<p>I'm an international student. Does the prestige of high school matter for admission to HYPS. We follow British education system (O-Level and A-Level) at our school. Our school never sent students to HYPS (due to lack of knowledge of applying) but went to many decent schools like Reed, Northeastern, McGill. Will it hurt my chances for HYPS or are they "high school blind"?</p>
<p>The individual’s strengths are most important. How else do you explain the money and manpower spent by these schools to send reps out to rural and urban centers who perhaps, have never had even a single applicant, let alone an admittee.</p>
<p>A high school that regularly sends applications may benefit in the fact that the file readers can quickly ascertain the relative strengths of the student given they know the context of the school. But again, this only aides a great applicant – it weeds out a mediocre one quickly.</p>