<p>(1) In the application-reading process, do admissions officers compare students from the same school? If so, how?</p>
<p>(2) Moreover, do colleges have a quota for the maximum number of students they choose to admit from a single school (not including elite prep, "feeder" schools)?</p>
<p>I come from a large, public school that historically has only fared so-so in terms of college admissions. We send about 5 students to Top 20 colleges each year, and I'm aiming for Ivy-caliber schools. With classmates who are also applying to the same schools (many of them with high class ranks -- I'm 10/600), do I even stand a chance? My extracurriculars are not exceptionally diverse or unique either, though I have won regional/state/national awards in different fields.</p>
<p>(4) Assuming that my recommendations will be on par or better than that of my classmates', will adcoms consider my application seriously or toss it aside in favor of, say, the valedictorian's?</p>
<p>oft asked and answered question. No quotas per school. Quotas imply that they reserve spots for certain other schools – for what purpose? They aren’t beholden to any general high school. They could admit all one school’s applicants and zero every one else if it suited them. They don’t care about how high schools view them. They don’t need to “spread the wealth”. No need.</p>
<p>you’re compared to other students like you in your general region. Sometimes they are your fellow classmates, sometimes not. If you happen to be a super science applicant and the other applicant is a strong theater applicant or an athlete, you’re not directly being compared. If you both happen to be strong music applicants, then YES you’re in the same general pool – but not DIRECTLY compared per se.</p>
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<li><p>Yes. While they don’t have quotas, they will see your application alongside others from your high school. This helps them look at your application in the context of your high school. It’s still possible for everyone who applied from a school to get in or for everyone to get rejected, but usually it’s somewhere in between.</p></li>
<li><p>Nope, not at all. It’s very possible that your year could end up sending more than usual - you may just be a better class. My graduating class sent twice as many students to top schools (or maybe those were just the Ivy statistics) with something like three times as many acceptances to those schools as compared to the previous class.</p></li>
<li><p>Top schools often accept people with lower class rank than some of those they reject from the same school. I’ve seen this happen plenty of times, including to me (Brown rejected me but took two people with noticeably lower GPAs). You don’t need to be Valedictorian to get in.</p></li>
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