<p>I go to a small (about 350) international high school. In the past 10 years only 1-2 students have applied to Duke and none have gotten in. This year, however, 4 applied. I was wondering do schools like Duke limit the number of students they accept from the same school. I know MIT has strict policies of 1 student per school max and 2 from same country (with exceptions of course). Is this true for Duke?</p>
<p>I go to an international school too and there have been years when 4 people got into Duke but last year there were no admitted students from my school. Some Admissions officers I spoke to claimed that having students from the same school apply doesn’t affect their decisions (thats what the Brown and Northwestern officers said) I guess it doesn’t really matter if you’re qualified.</p>
<p>I don’t know where you’re getting those figures for MIT. They’re pretty clear about not having a school/country restrictive policy for domestic or international applicants.</p>
<p>One of the most frequently asked questions on CC. Do a search on “school quota” and you’ll find your answer.</p>
<p>[MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: “International Men & Women of Mystery”](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/international_applicants_helpful_tips/international_men_women_of_mys.shtml]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/international_applicants_helpful_tips/international_men_women_of_mys.shtml)</p>
<p>Specifically:</p>
<p>“* We have no quotas on individual countries, but we will try to admit students who represent a broad range of experiences and countries. You can get a sense of our current international (and domestic) enrollment (a subset of the students we have admitted) from the Registrar’s Office. These numbers show what students have enrolled in the past, but are not necessarily indicative of who we will admit this year. For example, if you do not see your country listed, do not take it to mean that you will not be admitted or that we don’t admit students from your country.”</p>
<p>In regards to domestic students:</p>
<p>[MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: “Questions Answered”](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/qanda/questions_and_answers/questions_answered.shtml]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/qanda/questions_and_answers/questions_answered.shtml)</p>
<p>“MIT doesn’t do its admissions process geographically. There are no limits or quotas for any geographical regions within the United States whatsoever. Daniel answered this one pretty well too: MIT does NOT have any limits or quotas for any geographical regions within the United States whatsoever. (True that. Anyway, continue on, Daniel.)”</p>
<p>[MIT</a> Admissions: The Selection Process: Application Reading, Committee, And Decisions](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/the_selection_process_application_reading_committee_and_decisions/]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/the_selection_process_application_reading_committee_and_decisions/)</p>
<p>“Our process is a student-centered process, not a school- or region-centered process. This means that we do not read your application along with other students from your school or region to compare you against each other; each applicant stands on their own. We have no quotas by school, state, or region. You are not at any disadvantage if other excellent students from your school or area are also applying.”</p>
<p>MIT has no regional or school quotas for students whether they be international or domestic.</p>
<p>@mitcomposer91 - What is the size of your school?</p>
<p>I knew the MIT thing was going to be controversial…</p>
<p>How is your citing that MIT has quotas controversial? It just runs counter to official notices and common sense. </p>
<p>MIT’s own website says they have no quotas and, if you think about it, there is no benefit for a school as prestigious as MIT to have a quota. They aren’t trying to maintain good relations with high schools-- they don’t need to. Therefore, they pick and choose who they want, from wherever they want. There’s no purpose to self impose a limit – it would only shut out great applicants – the very thing that the Admissions office is working for months and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to attract.</p>
<p>Specifically for Duke, when I went there for a campus tour there was a presentation by a guy on the admissions committee and he said that the number of applicants from your school and past acceptance trends had nothing to do with your chances of getting in.</p>
<p>Yeah, the MIT thing makes no sense. Last year two people from my school were accepted there…</p>
<p>There are many “official” policies and statements that seem to defy reality. I think it comes down to where you attend. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that most of the top schools use regional representatives to screen applicants from their regions. According to what I’ve read and heard, these regional people make recommendations to the committee that are largely accepted. This is why regional people are hired in the first place. They get to know the schools in the region so that they can pass on recommendations to the committee, which eases the committee’s overall burden. </p>
