What is ridiculous about it? I haven’t read this entire thread yet.
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If a student isn’t one of the best students at the high school, s/he is likely to describe the school as “competitive”. By definition, most students are in that category.
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Are you familiar with the Texas auto admit system (top 10% in class are automatically admitted except for UT Austin where only top 6% are auto admits) or are you commenting on whether or not it is ridiculous?
As a non-Texan I am only moderately familiar with it. Hence I may be unaware of any aspect of it that is considered ridiculous by those with more familiarity with it.
Time to get back to the OP’s more general question.
Agree with others, “competitive” on CC is not a well-defined term. To me, a competitive HS is one that is test-in/application, has SATs well above average and very high AP pass rates, in addition to a history of a high percentage of graduates matriculating to top schools. Even within this broad definition, it is all relative. The generally regarded best private HS in our area has an avg SAT around 1300s, with less than 10% going to top10/ivys whereas a top private day school ( D’s friend in Boston) has avg SAT mid 1400s, with 25+% going to ivy/Top10 schools. So being well below top25% at that school still yields a very high chance at a top30 school. This is why if your high school has it, naviance or SCOIR data can help.
My child’s school squeaks into the top 25% of high schools ranked by US News and World Report. It offers a lot of AP classes and has a high graduation rate, yet I still would not consider it highly “competitive” because it does not send a large number of students to Top 30 colleges or an overwhelming percent to 4-year schools.
In Jeffrey Selingo’s book Who Gets In and Why, he points out that colleges are recruiting and evaluating high schools more than students. Admission officers target high schools with a proven track record of sending qualified applicants. These are “feeder” schools where admission officers may know the school counselors by name and give them calls ahead of releasing decisions.
He notes that a study showed, for one unnamed elite college, just 18% of high schools were responsible for 75% of applications and 79% of admitted students.
Those schools in the 18% are the competitive high schools. I do not consider my child’s high school competitive. Not only do I not think her counselor is on a first-name basis with admissions officers at elite schools, I am not even sure she could pick my child out of a lineup.
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@CMA22 Totally agree, and I say that as someone who just looked at where our high school falls on USNWR - according to their ranking we are in the Top 2% of high schools nationally and yet I wouldn’t have described our school as ‘highly competitive’.
Our school does offer a lot of AP courses, has high graduation rate, and the majority of students do go on to start college (2 and 4 year). However, while we have a 20-30 students getting into “Top” schools every year (especially Northwestern and Uchicago, as those are local), there are lots and lots of students going to regional instate and out of state publics. As well as plenty going to the local CC.
The only difference between your school and mine is that I know our GC can pick all of my children out of a lineup (he is truly wonderful!).
Well, another difference would be that our school sends maybe 3-5 to top 30 schools each year, rather than 20-30. That’s probably why your local high school is in the top 2%.
Well, size also matters…we have hundreds in each graduating class (approximately 550-700) each year. 20-30 or so students getting into “Top” schools (conservatively Top 50) isn’t even 10% of each class going to ‘highly selective’ schools.
Put into another perspective, truly ‘competitive’ high schools are by and large private highschools. See below -
Only 7% of students graduated from private high schools in the US but they make up 1/3 - 1/2 of highly rejective school admissions.
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Yes, a small handful of schools are disproportionately represented.
Also, a huge number of schools are disproportionately underrepresented even if one doesn’t take the selective private schools into account.
I just checked the stats on my kid’s school, graduating about 400/year. As of 2019, only 35% enrolled in a 4-year school within a year of graduation and only 37% earned a Bachelor’s or higher within 8 years of graduation. (I don’t have exact numbers but would estimate less than 2% go to elite colleges.) 56% earned no degree or career/tech certification at all.
And that is from a school ranked in the top 25% by USNWR. 
The truly “competitive” is not a large number — hundreds? A thousand? 5,000?
Just goes to show you it’s all relative. Our HS in MA doesn’t make a USNWR top 25% list but 90%+ go on to 4 year colleges, 80% of students pass the AP exams and about 15% go on to a top 50 school.
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Whether or not it is “ridiculous”, automatic admission based on high school class rank does create incentive for competitive behavior in high schools.
Why does this matter? Colleges will look at YOUR student relative to the school he or she attends, not in comparison to other high schools. There are thousands and thousands of high schools, and most are NOT well known schools.
As noted above, most schools send a class/school profile with the counselor recommendation. This shows the type of high school your child attends. Often it includes the range of GPAs in the senior class.
My kids went to a semirural high school that I’m quite sure isn’t on the radar screen of any college except the community college in the neighboring town. Still…students were accepted to all sorts of colleges.
I don’t think this factor is that important. What’s important is that your student takes a challenging courseload in HS AND does the very best they can to get the best grades possible.
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I didn’t say that it mattered. I asked what it meant? My kid is my kid and will do what they will where it’s best for them. I was curious what “Competitive HS” meant since that is not terminology floated around here to describe schools and seems so frequently touted here. I was also curious how Admissions people change apples and oranges into pears to make relatively equal footing for all with such drastically different grading systems. I’ve since found out more about our own public HS and was pleasantly surprised. I’m not concerned about my kid or their prospects for college. They will be just fine with plenty of opportunity to succeed.