<p>Just curious, but does Brown compare students from the same school?</p>
<p>No. Schools tend not to do this.</p>
<p>Yes, schools do this. Well, Brown does, I can’t speak to other schools.</p>
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<p>Completely wrong.</p>
<p>I think I am the only one applying from my school. I am in Florida, and it seems that even the other ambitious students are applying to southern schools; most commonly Duke, Emory,Vanderbilt, or, if an Ivy League School, not Brown.</p>
<p>So if there are 8 other competitive applicants from the same school… that’s a bad thing?</p>
<p>It can be. Depends on the school.</p>
<p>achungnn: Look at it this way – Brown accepts less than 10 % of its applicants. That means that out of every 10 students, only one gets in. So what are the chances that more than 1 student out of 8 gets in from your high school? Even one acceptance is beating the odds. </p>
<p>There are some schools where more than one applicant will be accepted – those tend to be prep schools and certain magnet high schools (Stuyvesant in NYC) and some high-profile publics. And there are many schools where not one applicants gets in. </p>
<p>Just to be clear: There isn’t a quota system, where Brown has a rule that only one kid per high school gets in, or that after they accept one kid they automatically deny the rest.</p>
<p>It’s the individual and his/her strengths. One year you may have few applicants but more admittees. Another year, more applicants and maybe only a single or no admit. It’s serendipity and depends on what the larger applicant pool is bringing in any particular year. Each applicant stands on their own two feet against the applicant pool. What is that pool though? </p>
<p>Maybe you’re that outstanding scholar who’s also a great tuba player? Maybe your classmate is that strong math girl who’s played tennis and piano for 15 years? And the math/tennis/piano girl has strong GPA and ranking than you.</p>
<p>But this year, only two strong tuba applicants apply and 100 math/piano/tennis kids apply. Guess who is more likely to get accepted? You see, you’ll be compared with other kids like you – if they happen to be from your school, then so be it. But you’re being compared with like kids in the entire pool.</p>
<p>The use of school quotas is hogwash – and the schools themselves consistently declare as much. It’s of no value to them to turn down great students to curry favor with local high schools. They spend beaucoup cash marketing and recruiting. It’d be utter foolishness to randomly limit admits from any single school just so they can “spread the wealth”. There’s nothing to be gained. They aren’t beholden to high schools’ sense of entitlement. Think about it.</p>
<p>And let’s push the good old Devil’s Advocate: some schools, such as my high school, had connections with top-tier colleges. While that did not mean that students from my school were guaranteed spots, it meant that it was likely that some number of students <em>would</em> get in each year. Those spots often went to legacies (who were, most of the time, quite talented), well-connected applicants, minorities, or recruits. Students who did not fit into those categories were at a disadvantage. This situation is not uncommon.</p>
<p>Sure, colleges don’t try to “spread the wealth,” but they’re not going to load up on school X either. Especially since, FWIW, the whole thing is relatively arbitrary. A Harvard admissions officer once told me that they could replace their class with the next 1600 top applicants, and the two groups would look virtually identical.</p>
<p>Eh, I would contend they do load up on school X. Check out the forbes top 20 prep schools—I added up the number they have sent to Harvard in the last year, and it was more than 7 percent of the entire class for just .118% of the country’s high-schools.</p>
<p>They do, but they usually don’t limit by school. Like if 8 of the 10 applicants are the top 8 in your school and the other 2 are at the very bottom of the top 10% of a 500 kid class, that will not be looked favorable upon. However, if they’re all the top 10 of that 500 kid class, it’s not like having 10 kids from the same school will necessarily be detrimental. The only way I think it could hurt is if you come from an area where a LOT of kids are applying to Brown because the school likes to be geographically diverse.</p>
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<p>But also take into account the vast majority of kids at those schools. I saw it happen when I was in high school. A lot of those kids getting into top schools are brilliant to begin with. These top schools give kids the resources to shine (the best athletic and art facilities; opportunities to enter math/science competitions). Then there are a few top-school legacy kids. I’m not saying all legacy kids are rich prep school kids, but odds are if their parents attended a top school, then they place an emphasis on education, and decide to invest their $$$ in top prep/boarding schools. Then you have athletes who are not only top athletes, but also attend a good high school and have proved that they can not only perform athletically, but academically as well. Then there are top minority students and a small number of development students. Because of this, there are usually larger number of students accepted/matriculating at top schools.</p>
<p>Btw, I’m not trying to say that prep schools > public schools. Just wanted to point out why there may be so many people attending ivies from certain high schools.</p>
<p>Exactly. I went to one of those Forbes top 20, and not only did we have to take a test to get in, but there were some amazingly talented/wealthy/well-connected students. In fact, most students at my school would have had a significant hook in the application process OTHER than my school’s name. For example, one of my friends’ parents were big-shot politicians with several multi-million dollar houses, another friend’s parent was the president of an Ivy, someone else was winning international athletic awards, etc. And then you have your fair share of kids who are really good at something (math, soccer, music). I wasn’t really surprised when I heard that so-and-so won X or someone else’s dad was Y because after all those years, you just came to expect it.</p>