<p>I met a regional person who told me she visits dozens of the best high schools in her area and knows almost all of them well. Not all high schools are equal. Some place dozens of students into the best schools, but even for a very good public high school, it’s an unusal year to see more than 3 to 5 make it into the best schools. An average public high school will be lucky to have one student accepted. It just seems logical to me that once a regional person recommends someone from a good to average high school, it would be very rare for a second person to be recommended for acceptance. I am sure there are rare exceptions, but we’re not talking about exceptions here. We’re talking about trends. </p>
<p>I attend a very good public high school and we haven’t had two students accepted to any one Ivy in many years. About 10 years ago, Cornell accepted two. This trend is why so many of us applied to all 8 Ivies and also MIT and Stanford. </p>
<p>Schools like Chicago, Berkeley, and Georgetown have taken more than one of us, but not schools like MIT, Harvard, and Princeton, etc.</p>
<p>It’s an unscientific process, but until we get more than one into an Ivy, it’s reality at my school. Keep in mind that I am not talking about elite private schools in New England or the elite publics in NYC. They place many into the Ivies. I am talking about the rest of us who attend relatively nameless high schools.</p>
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Lol OP, that is one of the most ■■■■■■■■ claims I have ever heard. </p>
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You obviously don’t attend a good public school then.</p>
<p>Jersey, does the 13 in your name represent your IQ, age, or maturity level?</p>
<p>That was almost clever, except you call your school a “very good public high school” while your school rarely if ever sends more than 1 person to the same Ivy a year so it’s not too hard to figure out that your school isn’t very good. Your ad hominem attack doesn’t exactly help your case but I’ll refrain from sinking to your level. </p>
<p>And what is a 13 maturity level if I may ask?</p>
<p>My public school is ranked VERY high and we have had one person get into Stanford in the last 8 years. Double ivy acceptances are very uncommon. We generally get 1 Harvard, 1 MIT, etc.</p>
<p>My school got four or five people into Harvard last year, two into MIT, three into Stanford… there’s more, but I can’t remember all the numbers. So far this year, one person has gotten into Columbia, two into Cornell, and two into MIT (that’s just early - there goes that claim!). These numbers are pretty standard.
I go to a good but nowhere near famous public high school that consistently skirts the edge of the top 100. Not illustrious by any means.</p>
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<p>I guess it differs from each school, but when the dean of admissions from Stanford spoke about competition he said that your biggest competition will come from your school. His reasoning is that there are so many different types of schools with various levels of academic, athletic, musical etc. … resources that students from one school are hard to compare to another school. EXample: Take a student from a really bad public school where you don’t have to study and everyone gets As VS. a private school where only the top 5% of the class gets As. Its hard to compare these students because they came from different backgrounds and contexts.</p>
<p>However students from the same school can be compared to see how well they utilized the resources they were provided from the same school to create opportunities for themselves. This is at least Stanford’s view, but there are definitely no school quotas because schools like Exeter have like 20 people accepted to harvard every year.</p>
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<p>This is very true. It’s important to keep in mind that it is the job of adcom to get as many people to apply as possible so the school can reject a high percentage and go up in the rankings.</p>
<p>While I think the schools have no official quotas, they seem to do a pretty good job of coming up with nearly the same number of students from each state and country every year.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that your first line of competition is students from your own school. If all four of you are stellar applicants, you may all get in. But highly selective colleges do not want too many kids from one school. They have tried to phase out ‘feeder’ schools and take more kids from more places.</p>
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<p>Once again, I have serious doubts of whether your public school is as good as it claims to be. I go to a pretty good public HS according to USNWR, and we have 15+ Ivy Cross-Admits per year. We had two kids sweep HYPS acceptances last year alone.</p>
<p>Not going to post the rank for obvious reasons, but we are high enough to be noticed. We are a small school and I see the point of the adcoms in not letting in a ton of people - admittees won’t be as unique and there are plenty of students in other schools who have done more amazing things.</p>