<p>In my school, about 20 kids applied and a few of them are quite amazing. Intel finalists, math geniuses, etc. Are your chances diminished because these people will (probably) get in (over you)? I'm thinking geographic diversity factors here :/ especially with the acceptance rate being projected at such a low percentage...</p>
<p>On the contrary, I'm just a normal, run-of-the-mill borderline applicant with really good test scores and okay grades, nothing huge like IMO or anything...</p>
<p>there are no school quotas. i don’t think anybody is sure about the firmness of geographic quotas, but the relative strength of your class is very low on the pecking order in terms of things that affect your chances.</p>
<p>I have heard/read otherwise.</p>
<p>I don’t think there are necessarily quotas, but I think that they would rather not take like 6 students from one school and none from another. They would rather take 3 each or something like 4 and 2.</p>
<p>I think so, which is unfortunate; a genius applied from my school. :|</p>
<p>I feel like this might be affecting me. Our class this year is unusually stronger than previous years, and my class rank is the only thing bringing me down…I’m just sad and trying to find excuses for my current rejections :(</p>
<p>Doesn’t matter how genius you or your classmates are. I found minorities are faring much better in the college admission process than actually qualified students. I have lost all respect for ivy leagues</p>
<p>disasterous dont start that crap. SCHOOLS WANT DIVERSITY. deal with it and quite complaining.+</p>
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<p>There are plenty of counterexamples to this statement. Harvard DOES take six or more students from some high schools I know about, year after year, and it takes none from hundreds of schools from which it receives applicants each year. Harvard admits strong applicants. It doesn’t set up high school quotas.</p>
<p>There are no official quotas, but the college applications process itself discourages multiple successes from a single school.</p>
<p>At one school, there are generally a fixed amount of resources, leadership positions, and accolades. The Student Body can have only one President, and a teacher can have only one “best student in his class.” Thus each student admitted consumes distinctions which other students might use. Each student admitted from a school, statistically speaking, lowers the chances of the next.</p>
<p>Of course, one could pursue an extracurricular outside of school or found a new club, and people can distinguish themselves in multiple ways. But generally, especially at mediocre-decent public schools, you will not see many students admitted to the same school.</p>
<p>@supereagle: Yes, schools want diversity, but I think it’s totally unfair when less qualified students get a “break” over the higher achievers. I agree that schools should be diverse in cultures and backgrounds but not the point of being diverse in levels of intellectual ability as well.</p>
<p>I will answer honestly. Yes, you’re chances of getting in are diminished when other highly qualified students are applying.Although, This doesn’t matter if the applicants are from your school or not. They look at your comparison towards other applicants, not which school they are coming from. </p>
<p>If you have good EC’s, achievements, essay, recs, and satisfactory standardized testing you should be able to get in. Schools are looking for qualified students with high scores, but after that the most important thing is what sets you apart from the “crowd”. IMO.</p>
<p>The students with low grades and test scores will be eliminated first. After that, it comes down to, EC’s Achievements, essays, recs, Character, Leadership Values and most importantly what makes you special.
It has almost nothing to do with Geographic Diversity. I may be incorrect but schools want the best well rounded students, they don’t care about where you are from. (although, they accept domestic students over international)</p>
<p><em>facepalm</em></p>
<p>Yes, significantly, if you are not as outstanding as they are.</p>
<p>Of course, Harvard doesn’t admit to imposing limits on the number of students they admit from each high school, but this is especially true when it is willing to offer, say, up to a dozen spots to the most hardworking and accomplished people in your school… then, damn, it sucks when you can’t compare to them academically or “extracurricularly.”</p>
<p>does it affect your chances if you have well-qualified people applying from your state, for example i am from Kolkata in Eastern India…4 people were interviewed from Eastern India according to my interviewer…so what are the chances of H taking all 4?</p>
<p>They will take as many as are qualified that they have need for. You mya all be qualified but they might not want 4 people from eastern india. Or they might want all of you. They tried to make a well-rounded class, so it depends what they are looking for this year. However, while I’m not familiar at all with international procedures etc, they have taken up to 17 from my high school, so I guess they aren’t afraid to take a lot of people from one place.</p>
<p>What about the other way around? My school sends someone to Harvard once every 2-3 years, but I’m the only one to apply this year. Would that give me some sort of boost?</p>
<p>They compare applicants from a particular school against the applicant pool as a whole, not against their high school classmates who are also applying.</p>
<p>i myself am a minority nd have been accepted to duke nd also have a number of friends who have been accepted to ivyleague schools nd in my opinion i dont think that ivyleague schools sacrifice quality in their attempt to create diversity. of the black/native american ppl i know who were accepted to ivyleague schools i must admit that none were the prototypical genius types. by that i mean kids who breath eat nd sleep school. none had perfect act or sat scores. But i do know that all were amazing well rounded candidates. high gpas solid satz extra curriculuz nd all. But in my opinion what seperates minority applicants with caucasian nd asian applicant is depth. By that i mean not only r u smart but u have personality. Just cuz ur a valedictorian with a perfect sat score nd dont get into an ivyleague school doesnt meant that ur spot was replace by a black guy with lower gpa or test scores.</p>
<p>No one said that. I know black kids and white kids who have gotten into schools when other people are more qualified. And I know black kids and white kids who have gotten into schools that they are qualified for. Long story short, its a crapshoot. It depends on what the college wants that year. And yeah, an actual personality helps but not only black/native american people have personality. You just generalized twice by saying white and asian kids have no “depth” and you also assumed that when someone previously said schools want diversity they meant sacrificing their standards. No one said that, they only said diversity is a factor in admissions and if you refute that, than you are naive.</p>
<p>By the way, SATs doesn’t have a ‘z’ on the end and “and” is spelled with an ‘a’.</p>
<h2>But in my opinion what seperates minority applicants with caucasian nd asian applicant is depth.</h2>
<p>Wow… that’s not racist at all… @_@</p>
<p>Anyway, to get back to the original question, I think it might lower your chances. My interviewer basically told me that the other applicants from my school would make the biggest impact on the potential success of my application. They said that they would only accept probably one or two students - if any - and that I should look at who had been accepted to get a better idea of whether or not I would get in. My school’s a really small school so the competition is probably more intense and direct than yours would be, but I would imagine that they have a general idea of how many they would want to admit from your school. If you have a big school, it’s probably more flexible… don’t stress about it too much. Expect the best and be prepared for the worst. And good luck! =)</p>
<p>@kbros: your arguments would be taken much more seriously if you learned to spell</p>