Ask any senior: they’ll tell you how much emphasis Trinity Prep puts on college applications. Since 9th grade, it seems that high school has simply been trying to prepare us for the next step. College preparation is in the school’s name. So, after all of the preparation, does the school really live up to its high standard?
The University of California, Los Angeles conducted a survey of 204,000 students attending 207 institutions across the United States in 2011. They found that 58 percent of students going to colleges attend the college of their first choice, the lowest percentage ever to do so. Trinity Prep, however, does not measure acceptances based on first choice, but rather student happiness at the school they attend. Last year, the school recorded a record 100 percent happiness rate, whereas the year before it was 96 percent.
In general, this school does not vary too much from the national average in terms of student grades. Nationally, 49.7 percent of college-bound students report a grade average of A- or higher, which is very close to Trinity Prep’s 41 percent. However, most would say that an A- here is not equivalent to the same grade at a normal public school. The school is doing an adequate job of getting its students up to par with the curriculum level it offers.
The fact that students here can do the work they are given also might have to do with the tough admission process the school maintains. “When we’re looking at students to accept to Trinity, we’re looking for students for whom the workload will be challenging, but not impossible,” said College Counselor Lester Johnson, who is on the admissions committee for the Upper School. The students selected are definitely able to go above and beyond the required workload as well. This year, 18.7 percent of middle school students are in a math class designed for a higher grade level.
One major area where this school excels is in standardized testing. On average, students here earn an SAT score between 1730 and 2100, which blows away the national average of a 1500. Trinity Prep also tends to encourage students to take higher-level courses. Nationally, 81 percent of students report taking between 0 and 4 AP courses throughout high school, while the average student here takes between 3 and 6. Not only do students take harder courses, but they deliver outstanding results as well. Last year, the AP Spanish Language class got the highest average AP score in the school, with an average score of 4.9. Nationally, the average score was a 3.3. In Trinity itself, a remarkable 35.5 percent of all AP scores were 5’s, while 33.3 percent were 4’s.
The National Merit qualifying competition awards high scoring students on the PSAT. This year, the program recognized 29 percent of the class of 2013 as high achievers. That is the highest percentage than the previous four years at Trinity. The numbers speak for themselves. So how is it we are able to achieve such high numbers and great statistics? According to Johnson, the advantage lies in the individual attention each student gets, among other things. “I firmly believe that, as a former public school student, just the amount of time that a teacher here can pay attention to a research paper is an advantage. he said. They aren’t grading 40 students times 5 classes; it’s a class of 18 to 20 times four or five classes. It’s that close relationship building, so students can turn to their tenth grade teacher, who they may not have had for two years, and get help from them on a college essay. So that sense of community, that sense of a communal dynamic that’s a huge plus at a place like this.”
College Counselor Mary Donohue agrees that this approach also applies to the college counseling process. “You have to look at the size of the school, again it’s this individualized approach. We want one counselor for approximately 40 seniors, so we try to keep to that,” said Donohue. “But it’s a team approach. I always say to my kids, this process is like a VW bus. The person who’s driving is the senior. Sometimes, it’s the parent who’s navigating in the front seat. Sometimes, I’m the one in the front seat. And a lot of times, there’s no one navigating; it’s just the senior. We’re all kind of on this trip together, and we’re on a team.”
As colleges are accepting fewer and fewer students every year, the college application process is more competitive than ever. Between our impressive numbers and all of the amazing work students are doing on campus and off, the school is doing a good job of stepping up to the plate.
As Donohue points out, “I think you have to go back to why colleges and universities are admitting kids; they don’t admit kids because of the counselor or their school, they admit kids because of the kids.”