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<p>If you’re arguing perfection, we can just agree that nothing is perfect and call it a day. But the discussion was based on responding to the perception that some school may better prepare/position a student for top grad school than others. As I believe that third party groups best prepare a student for standardized admission tests I’ve concentrated on what a college is involved with and that is someone’s G.P.A. and class rank. </p>
<p>Getting the G.P.A. ranges for top 10 grad school in business, law and medicine is pretty darn easy (or top five for engineering). Figuring out what percentile of the last graduating class has a G.P.A. of that or above can be determined with a phone call to the school. This doesn’t mean these kids are getting in, it means they are in the running to get in. </p>
<p>For some PH.D. programs (such as many core liberal arts majors) it is admittedly tougher. The school attended ‘may’ mean more than other programs. If someone is interested in a PH.D. track, I’d suggest checking the Fulbright winners at each school for the last few years in the major of most interest. How many and what were their grades? If a school is not getting more Fulbright winners than the other college of interest, I doubt they are going to be more successful getting their kids into top PH.D. programs either. Again, get where their G.P.A. falls within their class and this becomes reasonable data to consider. Pointedly put, if the kid is considering a top LAC and finds out he or she needs to be in the 33 percent of the class to reasonably be considered for a Fulbright, then their odds (with no other data) are one in three of making that happen. AND if they are also incurring debt to make that happen, that can be very very sobering. And if it’s too hard to send those Fulbright winners a post on Facebook to ask them what their grades were, then I’d suggest the college applicant might find a lot of things too hard in life.</p>