<p>Is it true that your competing with people within your own high school to get into college because colleges only accept a certain amount of people from each college? If so, if my cousin were to transfer from a more competitive to a less competitive high school her senior year, would college compare her to the high school she transfers to or her previous one? Would this be advantageous?</p>
<p>Elite colleges look at you as an individual… Not you compared to others… other than your class rank.</p>
<p>But the colleges that do only accept a certain amount of people from each school and compare you to your peers, do they look at you compared to all the high schools you went to or just the high school you went to during your senior year?</p>
<p>Switching to a less competitive HS in Senior year to improve you class ranking is not a good idea. </p>
<p>Colleges will accept multiple kids from the same school. For example, here are number of kids from Phillips Andover that maticulated into the same college in 2011:</p>
<p>CLASS OF 2011 MATRICULATION STATISTICS
6 Brown University
13 Columbia University
11 Cornell University
5 Dartmouth College
15 Harvard University
3 MIT
9 University of Pennsylvania
7 Princeton University
15 Stanford University
14 Yale University</p>
<p>In our school, the results were amazingly consistent year to year, leading me to believe there may be quotas. These numbers have not changed in years.</p>
<p>Stanford - 5
Harvard - 2
Yale - 2</p>
<p>Meanwhile, some schools change rapidly</p>
<p>Berkeley and UCLA - 30 to 50 each. One year was 50+ UCLA and 40 Cal. Second year was 60 Cal and 40 UCLA.</p>
<p>“Are there quotas for admitted students in my HS? Am I competing against my peers?”</p>
<p>This is an often-asked question and I answer it the same: NO.</p>
<p>To assume that selective colleges have quotas (either min or max) at your school assumes they are setting aside slots for some other school (to make someone happy) or setting aside slots FOR your school( to make someone happy). The top schools *are under no pressure to please anyone at your HS *so therefore feel the complete freedom to admit as many as they want or as few as they want for years on end. The individual applicant is what matters most and the schools will admit solely to meet their own goals – not some perceived repuatation at your school.</p>
<p>@BFS, your anecdote of consistent admit nos. seems like coincidence to me. In my experience, the top schools in my area get very differing admit #s from my HYP alma mater.</p>
<p>Plus students are not admitted in one mass pool. If one year your school has the nation’s top 2 water polo players but also 2 science prodigies – top school X may well admit four. The very next year, only two science prodigies apply – guess what? Only 2 get offers of admission. For this “admission by category” read this [Reed</a> College | Admission | Reed College Admission Office](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/admission_messages.html]Reed”>http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/admission_messages.html)</p>