Understanding the Academic Profile
One of the most important, if not THE MOST IMPORTANT, aspect of the college application process is finding a school that is a good fit for the student. Many factors must be considered to determine if a school is a good fit - academically, socially, and financially. For this blog, we are going to focus only on the academic fit, and that begins with understanding the Academic Profile - of the student and the institution.
STUDENT PROFILE
Each student has a unique academic profile. It is a combination of grades and test scores along with an assessment of the rigor of the coursework the student chose to take over the course of high school. It isn't an exact number, but it does provide a general view of the student from an academic standpoint.
INSTITUTIONAL PROFILE
Each school also has an academic profile. The profile is often published as the freshman profile or the middle 50% and will represent the data for the most recently admitted class. Generally, the school's freshman profile will include a GPA and test score and sometimes will also include the number of AP classes.
When a student is trying to determine if a school is a good fit for them ACADEMICALLY, the first place to start is by comparing the student’s academic profile to the institutional academic profile.
If the student's academic profile looks SIMILAR to the academic profile of the school - that school would likely be a GOOD academic fit.
If the student's academic profile is HIGHER than the academic profile of the school - that school would likely be a SAFETY school. (See Next Month's Blog for more information about Building a Balanced College List)
If the student's academic profile is LOWER than the academic profile of the school - that school would likely be a REACH school. (See Next Month's Blog for more information about Building a Balanced College List)
So why does this matter?
The academic profile of an institution provides insight into the average academic baseline of incoming freshmen at that school.
Here is an example:
If the academic profile of an institution indicates students on average have a 4.0 GPA, 30 ACT, and took 6 AP classes, the expectation of professors at that institution will likely be that students can support a workload and standards of work in keeping with that level of an academic profile.
If a student's profile matches the freshman profile, they are likely to be successful with an average amount of studying and support.
If a student's profile falls below the freshman profile, additional studying and use of on-campus resources will likely be needed to support learning to be successful.
If the student's profile is above the freshman profile, they may want to seek out additional opportunities to challenge themselves, such as Honors Programs.
There are additional scholarship considerations that could factor into the fit analysis that stems from the academic profile and contributes to the financial fit.
As you can see, the Academic Profile is a very important aspect of the college application process. The goal is to find a school where a student can attend, be successful, graduate, and become employed. There are thousands of fantastic colleges and universities in this country - many you probably haven't ever heard of. Trust me, there is a school for every student who wants to attend college.
