<p>Do you feel coming from certain school districts in the country can hinder or enhance your ability of getting into college?</p>
<p>Certainly coming from certain private schools makes a difference. So there's no reason not to assume that coming from certain public districts makes a difference also.</p>
<p>Absolutely. The most selective colleges pay close attention to which schools (and districts) applicants come from, both public and private. Some (generally high-income) high-achievement public schools--Scarsdale, NY, Grosse Pointe MI, New Trier, IL, and Edina, MN being four I'm familiar with---are just as reliable "feeders" to the Ivies and other top private colleges as are the top private schools. Doimg well at one of those high-performance schools can really help. On the other hand, it's not necessarily a huge disadvantage to come from a lesser-known school. It may be harder for them to evaluate your application, but if you come from a small rural school, for example, there may even be some diversity points in it.</p>
<p>Well, for a different point of view, we always felt that coming from a fairly low-performing, limited resources school district actually helped our kids, as they had to get where they were with less academic support than kids from well-known public or private schools (and the results seemed to bear that out.) In the end, the student is accepted, not the school.</p>
<p>And I think there's evidence that coming from the high performing districts can cut both ways - as you can be competing against your local peers when schools don't want to take "too many" from one area. Pluses and minuses to all of the different hs situations, I think.</p>
<p>jmmom, interesting fact based on your post-I attended a recent "road show" session for Vanderbilt, and the admissions rep said that the entering class has 14 students from Scarsdale High School in NY. The largest group from any high school. Vanderbilt is a pretty hot school, and Scarsdale is certainly known as one of the top public school districts in the country. The rep made it quite clear that they set no quotas and were looking for the best students.</p>
<p>Well, I'm not saying it's hard and fast. Just that there are reports of Admissions Officers calling GCs at some hs's asking for a "compare and contrast" of applicants, with the sense that that they are not going to take both even though both could make the cut.</p>
<p>I certainly wouldn't avoid living in a great school district for fear that it would hurt my child. Far from it; we, like many, chose where to live based on great quality public schools. And I do generally think it's a big plus that colleges know the certain districts/schools produce very well-prepared students.</p>
<p>jmmom, I absolutely agree with you that it must cut both ways, but it was interesting to hear this just this past week. I have certainly heard in the past "whispers" of quotas from high schools.</p>
<p>Our public school (approx 1200 students) is definitely favored by certain colleges. It is one of those Newsweek top high schools, and is always ranked among the top for our state (sends about 95% to college each year). The GCs have relationships with Admissions Offices. We get visits from college admissions offices every day through the Fall, usually several visits each day, and any kid can make an appointment for private interviews. The colleges that show up include some bigger-name schools - not only small local LACs. The GCs have prepared a resume for the school with all of its honors, awards won by students and teachers, etc. that it sends with transcripts, to introduce the school to schools that may not be familiar with it. The hs's students do very well on testing. One of my kids has reported that he covered some of the math and chemistry work in 1st yr college in his 8th grade math class, that was new to some other students from high schools with poorer math programs. Our HS also offers classes linked to local colleges (not community college, which is a separate program available to high school students at a discount) in addition to AP classes, so one of my kids graduated with 17college credits even though he didn't take many AP classes (he was also able to take a college-level anatomy class using medical school software). There's a giant map in the lobby that shows where the students from the preceding year went to college to motivate each graduating class, and it's amazing to see these kids scattering all over the country.</p>
<p>My D is an average student (3.5, barely top half at this high school) going into her Junior yr. The GC has already assured her that if there's a school that she really wants they'll go full-out for her to get her admitted with financial aid, due to a parent's terminal illness (they're not talking about HYP obviously, although our school typically sends a few students to Ivies each year). Our school district is in an ordinary middle-class suburban town which has always pulled together to put its schools first. The teachers and GC work really hard to get to know and help each student.</p>
<p>Going to a great high school may affect weight given to a GPA from a particular high school, but SAT scores are high-school blind. I would imagine that an admissions office would be very impressed by a student from a school with fewer offerings that still blew out the SAT or ACT. IMO, it proves impressive natural ability.</p>
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interesting fact based on your post-I attended a recent "road show" session for Vanderbilt, and the admissions rep said that the entering class has 14 students from Scarsdale High School in NY. The largest group from any high school.
