Updated: Thursday, October 15, 2026
What does strength of school mean, and how do colleges use the school profile to evaluate applicants? In this episode of the Just Admit It! podcast, IvyWise experts Tasha and Juaquin explain how admissions officers read a transcript in the context of a student’s high school and share tips for strengthening your academic profile within it.
Hi there. Welcome to Semester 13, Episode 4 of the IvyWise Just Admit It! podcast, where former deans and directors of admission give expert insight into the complex college admissions landscape. I’m Tasha, your host — an admissions counselor at IvyWise, a former international admissions officer at USC, and a former assistant director of international admissions at Boston University.
This season on the show: The College Admissions Rubric. We’re breaking down the eight components of the rubric, from grades to essays and everything in between. Today, we’re talking about strength of school. What is the role of the school profile in the college admissions process? Joining me is my amazing colleague, Juaquin. Hi, Juaquin.
Hi there, Tasha. So good to be here with you today. My name is Juaquin Moya. I’m a former college admission officer at Occidental College. I’ve been an IvyWise counselor for over a decade, have been counseling college-bound students for over 20 years, and absolutely love it.
Great. Thank you so much, Juaquin. We’re so glad to have you on the podcast. This season, we’re reviewing all eight components of the college admissions rubric. The college admissions rubric is the framework that U.S. colleges use to evaluate applicants based on a combination of hard and soft factors. At IvyWise, we discuss these as four hard factors and four soft factors. Today, we’re reviewing the fourth and final hard factor.
To apply to colleges strategically, familiarize yourself with the rubric so you can think about where you fit in and how to make yourself competitive in each category. Our first three episodes covered the first three hard factors: grades, rigor, and testing. If you haven’t listened to those episodes yet, I recommend checking them out.
That final fourth hard factor is strength of school. What does that mean? Colleges assess the strength of your high school and understand what’s available to you there through a few different factors — primarily the school profile, which they receive as part of your application. Where does it come in, and why is it part of the college admissions rubric? Let’s start by defining strength of school. Juaquin, what do we mean by this phrase?
I’m happy to dig in. Strength of school is about the academic context in which the student’s transcript was earned. Colleges use a holistic review process, as you mentioned, and the rubric is how they keep the process equitable when evaluating applications. They consider both quantitative and qualitative factors. As you said, among the hard and soft factors, academic factors like grades, course rigor, and standardized test scores (if and when submitted), as well as AP and IB exams, all help contextualize the application.
Colleges ask what courses are available to the student so they can understand the rigor of the academic curriculum. They also ask how challenging those courses were, what opportunities the student had, and how the student’s academic choices compare with what was available to them. The strength of school helps an admission office interpret the transcript rather than simply look at grades on a piece of paper. As we both know, Tasha, an A in one environment might be completely different at another school or in another environment. It may represent different levels of academic challenge, for example.
The key thing to remember is that colleges are trying to understand what the transcript means, and strength of school is critical in understanding that context.
Thank you, Juaquin, for that great definition to get us started. At the top, I mentioned a document called the school profile. I’d love for us to break down what that is and whether it’s always part of the process. When colleges and universities open an application, how do they understand the strength of a school? What documents do they get? I’ve partly answered that already, but it’s a two-parter: What documents do they get, and what is the school profile?
The school profile is essentially the college admission officer’s guide to your high school — the road map. Every high school should have a school profile. I encourage students and families to ask their counselor for a copy so they know what it includes and how your school is represented in the application process.
It provides admission officers with important context about the school. It can include graduation rates and college-going rates, such as the percentage of students who attend a four-year versus a two-year college. It can also include class size, and some schools even list class rank. More and more schools no longer report class rank, and that’s OK too. It’s just one data point that can be included in that school profile. Schools often include average SAT and/or ACT scores on their profile, and some also list their AP and/or IB course offerings.
