Are there differences applying from a public school and private school?

<p>Are there any differences applying from a public school and private school?</p>

<p>They will judge you based on the context of your school -- so they won't be like 'why didn't he/she take 11 APs and run the young republicans club. If your school has those opportunities, then they'll expect you to take advantage, but if it doesn't, then don't sweat it.</p>

<p>On a different note, the actual act of applying from private v public school is quite different in my opinion. Coming from a private school, I would say that private schools (and some publics too) make the process a lot more comfortable. One of the resons why I never bother with chances threads is because my college counselor used to be an admissions officer at an Ivy League college. It's small things like that, and the 15 page packet they sent us this summer, etc etc. that make me think that in some public schools the students are a lot more 'on their own'. However, the difference isn't too big a deal, and if I lived in a better school system, I'd probably be going public too! (just in case someone wants to call me a snob) :)</p>

<p>I am currently in a boarding school too, but I don't much time for ecs besides sports because our daily schedule is so packed. Will that be a negative for me?</p>

<p>No I read somewhere that they know that things are different for boarding school kids. Just keep up with your classmates.</p>

<p>filmxoxo17 - sometimes the "why didn't she take 11 AP's" doesn't apply quite as much with private school because often the "regular" classes are just as difficult as an honors or AP class in a private school.</p>

<p>It's like how a bottom 50% student at Exeter could EASILY be valedictorian at a middle-of-the-road public school.</p>

<p>At many private schools (including mine), if there are 5 sections of a class, only one is AP or honors, and so it's not quite as big a deal if you didn't take an all AP/honors courseload.</p>

<p>In short, No. (As the other repliers also said.) In terms of how an applicant is perceived, there does not appear to be a prejudice or advantage necessarily applying from public or private. As a practical matter, it can be a challenge in terms of the process, at a public school, due to size of school + limitations of a GC, but any determined applicant can handle that challenge.</p>

<p>For some of the smaller LAC's, admissions results seem much more tied in to admissions histories of specific high schools & districts than to types. For Ivies and for medium to large U',s there's anywhere from a good to a great geographical spread, but from the top liberal arts colleges, & even from many small 2nd-tier lac's, there's no denying the actual statistics that are published (including Naviance scattergrams & the like), which reveal the continuing reality of feeder schools & feeder regions or districts -- both public & private.</p>

<p>In our region, if you're applying to certain LAC's, you'd better have some safety Ivies to back that up (yes, you heard me) -- regardless of your record, the quality of your application package to those LAC's, regardless of the level of interest you have shown, regardless whether you are needy or wealthy. The statistics simply do not lie when it comes to ALL of these factors. HYPSM is within range for us; some LAC's are not. If you're East of the Mississippi & applying to a private college, you're probably fine for any size of college & from any size/type of high school.</p>

<p>So, There aren't any differences between applying from public or private?</p>

<p>not according to what the admissions stats are. The differences would not be public vs. private. They could be partly tied to visibility of a particular school, but again, this would be much more likely to fall in the Regional Non-Recognition category (for certain colleges especially) than such a broad category of public vs. private. Public school admissions to colleges continue to outweigh private, nationwide, because there are more students attending public than private high schools.</p>