<p>and the answer is…</p>
<p>A lot. Colleges look at every applicant in context. I go to a super intense NE prep school where no one, literally no one, has a 4.0, because it’s that damn hard. I think the historical record is 3.89 actually, and the three-four smartest kids in each grade of 80-90 get like a 3.6.-3.8 </p>
<p>So you don’t have to have a perfect record and can still go to a prestigious school. I know two people who each had a 3.55 and 3.34(!) and were accepted ED to Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>^^which school?</p>
<p>Since they both went to Hopkins… Gilman?</p>
<p>^no she said NE. Gilman is in MD (i know i kive in md)</p>
<p>My school isn’t a prep school, but it is #2 in the state. Our valedictorian has a 3.78 and 3.35+ are considered top 10%, and about 8-10% end up at Ivies/equivs. So, most competitive schools realize these things in context.</p>
<p>yes I definitely do think it matters. I go to a competitive public high school that is one of the top in California and US, we have a lot of smart people and we usually have 20 or more valedictorians. Every year though we only send a few to ivy leagues, last year it was four and one to two people to MIT, John Hopkins, Swarthmore, Northwestern and Wash. U in st Louis, Caltech and stanford. Most people go to Berkeley and UCSD and other university of californias. It may be that most of us do not want to spend so much on undergrad education, but still, not that many get into ivy league. </p>
<p>I went on some other school’s websites, like Groton, College Prep. in oakland, and Webb, very prestigious schools. Take College Prep. for example. > [College</a> Prep at a Glance — College Prep Web](<a href=“http://www.college-prep.org/about/quick_facts]College”>http://www.college-prep.org/about/quick_facts) when i saw that i was pretty amazed</p>
<p>I’m amazed by Roxbury Latin. They report where every single student went:
[Roxbury</a> Latin: School Life College Guidance Matriculation](<a href=“http://www.roxburylatin.org/school_life/Matriculation.aspx]Roxbury”>http://www.roxburylatin.org/school_life/Matriculation.aspx)</p>
<p>Check out the Collegiate School (tuition is $31,250)</p>
<p>51 members of the Collegiate Class of 2008 matriculated at the following colleges and universities:</p>
<p>Brown 3
Columbia 2
Harvard 6
Penn 3
Princeton 3
Stanford 1
Yale 7
- smattering of other top schools</p>
<p>That’s a 50% Ivy Matriculation Rate…</p>
<p>If you want to go to Ivy League or wherever, you can get in no matter where you go (pretty much. If you go to horrible schools all your life and are terribly behind in education, you’re not going to get in most likely) as long as you have all the stuff. I don’t think the “automatic in” is worth the tens of thousands of dollars one spends at a top NE prep school. I’d only go if I were really really poor (financial aid) or really really rich (what’s $30,000 to me?). A couple of people have left my school for like Hotchkiss and Philips Academy, but they aren’t headed to better schools than the top kids at my school.
If you wouldn’t be able to rise to the top at a middling school or even a top public though, you may find it necessary if Ivies and the like are your only goal.</p>
<p>I completely agree Millancad. I just don’t see enough return for paying that much money. Going to a gifted public high school on the other hand…</p>
<p>Colleges are not going to hold it against you if you attended the local public school instead of a prep school.</p>
<p>Going to a type of “feeder” school definitely has its advantages (great teachers, many many opportunities, etc.), but adcoms realize that not everyone can attend them.</p>
<p>what about provate school that arent feeders. i go to one, and like a few get into ivys but even fewer get in for academics (<10% get into ivys)</p>