Honors courses are usually listed as well, and if a school offers dual enrollment or other special programs or opportunities, those are often explained in the school profile. Many high schools have courses and curricula unique to their school, which is why the profile includes those explanations. The profile helps the admission officer understand what’s available to you and gives them a better sense of your choices as they compare the courses you’ve taken on your transcript against what the profile says was offered to you. It also shows how you’ve challenged yourself within the context of your school.
One of the most important pieces of information on the school profile is the four-year college matriculation rate, because it provides insight into your high school’s overall college-going culture. A school where the overwhelming majority of students attend four-year colleges looks different, contextually, from a school where very few students go on to a four-year college. The school profile gives the admission officer the context they need to understand the transcript and the academic preparation a student has achieved.
Great. Thank you so much. I want to point out a word that keeps coming up and will likely continue to come up in this conversation: context. The school profile is all about providing context.
If I were new to this topic, a question I would probably ask myself is: OK, the school profile provides context, but are some schools better than others? Is there something I should aspire to? Of course, it’s something you may not have any control over. How would you answer a student or parent asking themselves: Are some high schools viewed more favorably than others? Why or why not?
Such a good question, and an appropriate one. The truth is, yes, some schools are viewed more favorably than others. But it’s more complicated than saying one school is better than another. Colleges look at objective information about the school so they can understand, again, your preparation to succeed at their school. They may consider course offerings, academic rigor, college-going rates, standardized test scores, advanced coursework, and overall academic environment.
It’s critical to keep in mind that attending an unfamiliar or less-known high school does not automatically put a student at a disadvantage. Admission officers read students within the context of their school, and they don’t penalize a student if a school doesn’t offer a certain course. Colleges are trying to determine whether a student has demonstrated the preparation and the academic ability to succeed at their school. That’s the fundamental piece to keep in mind.
They aren’t simply asking whether it’s a prestigious high school, as the term strength of school might suggest. They’re asking what opportunities the student had and what they did with those opportunities. It’s important to remember that strength of school doesn’t equal prestige, and well-known schools don’t automatically look better in the admission process simply because an admission officer recognizes the name. The data and the context, as you just said, Tasha, are critical. Strength of school comes into play to help the admission officer understand how academically prepared the student is, based on the environment they’re applying from.
A related question is the inverse. It comes up quite a bit from students who attend well-known schools, such as independent schools with a very high college-going rate that may be very competitive. Sometimes students worry that their strength of school puts them at a disadvantage because they may be compared directly to peers applying to the same colleges. This is a tricky one. But as long as we’re talking about strength of school, it’s important to address how students should or should not consider their strength of school as a factor in how they may be compared to their classmates.
Yeah, that’s another logical question that comes up often. I usually tell my students, first and foremost, do not panic and do not use your school as an excuse. The first piece is understanding what your school offers. The next is taking the most challenging courses your school offers that you can succeed in, because it’s a two-way street. Colleges not only want to see that you’re challenging yourself: they also want to see that you can do so appropriately.
It’s not about racking up a ton of AP courses. If your school offers AP and IB courses and dual enrollment or advanced courses, they want to see that you’re taking advantage of those opportunities when and if appropriate. Again, the goal isn’t to stack your schedule with Advanced Placement courses to impress colleges. Yes, challenge yourself, but appropriately so. The goal is to demonstrate academic ambition while maintaining a strong level of performance. That’s the critical piece.
If there are significant gaps in a school’s curriculum, I encourage my students to explore options like summer academic programs or online courses. Local community colleges usually have options for high school students, too. And university online programs can also be an option for students to complete remotely.
And when appropriate, a student should ask for help. I was just talking to a student about how important it is to have not only a goal, but also a strategy for reaching that goal. The most successful people, in my opinion, are those who know how to ask for help. Another important piece is considering what you need to succeed in your school’s most rigorous courses — even looking outside of school and considering a tutor. These different factors can not only show that you’re challenging yourself but also demonstrate intellectual curiosity and provide additional evidence of academic preparation beyond just what your school offers.
