I just found out a ton of people from my class are also applying ED to UPenn (yikes); how will this affect my chances?
It won’t. Your application will be assessed on its own merit. If you are a person they. Want, you will get in. If they don’t want you, you won’t get in. It will not be based on what happens with the other kids from your school
Colleges don’t have quotas as to how many they will take from each high school. You are competing for a spot from not only applicants from your HS, but applicants throughout your geographic region, as well as all applicants throughout the US, and abroad. Last year close to 40,000 people applied to Penn and under 10% were accepted. Work hard to put forth your best possible application and then you just have to wait and see how things turn out.
And as I tell everyone be sure to have a college list that includes reach, match, and safety school that appear affordable and that you would be happy to attend. Good luck.
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=67 indicates that class rank is “important” at Penn, so there is some degree of competing with students from your own high school. (However, other academic criteria like rigor, GPA, and test scores are “very important”, as are essay, recommendations, and character.)
One top 10 school accepted 22 students from my kid’s HS. Two students applying ED won’t make a difference. You are competing against a much larger pool.
@ucbalumnus my high school (public, competitive) doesn’t rank. I’ve always wondered if colleges will rank applicants from the same school if the students don’t self-report rankings?
@PetraMC dang 22?? You’re very right about the competition. I’m just worried because I’ve heard of at least 10 other people (all very strong applicants) applying, and some parents/my guidance counselor have warned me that this will undermine my own chances.
In addition to my earlier answer, I want to say that this process is stressful but you shouldn’t worry about things that are completely outside of your control. Spend your time and energy on creating the strongest possible application not worrying about how many others are applying from your HS.
@happy1 yeah, you’re right. thanks!
Actually, I think it does have an impact. Anecdotally, last year, the Valedictorian and Salutatorian from my son’s school both applied to Harvard, and only the Valedictorian got in. They were both amazing students with impeccable GPA, SAT, EC, Essay, Rec, etc. Even the GC agreed that if the Valedictorian didn’t apply to Harvard, the Salutatorian would probably have gotten in.
^^^^ IMO that is nothing but speculation/wishful thinking/a wild guess on the part of the GC and it was irresponsible for him/her to make such an assertion. Harvard has a 5.4% acceptance rate and has to turn down plenty of valedictorians/salutatorians with perfect grades,standardized tests, essays, LORs etc. For an unhooked applicant something in the application really has to make that person jump out from a very accomplished crowd in the eyes of the admissions officer. And FWIW my friend’s D got into Harvard as the HS class salutatorian while the valedictorian from the school that year was rejected.
@PetraMC that’s typical for elite high schools where the students have very competitive applications, but might not be the case for OP if their school only sends 1 or 2 kids a year to Penn
Roughly 20% of the applicants last year got in