As we often note here, college admissions are becoming increasingly competitive, leaving many students and their parents to seek anything that can give them an admissions advantage. That often means improving high school GPA, completing rigorous ACT or SAT test prep to boost test scores, writing compelling college admissions essays, and participating in extracurricular activities tied to a student’s interests. There is another document that many families don’t consider, however, and it provides a tremendous amount of insight into a student’s application: the school profile.
The school profile is a short, structured document created by a high school’s counseling office and submitted along with each transcript. It provides an overview of the school, giving admissions officers information about a school’s academics and offering a snapshot of the students that come from that high school. Considering there are over 25,000 high schools in the United States, the school profile—if done well—provides essential information for an admissions counselor to accurately and fairly assess a transcript by providing the following information:
An Outline of a School’s Academic Curriculum
Most school profiles will include graduation requirements and course requirements along with the full course listings by subject area. The course list, in particular, helps an admissions officer understand what a student chose to take out of the options available to them. Did your student take the honors, AP, IB or dual credit version of classes offered at their school? That is crucial information for admissions officers who are often trying to assess whether or not your student pursued the kind of challenging course load that demonstrates college preparedness.
Equally important, the document also helps admissions offices see what courses weren’t available. That is tremendously helpful for students attending smaller schools where the number of AP classes can be very limited—and admissions officers don’t want to ding an application because a student didn’t take a class that wasn’t available to them. (In fact, some private or independent schools that don’t offer any AP or IB classes will provide an overview of their teaching philosophy to help admission offices assess the school’s rigor.)
An Explanation of Grading, GPA, and Ranking Policies
An explanation of a school’s grading and ranking policies are also often included in a school profile. Typically, the grading section of the profile will provide an overview of GPA scale to explain how the number that appears on your student’s transcript was calculated. The grading section may also explain the class ranking policy and how it was determined. Likely most important, however, is a grade distribution chart or an explanation of how a school approaches grading. If your student received a 3.95 at a school where A’s were rarely given to students, that demonstrates a significantly higher degree of college preparedness because they had to work to excel at a challenging high school that had more strenuous grading. Similarly, if your student has a high GPA, but all of their classmates do too, that signals to a college admissions counselor that GPA isn’t going to be as accurate of a measure of preparedness, so they will have to look at other parts of your student’s application.
A Summary of Post-Secondary School Outcomes for Students
Depending on the recordkeeping of a high school, their school profile might include a list of the colleges and universities where graduates from the past few years are enrolled. As a part of this, your student’s school may provide what percentage of graduating classes went to two- or four-year colleges along with the number of students that enlisted in the military, joined trade schools, or entered the workforce directly.
Like an overview of the school’s curriculum and grading, this summary puts your student’s application in context for reviewers. A school where graduates regularly attend highly selective universities can demonstrate the quality of education there—but may also speak to a level of privilege at that school. A school where students are less likely to attend a 4-year university directly out of high school can speak to a student’s initiative when applying to a competitive college.
Additional Community Context
Finally, school profiles often provide some basic information about their enrollment, student demographics, location, governance, and program availability. A school’s population and the size of the graduating class can help counselors get a sense of how competitive class rankings were. Whether a school is located in an urban, suburban, or rural setting can provide background about the kind of extracurricular activities and resources that were likely available to students. Similarly, public, private, charter, and magnet schools can have different admissions requirements that provide context about who the student body is and the academic makeup of a school. Along with a course listing, the school profile may also provide an overview of the signature programs that were available to students, giving admissions officers a sense of what opportunities your student pursued and which ones they were able to pursue.
At this point, you may be thinking, “All of this is interesting information, but how can my student or I actually use it while they’re applying for colleges?”
First, consider reviewing the school profile of the school your student is attending (or the one they are planning on attending). In addition to asking a school counselor, you can find school profiles for many high schools in the Houston area online, including the ones below:
- Memorial High School
- Stratford High School
- Strake Jesuit College Preparatory
- Episcopal High School
- Jordan High School
- Clements High School
Second, think about how your student might use the school profile to their advantage while completing their admissions materials. What information from the school profile could they highlight? For example, how can their resume reflect their involvement in a school’s signature programs? What additional context is missing from the profile that an admissions officer will need to truly understand your student’s application? If your student’s school didn’t have a robotics club, could their personal essay explain how they pursued that passion anyway?
If you or your student would like help interpreting their school’s profile, or if you’d like to strategize about how to use a school profile to improve your student’s admissions odds, consider signing your student up for The Enrichery’s college admissions workshop to maximize their admissions odds. You might also consider signing your student up for SAT/ACT test prep to improve their overall admissions materials.
