i come from a very small, public school in a rural area that has sent around 5 kids to prestigious schools in its history. i think (id have to double check) that if i attended harvard, i’d be the first in school history. would this help my admissions at all? is it worth noting on an application?
No. There are 37,000 US high schools and ~2000 acceptances each year. For many, they are the first from their HS to attend Harvard.
Not only is it not worth mentioning, if you did mention it, I imagine it would be viewed as putting the cart before the horse.
I do think that schools like Harvard do some prospecting in schools that don’t usually send students on to top colleges.