It’s great to take a half day and attend a tour / info session or just your to see how a school or type of school feel to the student.
And don’t forget to develop your UW GPA on a traditional 4 point scale - so 4,3,2 etc for A, B, and C - removing pluses and minuses - just to validate. So if they are straight As, it’s a 4.0, even if all A-.
But seems to me that you’re in a good place overall based on what you’ve described. And if you end up not that way (lower than expected test score, tough junior year), it will be easy to pivot given you’ll know your budget and type of school you seek.
In other words, don’t over think it - it will drive you nuts if you do.
Good luck.
Trying to get a sense if T20 is still realistic given her current gpa. I am under the impression that most top school requires near perfect gpa.
Gpa ranges differ. By college but also high school.
A private may have kids with a 3.4 get in but a 3.9 doesn’t from other schools.
This is why you need to talk to your counselor to see where like kids have gotten in but again, it’s very easy for you to calculate a true UW GPA vs the school one. Why haven’t you ?
You’ll see 3.7 get into a college and a 4.0 rejected. Unless it’s a school that admits by formula, there’s no way to know.
That you go to a private hs tells me you need to talk to them. They’ll have an idea.
But each student is different.
Your student will be fine but top 20 or elite LAC are reaches for all…yours included.
This is why, no matter the student, you need a balanced list including an assured and affordable admit that the student will love.
Please don’t over pressure or over stress your student. I can already feel it coming.
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If the high school is one of the elite ones with dedicated college counselors and a history of admission to highly selective private colleges, those college counselors are likely the best people to ask if the student has a realistic chance at the highly selective private colleges, and they may be able to tell which of those highly selective private colleges are more or less likely to see the student as a fit from their point of view.
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Ok. The college counseling meeting starts 11-th grade. I will ask the counselor in the Fall. Thanks.
Please allow the student to ask. Let them control the process. It’s their future. If they are going to succeed, it needs to be their success, not yours setting them up.
Just an anxious parent that’s all. To my kid I have been saying wonderful job congratulations many times. She’s really good kid.
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Thanks for the advice, yes that aligns well with my philosophy.
The parents’ job is to do the financial planning to know what amount of money the parents are willing to spend for the kid’s college. List prices can be up to $95k/year these days. Colleges have net price calculators on their web sites to estimate financial aid that you may want to try if you cannot afford the list prices. Different colleges have different financial aid policies, so you need to check the net price calculator for each college. Communicating the cost constraints to the student is best done before the college application list is made.
If the parents are divorced, most highly selective private colleges will require both parents to do financial aid paperwork, and will base financial aid on both of their income and assets. When using net price calculators at such colleges, include both parents’ income and assets.
There’s gpa. But there’s test scores, essays, LORs, ECs.
Based on what you describe, your student will have wonderful opportunities SOMEWHERE.
This is the time to focus less on name and more on type of school - hence visiting campuses of different sizes and environments is more important so you know where to apply.
No point applying to Harvard if she hates the size, weather, environment , etc. or if you are a full pay family but only want to spend $50k a year, no point in applying to a school that won’t meet your budget needs.
Learn what she’ll love in a school. That’s more important now than where could she end up - which after 10th grade - the answer is - I don’t know - for every student.
As others are saying, highly selective colleges do evaluate applicants in context, including the context of their secondary school. But if your secondary school doesn’t rank, then rank is not going to be part of how they evaluate that context.
Instead, if they are familiar with your school, they will likely already have some idea of what they are looking for in applicants coming out of your school. If they are not, they will try to use the school report, maybe additional data available to them, and so on to make some informed assessments.
OK, so if you have counselors familiar with what specific colleges look for out of your secondary school, that is definitely the best source. In our feederish HS, we had counselors like that. They also made available to us SCOIR data, which helped provide some information along those lines, if used very cautiously.
In terms of parents versus kids, our HS wanted the kids to lead the process, which is definitely the right approach for most kids. But they also wanted to keep parents informed and involved to the extent the kids welcomed their help.
So I don’t think you are likely to lack opportunities to learn and be involved, but for sure you don’t need to learn everything at once, answer every hypothetical question, or so on. You can take it in stages, focus in gradually on paths that are working for your kid, eliminate ones that are not, and end up helping your kid as appropriate with putting together a good application list and good applications.
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