<p>So this happens every year at my school. A large group of top students decide that they all want to apply ED to the same school. Last year it was U.Penn (I think only 1 out of maybe 8 got in) and this year it is Dartmouth. Our school has sent someone to every ivy league in the last four years, except for Dartmouth. We didn't have someone get in for years, until last year's valedictorian (now at Harvard.) </p>
<p>I know some colleges have good relationships with certain high schools, but for some reason, it seems like nobody gets into Dartmouth from our school. And this year, we have three kids applying ED.</p>
<p>So I guess this goes in two parts. 1) Could Dartmouth just not like kids from our area or have there really been no qualified applicants? 2) Could the fact that I have competition in the ED pool hurt me?</p>
<p>I'm not qualified to answer the first question but I'll take a stab at the second as DS went through this at Dartmouth last year.</p>
<p>It is highly likely that Dartmouth will have more applicants than ever this year given the large graduating class and their new financial aid policy. They and other top colleges limit the number of kids they accept from any one high school so your greatest competition is initially your own classmates. </p>
<p>At my son's school 6 applied ED last year. One was being recruited by a sports team and another was a legacy. All were great, qualified students. The college counselor was able to show my son that historically from their school Dartmouth would probably take no more than 3 in the ED round. </p>
<p>That's exactly what happened. DS, the athlete and the legacy got in and the others were deferred. Several more students applied RD and while none were initially accepted, 1 got off the wait list over the summer.</p>
<p>This isn't really an answer to the OP's question, but just a related anecdote. We have good friends with a D in a large high school. The guidance counselor there is communicating to students that no one from the school applied to Princeton last year, so this year they would have a better shot.</p>
<p>I was a little dismayed to hear of a GC setting students up like, I must admit. She also described it as a match school for a certain student. Could be the student's stats are right in there with other accepted applicants... but match?... at Princeton? I worry that it sends the wrong message.</p>
<h1>1) Part of the problem is it is difficult to judge if there is a problem with your school, or if it is something about the applicants, or just bad luck (realistically you are dealing with small sample sizes from each HS school but going into a very very large applicant pool, so odds are just bad and a given school can have no admits for several year. D's HS had not had anyone at Princeton for a few years, we heard the same thing. Then this year 4 from a class of about 50 were taken and no one got into Yale, which had been a regular outlet.</h1>
<h1>2) Hard to know here, we have heard from some GC's that a school will not take large numbers from a given school, so depending on quality of the ED's from your HS it may or may not matter. But, I do not know this for sure.</h1>
<p>Hope this helps some. In the end, just apply if it is your first choice and you have taken a realistic look at your record relative to the college's profile.</p>