I found out that several of my classmates will probably apply Early Decision to Brown, which I am strongly considering doing. My class size is only 125 students. I don’t know their credentials exactly but they seem like pretty strong students, and they are athletes, which I am not. Will this substantially hurt my chances? How much does Brown / other schools care about geographic diversity from a single school?
Thank you.
Don’t worry about it. You will be competing with thousands of excellent students. A few more from your school won’t make much difference one way or the other.
Thank you! That’s what my parents tell me, but I thought I’d ask around.
I went to a college (NOT Brown) info session with my son a couple of days ago, and the college rep said the opposite. He said that you are not competing with students from other states or other cities or other schools, since it’s hard for an AO to tell the difficulties of the school’s grading system. You are, however, directly compared to your classmates, since you have the same opportunities, same grading system, same teachers, so it’s more apple to apple.
I’m not sure how typical this is for all colleges. This is a prestigious west cost public university which attracts an enormous amount of applicants.
There can be other kids in your area, the hs down the road or further off, that affect your chances. You can’t control for geo diversity. So give it your best shot.
It doesn’t matter so much that different districts may have different grading schemes. (After all, different teachers in one hs can be easier or harder, too.) It’s not just gpa. Adcoms know how to find kids with equivalent strengths, for the class.
OP, remember this is very holistic. After grades/rigor, it’s about what your ECs, writing, and how you pull the app together, will show about your thinking, drives, knowledge of the school and other aspects of match.
My DD is applying ED to a school, where at least one other person in her HS is also applying. So we looked at the admission stats for the last 3 years on naviance. One year the college admitted one students from her HS, the next year two students, the next year 0 students. At another HS in town they took 3 students from that HS last year. While they aren’t going to fill their class with students from her HS, I think if you look at the history they are willing to take a variety of numbers of students depending on the class. Your HS admissions office should have a good idea of what your school’s numbers are.
@bogeyorpar I was told the same thing. I’m wondering if the fact that there are several awesome kids who are also legacies at a particular school means I should tell my child not even to bother applying to that school. If there are five kids who apply, all with great grades, scores, ECs, etc ,and four are legacies, what’s the chance that the 5th who isn’t has a chance at all?