<p>Okay, I don't mean to rant here, but I'm really sick of people asking about their chances and then throwing in the "competitive high school" thing - as if it really makes a difference. Quite frankly, majority of kids DON'T go to hard/competitive high schools. On this board, it seems that everyone goes to an "ultra competitive" school. Most public schools, i.e. (insert town name) high school, are not competitive. Yes, maybe the top 10 or 20 spots, depending on the size of the class, are competitive. But if you grab a class of 200 kids, you're sure to find 20 kids who strive to excel. The simple fact is, is that when a competitive college looks at an application, they look at 2 things - did you take the most challenging classes offered and did you do well in them. Just because 1 school offers 8000 AP classes, and another offers 2, it doesn't mean that the school with 8000 AP classes is look upon in better light. </p>
<p>The only time a high school matters in applying is if it is a feeder for a particular school (like TJ for UVA) or if you're from east bumble**** and a school is willing to take a chance on you, because you're unknown to them.</p>
<p>Also, just because you go to a private school, it doesn't mean that you school is competitive. I went to private high school - and it was the same deal. Class size around 160, about 15 or so people with A averages. Same kids in all the honors and AP classes, like I'm sure it is at most public schools. </p>
<p>And all you parents who are going to say "oh but my son's/daughter's school is different." Its not. There are maybe a handful of high schools that will guarrentee you admissions to several top schools, but your town's high school/region's magnet school isn't it.</p>
<p>So in short, I'm glad you went to such and such a high school, ranked xth in the nation, but unless your school is a feeder to a particular school - you just got worked extra hard for no significant edge.</p>
<p>I think when most people say in chance threads that they go to competitive high schools, it is to give more meaning to a GPA or rank. At a more competitive school, it is generally more difficult to get a high GPA or a high class rank. Colleges will know this by reading the information presented in the school report and will factor it into their consideration of the applicant. Therefore, kids asking for their chances on CC include that information so that the evaluator can factor it into their opinion on the chances of the kid asking.</p>
<p>im going to disagree. there are two factors:</p>
<p>on the simply idealistic side, you are getting a much better education at a "competitive" school, so i guess it depends on how you define edge. </p>
<p>on the other side, it DOES make a difference if your school is competitive. i won't say i have much experience w/ magnet public schools and i know that some private schools aren't really that great. however, i attend a very competitive private school that draws from the entire state and is by far the most prestigious in the state. 99% attend 4-year universities, and we are known by most universities, so they consider the fact that people w/ what are normally considered "mediocre" gpas actually do really well at their schools. these kind of reputations help you if your school is well known for being very competitive.</p>
<p>having said that, this is even more the case at the top east coast boarding schools. they are very prestigious and are "feeders" to schools like harvard and yale. </p>
<p>people might be exaggerating when they say their schools are "competitive," but colleges DO look at this stuff.</p>
<p>Exactly. How competitive your high school is is crucial for admission, but the issue is that everyone THINKS that their school is competitive, when in fact very few are.</p>
<p>After being rejected from Penn, I spoke to my admissions officer who said that it was very good that I was taking a competitive courseload at a school where not everyone goes to a 4yr college. Top universities see so many kids from top high schools that if you don't go to a school where everyone is at least going to a 4yr college, your school is not competitive.</p>
<p>my old school was extremely competitive, but not everyone went to college, and i mean competitive as in you were not in the top 10% unless you had a gpa of 4.4 or higher. my school was even on newsweeks best high schools in america list.</p>
<p>"Competitive" doesn't mean half the class has a gpa over 4.0. That could just mean that teachers give away lots of A's. Or, it could mean that half the class are geniuses. There's no way to know just from looking at gpa/rank. Competitive means that being in, say, the third decile is actually pretty darn good--and perhaps better than being in the top 10% somewhere else. And for the most part, colleges do know which is which. When my daughter was being recruited (as an athlete) the coaches knew her high school and all dismissed her relatively low (3.6ish) gpa as "not a problem", they said they knew how "tough" that school is. What are the average SAT scores at these competitive schools? 600? 550? 500? 500 is not competitive, I don't care how many kids have gpa's over 4.0.</p>
<p>the school i go to is in the top 200 at newsweek. We were dismissed by Penn as not competitive; I'm sure this is similar for other "top" schools. </p>
<p>We had around five people w/ a 4.0 UW & an avg SAT of 2300 apply to Stanford early...one got in. I hate using anecdotal evidence, but I have seen over and over again qualified kids being rejected from our school. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that when comparing schools you have to compare them against places like Andover & Exeter, where 50-60 kids in a class of 250 are attending HYP. Clearly a disproportiante amount of applicants come from these kinds of schools, and what is competitive in your town or county - or even the country - might not be competitive relative to the rest of the applicant pool.</p>
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Also, just because you go to a private school, it doesn't mean that you school is competitive.
