<p>Meaning if another student from my same high school applies to the same college as I do, will the same official read my essay and compare us directly?</p>
<p>Depends on the college. Usually the admissions people have a geographic region for which they are responsible, so they will be the first reader for all applications for their territory. So yes, one person will likely read all the applications from your school.</p>
<p>Not likely. You are not compared to those from your school. The process will be random, so even if an officer did go through the same school’s application, they wouldn’t bunch them together.</p>
<p>Of MIT im sure that they regard your application overall… not with applicants from your own school.</p>
<p>Alright, but they definitely won’t read them in order of school? I ask because I’m worried I’ll be compared unfavorably to someone from my school if my application is read right after hers.</p>
<p>Post number 3 is incorrect. Colleges absolutely compare you to those from your high school. Private colleges keep data from past applicants and compare students to them too. Your first line of competition are your high school classmates. There is one regional rep for most high schools who is your first reader. Absolutely nothing random about it.</p>
<p>That said, don’t worry, even Harvard takes several from many high schools.</p>
<p>But I thought that they read apps in order of submission</p>
<p>No…</p>
<p>oh, I also thought it was order of submission…</p>
<p>well, could it be in order within your geographic area???</p>
<p>They wont compare you to a particular student in your school, but they will read your application in the context of your school. Your counselor will send along the school report. It will include how many APs and Honors, info about the student body, etc. </p>
<p>So, even though you are not as strong as your classmate, if you are still strong within your school, you will be fine.</p>
<p>At our high school, which is a very competitive private, it’s well understood that who else is applying from your school that year matters greatly at highly selective colleges.</p>
<p>If you have a couple of legacies with good stats and a recruited athlete, it will be tough to get the nod at Yale. They will only take so many (even though the number is not small) and if three of those slots are pretty much spoken for…</p>
<p>In A is for Admission, Hernandez goes into great detail. She speaks of colleges having formulas to figure out ranks for students at competitive high schools that don’t rank. She speaks of them comparing current applicants to stats they’ve culled from past applicanta from high schools.</p>
<p>In Gatekeeper Steinberg goes into detail about regional reps going to bat for candidates they love. Constantly comparing them to myriad applicants from schools like harvard Westlake that send them tons of applicants.</p>
<p>If we’re to be honest, this is a very sophisticated game that is endlessly about comparisons, with few random occurrences!</p>