<p>Did any of you ever think that maybe your school's record with colleges might play a significant role in the admission process?</p>
<p>i don't think so.</p>
<p>I think it might make a small difference. If you go to a crappy/small public school where most people go to community college or state college and nobody evers goes to Princeton and the likes, they might be more likely to take you because it's "diversity" somehow.</p>
<p>...or reject you because they have no idea how rigorous your school's academics are, and no reason to believe they are at all.</p>
<p>...or accept you because you scored very well on the SATs and APs in SPITE of the school you're going to.</p>
<p>...or accept you because you took college classes.</p>
<p>...or accept you because you improved the state of affairs in your school significantly.</p>
<p>...perhaps all of the above.</p>
<p>I'm sure the merits of a Princeton-caliber student would show through, even if she or he goes to a not-so-great high school.</p>
<p>It can help. Admission offices track statistics from the high schools in each region of the country, often over a five year period. They'll know how many applicants came in from a school during that time period, how many of those applicants were accepted, and how many of those accepted applicants actually matriculated. They'll also have the number of National Merit Semi-finalists from the school over that time period, so that they'll have a rough sense of how many of the top students at that high school actually applied to their institution.</p>
<p>When reading applications, it's fun to get a strong app from a school that usually doesn't produce credible applicants. That's not going to make a difference if your record doesn't warrant admission, but it can tilt things in your favor in a tie-breaking scenario.</p>
<p>Alright, so...</p>
<p>I go to a small school (180) where a fair portion of the graduating class goes to a community college. Also, the majority of those who go to 4 year colleges go to the state one (if that makes a difference). In the 30+ years that the school has been around, I think that it's only had 3 NMSQT qualifiers (I'm one of them). Although there is grade inflation, the SAT scores seem fairly low on average (I believe that our Valedictorian last year scored a 2020). Would producing decent SAT scores (2310) etc in this scenario help an admissions case significantly?</p>
<p>I also took some classes at the local community college as the school doesn't offer AP classes</p>
<p>I think it's a benefit...slightly.</p>
<p>I don't think it will make or break your candidacy. It will probably get you a closer look, however.</p>
<p>Is the majority of students at Princeton National Merit scholars, or more importantly, do the undergrads seem like bookworms?</p>
<p>I'd say that they're much more of the work hard/play hard variety. And not especially predisposed towards intellectual posing, but more attuned towards how their college studies can prepare them to get things done in the real world.</p>
<p>That's a tactful way of putting it!</p>
<p>I think that it does make adifference because if you go to a very competitive school and you do well, then you have a better chance into getting into the college that you want to then a person with the same grades as you but goes to a crappy school. Hope that helped. :)</p>