Hello all! Posting this with a throwaway account- I have not actually been active on this site in years. I am a recent college graduate, and fortunately far removed from all the insanity you all are going through.
My little sister and I were talking about how the reputation of your high school factors into the college admissions process. I am aware that factors such as sports offerings and AP courses make an applicant much more competitive, automatically giving the students attending top high schools an edge. What I am talking about is how your particular school is viewed.
When I was applying to colleges, I was waitlisted/rejected by every “top” school I applied to. I accepted an admissions offer from one of my safeties, a fairly well regarded state school. Most of my friends shared similar stories, both in my year and the year after. We were all standard CC-esque kids: taking 7+ APs, competed on varsity sports teams, editor of yearbook, etc cetera. My high school offered pretty much every AP class and every social enrichment activity possible, including sports teams that made it to state on a regular basis. However, it was an Evangelical school that had a reputation as being extremely religious and conservative. My friends attending other schools often mocked me, but I didn’t think anything of it besides Darwin jokes being tossed whenever I wore my sweatshirt around town (for the record, my high school did teach evolution, which was clearly stated in the online coursebook). Still, an interviewer I had when I was applying for an Ivy seemed extremely fixated on my high school. For instance, when I asked a standard question about life on campus, he gave a response along the lines of “Oh, its extremely different from the culture you are from considering you go to ____ H.S. Most people really aren’t like that”. Nothing outright rude, but just little barbs that made it seem like he had his mind made up about me just by seeing which high school I attended.
In retrospect I probably should have requested a second interview with a different person, but I was intimidated by the whole process and told myself that the guy was just testing me. Looking back though, I have to wonder if that encounter was an abnormality, or a peak into what elite colleges thought when they saw applicants from schools like mine, regardless of the actual personal/religious beliefs of applicants. Considering the accomplishments of some of my classmates, it seems odd that not more were accepted by the “elite” schools. Almost everyone who did belonged to a group such as recruited varsity athletes. In comparison to high schools that had similar course offerings and academic rigor, we definitely fared worse in the college admissions cycle.
I don’t regret not getting into the elite schools then- I rocked college, and by the end was being fought over by graduate programs from some of the same schools that had once rejected me. However, I would like to hear feedback on whether or not a high school’s name can have any bearing on a student’s application, for good or bad. If you think I might be reading too much into this, please let me know as well. My sister and her friends are going to be starting the college search soon, and I want to give advice as best I can if they try going for an Ivy or similar schools.
Thank you for your time!