<p>Do colleges like to only take a few kids from each highschool? In other words, how will it affect my chances of admission to my colleges if someone else from my school applies to the same college?</p>
<p>No, you’re individually evaluated. You won’t be directly compared with people from your school, like they can only choose one. At least, I think that’s how it works.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think it affected many of the students in my grade. Many applied to the same schools. It is possible many over-applied (i.e. didn’t have the credentials to get in, which should’ve been caught by the counselors), but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the low acceptance rates had to do with intra-school competition…</p>
<p>Generally, highly selective schools like to review applicants from the same high school at the same time–this is especially true when an applicant is being reviewed in committee. </p>
<p>I can’t imagine a school will have some sort of arbitrary cap on the amount of students accepted from it, but they will generally hold each student from the same school to the same standards–which acts as a sort of de-facto cap. </p>
<p>That may sound terrible if you know the class validictorian is applying to your dream school, but in reality all highly selective colleges expect students to have taken advantage of everything their school has to offer, and use the school profile and GC recommendations to gauge that. So it really doesn’t matter. Moreover, most schools don’t care at all how many students applied from your individual HS, especially regional favorites or those with rolling admissions. </p>
<p>If I were you I’d be more worried about asking the same teachers for rec’s (especially those that simply use form letters).</p>
<p>Often asked question. Do a search on “school quotas”. Basically, you’re not competing solely against your val for instance – but frankly 500 other vals. </p>
<p>No quotas.</p>
<p>I was the weakest applicant academically from my school but I was accepted over top 10%, including the sal and the val. I’m Asian</p>
<p>Highly selective colleges will rate you against kids from your school and region.</p>
<p>I think yes. it is easy to compare GPA, leadship, awards, rc letter…</p>
<p>It would seem logical that more selective universities would group applicants from the same school together, but I’m really not sure. Just for fun, you can take a look at the acceptance rates to a top-15 university from my school for the past three years:</p>
<p>2010: 12 applied, 4 accepted
2011: 14 applied, 10 accepted
2012: 24 applied, 2 accepted</p>
<p>“It would seem logical that more selective universities would group applicants from the same school together,”</p>
<p>It’s logical that they would group applicants from the same region together. By comparing only within the varying and statistically unimportant few from within a school yields nothing significant. Like I said, if you hit the “submit” button, you’re going into a pool with hundreds of kids – not just the dude in your AP Calc class.</p>
<p>Also think of this: why would any top school have quotas to limit the no. of applicants at any school? The only reason would be that it desires to have extra slots for other schools – i.e. they feel compelled to year after year, allot a seat of two for their favorite schools, regardless of the quality of that year’s applicants. </p>
<p>But would a top school do this? If it wanted to curry favor or pave inroads or keep on the good side of HS administrators. </p>
<p>But more likely, they don’t give a flip and will admit whom they want, when they want and from where they want. Their institutional needs will far outweigh what some asst principal says about the college. Top schools aren’t beholden to anyone – certainly not to high schools. Gone are the days of “set asides”</p>
<p>Oh sure some normal “feeder” prep schools have regular admitees but it’s because of the rigor of program more than anything else.</p>
<p>No quotas.</p>
<p>And look again at cowboycliche’s sample numbers. Look at 2011. The individual applicants will trump it all.</p>
<p>Northwestern explicitly states that they don’t (compare students against others from the same hs with any sort of quota in mind, that is).</p>
<p>You guys are all so impressed w your hs that you are forgetting that no elite school gives a flip about ensuring they always have at least one, or no more than 3, or whatever, from your hs.</p>
<p>Most schools don’t. They take the apps as they come and at the end look at them all in terms of being from the same schools to make sure that they are aware of any situation that has the potential of being a problem. Since apps are usually done regionally, the same adcom would most likely be doing all of the appraisals of your applications.</p>
<p>It doesn’t much matter to a college whether a kid is from ABC Public High or DEF, a few miles away, or from St A’s Prep or St B’s, again in the same area. And kids don’t tend to know what is going on in their area high schools, just their own.</p>
<p>In very small colleges, it can pose an issue if too many qualified kids from the same high school apply. At it most extreme, there could be issues where a class can be inumdated. But cases like that are extremely rare. </p>
<p>Bear in mind that your regional rep is looking at kids all within what the college considers the same area. I have seen a dozen kids from the same school accepted in certain years to a small college. I don’t think it makes any difference the vast majority of times.</p>
<p>Exactly. A top school could admit 10 kids from your HS this year and zero for the next fifteen years. They don’t care. If the applicants don’t have it, then they’re left out. Your HS means nothing to the college.</p>
<p>Top schools do care and will limit admits from any school, not with a firm quota, but they do pay attention.</p>
<p>If a college is going to admit a class of 1500 freshmen, and so is extending acceptance to about 2500 applicants, it won’t matter to the college whether it accepts 1,2, or 6 applicants…or none… from a single high school, if all those applicants offer the promise of making the campus an interesting and vibrant place. Once applications pass an initial skim for basic appropriateness as to curriculum, gpa , test scores etc…the adcoms are more interested in what you bring to the campus. What do your LORs say about you? What do your essays say about you?</p>
<p>Don’t worry about others…just focus on putting the best and most interesting you forward.</p>
<p>What I think people are missing here is that at many high schools, everyone wants the same 10 colleges. At the high school I worked at, tiny shools like Amherst and Williams routinely received 40 plus applications from us. All of the applicants were qualified. They accepted several of them, but clearly applied a cap. They simply didn’t want 25 kids from one high school.</p>
<p>Ok, so to better clarify my question, I goto a smaller(270 people) private highschool, who doesnt release rank. This being said, other students from my school applying to the same college will have no effect upon me? Assuming less than 30 people are applying to the same school? Im talking about selective colleges IE Rice, Cornell, Northwestern, not state schools.</p>
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<p>That “many” is low in the absolute. How many of the country’s 30,000 hs do you think have ANY app to a top 10 LAC? </p>
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<p>Being qualfied doesn’t mean admission.</p>
<p>Low in the absolute, but they ate very significant at the top colleges.</p>
<p>OP, at a small private school, others applying from your school will absolutely impact you at top private colleges. They will take the kids at the top (they know where you rank) and legacies.</p>
<p>I think some exclusive feeder schools and some highly rated HS (like TJ) do have this problem. UVA could fill a good portion of each class with TJ grads but must balance the class across the state. The same with private Us wanting to balance incoming freshmen classes.</p>