<p>If you have one student with at a very hard private school with a B+ verses a student at a less rigorous school with A's which do you think Yale accept.. (lets suppose ECs, SAT score, APs, gener, race, soci-economic class are the same). Any opinons?</p>
<p>Hypothetical examples are always sketchy. But the answer to your question is yes, your school/contextual environment is taken into consideration.</p>
<p>Yes it counts, both for you and against you. Yale knows which high schools, both public and private, are especially rigorous. Their applicants have an edge.</p>
<p>Yale wants to recruit lower-income students and students from underrepresented areas of the country, many of which are rural areas. These people probably attend high schools that aren't as hard/college prep oriented. But there is an advantage to applying from these schools b/c it may be unusual for people from then to think Ivy League and doing so shows an initiative, an ability to take risks, etc. that is very appealing and which applying from a feeder school wouldn't show.</p>
<p>Yes, context matters, but it helps on both ends of the spectrum, not just the high end.</p>
<p>I go to a mediumish (1200 kids) school in Kansas where probably around 80-85% (and quite possibly even higher than that) of students go to one of the state universities or community colleges. Does this benefit me? I always felt like it was sort of a double-edged sword, because they would see that my courseload, while the "most rigorous" for my school, didn't exactly stack up against other applicants.</p>
<p>If 85% of your class goes on to any higher education, that's a pretty good high school. Your high school would not be considered one of the less advantaged schools that Yale specifically wants to attract students from, if that's what your asking. Don't worry about what high school you go to. You can't change it and, if you shine, it doesn't matter what high school you attend.</p>
<p>Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that we were economically disadvantaged (we're not). What I was wondering was whether or not it would benefit me to be from an underrepresented area and a school where not many people leave the state. (Also, I should have phrased the first post differently--85% of students who do go on to higher education don't leave the state).</p>
<p>It's fine though, it's obviously out of my control. Just curious.</p>
<p>Underrepresented state helps. The fact that most people go to college in-state doesn't help unless it coincides with a low percentage of people who go to college at all. Am I making sense?</p>
<p>Yeah, thanks! I was just wondering.</p>