<p>It seems to me that a lot of people from less competitive schools can get into Ivy Leagues easier. I mean there is much less competition. I'm assuming that what it really comes down to is the student's motivation. However, I will say that at selective high schools, they do prepare their students better for standardized tests. Or maybe that's just because those are highly motivated students. Often times, selective high schools do offer AP courses which normal zone schools do not offer.</p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>Less competitive high schools, or really, a school where the student populations average family income is low, that have lower SAT scores are judged less harshly. Like, my score was 710/700, which probably isn’t that high on this site but, it was the highest score at my school (and in the district, inner city). Admissions people know this, they see the school you come from, it’s average SAT score and student income, how you likely aren’t getting tutoring (we didn’t/don’t), and think “well, that’s a damn good score”. Where as coming from some very fancy, competitive, prep school with a bunch of high income kids, they’re probably not pleased by anything lower than 750 and 800s on the subject.</p>
<p>Yes. For example, if you only take 4 AP classes because that is all that is offered at your school, then they won’t punish you.</p>
<p>yea there is this school next to the one of the most selective schools (usually ranks somewhere from 20-50th best high school in America) in the entire city. Both of them offer the same general AP courses and extracurriculars. However, the kids in the selective school work waaaay harder than the other school. The thing is, out of an average of, say 700 students, only 60 students are accepted into Ivy Leagues per year, and an average of 30 apply because they can afford it. I have heard of students getting rejected from Ivy Leagues even with a 95 raw, uncurved GPA, decent extracurriculars and APs, and 2200+ sat scores because of the extreme competition. The other school gets about the same number of graduates to Ivy Leagues such as Harvard, UPenn, Yale, Princeton, and Cornell from their top students. Those top students stand out as they have little or no competition at all, and their SAT scores are decent, too. That school received more than 60m dollars in scholarships one year because of the low avg income.</p>
<p>If you had to choose, which school would you choose, non-selective or selective? If you had the decision to switch out of the selective high school, would you do it?</p>
<p>^You’re confusing correlation with causation.</p>
<p>@millancad, what exactly do you mean?</p>
<p>It depends. Sometimes location and reputation can help a lot. Some schools take an unusually high number of kids from “feeder” high schools. They know the school and curriculum, and know it turns out good students. But when thats not the issue, its hard to say - take advantage of the opportunities you have</p>
<p>I went to a selective high school my freshman and sophomore year. Then my junior and senior year I went to a brand new school. I favored the non-selective high school, because it opened up more opportunities for me to become closer with teachers and counselors.</p>
<p>Which helped a lot with applying for college and I’m pretty sure if I stayed at my old school I would’ve been in the Top 30% instead of the Top 10% just because it was so much more competitive.</p>
<p>On the other hand it all depends on how well you will do. My friend started slacking off because it was “easier” (we switched schools together). While I just did better because I was able to have more oneXone with teachers and took advantage of all the extra-curricular activities.</p>
<p>^ True. Freshmen year, the coach at a nearby, less competitive high school told me that I could have been playing varsity singles in tennis, whereas at my actual high school I couldn’t even make the freshmen team, thats how competitive the team was.
But then again, when you’re surrounded by overachievers you learn to push yourself harder</p>
<p>I went to a non-selective high school…I regret that even though I’m off to an elite university.</p>
<p>I would suggest you go to a selective/academic college.</p>
<p>They care but it’s not going to make or break you. You just need to take advantage of what your high school offers, whether it’s 4 AP classes or 20 (not that I’m saying to take all of them). </p>
<p>If you go to a low-achieving school know that it will be easier to stand out if you’re a top student, but you’ll probably find less motivated students and teachers willing to push you. At a top school obviously the pressure to get into Ivies and elite universities is on, so the environment will be more conducive to learning (and much more competitive as a result).</p>
<p>But in the end, I can safely say that you will NOT be rejected or accepted to a college purely based off of the school you attended.</p>
<p>I don’t know if you’re an international student, but for us colleges (even the super competitive ones) don’t put too much emphasis on what kind of school you go to, especially because most colleges take only a handful of internationals from each country. Colleges just want to see that you’ve made the best use of available resources and excelled at them. Most international students give standard board exams so there’s a more standard grading system than in the USA. There’s less emphasis on the school this way. Of course, colleges will still need information from the school to learn about what kind of person you are, how you contribute to an environment and basically to back up your resume and stats. I live in an Asian country and for the last 10 years or so, there haven’t been any ‘feeder schools’.</p>
My advice is to switch schools to a less competitive one if possible. My son is a senior and has attended Boston Latin school. which is one of the toughest in the state. His course workload is very much like a freshman or sophomore in college and with four AP courses, he does very well with a 4.35 this year… He has a 3.7 overall which apparently to college admissions these days is shabby. He is getting a lot of rejection letters from colleges which I find bizarre. Had he gone to another Boston public school he would have likely had a 4.5 and been valedictorian and attending Ivy League next year. Don’t be fooled like we were! He will certainly excel in college and regardless of university, it will likely come easily to him since he is very used to the workload which is great! But, going to a tough high school does not help you in any way with respect to admissions unfortunately. Particularly now that everything is computerized. Sadly, just last year I would have had a much different answer for you.
This is almost 6 years old.