Accepting Too Many from One School?

<p>Hey CC,</p>

<p>I have a scenario for you all:</p>

<p>There are a little over 300 people in my graduating class. A good amount of ED and EA decisions have come out in the last two days, and, based off of what I've seen, a ton of my friends have been accepted to Columbia, Penn, Stanford, etc.
This could be good or bad news.
The good news:
These colleges recognize how good my school is and accept a lot of our students.
The bad news:
They've accepted a lot of students. Will they even have room for regular decision applicants?</p>

<p>Basically, I want to ask you what the chances are for a regular decision applicant in a situation where a school is already sending a lot of early applicants to top schools. Will it be harder for me to get in now? Is the acceptance quota being filled too soon?</p>

<p>If it's any help (to give you a context) roughly 20 kids go to Harvard from my school each year, and I'd say about 80% of the kids in my grade apply to at least one Ivy.</p>

<p>They should, if they don’t have quotas. It’s like a professional sports team turning down a bunch of really good athletes from one college, even if they have exceptional talent.</p>

<p>Well if 20 people a year go to Harvard at your school, you just answered your own question. Last years class at my school, one of the top public schools in my state, had over 700 students. Average ACT is 27, which is high for public school. Anyways, one person got into Caltech, and that is pretty much it for ivy caliber schools. Schools like Harvard and Stanford, where you need to be an amazing student and very involved at your school, reject tons of super qualified students. It seems to me tht your schools reputation leads to more acceptance. For example, how are you supposed to get many leadership positions when 80% of your school is good enough to apply to an ivy. A school can have only one president, and only a few sports captains. But, maybe its just because you are all geniuses. It seems to me like they will focus more on your app. than the number they have already accepted.</p>

<p>^^The OP attends one of the top prep schools in the nation (Andover). They are not all geniuses, but they are all strong students. The school is very respected and pretty much everyone will get into a selective college/university. </p>

<p>Sorry, OP, I can’t answer your question, except to say that at least some of these early acceptances could have been hooked applicants. I do think there will still be some RD acceptances.</p>

<p>CBatch: for quota limits to exist, that assumes that the top schools have some interest in “spreading the wealth” among many high schools.</p>

<p>What purpose can that serve? It’s not like they need to curry favor among other high schools.</p>

<p>The individuals’ strengths will trump any perceived “quotas”. One thing in your favor is that top schools know the quality of Phillips graduates.</p>