<p>The reason I ask about this is that a parent told me that our kids' HS is considered "inner city" and that counts for "something" in the whole college admissions scheme of things. I was shocked to hear that this school is considered "inner city" because we live in a small city in the very outer reaches of a major metropolitan area. Drive a couple of more miles out, and you're in sprawling farmland with small towns scattered here and there. Granted, our school is within our city's limits, and we have the most ethnically diverse population of all of the county's schools. But never in a million years would I have considered this an "inner city school." </p>
<p>So, suppose it is classified as an inner city school. So what? How would this designation impact the college application process positively or negatively...or at all? I don't understand why this parent thought it was advantageous to have this classification.</p>
<p>its advantageous because your child took advantage of all the school had to offer, they flourished in an environment in which others would not, and they were able to conquer negative influences.</p>
<p>The term "inner city" refers to schools that face many stressors. This is reflected in your HS profile where nos. of kids graduating in 4 years, nos. of kids attending 4-yr colleges, % kids eligible for reduced/free lunches -- all these indicate how privileged/not privileged your school might be. Perhaps the high no. of rural kids' not going to college or relative poverty push your school into a lower bracket. Frankly, you should ask your GC.</p>
<p>As schools that admit holistically desire to know the context of students' achievement, these factors will be taken into account.</p>
<p>Lol... i KNOW my application got that label. Some approximate numbers:</p>
<p>nos. of kids graduating in 4 years- No idea.
nos. of kids attending 4-yr colleges ~40%
% kids eligible for reduced/free lunches - 75% (This ones a straight statistic)
5% ish Dropout Rate</p>
<p>If you don't see it as an inner city school, colleges probably won't either. In their terms inner city does not relate to location as much as the student population's demographics. </p>
<p>In the middle of NYC we have prep schools with average parent incomes in the top 1% in the Country where 30% of grads attend ivies down the street from schools where parent income is very low and 80% who go to college go to community college.</p>
<p>So, it seems like this applies to poor, rural publics, in say, the poorest county of a state, with an unemployment rate 4 points above the national average, and a school dropout rate of about 1 or 2 a week...? I don't know, my school's not very diverse, but we've definitely got some pretty bad numbers.</p>