The Importance of High School Context in College Admission

Last Updated on November 24, 2025 by Jill Schwitzgebel

Let’s have some real talk about high schools.  Most (though certainly not all) families I have had the pleasure to work with are happy with the high schools that their teens attend.  It’s not uncommon for me to hear that a student’s high school is considered to be the best public school in the district or the county or even the state.  Sometimes, that is true!  But, like everything else related to college admission, context matters.  And it probably matters more than you realize for college admission at some of the most competitive colleges in the US.

Colleges admit students from all over the world every year, coming from high schools with wildly different grading systems, course offerings, and levels of competition.  In order to fairly interpret GPAs, rigor, and class rank from this huge number of high schools, admissions offices will typically develop a ratings system for the high schools themselves. Their internal scale is confidential  and is not about ranking students directly — it’s about contextualizing their achievements for admissions.

Essentially, to help the college assign numeric scores to applicants, the college rates their high schools.  This allows colleges to avoid comparing a 4.0 GPA from one school directly to a 4.0 from another without context.  It’s why half or more schools in the US have done away with class rank.   There are teens that could be valedictorian in one school that might be ranked 50th at a school down the road.

Behind the Scenes

Jeff Selingo talks about context in his behind the scenes look at admissions in Who Gets In and Why.  And in the Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard case, a few of the exhibits specifically discuss high school context in admissions:

Academic Context

“The Academic Rating reflects the applicant’s academic achievements in the context of available opportunities. Readers are instructed to consider course rigor, grade trends, and teacher recommendations relative to the offerings at the applicant’s high school.”

“The Overall Rating summarizes the applicant’s performance across Academic, Extracurricular, Athletic, and Personal categories, taking into account the context provided by the applicant’s high school and other background factors.”

“Applicants from schools with fewer advanced courses or limited resources may receive a rating that reflects performance relative to the environment, not just raw GPA or test scores.”

We also get more information about context from the SFFA v UNC-Chapel Hill case:

Academic Context

“Readers evaluate academic performance in light of the opportunities and resources available at the student’s high school. Factors include course offerings, school size, and relative competitiveness.”

Academic Context

“Adjustments are made for students who achieve high marks in less demanding environments.”

“Admissions decisions rely on a combination of metrics, including standardized test scores, GPA, and contextual factors derived from the applicant’s high school.”

How Colleges Derive Context

In the past, I’ve written about the high school profile that is submitted to each college with an applicant’s transcript, to help provide context to the college. Colleges will use the information on that profile to help contextualize the academic rigor of the curriculum offered by the high school, the overall academic strength of the student body and the school’s grading patterns.  Additionally, the college will take into consideration the college placement history of that high school (For instance, do most students go on to attend college?  Or only a small number?).

And finally, the college will likely consider if other applicants from that high school have attended there and whether those students have been successful.  Colleges also use regional admissions officers, who often handle the same high schools for years.  So, those officers know the high schools well, maybe have even spent time in them, which helps them with their ratings, too.  We can presume that especially at elite universities, each region of the country (and even the world) may already have hundreds of schools in a database that are already “pre-rated” when it’s time to read applications.

I actually asked ChatGPT to help me to imagine a ratings system that a college might use for a high school.  (As we know, AI is often good at “imagining!”)  This is purely hypothetical – colleges are not likely to ever openly share their high school ratings scales with applicants.  But, it’s a question I sometimes get asked and this is to give you an idea of how a high school could be evaluated by a college in order to put a student in context for admission.

Hypothetical High School Rating Scale

5  Exceptional

• Nationally or regionally elite boarding, magnet, international, or exam schools (Andover, Boston Latin, etc)
  • Extensive AP/IB options – maybe 25+
  • Teachers and counselors familiar with highly competitive admission expectations
  • A high proportion of students will attend a “top 25” ranked college

4  Very Strong

• High performing public or private schools – strong suburban public schools or magnets, private day schools
  • Broad AP/IB options –  at least 15-20
  • High schoolwide average test scores
  • History of sending students to selective regional universities/flagships
  • Competitive peer group (often no class rank for this reason)

3  Solid

• Typical mid-size town or city high schools
  • Some AP or dual enrollment options
  • Median ACT/SAT scores near national average
  • College bound culture, but limited national visibility

2  Limited Rigor/Under-resourced

• Often rural or urban schools with limited funding
  • Few advanced course offerings
  • Students may need to self-initiate rigor through online courses
  • Lower test scores and college-going rates

1 Minimal Academic Depth

• Special program or night school environments
  • Focus often on credit recovery to earn diploma
  • May include remedial curricula
  • Minimal college prep courses

How Admissions Officers Use This Rating

An admissions officer is going to use the high school rating as just one of the many factors they will consider in holistic admissions. They’ll look at the school’s rating (perhaps from their database or maybe they will use the school profile) and the student’s transcript.  Selective colleges may have multiple internal ratings that interact with the school quality score. They’ll rate students on their academic GPA and test scores in context, but they’ll also use the context to measure how challenging a student’s coursework was, given what the school offered.

For example:

• A 3.8 GPA with 3 AP classes and a 1300 SAT from a “2-rated” school might be interpreted as outstanding, if course offerings are limited and the majority of students don’t even take college entrance exams.

• A 4.0 GPA with 8 AP/IB classes and a 1420 on the SAT from a “5-rated” school might still be excellent, but it actually may carry slightly less weight because it’s typical at that school.

Anecdotally, I know of one high school where grades are retroactively changed to an “A” if a student receives a 3 or better on an AP exam.  But I also know of high schools that would say that a student deserves a B or a C if they only get a 3 on their AP exam.  Could that be taken into consideration by an admissions office when putting a student’s grades in context?  Certainly. Ultimately, there is a WIDE range of how high schools assess students.  My advice, especially as we head into admissions decision season, is to keep in mind that college admission, especially selective college admission, is not just local – it’s based on a much broader context.