You don’t get to choose the strength of your high school, but you do get to choose how you engage with the opportunities available to you. That’s the critical takeaway.
You may have just answered a couple of my upcoming questions, which is great, but let me go through one to be sure we’ve covered every aspect of it. My next question was going to be: What steps can a student take to improve this factor? As you just said, a student can’t change the strength of their school without changing schools, which we’re certainly not recommending. But they can take the most challenging courses and pursue a high level of rigor at their school — and if there are opportunities outside of school that aren’t available inside. Is there anything else you would encourage or discourage a student to think about if they want to improve their strength of school?
Yeah, there are a few tips to keep in mind. And you’re absolutely right — you can’t change the strength of your school. That’s typically out of a student’s control and we don’t want students transferring or making changes based on it. But you can strengthen your academic profile within that context.
My first tip is to take the most rigorous courses available to you. That requires planning ahead. Before senior year, I usually encourage my students to have a four-year plan. It’s one of the most critical pieces and one of the most important areas a student can control. I always say, don’t wait until your junior and senior years to think about rigor. Be intentional about it. Think about what you need to do over four years in the five core academic subjects: English, math, science, history, and world language.
In that plan, it’s also important to consider what you do in your time off. During the summer or a long winter or spring break, how can you continue to show a college that you’re pursuing your academic interests and thinking beyond your high school’s offerings, when appropriate?
Continuing to challenge yourself as you progress through high school is important, and colleges always love to see an upward trend. If you don’t perform as well in advanced or honors courses your first year of high school, give yourself some grace and recognize that colleges like to see an upward trend starting in your second year.
Beyond working with your counselor, identify the teachers and other adults who can help you achieve your academic goals — say, a trajectory that gets you to calculus by senior year. What will that math sequence look like? What prerequisites do you need to take to reach calculus by senior year? That’s just one example; the same is true for most subjects.
The other piece to keep in mind — I know I’ve said this before — is that it’s not about taking every AP course. Taking more APs doesn’t automatically make you a better applicant. Again, colleges are looking for students who have challenged themselves appropriately and are still able to succeed when challenged. That’s the most important piece. They’re looking for students who balance rigor with success in those classes — demonstrating proficiency through their grades — while also maintaining their well-being. And of course, there are extracurricular commitments and other intellectual pursuits to consider. There’s quite a bit there, but those are the tips I would give.
Great. As we continue this conversation, I’d love to address the question at the bottom of our screen, which is the subheading of our episode title: What is the role of the school profile in the college admissions process? We’ve already introduced this topic, but I’d love to talk about it as if we’re walking students and parents through the application reading process.
What does it actually look like when an admissions officer opens the school profile? How do they use it to understand a student’s strength of school and level of academic rigor? Is there such a thing as a better or worse school profile, or is it really just information?
Yeah, that’s a great question. For me, it always comes back to context — not evaluating a school by comparing it to another school’s profile but thinking about the student’s application and the hard factors colleges consider in the rubric. The transcript and the GPA, read with the intent to understand the rigor of the curriculum, are a critical piece of the application process.
As for the school profile, it should include, again, course offerings. If it doesn’t list them specifically, it should at least tell the admission officer where to find them. In particular, it should state what level of rigor the school provides, such as AP or honors courses. Some profiles also include average test scores — another hard factor for which colleges want objective data. In the context of your school, how have you performed? Are you right there within the pack? Are you just below or far ahead? Again, colleges are looking for objective data, and this is one more piece in understanding the hard factors in the rubric.
Class rank can also be a factor at some larger schools, where a student may be one of 500-plus students in a graduating class. It gives the admission officer a sense of how they’ve performed overall. But rank is just one part; the profile should still help the admission officer understand whether you’ve taken the most rigorous courses or whether your rank reflects a lighter schedule.
