<p>Is it true that colleges actually compare your application to others in your school? If so, do all of them do this or just a few?</p>
<p>Oh dear god, please tell me that's fabricated!</p>
<p>My school has some amazing individuals.</p>
<p>no.</p>
<p>they don't</p>
<p>Uh, your apps are read by a regional admissions officer, who reads all the apps from your region and then makes cuts.</p>
<p>So yeah, you sort of are.</p>
<p>........................</p>
<p>can someone confirm any of this?</p>
<p>I don't know the extent to which they do it but there definitely is some truth in what Pro28 said.</p>
<p>They do. Especially at highly respected high schools or magnet schools. For example, my friend goes to a magnet school in VA. The vast majority of the students apply to UVA as a match but end up turning it down because they get into ivies. UVA realized this and now only accepts a certain amount of students from that school every year. </p>
<p>Also, it's not common knowlege at the school. My friend had to ask a UVA rep.</p>
<p>I think they work more in regions for most high schools, but at some highly competitive high schools, they probably do think about how many students they accept. I'm not saying that I think there is a hard quota or anything, just how would it look if everyone at Andover got into Harvard or Stuy into Columbia or something (random school matches btw). </p>
<p>But for most of us who don't go to one of those hypercompetitive schools, they definately seem to work more in regions. </p>
<p>Just the musings of a hs-er btw. Take it with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Some colleges do have a regional adcom, but honestly, they don't care about which high school their accepted students went to! Why would they? However, if others are applying from your school and have a much more rigorous courseload/better grades, of course that could be a factor, as that is proof that your courseload is not as rigorous as it could be, and your school isn't tough on grading, as they might have assumed.</p>
<p>While colleges don't have set quotas to only accept X amount from a certain school, they do cap it at some point--maybe only one student from a lesser school and ten from Andover/Exeter/etc. You are assessed in the context of your region. For the elite privates, Tristate kids have the stiffest competition and Midwestern the least.</p>
<p>I've never heard of that before, but I kind of hope they do. That could work to my benefit a little.</p>
<p>I know that a couple of colleges do have regional admissions officers like Pro28 said but it's not solely based on that- I read somewhere that they try to get X number but if you're great and you're X+8 they will still consider you. (Actually, I think I read that here.) But I don't think Midwestern has the 'least' competition because of quality of apps but rather the colleges want diversity geographically.</p>
<p>Yes. They compare your application (or transcript?) with a typical application (or transcript) from your school to see how you stand among your peers.</p>
<p>so what if you have a few peers (like 6 or 7) applying to Yale, and 3 of them are applying EA; however, the others have more leadership/stats, but are applying RD? I mean the people applying EA are competitive candidates, but could they keep those applying RD out?</p>
<p>If the adcom deems the SCEA students good enough to be admitted then they will be, and same thing with the RD. There isn't a quota per say from each High School.</p>
<p>Applying EA was equivalent to a 50-100 SAT score increase, I read.</p>
<p>^not really. In some schools, I forgot which (I believe MIT) it just shows you have increased interest. It doesn't really "increase" you SAT score so to say.</p>
<p>While I don't think anyone can produce any hard and fast (ie. NON-anecdotal) evidence, the general feeling is that yes, adcoms do in fact compare you to other people at your school, so if someone stronger than you is applying to your dream school, you should try your best to sabotage them.</p>
<p>Lol, while the above is somewhat true, what they are really comparing you with is the opportunities afforded to you. That's why some high schools have say, 17 kids go to stanford one year, and 3 the next.</p>