The counselors really try to steer the students into colleges with the right fit. I'm sure matriculations happen to Va Tech and UMD, but probably never to the same degree as the selective private schools. That is not an indictment of UMD and Va Tech, just the reality that a large public school is a much different environment than a private. You naturally will see more matriculations to the more competitive private schools. |
Coddled private school kids tend to not thrive at large universities. |
Andover is the opposite of a school that coddles. The unofficial motto is “sink or swim.” I remember literally collapsing on the floor of the library after finals during my upper (junior) year, from pure exhaustion. I also remember my European History teacher telling us in the fall that all of us would get no more than a 3 (equivalent of a C) that term. I was never so happy to finally earn a 5 that spring (equivalent to an A). My English teacher told us “The only way anyone will get a 6 (equivalent to an A+) on a paper in my class is if I read it and wish I had written it.” |
Oh, Andover grad, you were doing so well until now. Your problem: the link on this thread to the college matriculation list also shows the grading scale and grade distribution for the Andover class of 2023, and according to it the average GPA of the class was well over a 4.0 on the standard 4.0 scale - and, even on Andover 6.0 scale 6.0 being absolutely perfect the average is a 5.5. So you have been caught in your exaggeration. |
Andover students are not "coddled". You do realize that more than 80% of the students live on campus? These are 14-18 year olds, away from home, some more than 10,000 miles. Are they priviliged to be offered the highest academic education tailored to each student? Yes. No one is holding their hand, which is why when it comes time for college matriculations the very top schools in the country know that they will get a complete student, and why it has such great success with college matching. |
People pick Harvard/Yale over Cornell/Penn/etc for sure. But I don't see how that can be the explanation for why the Cornell/Penn numbers are relatively low. You would have to assume that most of the people accepted to Cornell/Penn/etc are also accepted to Harvard/Yale/etc. That seems unlikely. |
It’s not that unusual at top schools like Andover. I definitely knew kids who got into 2 Ivy League schools and picked. One of my close friends got into Yale and Princeton and picked Yale. |
Oh boy, you do not know Andover. Those kids go in 14 and come out 45 and haggard. |
Would it make you feel better for someone to tell you that Andover is an overrated school that coddles rich kids? Go ahead and believe it. It won’t make it true, but I’m sure it’ll help you feel somehow vindicated. |
I am not that poster. I’m a different poster. All I am saying is that your recollection of how students were graded at Andover may have been true then, but it’s certainly not true now. At least not according to the school’s own 2023 school profile. Clearly, it is no more immune to grade inflation than any other school. |
It's obviously an excellent school but the poster did reference some data that suggests Andover does in fact hand out a lot of high grades. Most schools do these days, even the top ones. |
Yes I did. According to the school profile, the average GPA of the graduating class of 2023 was around 5.45 on the Andover scale, which Andover says converts to over a 4.0 on the standard 4.0 scale. |
| Pretty surprising that 38% of Andover's students matriculate to a scant 14 colleges. |
Yes, grade inflation is an issue at Andover, as it is at all schools in this country. That doesn’t mean it’s an easy school to be at. All it means is that the differentiation is essentially within a 5.0-6.0 band. A college can still look at that distribution and figure out if a kid did well, compared to their peers. Being in the top 10% (5.7-6 GPA) is still going to be hard. |
Is this supposed to be a criticism? |