What Does a College Admissions Consultant in Marblehead Actually Do?
A college admissions consultant in Marblehead starts with an unusual advantage: the school tells colleges where every student sits. Marblehead High School does not rank, but its profile prints the highest, median, and lowest weighted GPA in the class, 4.58, 3.75, and 1.68 for the Class of 2027, alongside the full weighting table, so a reader can place a 4.4 as well above the median and decode it as an A- average in AP courses or an A average in Honors. The counseling site goes further than any other on these pages and publishes, for each class year, both the colleges students attended and a table of acceptances and denials by college, which shows a reader and a family exactly where Marblehead applicants apply in volume and where they are turned away. The consultant’s first job is to plan a schedule that places the student in the top of that published distribution, and the second is to build a list from the acceptance and denial table rather than from rankings. At Pingree, Brooks, Governor’s, St. John’s Prep, and Andover, the schools Marblehead families most often weigh, the rules differ in ways that change the plan.
Our guides to how the high school profile shapes college admissions and whether your high school matters for college admissions explain the reading a selective college performs; this page applies it to the Marblehead schools. Our Lynnfield page covers the neighboring North Shore town, and our guide to how to get into Phillips Academy Andover covers the boarding school application.
How Do Selective Colleges Read a Marblehead High School Transcript?
| Marblehead High School (School Profile 2026-2027) | What the Profile States |
|---|---|
| Enrollment | 769 students in 2025-2026; 202 in the Class of 2027; the Class of 2026 had 179; five counselors |
| Grading scale | A 94 to 100, A- 90 to 93, B+ 87 to 89, B 84 to 86, B- 80 to 83, C+ 77 to 79, C 74 to 76, C- 70 to 73, D+ 67 to 69, D 64 to 66, D- 60 to 63, F 0 to 59 |
| Weighting | All students and all courses included; AP A 5.000, A- 4.670, B+ 4.333, B 4.000; Honors A 4.500, A- 4.167, B+ 3.833, B 3.500; College Prep A 4.000, A- 3.670, B+ 3.330, B 3.000 |
| GPA distribution | Class of 2027: highest 4.58, median 3.75, lowest 1.68 |
| Class rank | None; the profile states that students are not ranked |
| AP and Honors courses | 24 AP: Seminar, Research, Literature, Language, European History, US History, Psychology, American Government, Spanish 5, French 5, Latin 5, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Science, Computer Science A, Computer Science Principles, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Statistics, Art History, Music Theory, Business, 2D Art and Design; 57 Honors courses |
| AP access | No prerequisite, cap, or enrollment language in the academic policies section |
| AP results | 2025-26: 825 exams across 23 subjects, 84 percent at 3 or higher; 86 scores of 5, 178 of 4, 183 of 3; DESE 2024-25: 926 exams, 85 percent at 3 to 5, with US History, Statistics, and Physics C Mechanics at 100 percent |
| SAT and ACT | 2026 SAT means: Reading and Writing 595, Math 578, Total 1173; 2025-26 ACT means: composite 26.7, English 25.6, Math 25.8, Reading 28.2, Science 26.6; number tested not printed; DESE 2024-25: 232 tested, means 620 and 592; National Merit: Class of 2026 one Semifinalist and seven Commended, Class of 2027 one Semifinalist |
| Outcomes | Class of 2026: 91.6 percent four year college, 5.6 percent two year, 1.7 percent employment, 97.2 percent continuing education; DESE 2024-25: 49.6 percent four year private, 35.7 percent four year public |
| Matriculation | The profile prints no list; the counseling site publishes attending lists for the Classes of 2019 to 2024 and acceptance and denial tables by college |
Three things drive the Marblehead reading. First, the published distribution. Because the profile prints the median of 3.75 and the top of 4.58, a reader can place any Marblehead GPA within the class without a rank, and a student at 4.3 or above is visibly in the top group. Second, the weighting. With every course included and the 5.0, 4.5, 4.0 scale printed, a reader can decode a GPA into a mix of levels and confirm it from the course list, and with 24 AP and 57 Honors courses available, rigor is expected of a top applicant rather than remarkable. Third, the acceptance and denial table. The Class of 2024 data shows Marblehead applicants applying in volume to the same selective New England schools and often being turned away: Northeastern 7 acceptances against 18 denials, Boston University 2 against 13, UVA 2 against 13, Brown 2 against 8, UMass Amherst 45 against 26, alongside Elon 19 against none, Colorado 31 against 1, and UNH 37 against 3. That table is the most useful list building tool a Marblehead family has, because it shows where a Marblehead file competes well and where it does not.
