Hello everybody!
I am an upcoming sophomore in high school and I am a little worried competition-wise. My friends and I all want to attend an ivy league college for education and connections.
If the people from the same high school want to attend the same college will it affect college admissions? Even if the students are different majors?
For example, if I want to attend Harvard University as the major biology or neuroscience and my friend from the same high school wants to attend Harvard as the major political science, will it affect our chances to get in?
Thank you!
There is no min/max/quota per HS. They can admit 1 or 2 or 10 or none. Let history be your guide though. If a college historically admits 1 per year from the HS, it’s doubtful they will admit 10 this year. Most, if not all, of the colleges tagged do not admit by major.
In recent year (I think the most recent year) Harvard College (the undergrad part of Harvard) got 43,330 applicants, and accepted 2,009.
https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/admissions-statistics
Of those 43,330 applicants, the large majority will have been very strong candidates. The total number of high schools in the US is not much less than this number, which suggests that many of these applicants are close to being the top student in their high school. I am not sure how many of these applicants would have been international students.
A few other students from your high school applying to Harvard is not going to make any significant difference to your chances. You should do what you want to do and do it as well as you can. Then apply to schools that make sense to you.
By the way, I came from a high school that had only sent one single student to MIT in the history of the high school. However, from my graduating class two of us went to MIT.
Top schools will compare you with all of their applicants. They will not have quotas per high school.
Also keep in mind that there are a lot of very good universities in the US. Look for a school that is a good fit for you, keep your budget in mind, and make sure that you find at least two good safeties to apply to.