<p>This is such an issue with my daughter and her classmates. </p>
<p>They are all so competitive about who is applying to where and saying: "Oh no! You like UVA? I like UVA! Don't apply there!"</p>
<p>At several information sessions we've attended, the admissions counselors have come right out and said they don't have "quotas" from certain schools, but these kids refuse to believe it. </p>
<p>So, do schools limit the number of acceptances from individual high schools? I'm hoping to relieve their anxiety over this.</p>
<p>Although, and I know this sounds elitist and snobby, but I’m worried that I get accepted to a school like Carnegie Mellon which is my 6th choice and my friend’s 1st choice, and he doesn’t get accepted…or UChicago, same story.</p>
<p>I think it does count-- especially on a ED or EA application. Example if a college never had an applicant from NJ (hard to believe and they want to increase their NJ population than they would be offering more acceptances to NJ students. But on the other hand if 90% of their applicants are from Nj wouldn’t the student from Nebraska be more attractive. So maybe they don’t discrimate or have quotas for the Nebraska students but in ultra competitive, populated NJ…</p>
<p>A couple of years ago a small private school was looking to increase their appeal in a high income area-- so they offered several merit scholarships-- it worked- now the school is a household name & they don’t have to offer $$</p>
<p>Important: do not share your favorites with your peers until the process is done. Once you profess your love for a school, others start to check it out & if they are more qualified… Tell your S/D to have a standard answere ready for whoever asks where they are applying— just rattle off a few name brand schools where everyone else applys. It’s a great “nonanswer” w/ probably some truthism in it anyway.</p>
<p>They say they don’t, but it was very interesting watching kids at our school. There was one HPYS with whom our school seemed to have a relationship, they seemed to take one athlete in a particular sport and one bright kid each year, no more even in an exceptional class year.</p>
<p>I have no proof, but I think LACs and smaller universities are more likely to do this. I don’t think U Michigan cares how many people from a given OOS high school it admits. I don’t think a college like Swarthmore or Pomona is going to take more than 5 kids a year from the same high school–no matter how good that high school is.</p>
<p>I also think it hurts if someone with a similar profile from the same high school is applying, especially to a smaller school. So, if the star football player and an excellent actor apply from the same high school class, I don’t think they’ll hurt each other. If two kids with similar gpa and test scores who were co-editors of the newspaper and both did model UN apply from the same high school class, I think many colleges will only take one of them.</p>
<p>The answer is not a simple yes or no. It can make a difference in certain scenarios. As one of the posters wrote, geographic diversity is something some schools seek. In such situation, it isn’t just the high school that can matter but the state itself. But then, the school may not care if the ones they do accept from the state come from a cluster of high schools rather than dispersed evenly throughout the state. Or, they may keep an eye on those numbers to make sure that certain parts of the state are represented. It all depends on the school.</p>
<p>In the 10 years that I have been involved with college apps, I did not see any quota systems blatantly in place. I heard a lot of rumors, but over a period of time, they just did not play out. There was a year that 10 kids were accepted from Harvard from our small high school. Then there were years when there were just a few, and those who were not accepted felt that the number of kids applying from that high school affected the outcome. </p>
<p>However, in certain cases, I could see where it could be an issue. Think of a small college and a large high school with lots of talented, academically strong students who have a penchant for that college. Say one year, nearly all of the kids decided to apply there. I certainly think that accepting every single kid that would have been accepted had they come from a different area or school would be a problem. In extreme cases like that, it could make a difference. But for the most part, it does not from what I could see.</p>
<p>I’m sure that there is no quota, and I’m equally sure that, one way or another, students at a single school are compared to each other as well as to other applicants. To some extent it’s unavoidable, even necessary – the admissions staff has to understand what a high school’s grades, honors, recommendations really mean, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to compare multiple applications from that school. And if a college only wants the “best” from each school, it’s unlikely that more than one or two students could credibly appear to be “best”.</p>
<p>I also think that there are informal, flexible bands: If a college has never accepted a student from X School, it’s unlikely to accept more than one, maybe two, even in an extraordinary class. If the college usually accepts 10, chances are it won’t stop with one.</p>
<p>In my experience, kids don’t love head-to-head competition among friends. At my kids’ school, there was a lot of discussion among academically ambitious students to ensure that no more than 4-5 applied to any college (with one justified large exception) at the ED/SCEA stage. No one told them to do that – people told them not to do it – but they did it anyway. I don’t think it hurt anyone.</p>