The profile also needs to include the percentage of students matriculating to four-year and two-year colleges. Again, this gives admission officers context on how challenging your environment has been for the last three-and-a-half to four years. That’s another critical piece of the school profile.
Great. I want to be sure we’ve covered all our bases, so I’ll ask the question a journalist would — which, in some ways, I am: Do you have anything to add? Any final thoughts on strength of school or on the college admissions rubric overall? I want to give you a chance as a guest this season to comment on the topic overall, since we’ll have more than 10 guests on throughout the season to talk about a specific factor of the rubric, but also about the rubric overall.
Yeah, again, thanks for having me on. It’s an honor and a pleasure to be with you and to share information about a part of the admission rubric that generally isn’t well understood. The rubric, in my opinion, is what keeps the process equitable. When colleges look at a student holistically and evaluate aspects like academic preparation, involvement, and ability to contribute to the school, they’re looking for objective data. Within that data, the school profile helps an admission committee understand the strength of the school and your preparation to do well at their school.
Another thing to keep in mind is that test scores can provide additional academic evidence beyond the transcript, and that can be helpful. Of course, some schools are still test optional, so getting guidance on whether to submit test scores is really important. And when an admission officer is trying to understand a student’s preparation and strength of school, summer and online courses can be another way for students to demonstrate that they’re challenging themselves or going beyond what their school offers.
When we talk about strength of school and rigor of curriculum, I always encourage my students to stick with a course even after they’ve met their high school’s credit requirement, because it shows colleges that the student has grit and stuck with something challenging. Anytime you exceed your school’s minimum requirements and take a subject to the highest level, you also demonstrate commitment and rigor. That can be really important.
As you plan your four years of high school, if you have an affinity for a specific area — say, STEM — consider doubling up in that area once you’ve met or exhausted the credit requirements. That’s another way a student can strengthen their profile within the context of their school, regardless of strength of school. That’s also important to keep in mind.
Another takeaway: Plan ahead. You can control your course selection, your academic effort, your preparation, your demonstration of intellectual curiosity, and how you’ve taken advantage of the opportunities that were available to you. Focus on those pieces. Doing so gives a student direction and tangible parts of the application they can actually impact.
I don’t want my students spending too much time worrying about whether their school is strong enough. That’s not the point. The point is for students to have a better understanding of how strength of school fits into the rubric and the application process. Ultimately, it’s about students making the most of what’s offered to them. Colleges won’t penalize a student for their school’s lack of offerings in a specific area. So don’t spend a lot of time wondering whether your school is strong enough.
Planning ahead is critical to showing that you’ve taken advantage of the courses and opportunities your school offers. Don’t wait until senior year to figure that out — start as early as possible. And don’t take a course simply because you think it’s going to look good to a college. It needs to be a course you can succeed in and one that helps you better understand a subject you’re passionate about.
Colleges aren’t asking whether you went to the best high school — they’re asking whether you made the most of your high school experience. That’s what I would leave you with.
What a great note to end on. Thank you again, Juaquin, for coming on to talk about this important part of the college admissions rubric, strength of school, and for being on the Just Admit It! podcast.
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Have a great one.
You, too. Next week on the podcast: extracurricular activities. How important are extracurricular activities in the college admissions process? If you have any suggestions about what we should be covering, please email us at [email protected]. In the meantime, you can catch up on all our previous episodes by visiting our podcast page and be sure to bookmark our KnowledgeBase for additional help with navigating the complex and competitive admissions process.
At IvyWise, we bring together a team of former deans and directors of admission at top universities to give students, parents, and fellow educators the most up-to-date higher ed news and practical admissions advice. Our experts help students navigate everything from college applications and K–8 planning to graduate school admissions and standardized testing. Visit ivywise.com today to begin your journey to your best-fit schools with IvyWise, the world’s premier educational consultancy.
I’m your host, Tasha, and this has been Just Admit It! See you next time.
Editor’s Note: This transcript has been cleaned up and edited for clarity and readability.
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