Prep School Grades: Lost In Translation

FauxNom
Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:35:09 +0000

There are 2 things both of you should get soon from your college counseling office: the school profile that they send out with every college application, and access to the Naviance data that shows how students from your schools have fared in college applications. For any admissions officer who doesn’t know your school, the profile will inform their understanding of just how rigorous it is. The Naviance scattergrams can help you understand your own position relative to recent successful and unsuccessful applicants.

My kids go to a similarly competitive prep school, without class rank and without an official GPA. But the GPA issue can be the kiss of death if you’re that B+/A- kind of student - even if you have essentially perfect SAT scores! At their school, those are really good grades, but you’re competing against kids at other types of schools who can get straight A’s without breaking a sweat (whether because they are extra brilliant or because they go to a less competitive school). It definitely made it tough for my son in elite college admissions this year.

Back to Pixie: If you have a 5.0, that’s about 83% of a perfect 6. That’s lower than a 3.5 on a 4.0 scale if you go strictly by “percentage of perfect”. Not so good, objectively… But your school profile will show what your grades really mean, and admissions officers certainly will be able to assess your performance in the context of a well-known high school. I think your school has phenomenal success in elite college admissions, but you should cast a wide net and try to find some schools other than Yale that you could fall in love with. As far as qualifications, your CR 800 will be very impressive, but it would be nice if you could bring up the math score without ruining your life. As a junior, you should try to cultivate relationships with 2 teachers who will be able to write you excellent recommendation letters - I think that’s awfully important when coming from a school like yours. You need someone who can distinguish you from all the other over-achieving, well-rounded students.

good luck!