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That is true for my school. At my private school, not everyone attends a 4-year college. And there aren't a lot of people competing against each other in terms of grades and test scores.</p>
<p>I think there is a such thing as a competetive public high school and it does matter...my hs is consistently in newsweek's top 30 and this year we had 18 national merit semifinalists and 14 commended out of a class of 350...my friend w/ a 4.0 uw is like forty something in rank...i have a 4.0 uw and 10 in rank (band/jazz band brought me down :()...#1 and #7 got in to stanford EA and we have 4 1600's/2 2400's myself included in the senior class...there is definitely a difference between competetive and noncompetetive high schools</p>
<p>"my hs is consistently in newsweek's top 30 and this year we had 18 national merit semifinalists and 14 commended out of a class of 350...my friend w/ a 4.0 uw is like forty something in rank...i have a 4.0 uw and 10 in rank (band/jazz band brought me down )...#1 and #7 got in to stanford EA and we have 4 1600's/2 2400's myself included in the senior class...there is definitely a difference between competetive and noncompetetive high schools"</p>
<p>I have to disagree on this one...I don't think the profile of a high school has as much impact as you may think. my high school could be considered not as "competetive" as many others, as lots of kids don't go on to college, and our national merit scores are definitely lower than many east coast states and such (although for the midwest we arent bad), but I'm 30 some class rank, got into Columbia (decent SATs ACTs, alot of extra curricular work and non-profit stuff), and our 5th rank got EA Harvard (perfect ACTs, junior olympics), among a couple other EA stanford acceptances...
I'm just saying that even if a school doesn't look so great as a whole, there is definitely alot of room for individuals who can work their way though extracurriculars, standardized test scores, and the essay to prove themselves.</p>
<p>i know that colleges rank schools based on their difficulty on a scale from 1-5 (or at least some do something like that). apparently, pton and harvard rank my school as the most difficult (either 1 or 5, i forget!). so i think it's safe to say that mine's pretty competitive :)</p>
<p>And also, it may seem weird when so many people say they go to competitive high schools, but remember, this is CC. People on here are more likely to go to those places.</p>
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i know that colleges rank schools based on their difficulty on a scale from 1-5 (or at least some do something like that). apparently, pton and harvard rank my school as the most difficult (either 1 or 5, i forget!). so i think it's safe to say that mine's pretty competitive
<p>a parent i know told me that- apparently he got it from sm1 who works at princeton in admissions (don't quote me on this though, he could be wrong of course)</p>
<p>Each year, over 20,000 8th graders take an exam to get into my school, and only 680 are accepted. </p>
<p>The average old SAT was 1350. </p>
<p>People from different prestigious colleges and universities visit our school, telling us that the admission committee regards a gpa from our school differently from the way they regard a gpa from a "normal" school. </p>
<p>When a person says they go to a competitive high school, how do you really know if it is one of the top three in the nation or just one of the good local schools in their area?</p>