Reply to Strong GPA at Big 3?

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "Strong GPA at Big 3?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DC is a junior at a Big 3 school. Deep into thinking/discussion about college applications this fall. 3.7 GPA, 1530 SAT. Took many (but not all) of the "most rigorous" courses available until junior year. Clearly strong student, but we are genuinely unsure about where this places him in general -- your views, parents of junior/senior students or of students who have already graduated? Unhooked kid, so we realize that college applications, esp at the top end will be very challenging. Since school does not provide information on class rank etc, we are just curious about where a student like the stands in relation to peers on a GPA basis.[/quote]

My kid is a recent Big 3 grad, and a 3.7 GPA put them at roughly the 75% percentile of the class. (Best estimate.) With a 35 ACT and similar rigor, they were competitive for T20 colleges and T10 SLACs, but not Ivies. [b]With only one exception I can think of, every kid who got into an Ivy from that class was an academic rock star (top 4-5), recruited athlete, URM or have parents wealthy enough to endow a building or the like. [/b][/quote]

I'm curious how you know the academic, recruiting, minority and financial status of every kid in your kid's class who got into an Ivy.   [/quote]

The Cathedral schools only have 75 or so kids per grade. Many have been in the same class since Beauvoir. By 12th grade, your kid definitely knows who are the academic superstars, recruited athletes, URM and the Uber wealthy. Legacy status is not always apparent though. Many of these categories overlap.[/quote]

Agree here, especially when a grad class runs from 75-150. If you have been around these families for 12, 9, 7 years, your kids will know a lot and you probably will too if you are involved in school/friendly with other parents. Also, if your DC is in the top academic classes, you pretty much hear the same names over and over, especially from MS onwards. I know DC is not one of the top four students based on GPA, but easily from 5-10 because of how much DC speculates based on their grades and others.

In re legacy/other hooks, DC's college counselor did once say to us that he knows when that is at play because a kid will get admitted somewhere and the student profile doesn't align with the other students (if any) being admitted in the class. While some parents will divulge when they are trying to make it happen, he usually finds out later one way or another.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics