A college prep school (or college preparatory school) indicates that a school prepares students for college. In theory, of course, every high school should prepare students for college, but that’s not always the case — even for schools that adopt the college preparatory label. With a national focus on getting students ready for college and careers, many schools — even elementary schools — are using the college preparatory title in their names and promotional materials, but what does it actually mean?
College prep: elite boarding school or urban charter school?
Among the many schools that call themselves college preparatory, you’ll find elite boarding schools that have sent generations of graduates to the Ivy Leagues and other top universities. You’ll also find charter schools serving primarily students from low-income households that pledge every graduate will be admitted to a four-year college or university. You’ll also, unfortunately, find schools that do nothing outside the ordinary to ensure that students go to college, but claim the college preparatory label because they know it’s what many parents are looking for.
There are public,private, parochial, and charter schools that call themselves college preparatory. And while these schools can be selective — requiring testing and interviews for admission — they could also be open enrollment, accepting anyone who shows up.
With such a range of options — and with so many schools calling themselves college preparatory — parents would do well to look beyond labels and evaluate a school’s actual performance. Before enrolling your child into any self-proclaimed college prep school, it helps to know what advocates, and critics, claim about these types of schools.
College preparatory schools: pros and cons
Supporters argue that college degrees lead to higher earnings and better prepare students to excel in a career. A school that makes the assumption that everyone is going to college puts more students on a path to succeed in a competitive global workforce.
Detractors contend that the term college prep is so indiscriminatly used that it doesn’t mean much. “In some states, anyone can hang a shingle and call themselves a college prep high school,” cautions Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. “The level of oversight is all over the map.” It’s up to parents to differentiate between a program that actually teaches students what they need to succeed in college and one that merely pays lip service to the task. Most importantly, it’s up to parents to decide if a college prep school — one that genuinely prepares their child for college — is the right fit.
Is college the right path for my child?
Today, few people dispute the value of a college education. In fact, statistics show the higher the level of education a person attains, the higher the income potential. For example, the median earnings in 2023 for an adult with just a high school diploma was $899 a week, while the median earnings for a person with a bachelor’s degree was $1,493 a week, according to the .
This doesn’t mean that every student can or should go to college. “You don’t want to push kids where they won’t be successful,” says Jim Jump, director of guidance at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, VA., and a past president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Still, Jump says every high school should prepare students for post-high school work, whether that’s college, community college, or trade school.
Parents should also think beyond the curriculum to the level of assistance their child may need to get into college. For example, a first-generation college student may need more help from counselors and teachers in preparing applications, writing essays, and researching schools if other family members are not able to help. If the student is planning to attend a community college, which usually have fewer admission requirements than their four-year counterparts, parents should make sure the student takes the right classes before graduating high school, so they don’t have to take remedial courses at college, which adds time and wastes money.
What to look for in a good college prep school
At a true college preparatory school, the concept of college is front and center. At , a charter school in San Francisco, all freshmen visit a college — U.C. Berkeley — on their first day of school. Later, students have an entire college counseling course that exposes them to majors, different colleges, and potential careers. At in St. Louis, students can get a head start on their college career by earning up to 18 hours of college credit before they leave high school.
At the in Indiana, every student is part of an advisory group for four years. Each student researches colleges, develops a list of reach and safety schools, and writes a paper outlining their plan for applying to college. Michael Morgan’s list of schools included Harvard and Northwestern. To fulfill his school’s community service requirement, which is mandatory for character-building and to support college applications, Morgan volunteered for a local mayoral campaign.
By graduation, each student will have gone on dozens of college tours, written college essays in class, and been accepted to a four-year college or university. (The school achieves a nearly 100 percent college acceptance rate). “We try very hard to make it an assumption you are going to college,” says (now former) principal Chrissy Hart. “The students here say they are going to college because it’s not a question.”
What to ask when considering a high school
If you have decided a college preparatory school is what your child needs, make sure you can answer the following questions.
- Which colleges and universities do graduates attend? Do most graduates go to community colleges, or can the administration produce a list of four-year colleges its graduates attend? It’s also important to find out how many kids graduate from college, which indicates whether students acquire skills necessary to obtain a college diploma. “When schools say they are college prep, is it for admissions or is it for success?” Jump points out. Too many schools, Jump says, focus on getting students into college to make their stats look good, but don’t prepare kids to handle the rigors of college over the long haul.
- What curriculum and standards is the school using? Nationwide, most states have adopted standards that were designed to clearly spell out for teachers, students, and parents what graduates need to know to be prepared for college. But Jennifer Dounay Zinth, a senior policy analyst with the Education Commission of the States, says it’s important to be sure the college-ready standards are actually being taught — and taught well. “Some research suggests that teachers vary in the degree to which they integrate state or local standards into day-to-day instruction,” she concludes.
- How do students do on the SAT and ACT? These are standardized tests typically taken by high school juniors and seniors to measure a students’ knowledge in math, reading, writing, and for the ACT, science. Historically, most colleges required the SAT or the ACT for admission, but . Here’s why that’s a good thing.
- What percentage of students take the SAT or ACT? This number might be an indicator of whether every student has been put on a college track. At successful college prep schools, juniors and seniors are given information about the tests and are encouraged to take them. At many college prep schools, reminders are everywhere and preparation for the tests is even worked into the school day.
- Does the school offer honors, AP, or IB courses? Many colleges and universities want to know that students have taken challenging courses, so it’s important to find out if the school offers honors,Advanced Placement, or International Baccalaureate courses. But be sure to do your homework, says Nassirian, because the quality of these courses can vary greatly. He says that some schools put an “H” (for honors) or an “AP” (for Advanced Placement) in front of course names, without providing the advanced coursework these terms imply — and since there is no official body monitoring honors curricula, there is no oversight. Parents should verify that an honors or AP course is truly challenging the students, and they should ask how many students enrolled in AP courses actually take the corresponding AP exam and how well they do, Nassirian advises. Similarly, many universities want a student’s record to include advanced math and science courses, so check the course offerings to see how far your child can go in these subjects.
- Is there proper support for moving onto college? Strong college prep programs should support students, but shouldn’t hold their hands every step of the way, says Dr. Catherine Karl, principal of St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago. When students move onto college, “they have to be used to making decisions for themselves,” she says.
Final words on choosing a college prep school
Think about your student’s interests and future goals. Make sure the school offers a curriculum to get your child there. “Our advice has always been to seek as academically challenging a curriculum as the student can handle,” Nassirian says — whether that’s at a college preparatory school or not. “We don’t think it’s better to have a 4.0 in an unchallenging curriculum than to have a 3.2 with a much more robust course content.”
Finally, visit any school you are considering for your child and talk to other parents who have children attending the school. You can learn so much by walking the hallways and talking to educators, parents, and students.