<p>What I have seen from selective college admission “peeks” is that they do not clump the apps of all the kids from a particular high school together as they review them. They are grabbed from the stack and assessed individually. Because of that, at the end of the process, admissions committees often will look at the applicants from a specific school to make sure the kids were not treated outrageously unfairly. It usually is not enough that someone of “lesser” qualification from your school was accepted to get you accepted. It may change a reject to a waitlist, but rarely to an accept, from what I understand.</p>
<p>I know that one year at a local school, the valedictorian who was one of those truly superb students was not accepted at Harvard but a student no where near her in profile was accepted because of a strong “hook”. It was not a quota thing at that school, as in prior years several kids have been accepted to Harvard.</p>
<p>I had heard about a selective college’s adcom where they were doing a final review of the students they had in their accept pile. Something compelling had put each of those kids into that pile, and yet, when doing their final review if they found a student from a particular high school who was ranked (or who had stats) lower than one in their reject or waitlist pile, they <em>corrected</em> that lower statted student out of the accept pile. !!! I found this pretty horrible, but the rationale was that the university wanted to make their decisions palatable to the sending high schools. By accepting a lower ranked student, the GCs at that high school would undoubtedly be calling and complaining on behalf of the higher GPA’d students who were not accepted. </p>
<p>Likewise, some high schools refuse to rank their students to avoid sending a signal that helps adcoms reject their kids. A student may have an UW GPA of 3.8 (which looks very good), but if they are ranked 74 out of 155… not so good. However, if that student were unranked by their HS, and they were the ONLY student to apply to a certain college, their 3.8 would look just great. If 20 other students from their class applied, and 14 of them had higher than 3.8… Not looking as good.</p>
<p>If any of these calculations and comparisons are indeed practiced at some schools, I suppose it can make a difference. If too many of a HS’s students go head-to-head at the same college, it may be a <em>ding</em>. (Is that the opposite of a tip?)</p>
<p>Does it matter much if a HS has a track record of sending kids to a college? Naviance data from S’s HS shows no or few applicants and no acceptances for a few colleges on S’s may-apply-to list.</p>
<p>Is that bad? It concerns me that colleges won’t realize the grade deflation that takes place at his HS compared to what I’m seeing elsewhere, when comparing UW GPAs and class ranks.</p>
<p>Our high school sends one kid to the top Ivy schools, each year, pretty much like clockwork. Naturally, it’s not a strict quota, but it usually plays out that way. </p>
<p>As for other top schools, there is a definite pattern - probably best described as a flex-quota system i.e. it varies but not widely. Naturally, if your school participates with Naviance you can see past year applicants and admits for yourself.</p>
<p>A talented kid from a challenging high school who isn’t at the top of his/her class won’t pull down the class rank averages for the admitting college, if the high school doesn’t report rank. So from the profile the college knows an approximate rank, but doesn’t have to report it on the Common Data Set or elsewhere.</p>
<p>My sons’ high school doesn’t rank to keep the competitive insanity at a slightly lower level, but I think the non-ranking is a plus in this regard too since it has so many highly qualified kids. They can’t all be in the top 5%.</p>
<p>Wow…I’m amazed by the difference between that profile, and the one for our high school, where a 3.0 is the median weighted grade. In the school above, a 3.0 would put you at the bottom 25% of the class!</p>
<p>I think it’s wise to advise ALL the kids that this is a fluid process. What seems like a dream school in August may drop down the list by October. Time flies and not all the applications get finished. It would be really, really dumb to think “I can’t apply to Perfect U because Suzy and Betsy are going to” only to find out that Suzy and Betsy change their minds in a week or two. That’s like two top runners NOT running their best so they don’t hurt anyone’s feelings (do that and a kid from another school goes home with the trophy for sure). </p>
<p>The other thing to communicate is that the schools are looking to build classes and programs. So this year they may not be looking for flute players but are desperate for debate team members. Two people from the same HS are NOT interchangeable parts. They each will bring something different to the table. Everyone interested should apply and the flute player that doesn’t get in needs to know that Perfect U wasn’t looking for flute players (and not think that the debate team captain “stole” her place). Educate and thereby eliminate these stupid conversations!</p>
and they want to increase their NJ population than they would be offering more acceptances to NJ students. But on the other hand if 90% of their applicants are from Nj wouldn’t the student from Nebraska be more attractive. So maybe they don’t discrimate or have quotas for the Nebraska students but in ultra competitive, populated NJ…</p>