Wouldn’t it be more helpful to ask the cousins how they got in?

I actually have one son that went to STA and another that is in his senior year at St. John's.

The STA kid worked his tail off, but was outmatched by some of his peers and ended up in the top 40% of his class. He ended up at Tulane.

My St. John's kid doesn't work as hard but has a 3.95 UW GPA with all honors/APs. Naviance says he's competitive for all the T20s out of SJC. The SJC kid is also happier and not nearly as stressed or burnt out as the STA kid.

If your goal is just college admissions, then keep in mind that class rank matters a lot if you're unhooked. Going to the school where your kid can get to the top of the class matters more than school's brand prestige.

Unhooked kids will generally have worse outcomes unless at the very top of the class. Getting into the top decile at a school like STA is incredibly difficult, because grading standards are high and the boys are all very smart and want the same thing.

Anonymous wrote:To try to answer your question OP, our big 3 has similar kinds of matriculation as StAs, I’d say you’d need a 3.9+ and something notable you did in high school - so not just head of newspaper but one who made a difference in some way in doing it

+1 or an unusually appealing life story plus outstanding essays and teacher recs

The honest truth is that there's no cut-off that automatically secures HYP admissions coming out of any school on the planet.

We know that there are very few spots for unhooked kids at these schools, and even fewer for wealthy unhooked kids coming out of premiere private day/boarding schools, because there are many *hooked* kids coming out of those schools and HYP don't want to fill their entire class from a handful of high schools.

Better off sending your kid to public.

To try to answer your question OP, our big 3 has similar kinds of matriculation as StAs, I’d say you’d need a 3.9+ and something notable you did in high school - so not just head of newspaper but one who made a difference in some way in doing it

This forum is just insufferable. Instead of helping poor OP out, people decided to be arrogant and snooty, which is literally the DC private school scene in a nutshell.

OP, your best bet is to move to wyoming and apply from there and hope no one else from that state is already at your kids target university.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You understand that even an uw 4.0 and 1550+ SAT and leadership in five clubs and student government still adds up to a crapshoot when it comes to HYP admissions, right? Even out of I STA?

I understand this. This is not what I asked, either.

I want to know what GPA makes HYP even a possibility from STA.

Say does not use gpa they use a numerical system.

Also what’s that saying - just becaue you ask a question does not mean people have to or want to answer it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You understand that even an uw 4.0 and 1550+ SAT and leadership in five clubs and student government still adds up to a crapshoot when it comes to HYP admissions, right? Even out of STA?

I understand this. This is not what I asked, either.

I want to know what GPA makes HYP even a possibility from STA.

No one will answer for you. It varies and I am sure you know that.

Anonymous wrote:You understand that even an uw 4.0 and 1550+ SAT and leadership in five clubs and student government still adds up to a crapshoot when it comes to HYP admissions, right? Even out of STA?

I understand this. This is not what I asked, either.

I want to know what GPA makes HYP even a possibility from STA.

4.0. Otherwise you might as well start looking at state schools.

You understand that even an uw 4.0 and 1550+ SAT and leadership in five clubs and student government still adds up to a crapshoot when it comes to HYP admissions, right? Even out of STA?

We are in the process of high school applications and considering STA. We don't have any Ivy legacy and our son has no hooks. However, he has aspirations of attending a top college like his cousins. I know that STA is very competitive, but what GPA makes an applicant competitive for Ivy League admissions out of STA? Does any STA parent have any experience with this and could point me in the right direction?