How Do Marblehead Area Independent School Transcripts Differ?
| School | Published Policy | Advanced Coursework | Matriculation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pingree School (day, grades 9 to 12, South Hamilton; 385 students, 97 in the Class of 2026) | Weighted GPA with 5 points added for APEX and honors courses on a 100 point scale; the school does not report rank; Class of 2026 SAT mean 1310 across 54 tested | No AP since the Class of 2025; 21 APEX courses open only to juniors and seniors, capped at three per year and four combined with honors; 99 percent to four year colleges | Five year attendance counts: Boston College 20, Providence 18, Colby 17, Boston University 10, Dickinson 10, Northeastern 10, Villanova 10, Fairfield 9, Fordham 9, Tufts 9, Bates 8, Skidmore 8, St. Lawrence 8, Syracuse 8, Trinity 8, Miami 8, Brown 3, Cornell 3, Dartmouth 3, MIT 2, Harvard 1, Princeton 1, Penn 1 |
| Brooks School (boarding and day, grades 9 to 12, North Andover; about 360 students, 97 in the Class of 2026) | Internal grades unweighted; a weighted GPA supplied to colleges adds 5 points for each AP course and 2.5 for each honors or advanced course; no rank statement; no test data printed | 19 AP courses plus post AP courses such as Multivariable Calculus and Advanced Physics; 100 percent to four year colleges | Class of 2026: Boston College 6, Northeastern 6, Trinity 5, Richmond 4, St Andrews 3, Colby 3, Providence 3, and one each at Columbia, MIT, Penn, with Dartmouth 2; Class of 2025: Northeastern 8, and one each at Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, MIT, Penn, Yale |
| The Governor’s Academy (boarding and day, grades 9 to 12, Byfield; 408 students, 98 in the Class of 2026) | Weighted GPA recalculated each year and after the first semester of senior year; Class of 2026 junior year middle 50 percent 3.35 to 4.35; the school does not rank; SAT and ACT no longer published | 20 AP courses; permission required to take more than three AP courses in one year | Classes of 2024 to 2026 list of about 140 institutions without counts, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Brown, Northwestern, and Notre Dame |
| St. John’s Preparatory School (Catholic, boys, grades 6 to 12, Danvers; 279 in the Class of 2026) | Weighted on a 4.0 base with quality points by level: College Prep 0.25, Accelerated 0.5, Honors 0.75, AP 1.0; the school does not rank; Class of 2026 SAT means 594 and 579 | 24 AP courses gated by department with no open enrollment and no AP for 9th graders; 875 exams by 497 students in 2025, 75 percent at 3 or higher; 99 percent to four year colleges | Five year list of roughly 300 institutions without counts, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, and Georgetown |
| Phillips Academy Andover (boarding and day, grades 9 to 12 plus postgraduate; 1,172 students, 321 seniors) | 0 to 6 scale, unweighted; no rank and no cumulative average; top 5 percent of the Class of 2026 at 5.91 or above | Three official AP courses; 500 level courses defined as college first year classes; SAT middle 50 percent 1340 to 1500, ACT 29 to 34 | Past three classes: 30 or more each at Boston University, Columbia, Harvard, and Chicago; 20 to 29 at Boston College, Brown, Cornell, Georgetown, MIT, NYU, Northwestern, Stanford, Tufts, and Yale |
Pingree is the North Shore day school Marblehead families most often weigh, and its APEX cap of three courses a year means a reader compares rigor against that ceiling rather than against Marblehead’s 24 AP courses; a Pingree transcript with three APEX courses in junior year is at the maximum. Brooks and Governor’s are the two nearby boarding schools, and both keep AP with a defined weighting: Brooks adds 5 points per AP for colleges, and Governor’s requires permission for a fourth AP in a year, so four or more reads as approved. St. John’s Prep gates AP by department and makes every course level legible through its four tier weighting. Andover is the boarding school in every North Shore conversation, and its 0 to 6 scale with published top 5, 10, and 20 percent cutoffs lets a reader place a transcript as precisely as Marblehead’s printed median does.
Where Do Marblehead Graduates Enroll?
- Marblehead High School, Class of 2024 (attending, names only): 105 institutions including Boston College, Boston University, Brown, Colby, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Grinnell, Kenyon, McGill, Northeastern, NYU, Tufts, UC Berkeley, UNC, UVA, Wake Forest, Wesleyan, Wisconsin, and the UMass campuses. The Class of 2023 list adds Middlebury, Michigan, Scripps, Williams, and Washington; the Class of 2022 list adds Bowdoin, Davidson, Duke, Emory, Olin, RISD, UCLA, USC, Vassar, and Villanova.
