<p>I have heard rumors that there are Universities that only accept 1 student per high school and can't believe (it's not butter) that this can be true. The school they were talking about was UVA, please shed some light on the matter. Thank you! </p>
<p>There are at least 10 kids going to uva from my school so thats wrong</p>
<p>Are you from Virginia because it may have only applied to out of state students?</p>
<p>I heard that, barring extreme circumstances, Duke takes only one student from my school and all of the other private prep schools in my area except for the one it likes best, where there is no quota.</p>
<p>There is never a hard and fast “rule,” but most colleges do try to have a balance among qualified kids from various hs within a location or area. There are exceptions- all those kids from TJ who get in. (Not just at UVa.) </p>
<p>Rather than worry about this angle, you have to offer the best application you can. And, that’s not all about stats and rigor. Try to take a look at the Common App and supplements from different colleges and think about how you’ll come across to them.</p>
<p>That is a good excuse for Duke rejects to use to rationalize their rejection. </p>
<p>The entire premise is faulty. You’re speaking of one kid from your HS quota. How about those lesser performing schools where the avg ACT is 12 and only a handful of kids only go to the local state school year after year? Where’s the quota for them? </p>
<p>Another nail to your premise: a quota for one school implies more slots need to be set aside for other schools. To what benefit? Do you think that Duke or Penn gives a rat’s behind if it ignores one school? Are they trying to appease principals or guid counselors? Nope. They have one customer: their own institutional goals. If that means one year your school gets four kids in because, as individuals, they met the college’s criteria, then four get in. If, for the next 20 years, no applicants meet the college’s criteria, then zero will get in for the next 20 years. Colleges don’t impose quotas – that presumes set-asides for other high schools. This doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>Sure there are traditional feeder schools that always have a crop of admittees – but that’s more the HS itself vs. a minimum number the school feels compelled to have for that particular HS.</p>
<p>Duke almost always takes anywhere from 1 to 3 kids from my generally low performing high school, I don’t believe thats accurate. </p>
<p>
According to the profile at <a href=“http://tjpartnershipfund.org/docs/12-13-TJ-Profile.pdf”>http://tjpartnershipfund.org/docs/12-13-TJ-Profile.pdf</a> , TJ had 219 admits to UVA in 2012, which is roughly half of the senior class size of 446, and 34 Duke admits. That’s actually down from most previous years, such as the one at <a href=“http://tjpartnershipfund.org/docs/TJ%20School%20Profile%2010-11.pdf”>http://tjpartnershipfund.org/docs/TJ%20School%20Profile%2010-11.pdf</a> , in which they had 233 UVA admits and 44 Duke admits.</p>
<p>Look for feeder schools. Each college may have their favorite feeder. That is an indirect answer to your question. So there is no quota or limit from each school. However, many top colleges also want to have diversity and look for students without different background.</p>
<p>While it’s true there are no quotas that officially exist, there does tend to be some competition within a given HS for admits to any given college. Many admissions readers at a college read all the applications from a given HS together just for the sake of efficiency, so some comparison is inevitable. </p>
<p>The odd thing is, those who come out on top are often not who you think are the strongest candidates - I know of several admits at different colleges this year from our HS where what appears to be the weakest candidate gets in, while the obvious slam-dunks get shut out. As an outsider, you have no idea what causes a college to award the Golden Ticket - it’s often a head scratcher. But there’s something in those applications that cause one student to be picked over another, so if you have decent stats, don’t automatically assume you’ll be beaten out by anyone.</p>
<p>A top candidate does not necessarily means the one with highest score or GPA. It is just the one that has something they want. </p>
<p>@dctalay: What the “1 student per high school” may actually refer to is not the number of students admitted per school, but the number of students per school who get recommended for certain scholarships (such as the Morehead Scholarship at UNC). I would be surprised if the schools have such a policy of limiting the admissions of students whom they consider really qualified.</p>
<p>There is never a set quota. This year my public school had 11 Cal Tech admits, 9 MIT admits, 8 Yale admits, 5 Stanford Admits, and 3 Harvard admits. Last year, we had 1 Harvard, 2 Stanford, 5, MIT, and 4 Yale. It depends on each year’s strength. It might just so happen that a school usually has 1-2 exceptional kids so it seems like schools take only 1 each year.</p>
<p>The only kids who get into ivies and other top schools (excluding top UC) from my magnet high school are URMs. My 3 years here, we haven’t had one kid go to MIT. Admissions are too tough these days. So most of the top schools do not even take 1 kid from our class even though they are filled with exceptional, qualified students. oh well</p>
<p>No one from my school has gotten into UVA in the past two years. This year we had 1 Ivy acceptance (athletic recruit). Last year, we had 1 Yale, 1 Princeton, 1 Columbia, 1 Stanford, and 1 Dartmouth. In my area, Harvard-Westlake and Flintridge Prep are big feeders to elite schools. There’s no quota; it just depends on the school and its resources. I believe it’s also tied to socioeconomic factors. </p>
<p>For UVa rumors, just come to me directly. I’m happy to confirm or explain what’s really going on. There are no limits on how many students we can take from a school, town, county, or region. We do have a residency ratio to maintain (2/3 of the overall population at UVa needs to have Virginia residency).</p>
<p>This is a common rumor in densely populated areas. I address it time and again (most recently [here[/url</a>] and [url="<a href="http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2013/11/quotas-again.html"]here[/url]“>http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2013/11/quotas-again.html”]here](<a href=“http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2013/09/uva-admission-quotas-for-northern.html]here[/url”>Notes from Peabody: The UVA Application Process: UVa Admission Quotas for Northern Virginia)</a>), but the rumors persist. </p>
<p>@gandalf78 is right that there is a limit on Jefferson Scholarship nominees. Schools are limited to two nominations per year.</p>
<p>Have you looked at your school’s Naviance site (assuming they have one). It should give acceptance histories.</p>
<p>Thank you all very much. I am a little upset nobody acknowledged the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter reference thoug. :(( #yolo #finksociety #longbeachNYnotCalifornia</p>
<p>Nope. I don’t live in Virginia, and two girls from my high school decided to go to UVA last year</p>