<p>Lapras/thefunnything: </p>
<p>And that’s the problem, inherently. Public school kids don’t have the same opportunities as these prep school kids—brilliant as they may be, public school kids can’t shine on the same level as Phillips Andover grads with loaded/famous parents. </p>
<p>Another issue is the selectivity of the prep schools; there is a lot of wasted talent. Some students may have been successful at the prep school, and would have gone on to become ivy-material, but don’t have the connections nor the money to attend. </p>
<p>Lapras stated that parents from Ivies place an emphasis on education. True, but kids without Ivy parents can’t avoid the fact that their parents didn’t place an emphasis on learning—or as great an emphasis—early on. </p>
<p>Ivies are admitting disproportionate numbers from these schools, which makes it ridiculously difficult for your average white public school student, talented as he/she may be.</p>
<p>I agree with what fireandrain stated. They compare applicants from the same school but I am pretty sure that schools do not generally establish a fixed quota of students per high school</p>
<p>jjjjoseph: I completely agree with you. My college counselor (who liked to discourage unconnected applicants from applying to Ivies because she was sure we would not get in) flat out told me, “Your chances would be even lower had you gone to [my local public high school].” I have a friend at Brown who went there, and she said that only a handful (maybe 4 or 5 out of at least 50 who applied) of applicants got into Brown. Most of them had connections.</p>
<p>That’s not to say it’s impossible to get in from public school. Many of my close friends are unhooked applicants who came from random public schools across the US.</p>
<p>But I would also like to say that prep schools are NOT the golden ticket. A third of my graduating class went to an Ivy, but a large number of them had some sort of connection (significantthink multiple generationslegacy, famous parents, trustee/powerful administrator parents, or something of the like). There were also a few recruits here and there. In some ways, it’s just as hard to be a white, middle class, unconnected applicant at a prep school because most of your classmates (to whom you will be compared) have hooks that the adcom cannot ignore.</p>
<p>Now wait a minute.</p>
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<p>You are making a 100% totally incorrect assumption here. You cannot, under any circumstances, assume that a parent who sends their kid to a private school values education more than a parent who sends their kid to a public school. Your statement is false. And in fact, it is really insulting to me and millions of parents. I place an extremely high value on education and my daughter went to public schools.</p>
<p>And I see no reason why a public school student can’t be as smart, amazing, talented, brilliant and accomplished as a student who goes to a private school. In fact, one of the most brilliant and accomplished students I know went to the most rinky-dink tiny rural schools in the country – although my definition of accomplished and yours are probably vastly different. </p>
<p>The most recent figures I could find is for the class of 2011 – 31 percent came from private schools. Brown accepts plenty of students from public schools. And plenty of legacy applicants went to public schools. In fact, I’m a Brown alum, many of my friends from Brown have kids there now, and I can only think of two of them whose kids went to privates.</p>
<p>I think you’ve gotten a fairly comprehensive answer to your question so far, but I thought I’d add what Brown tells you in its undergrad info sessions:</p>
<p>Most schools read applications twice before going to “committee,” where one admissions officer basically summarizes an application for his/her colleagues. Based on the recommendation of that admissions officer or a final review of the student, an admission decision is made.</p>
<p>Most schools- like Penn, for example, whose quality is fairly comparable to Brown- have regional admissions officers. That means that the very first person to review your application will also likely be reviewing the application of not only every other applicant from your school, but every other applicant from your county and the ones surrounding it (or your state, if you’re from the Midwest). The second person to read your application is usually reading it out of its geographic context. In this type of admissions process, I’d say that you will almost definitely- if inadvertantly- be compared to other applicants from your high school.</p>
<p>In the case of Brown admissions, however, the process is reversed; the first person to read your application is the one who is reading geographically-random files. The second will read your application and others from your region. The advantage is that if you are a Caucasian female from, say, an overpopulated Northeastern state whose stats would stand out almost anywhere else in the nation, you will likely get a positive review from the first admissions officer which may- or may not- in turn, affect the recommendation of the regional officer. Or, in your case, you may get a positive review from the first admissions officer because that person has not read your file and your high school valedictorian’s file back-to-back. Make sense?</p>
<p>Brown is perhaps the only school whose admissions process is as “hollistic” as they all claim to be. It is a wonderful school and I wish you the best of luck in applying. I hope that this response provides a little more insight.</p>