<p>I am currently a sophomore at one of the better new england prep schools (don’t want to say which one) and I am currently working my A of to be in the top 10% so that I can hopefully get into either duke or cornell and from there go to med school. I realize you need a really high GPA for med school and I was wondering how much I will be prepared for college? I also take the hardest set of classes possible at my school right now and I was wondering how it would compare to college? If I work the same amount as I do now will I be able to get a good GPA? because a lot of kids I know now at public school have 4.5 GPAs so they will most likely get into good schools too, the thing is I work about 3x more than them. Will I be better prepared than them so that I am working the same amount but then they have to work a lot more to get good grades?</p>
<p>Don’t sweat. There are hundreds of med schools. But if you want to work on string theory, that’s a different story.</p>
<p>well, if you are in an Exeter, you take rigorous courses and you are getting A’s, yes you will be better prepared for colleges. Whether you are better than all the students from public schools is questionable, but why do you care? If you keep the momentum as you you have now, you should be able to get good grades and get in a good med school. Just don’t think because you have been in an Exeter, you won’t have to work hard any more.</p>
<p>Yes, I do think you will be better prepared. It has been my personal experience, as both a boarding school graduate and current boarding school/college parent that, compared to those entering college from day schools, the boarding school graduate is way ahead of the curve as a new college freshman in terms of time management, independence, and able to make a quick adjustment to the new dorms/way of life away from home.</p>
<p>In terms of GPA, etc., there is always talk that colleges add .5 to your GPA when coming from a strong prep school (and that would apply to day schools too, I imagine). I don’t know if this is true, or just an urban myth, but I hear it enough to guess it must have some weight.</p>
<p>If you are at one of the top NE Preps, you won’t need to be in the top 10% (and they don’t rank anyway) to get into Duke or Cornell (but, keep up the good work). I don’t know what publics your friends attend, but our public doesn’t send anyone to these types of schools (maybe one every few years) no matter how high the gpa. The curriculum is not as rigorous and the grades are inflated. My older son found college to be easier than his prep school, and he majored in engineering physics, so I believe you will be very well prepared.</p>
<p>I think colleges take into account how much more challenging prep schools are than public schools. I had a 97.86 last quarter (down a couple of points this quarter due to being out for a week and a half), but I don’t imagine I’d break 90 at a rigorous prep school. I think I heard somewhere that at Exeter, a B- is really quite good grade.</p>
<p>My public school does send kids to prestigious colleges, and has rigorous IB programs for juniors and seniors. However, I didn’t feel it was worth it to plod through 9th and 10th grade surrounded by morons who are in honors classes yet spend the class time making fools of themselves and playing with their electronics. Aside from academics, the environment just sucks in general; you always hear the hall monitors shouting and the f-bomb is dropped on a 30-second basis. The school is way over capacity; there’s something like 1000 freshmen and teachers have to deal with over 120 students-- my english teacher doesn’t even have time to grade our papers. I’m so glad I’ll be going to a private day school after break.</p>
<p>Med schools don’t normally care about your high school (I live with a med school Adcom) unless you’re applying to a 6-year med program. And the college you choose makes only a little difference. There are many top candidates coming out of state schools, or smaller schools. So focus on “fit” and where you’ll maximize your attention and pay less attention to prestige and name dropping. Med schools are going to look at how rigorous your course work has been, your grades, and your scores on the MCats. If you’re applying to a 6-year med, you’ll get screened initially based on SATs and ACTs. Also - teacher/professor recs count for a lot. So build relationships. </p>
<p>Either way - be prepared to show what you’ve done proactively outside your coursework to pursue your love of medicine or at least investigate the realities of it. You wouldn’t believe how many people use “family illness” or medical TV programs as a basis for sparking their interest in medicine.</p>
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<p>Probably an urban myth with basis in reality: colleges recalculate your GPA according to their own standards. If you went to a more difficult school grade-wise and they know it, they’ll take that into account. They’ll also take it into account if you took the most difficult courses your school offered. They’re clearly going to know a prep school better than some random public school in the middle of nowhere, but the advantage of going to prep school probably isn’t as big as some people make it out to be.</p>
<p>As someone who knows people both in public schools, boarding schools, and Catholic day schools, I can say that boarding schools prepare you for college the best. You learn time management, independence, professionalism, and many other skills. And don’t worry about your public school friends with high GPAs. I know a girl who went to a certain prep school that is considered tier 3 on forums like this. At the prep school, she was in rather low classes and her GPA was below a 3.0. She was asked to leave, and had to go to public school. At public school, she was put into all honors classes her junior year and got a weighted GPA that was close to a 4.0. And this was a Massachusetts public school, which means it’s considered better than most public schools in the country. And this isn’t insider information or anything, colleges know that boarding schools are more work.</p>
<p>No matter what people may say, this is living proof that boarding schools have some merit.</p>
<p>Why do you say MA public schools are better? There are hardly any MA public schools in the TOP 100 list of USNews.</p>
<p>Well, on the forms my school is tier 2 but IMO that is probably because it is one of the smaller private schools. Also someone was telling me how there son or daughter thought that their college was easier than their prep school. Does anyone have anymore information on this?</p>
<p>and if so please include
- What kinds of grades they got in prep school (gpa/ average)
- What kind of grades they got in college (gpa)
- If they tried harder or the same.</p>
<p>I just want to know because I work really hard and a lot right now and I’m hoping this will suffice because honestly I feel like I might go crazy if I had to work a lot more.</p>
<p>My freshman D is finding her highly selective college much less work than prep school. The material is challenging, but she feels like she has much, much more time to get the work done in college. Study skills from prep make her very efficient. She has plenty of time for athletics, entertainment and partying. She was a solid student in prep, always honor roll, but some B+s. So far all As in college.</p>
<p>Your D has time for partying in college, but didn’t she miss all the partying in high school?</p>
<p>^** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** lol</p>
<p>Many teachers at Exeter stress the idea of seeing Exeter as an end rather than a “means to an end.” It’s a place where they encourage you to try new things (sports and clubs and ECs). They also want you to strive to get the best grades and have relationships with your teachers. By doing what they ask, you will indirectly prepare yourself for college: teacher recs, EC’s, good grades. I mean I know one kid got in early decision to UPenn for Int’l Business.</p>
<p>I just started to realize that boarding school may give me great opportunities to go to amazing colleges, but what if I can’t afford those colleges? I mean, I’m so spoiled by boarding school’s amazing financial aid system which barely exists at college. Am I going to have to go to a state school because that is all I can afford?</p>
<p>there are tons of scholarships out there for colleges, while there aren’t that many for high schools. i think that plays a factor</p>
<p>^^The most selective private schools have excellent financial aid.</p>
<p>Pulsar,
Massachusetts as a state consistently scores at the top of the rankings in national testing. It doesn’t mean all MA schools are good, but it does mean that on average MA schools are among the strongest in the nation.</p>
<p>[Bay</a> State students again top scores on national test - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/09/bay_state_stude_1.html]Bay”>http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/09/bay_state_stude_1.html)</p>