What Your School Profile Reveals About You

What Your School Profile Reveals About You

We know you’ve been working hard on your applications and are acutely aware that there are many, many individual components that go into completing that process. Essays, test scores, activity lists, recommendation letters, casual correspondence, and other elements all require your thoughtful attention.

But there is an often-overlooked piece of your admissions puzzle that helps the person reading your file see the clearest picture of you. That piece is the school profile. Every high school is required to update this document regularly and submit it with every transcript that goes out on your behalf.

Even if you don’t have a close-knit relationship with your school counselor, he or she will include this information in your file.  

Why the School Profile Matters

Admissions officers cannot visit every high school in the country, let alone the world. And even the ones with which they are quite familiar make changes to the curriculum and update critical policies routinely. The school profile provides all the context an admissions officer needs to accurately gauge where a student fits within her school group.

Think of the school profile like the decoder key or the map legend that makes your transcript meaningful. Looking at your grades through the lens of the school profile will reveal all of the following to an admissions officer (and possibly more):

·      How many students are in your grade and thus the ratio of student to teacher/counselor

·      How much weight your school adds to the GPA for honors and AP classes

·      How many AP classes you could have taken

·      Where your GPA stacks up relative to the highest and lowest in the grade

·      Where students from your high school have been admitted in the recent past

·      What percentage of students typically go on to college from your school

·      Any special classes or scheduling situations unique to your school

Once you’ve seen transcripts from hundreds of different high schools, it becomes clear to an admissions officer that not all As mean the same thing. In some schools there is rampant grade inflation, while at others earning an A is a near impossibility. The school profile helps the person reading your file understand how to interpret your GPA, turning it from a number to a story.

Use this Knowledge Wisely

Make a point to check out your school’s profile. It is likely available online and, if not, your college counselor should be able to provide you with a copy. Understanding the information it reveals about you can help you make smarter choices in high school that lead to you being a more competitive applicant for the schools that interest you.

For students in the first half of their high school career in particular, the profile can be a great touchstone as you select future courses. Make sure you have a sense of what the most advanced options are in your high school and the pathway to get there.

Likewise, learning the colleges and universities that commonly accept students from your school can help you begin strategizing your own approach to the process. What elements of your school (curriculum, philosophy, reputation, traditions, etc.) influence how your application might be read? What opportunities are there for you to make your own path forward?

In a process as subjective as college admissions, context plays a critical role in determining who among a surplus of hyper-qualified applicants actually gets in. You can help tell the best version of your own story by fully understanding the context of your high school and finding your own niche within it. Working with an admissions expert can help you discover optimal ways of doing this.

The expert admissions consultants at Wise World Prep have helped hundreds of students maximize their potential of being admitted to their top choice colleges and universities. Over 20 years, we have successfully guided students through each stage of the application process – from choosing competitive high school courses to building an appropriate college list to drafting winning essays to writing persuasive update and appeals letters. We would be happy to answer your questions and partner with you to create a successful admissions roadmap.

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