Which colleges are the B students going to from the top independent schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who say public school grades are anything like he rigorous private school grades really have no clue.

If you seriously believe this is true (maybe this is the GDS troll), then you have no clue about public schools. Read The Overachievers about Walt Whitman for a description of what life is like among competitive kids at the top area public high schools. Or talk to any magnet or IB student. Yes, of course there is a tier of publifc school kids who are getting Cs in their non-honors classes, but these are the kids who aren't planning on college--and these are not the kids your child would be taking classes with, if you're one of those people.

Public school kids who are headed to elite colleges generally take 7+ AP classes, often they take 8-9 AP classes. Then they send their multiple scores of 5 into the elite colleges during the admissions process (i.e. they don't wait until after admissions to use the AP score to get out of required courses; in fact, the most selective colleges usually don't let you use APs to get out of coursework anyway). The reason kids send in their AP scores during admissions is that the AP score of 5 demonstrates that your grade of "A" in the AP class was earned during rigorous coursework. By comparison, at most DC-area private schools the average is more like 3-4 AP classes.

This is NOT to say that private high school non-AP classes are necessarily less rigorous than public school AP classes. It's also not to say that APs are ideal (that's another discussion). So please don't deliberately misinterpret me.

The point here is, you're fooling yourself if you think that public school classes taken by the top public school kids are less rigorous than private school classes. The colleges appreciate this (viz. their interest in AP scores of 5) and they definitely take it into account during admissions.

Signed, parent of public and private school kids

Rigor means lots of different things to different people. In math and science, high school classes are equivalent to the big intro courses in college, which are pretty much the same anywhere. The really smart students get to 2nd year college classes but the availability of post-calculus classes is limited. I doubt there is really much difference in STEM content across public and private in the DC area. On the other hand, content in English/lit and history tends to be very different between the publics and the upper Wisconsin Ave. privates. Public school teachers just have too many students and classes to assign and read as many papers as private school teachers. If my DC was a STEM oriented child, I may have leaned toward public. But, I thought the difference was worth paying the $40k/year for the English and history curriculum alone.

[Anonymous]

We were talking about grade inflation, not rigor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were talking about grade inflation, not rigor

That's the whole point of public school kids sending in 4s and 5s from 5-9 AP tests. Whatever the grade is, the 4s and 5s don't lie.

[Anonymous]

I wasn't talking APs. I was talking about private school kids who have 3.3 goals s and 4s and 5s compared to public school kids who have 4.0s and 4.5a

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't talking APs. I was talking about private school kids who have 3.3 goals s and 4s and 5s compared to public school kids who have 4.0s and 4.5a

I wasn't talking about APs. I was talking about the private school kids with 3.3 GPAs (and lower) with 4s and 5s instead of 4.3 GPAs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't talking APs. I was talking about private school kids who have 3.3 goals s and 4s and 5s compared to public school kids who have 4.0s and 4.5a

Since you seem a bit unfamiliar with how this works in college admissions, here are some factoids.
1. Public schools publish both weighted GPAs and unweighted GPAs. In the weighted GPA, an A in an AP class gets a 5 in the GPA calc. In the unweighted GPA, the same A gets a 4 in the GPA calc--just like in private schools. Pretty sure every single public school in the area sends colleges both types of GPAs.
2. The most selective colleges generally calculate their own GPAs (the A in gym gets a lower weight than the A in Calculus) or they look only at unweighted GPAs. I should know, my kid is at a USNWR top 5 university.
3. Most (all?) top colleges have regional reps who are intimately familiar with the levels of rigor in the schools within their regions. So rest assured that the kid with a B at Sidwell is not being regarded as "less than" the kid with an A at Podunk High for Druggies.

Which begs the question. I get the sense that you don't really understand the process of getting admitted to the most selective universities and colleges. That's
totally understandable, especially if you have small kids. But you should avoid making ignorant statements online. If your goal is to hate on public schools, you'd be safer venting your raw feelings as opposed to spouting off about things you apparently don't understand. But hey, good job derailing the thread with your antipathy towards public schools

[Anonymous]

Any more news on this front?

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure there is "news" on where B students go. I think the posters here pointed to a lot of good options. It also depends on your school. The counselors will be able to steer you to good options.

[Anonymous]

This information is much more valuable than which high school gets the most kids into the Ivies. If I were considering sending my child to Sidwell, etc., I'd like to know as much as possible about college matriculation. If you're not interested, obviously don't read the thread!

[Anonymous]

True, but what is a B student? One with a GPA between 2.5 and 3.5? What about weighting? Rigor? Different schools' grade inflation/deflation? Hardtop get any real information from this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they give Cs, isn't that going affect college admission. There's a fine line between rigor and ruining college chances.

Colleges know SFS is a tough school. The most common grade is B, but kids get C's and even D's. The former college counselor said that kids in the middle of the class have GPAs in the 3.2 range. I suspect colleges appreciate knowing that A's are truly earned at Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Any school that doesn't give c's has grade inflation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they give Cs, isn't that going affect college admission. There's a fine line between rigor and ruining college chances.

Colleges know SFS is a tough school. The most common grade is B, but kids get C's and even D's. The former college counselor said that kids in the middle of the class have GPAs in the [b]3.2 range[i]. I suspect colleges appreciate knowing that A's are truly earned at Sidwell.

How are they getting into decent colleges when other applicants' schools may grade easier and turbocharge grade averages by weighting AP courses more?

[Anonymous]

I think colleges know the grading policies at different schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they give Cs, isn't that going affect college admission. There's a fine line between rigor and ruining college chances.

Colleges know SFS is a tough school. The most common grade is B, but kids get C's and even D's. The former college counselor said that kids in the middle of the class have GPAs in the [b]3.2 range[i]. I suspect colleges appreciate knowing that A's are truly earned at Sidwell.

How are they getting into decent colleges when other applicants' schools may grade easier and turbocharge grade averages by weighting AP courses more?

Each of the local independent schools prepare a School Profile that is sent to colleges. In that Profile, the grading policy is clearly described, and in some cases a distribution is provided that shows the percentage of grades given (A, B, C, D) by specific course. So, if A is the highest grade given and that equals a 4.0 on the grading scale and the college has some understanding of the rigor of the program and academic caliber of the students, then the comparison is pretty easy. Believe me, they know that a 3.9 GPA at places like Sidwell holds up pretty well against a 4.45 or 4.5 at other schools.