<p>THe last person to go to Harvard from my school was in 2002, 9 years ago. Will they know this person was?</p>
<p>I don’t know for H specifically, but I have heard that Admissions Offices keep track of that information as they are interested to know how students from a particular high school do at their school.</p>
<p>It’s likely they would have access to that info – but it’s private and no one would release it to you, however. You’re better off asking a teacher at your school.</p>
<p>Yes, that’s right, they keep track of this kind of thing.</p>
<p>They indeed keep track of every student who’s been admitted from your school. Most colleges only keep track for the past 3 years back, but I assume Harvard being Harvard wants even more as usual and probably look at about 15 or so years back since most schools don’t even get 1 student sent to Harvard every 3 years.</p>
<p>So do they actually try to compare that accepted person to the applicant? Do they actually dig through their database during their review of your application?</p>
<p>Adcoms know everything.</p>
<p>No, the idea isn’t to compare the candidates. It’s to understand the school and the student’s accomplishments in light of what’s offered there.</p>
<p>I would imagine yes?</p>
<p>Since admissions committees do often examine the profile of an applicant’s school, I imagine that they’d keep track of that sort of information.</p>
<p>meursalt: you are overthinking this to the nth degree. The idea that they would compare you with an acceptee from nine years ago – are you crazy? Think about what that would involve. Of the 30000 applicants, they have to create a matrix where they are matched with about 25000 accepted kids from the last ten years. What if 20000 match applicant high schools. Then they start comparing as opposed * to just reading them and comparing them with one another?*? “Hey, let’s read another 20K student profiles just for fun!”</p>
<p>Think about it…</p>
<p>T26E4 is misunderstanding. The comparison would occur only with potential acceptees who come from schools from which there were very few acceptances in several years.</p>
<p>The OP asked about comparing himself or herself with a student admitted nine years ago. I outlined what that scenario would have to look like and how ridiculous that would be.</p>
<p>But if I’m mistaken, then Mersault know that he/she is being compared with everyone in his/her region – not just kids in the same HS.</p>
<p>The OP asked about comparing himself or herself with a student admitted nine years ago IF that particular student was the last person admitted to Harvard from OP’s school.</p>
<p>^ Hunh? I guess I’m not understanding you either. From what I understand, the OP knows of a Harvard student who graduated from his/her HS nine years ago and was asking if Harvard would compare his/her current application with that of the person from nine years ago.</p>
<p>My reply was patently NO – they would only compare you with students in the current admissions cycle. Certainly they would draw upon knowledge of the school, perhaps based on prior applicants --but certainly no direct comparison of current applications with prior admitees.</p>
<p>What about other applicants from your school for the same admissions cycle?</p>
<p>You will be compared to everyone from your region in this year’s pool, so that includes others from your high school.</p>
<p>That complicates things… I am an international student going to a high school in the US. Do you know which pool my application falls in?</p>
<p>^maybe into an Ocean? Pacific or Atlantic.</p>
<p>T26E4, I’m surprised that you still don’t understand. It’s a very simple matter.</p>