<p>Are applicants compared with other applicants from the same HS or other applicants from the same region? Just wondering, b/c a bunch of Harvard hopefuls from my school might be applying to UCLA/UCB as safeties, and I'll most likely get screwed over if our applications are compared because my app will pale in comparison to theirs.</p>
<p>No one knows for sure, but from my experience and what I’ve seen, its a comparison of people from your school. Nothing you can do about it but hope for the best</p>
<p>Ugh that’s what I was afraid of. I don’t stand a chance against these kids; I took the SAT yesterday and even if I reached my goal of a 2300+, that won’t hold against their 2400s. Plus their GPAs are perfect and they took far more APs than my measly 8 T_T And don’t even get me started on ECs.</p>
<p>Do you think that amazing essays might give me a chance? Because I know that their essays won’t be as good as mine since they’re applying to like 20 other schools.</p>
<p>There’s always a comparison to the people from other schools. If you come from a school where there are generally many ivy students then your chances at UCLA should be good even though you’re not the top student.</p>
<p>They compare you both to other applicants from your school and the applicant pool overall. If your school tends to have stronger applicants, UCLA will accept a higher percentage of the applicants. Don’t worry about the other students applying from your school and focus on doing your best on your essays! Last year my class had a lot of students who might be considered “weaker” stats-wise but still were accepted because they had good essays/ECs/other objective factors. Good luck!!</p>