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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don’t understand OP’s logic. There aren’t enough “top schools” to admit 10% of the entire college bound population. And also, it’s not really true that a typical 90tb percentile kid could do well at the very top schools. I want to emphasize the word “typical” in my last sentence, because tests aren’t perfect and there are always unusual exceptions. But for the most part a 90th percentile kid probably wouldn’t do well at the most rigorous schools. [b]Even a 99th percentile kid can struggle to keep up with the 99.99th percentile kids at MIT or Caltech.
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But I would agree that a 90th percentile kid could do very well at most colleges, as long as you’re not talking about the top 25-50 colleges in the entire country. There are many, many, decent colleges in the US. It’s a huge field! Not everyone can be Ivy bound.[/quote]

Ok, lets calm down here. There is a total of about 40 college bound kids in the USA who are 99.99 percentile. That's a handful of students at the very top schools, assuming they all go to one. Most kids at even those top schools will never cross paths with them and won't "struggle to keep up with them", unless they choose to (and assuming these kids are fully committed to school, have no issues etc - almost certainly not true for every single one).

99th percentile should have no problem handling coursework at the most selective schools, in any subject. It's not that hard. They need to study harder than 99.9 but they can get excellent grades if they apply themselves.

95th percentile, if accepted to top school, should avoid all heavily mathy subjects. math, physics, CS... Econ is borderline - doable but with significant effort.

90th percentile can take psychology, various area studies, languages... Not easy, and they won't be the best, but they can have a decent GPA. Besides, these are kids who were #2 or #3 in their 20-person classes since pre-K. They won't be "struggling to keep up" with the geniuses.[/quote]

90th %ile kids are slightly above Average at our public schools. Other poster posted similar! They are not and never have been #2 or 3 in a class . They are in the 2nd or 3rd from top math level. They get in to JMU and VT if not engineering. Sometimes they get lucky and get in to William and Mary or UVA in state if they ED and grind away to get a class rank in the top 15% , but not commonly. 
Of course if they get in to a top school /athlete, some big hook/, they can get a below-average 3.5 GpA in an easy major. But most do not have any chance of getting in! No rational parent would push these schools on a kid like the OP with a 1350 and above average but not top 20%  grades[/quote]

90 the percentile means there is 2 kids per 20 kid class that are better than you. Unless you are talking about Blair TJ or similar there is not way 90th is average at your public school.[/quote]

DP: 90th percentile is slightly above average: 85th is average in our district. A different poster shared 2 different UMC publics where 1260-1280 is average(85th is 1250), and someone else shared TJ average is 1516 or 99th. 
School districts publish CTP and other nationally normed test percentiles: many public school districts in our state have 85th around the average. Those same districts have a correlative SAT range.

Some of you do not understand how nationally normed percentiles work[/quote]

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