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<p>of course vanderbilt has no problem enrolling a dozen kids from scarsdale; theyre ADDING geographic diversity.</p>
<p>but i doubt those same kids are as successful getting into colgate, which has all the suburban nyc kids it needs. and similarly, im sure the adcom there would have little problem taking a significant number of students from one of the top schools in tennessee, where students are likely applying to--and getting rejected by--vanderbilt in droves.</p>
<p>^ I think geographic diversity can be a bigger factor than is commonly appreciated, perhaps not so much at HYPS and the rest of the Ivies which get scads of applicants from everywhere, but certainly for the next tier of national universities (e.g., Vanderbilt) and most of the LACs, even top ones. Most New England and Mid-Atlantic LACs draw their students primarily from those two regions, secondarily from California; not so many from the Midwest, South, or Mountain West. To a greater degree than many people appreciate, they're still mainly regional schools, though they aspire to be truly national and even international. When D & I toured northeastern LACs this summer, the admissions officers noticeably perked up their ears when she introduced herself as being from Minnesota. That alone won't get he in, of course, but I think it strengthens her chances as there are likely not to be so many Midwestern kids with similar credentials applying to a lot of these schools. Upshot: to increase your chances of getting into a very good school, consider applying outside your region.</p>
<p>I think that the school district reputation is important in areas like the NY suburbs, taking in the tri-state region (NY, NJ, CT). Having lived most of my life in this area, I have heard people debate the nuances of one district over another for years. IMO, if you are looking to move to a good school district, it is important to look into the middle school curriculum (if you are still in that market for some kids.) For example, it seems that math has, of late, in better districts, begun to include algebra and geometry for middle school. So then some high schools have trig for freshmen. This changes the nature of the coursework etc. Around here, not all the "top" districts had the same offerings.</p>
<p>I think it helped D that she was only the 2nd kid from her community college who applied & was accepted at the very competititve U she's transferrring to; if she had applied from her HS, she would probably not have been accepted since so many from her HS with stellar credentials apply & are accepted that the U can afford to be very choosy.</p>
<p>I would guess that many people with a Scarsdale zip might be full pay.</p>
<p>It cuts both ways. There are "feeder" public high schools such as Thomas Jefferson, but the top schools do tend to limit the number from one high school. S at Stanford reports that the most from one high school in his class is 14. Most high schools have only one. But that is attending not accepted. On the other hand, top schools love geographic diversity. Again a Stanford example: 2 students from the same remote Alaska high school accepted this year. The graduating class was about 50.<br>
And I agree with NEMom: some schools are not need blind and will accept more students who can pay full tuition, regardless of the number from that high school.<br>
But outside the elite colleges, I do not think there are defacto quotas.</p>
<p>Finding a reliable supply of full-pay applicants is important to all colleges, especially the so-called "need-blind" ones, who have a clear financial aid budget to spend.</p>
<p>Coming from a school district located near a prestigious private college may hurt an individual's chances simply because a very large number of people from that district are likely to apply, and in the interest of geographic diversity, the college will prefer similarly qualified applicants who live farther away.</p>
<p>Kids in the DC suburbs (where I live) complain that it's inordinately hard to get into Georgetown (as compared to other universities of supposedly similar selectivity). Similarly, kids from the Chicago suburbs have complained on these boards that it's inordinately difficult for them to get into Northwestern. I assume there are similar examples in other areas as well.</p>
<p>My kids attended New Trier,IL. We were told that UI has quotas for New Trier students. Apparently it's harder to get into Northwestern too. </p>
<p>The gc told a story of how the President of Caltech loves New Trier students though.</p>
<p>I would agree that coming from a smaller, more rural area could be an advantage for some applicants. Some schools will tell kids to apply because no one from their school has ever applied to University X. Colleges know that these kids have taken the most challenging courses offered at their schools, put up wonderful scores and did as much as they could in ECs.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt has talked at our high school college night and said that our students add diversity. We are also in Westchester, but are not Scarsdale by a long shot. On the other hand, I think students at our school do better at the admissions game than Scarsdale parents realize. :)</p>