<p>Colleges will often accept more applicants from schools that are more competitive, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t compare you with your classmates. For my school specifically, a highly competitive public school with over 30 kids going to Ivys/MIT/Stanford each year, course rigor seemed to be very important in admissions. All of the “unhooked” kids who got into Ivys including myself had taken the most demanding curriculum in comparison to other students.</p>