- Marblehead High School, Class of 2024 (acceptances against denials, by college): UMass Amherst 45 against 26, UNH 37 against 3, Colorado 31 against 1, URI 27 against 1, Vermont 27 against 2, Delaware 22 against 1, Elon 19 against 0, Salem State 18 against 1, Indiana 14 against 2, Maine 14 against 0, Merrimack 14 against 0, JMU 13 against 1, Penn State 13 against 2, Providence 13 against 4, UConn 13 against 5, South Carolina 10 against 5, Maryland 8 against 9, Northeastern 7 against 18, Fairfield 6 against 1, Michigan 6 against 0, Boston College 5 against 7, Harvard 5, Yale 5, Duke 4, Georgetown 4, Middlebury 4, Notre Dame 4, Penn 4, Tufts 3 against 7, Johns Hopkins 3, Northwestern 3, Wake Forest 3 against 1, Boston University 2 against 13, UVA 2 against 13, Brown 2 against 8, Cornell 2 against 6, Dartmouth 2 against 4, MIT 2, Princeton 2, Stanford 2, Vanderbilt 2, Columbia 1 against 6, UNC 1 against 8, Berkeley 1 against 6, Rice 1, Caltech 1. Rows with a single printed number could not be verified against the column layout and should be read as acceptances with caution.
- Pingree, five years: Boston College 20, Providence 18, Colby 17, Boston University 10, Dickinson 10, Northeastern 10, Villanova 10, Tufts 9, Fairfield 9, Fordham 9, Bates 8, Skidmore 8, St. Lawrence 8, Syracuse 8, Trinity 8, Miami 8, Notre Dame 5, Virginia 4, Brown 3, Cornell 3, Dartmouth 3, MIT 2, Harvard 1, Princeton 1, Penn 1.
- Phillips Academy Andover, past three classes (bands): 30 or more each at Boston University, Columbia, Harvard, and Chicago; 20 to 29 at Boston College, Brown, Cornell, Georgetown, MIT, NYU, Northwestern, Stanford, Tufts, and Yale.
The Marblehead acceptance table is the rare public document that shows both sides of the ledger. It describes a class of about 240 that applies broadly and lands most often at the UMass system, UNH, Colorado, URI, Vermont, and Elon, while sending a handful of students each year to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, Duke, and Georgetown, and being denied in volume at Northeastern, Boston University, UVA, UNC, and Berkeley. A family building a list should read it as a map of where a Marblehead file is competitive, and a consultant will use it before adding a college.
What Does the Data Mean for a Marblehead Family Targeting Selective Colleges?
First, at Marblehead High School the printed median means a reader knows exactly where a student sits, so a student targeting selective colleges should be well above 3.75 on the weighted scale, which with 24 AP and 57 Honors courses available means AP across the core by junior year with A grades. Second, the acceptance and denial table shows that the selective New England universities Marblehead students apply to most, Northeastern, Boston University, and Tufts, deny the majority of Marblehead applicants, while the highest reaches, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and MIT, admitted a few; the list should be built around where a specific file is strong rather than around proximity. Third, the AP results are strong in the quantitative subjects, with US History, Statistics, and Physics C at 100 percent, so a student with 5s in those subjects reads as typical of the top of the school and needs something beyond scores to separate.
Fourth, at Pingree, Brooks, Governor’s, St. John’s Prep, and Andover the reader translates school specific labels and caps through the profile, and at Pingree and Andover the absence or near absence of AP means rigor is read from the school’s own tiers. Fifth, the pipelines are specific: Boston College, Providence, Colby, and Northeastern from Pingree and Brooks; Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, and Boston University from Andover; a broad uncounted spread from Governor’s and St. John’s Prep. A list built with those patterns in view is more realistic than one built from national rankings alone.
What Should Marblehead Families Do in Each Grade?
| Grade | Marblehead High School | Pingree, Brooks, Governor’s, St. John’s Prep, and Andover |
|---|---|---|
| 9th | Honors placement across the core, since every course counts at its level and the 4.5 Honors track leads to AP; start one activity worth four years | Placement decisions; at St. John’s Prep no AP for 9th graders; at Andover a 0 to 6 scale with no rank from the start |
| 10th | First AP where the department allows; Honors across the rest; PSAT 10 baseline | Honors placements; at Pingree no APEX until junior year; at Governor’s the three AP per year default |
| 11th | AP in the core subjects; the junior GPA against the published median of 3.75; SAT or ACT in spring against the 1173 and 26.7 school means | Peak rigor year within each school’s cap; at Pingree three APEX; at Governor’s a fourth AP only by permission; SAT or ACT in spring |
| 12th | Peak AP load; college list built from the counseling site’s acceptance and denial table and attending lists | College list built with the multi year pipeline in view; senior fall grades matter for early applications |
When Should a Marblehead Family Bring in a College Admissions Consultant?
