Is B/B+ the average GPA at top privates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have a B/B+ student, why waste money at private?

Because my straight A public school student needed a different environment from the public school available to us.

[Anonymous]

Because the straight A student at my local public has SATs of 1800, but the straight A student at my private has SATs of 2400.

[Anonymous]

Is the grading scale at the top privates the same as public? 90 to 100 is an A and 80 to 90 a B so on? We are at a non top private and the scale is different 92.5 to 100 is an A. I'm wondering if colleges take this into consideration.

[Anonymous]

Colleges just look at GPA. There is no effort to "put that into context" like you have been lead to believe. Learned that the hard way when DD started applying and the person who informed us was the college counselor at her big three. There are too many applications now and grades are so inflated that it can really be a disadvantage of coming from a private school. Still wouldn't have deterred us, as my DD is forever grateful for that experience. You really need to focus on grades the most. Sports are pointless unless you are collegiate level. Scores are very important, but edged out by grades.

[Anonymous]

Led not lead. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

College know. Trust me. Top high school grad from ct with a B+ average and graduate from Princeton

[Anonymous]

*colleges

[Anonymous]

No that was before colleges tried so hard to get as many applications as possible. They just don't bother trying to decipher what the GPA means. The most they do is scale everything to a 4.0 system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, DCUM is my secret addiction these days (it's better than Ben and Jerry's!).

I've read a few posts now that talk about average GPAs in elite privates being in the B/B+ range. That's a 3.0/3.3 on the 4.0 scale. How does this affect college admissions, i.e. what kind of school do these kids attend?

When I applied to college (from a public high school), kids with a 3.3 average would have been doomed to pretty mediocre colleges, I realize it's different with private schools, but how different?

Is it better for your kid to graduate from a public with a 4.0 GPA and impressive.SATs or a 3.3 from a private school with the same SATs?

Best to go to public with the higher gpa. The big name high schools really does not matter with a 3.3. Think of it this way, the college/university knows the upper limit of the 3.3 private school kid. The 4.0 who knows the limits. Also the competition for the top colleges/universities is very fierce. They are only going to take one or two from anyone one high school. Having just gone through this with a kid who had a 4.4 with 5 ap classes, the top college only take a few from your school. Much better to be 1% (or 1st, 2nd or 3rd in he class) at public school vs 5-10% at private. The 4.0 at least gets you through the first screening.

[Anonymous]

Ha ha! What do you think you are paying for?

[Anonymous]

Just a few points to add some additional context to this. There are a lot of books available these days written by former college admissions officers that offer a window into what seems like an obscure/arcane process:

1. Many (although not all) colleges use the high school transcript as a starting point and make their own calculation of GPA -- for example, they might eliminate anything but the core courses or all grades in electives. It is also frequent practice to "unweight" weighted high school GPAs. Here's a link to a good blog post discussing this issue in the context of a panel of reps from 4-5 different colleges, most of which recalculated GPA: http://www.forsterthomas.com/admissionsconsultingblog/gpa-explained-how-top-universities-read-a-high-school-transcript

2. Course rigor is very important -- a very high GPA with non-honors or challenging courses will be discounted. Admissions officers realize that determining rigor can be quite subjective and it is often a big part of the "art, not science" element of their job.

3. Liberal arts colleges like the Ivies, Stanford and NESCAC schools, and many others besides, deal with their admissions in geographic pools. The same admissions rep will present the files for students in a particular region (e.g., the DMV). In many cases, if the rep has been there a while, they become familiar with schools down to the level of knowing about the "teaching legend" at a school who should be taken very seriously if he/she says a student is in the top few students of their career. For example, Yale had the same rep for this area for 30 years.

3A. They will present files of applicants from the same schools together. It's a pretty easy way of comparing rigor of courseload and level of enthusiasm of teacher recommendations.

4. For Ivies, NESCACS, and other schools that have had many DC independent school alums matriculate over the years, they understand very well what kind of grade deflation there is at some of the DC area private schools. Generally, a more modest GPA is only an issue at very large state schools, and even then usually the student has high enough test scores to balance out the index.

Bottom line: It is harder than it ever has been to get into any given school (like an HYP or Stanford) -- the numbers don't lie. But there are many, many outstanding colleges and universities and if a good student does not fixate on one college or a small subset, that student will have good choices. If you feel comfortable that your child is getting a great substantive education -- small class sizes, comfort and facility with research and writing, and "extras" like good arts and sports options -- then you should not let fear of grade deflation steer you away from the independent school route. But don't make the investment assuming it will lead to a certain college admissions outcome, or there is likely to be pressure and ultimately some disappointment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colleges just look at GPA. There is no effort to "put that into context" like you have been lead to believe. Learned that the hard way when DD started applying and the person who informed us was the college counselor at her big three. There are too many applications now and grades are so inflated that it can really be a disadvantage of coming from a private school. Still wouldn't have deterred us, as my DD is forever grateful for that experience. You really need to focus on grades the most. Sports are pointless unless you are collegiate level. Scores are very important, but edged out by grades.

100% false, at least from a "big 3"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No that was before colleges tried so hard to get as many applications as possible. They just don't bother trying to decipher what the GPA means. The most they do is scale everything to a 4.0 system.

The officers at the top colleges still know the very best high schools in the U.S., which haven't changed in the last several decades. Which "big 3" did your daughter attend? If it was Sidwell or NCS, its grading culture was most definitely known to the admissions ppl in the USNWR top 25

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the previous poster. The area I live in has ok public schools. When I hear of kids having 4.0s from there I think "not challenged." And I think that based on my on personal experience with HS in an inner city. I graduated 1st in my class - yes 1st and was NOT adequately prepared for my top 10 university. I struggled my first two years just getting up to speed. Thank God I didn't have low self-esteem because I kept at it. Because of this I am an advocate for private school if you don't live in an area with top public schools. So many public schools kids are not well prepared for college. I think getting into a good college is just half the battle. The real battle is are you prepared to excel once you are fully enrolled? For me, while I definitley would like for my kids to go to a top college what I really want is for them to do well at whatever college they choose -- and I think the private schools do a far better job of that especially when it comes to writing and critical thinking skills.

So,what would it take to convince you that a public school student is challenged? Are you not aware that it is the norm for AP students in public schools to have hours upon hours of homework? If that's not enough to be considered challenged then screw it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because the straight A student at my local public has SATs of 1800, but the straight A student at my private has SATs of 2400.

I've never heard of any straight A student at my public making less than 2100.