<p>^ Colleges certainly don't have quotas. It is all based on the applicants and the quality of their applications.
Honestly, colleges can admit 100 people from one school one year, and 0 the next. There are no "quotas"</p>
<p>^They're getting tighter on how many and whom they accept from schools now. As an example (I don't remember the exact numbers on this one), Andover had 25 kids headed to Harvard (or maybe Yale...) last year and they only accepted 10 this year. While they didn't consciously go, "Yeah...we'll only accept 10," Harvard still made an active effort to reduce enrollment from one of the top prep schools. It's part of their effort to expand recruiting to low-income and minority students. They want a variety of kids now, not the cookie-cutter prep school kids of the last century. They can admit 100 students from one school, but they won't.</p>
<p>However, I wouldn't worry about that in a competitive versus less competitive high school debate. It's too intangible to set in stone. Work hard and your app will stand out; don't, and it won't, regardless of your schoolmates competitiveness or lack thereof.</p>
<p>"^ Colleges certainly don't have quotas. It is all based on the applicants and the quality of their applications.
Honestly, colleges can admit 100 people from one school one year, and 0 the next. There are no "quotas""</p>
<p>I'm sorry, this isn't true from personal experience. A certain university accepted all the students they would from our school early, thinking that all the best applicants applied early. There were some calls made, etc., and it was pretty clear that there were at least some limits as to how many students they would accept. But this hardly standard. I would just say that some colleges, especially the selective ones, probably have a general number of students they are willing to accept.</p>
<p>Some colleges do take your high school into consideration. How much or if they do at all varies from college to college. You will notice that certain high schools tend to have a lot of kids going to specific types of school. It is not just coincidence. Small private prep schools tend to send kids to LACs, and many of those colleges will know the counselors, courses and difficulty of these "feeder" schools well. </p>
<p>As to what kind of high school serves a given student well for entrance to college, depends on the student and the college. It is a moving target. You see, you don't know how a student will perform in high school at the onset of those years. You have to guess. If a student does strikingly well at a well regarded, rigorous private school that tends to have a lot of kids going to Highly selective colleges, he has upped his chances of entry, in my opinion. However, if the grades are less than sterling, which often happens because these schools are rigorous, the competition is stiff, and the grading curve steep, it can be to a kid's disadvantage over a public or less difficult school. You don't know till all the info is in and it's too late by then.</p>
<p>As a rule, the larger state universities tend to be very numbers driven, and it is usually NOT to your advantage to be going to a school that is tough on grades. They usually do NOT adjust the grades much, and if they do they usually do it in a formula method as they have massive numbers of apps to process and cannot sit and evaluate the many factors a smaller college might do. My kids went to a prep school of this sort, and I can tell you that when it comes to gpa driven awards, scholarships, recognition and certain colleges, it can be a disadvantage. On the other hand, I have seen kids from my kids' school get into some private colleges with gpas that would not have done the job most places. So it truly depends.</p>
<p>I hope not....</p>