The Honors placements that set up the AP track at Marblehead High School are made from 9th grade onward, and the choice among the public school, Pingree, the boarding schools, and St. John’s Prep is made earlier still, so families weighing those decisions benefit from a plan built early. Families whose student is already positioned well most often need the application year: a list built from the school’s own acceptance data rather than from rankings, essays that separate the file, and interview preparation. Our guides to whether you need a college admissions consultant, when to hire one, and what to expect from a first consultation set out the decision.
How Does Oriel Admissions Work With Marblehead Families?
Oriel Admissions is based in Princeton with a New York presence and works as a college admissions consultant for Marblehead families and for families nationwide, in person and remotely. Every engagement starts with the student’s own school profile, so a Marblehead High School plan is built around the published GPA distribution, the 5.0 and 4.5 weighting, and the acceptance and denial table, and a Pingree, Brooks, Governor’s, St. John’s Prep, or Andover plan around the school’s own course labels and caps and its pipeline. Our team develops strategy, positioning, activities, essays, and interviews as one coherent whole. Our guide to choosing a college consultant in Boston explains how to evaluate any consultant, including us.
Frequently Asked Questions
All students and all courses are included. An A is worth 5.000 in an AP course, 4.500 in an Honors course, and 4.000 in a College Prep course, with each lower grade stepping down on the same three scales. Because the profile prints the full table, a college can convert any Marblehead GPA back to letter grades and course levels.
No. The profile states that students are not ranked. It does print the Class of 2027 GPA distribution, a highest of 4.58, a median of 3.75, and a lowest of 1.68, so a college can place any applicant within the class without a rank.
The 2026-2027 profile reports 2026 SAT means of 595 in Reading and Writing and 578 in Math, a total of 1173, and 2025-26 ACT means of 26.7 composite, 25.6 English, 25.8 Math, 28.2 Reading, and 26.6 Science. DESE reports 2024-25 means of 620 and 592 across 232 tests. A selective college compares an applicant to its own middle 50 percent, not to the school mean.
Twenty four AP courses and 57 Honors courses, according to the 2026-2027 course offerings on the profile. In 2025-26, students took 825 AP exams across 23 subjects and 84 percent scored 3 or higher, with 86 scores of 5. DESE reports that US History, Statistics, and Physics C Mechanics reached 100 percent at 3 or higher in 2024-25.
The counseling site publishes attending lists by class year. The Class of 2024 attended 105 institutions including Boston College, Boston University, Brown, Colby, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Northeastern, NYU, Tufts, UC Berkeley, UNC, UVA, Wake Forest, Wesleyan, and the UMass campuses. The profile reports that 91.6 percent of the Class of 2026 went to four year colleges.
Yes, by college and class year. The Class of 2024 table shows, for example, 45 acceptances and 26 denials at UMass Amherst, 7 and 18 at Northeastern, 2 and 13 at Boston University, 2 and 13 at UVA, 2 and 8 at Brown, and 19 and 0 at Elon, with single printed counts at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, and Stanford. It is the most useful list building document a Marblehead family has.
Not since the Class of 2025. The profile states that Pingree replaced AP with 21 APEX courses, open only to juniors and seniors and capped at three per year and four combined with honors. APEX and honors courses add 5 points to the weighted GPA, the school does not report rank, and over five years it enrolled 20 graduates at Boston College, 18 at Providence, and 17 at Colby.
No. Oriel Admissions is based in Princeton with a New York presence and advises families nationwide, in person where practical and remotely otherwise. This page exists because the Marblehead schools use grading and reporting conventions that change how a plan should be built, not because the service is regional.
Sources: Marblehead High School Profile 2026-2027, Marblehead High School Profile page, Marblehead High School College Acceptances, Marblehead Class of 2024 Attending Colleges, Marblehead Class of 2024 College Acceptance Data, Massachusetts DESE, Marblehead High School, Massachusetts DESE SAT report, Marblehead High School, Pingree School Profile 2026-2027, Pingree Acceptances and Matriculations, Brooks School Profile 2025-2026, Brooks School Matriculation, The Governor’s Academy School Profile 2025-2026, The Governor’s Academy College Matriculation 2024-2026, St. John’s Preparatory School Profile 2025-2026, Phillips Academy School Profile 2025-2026.
About Oriel Admissions
Oriel Admissions is a Princeton-based college admissions consulting firm advising families nationwide on elite university admissions strategy. Our team brings deep expertise across every dimension of the application, and our distinctive 360 approach develops strategy, positioning, activities, essays, and interviews as one coherent whole. To discuss your family’s admissions strategy, schedule a consultation.
