<p>Hello there, I talked to my counselor recently and was told this. Each year, however, it seems like there are definitely qualified kids. Our school was built around 2004, is this just simple chance? As far as I know, to add any extra info, for the last 3 years the top 10 has all been non-URMs with no legacies either. Could this be the reason or is it a problem with the school itself? </p>
<p>Maybe the students/parents just aren’t interested in those schools or don’t think they can afford them.</p>
<p>@Wordworker Well three people applied to MIT, Yale, and Stanford last year and they all got rejected. I assume this number could be even more since this year it seems everyone in the top 2% is applying to an Ivy. I’m guessing the years before this had the same mentality as well.</p>
<p>You’d have to look at the competitiveness of the state, your school within that state, etc. And the newness of your school isn’t going to help.</p>
<p>That said, adcoms primarily judge students, not schools. So do your best and take your shots.</p>
<p>@prezbucky I’m in AZ, so there’s a few schools that are pretty competitive (BASIS schools, a couple magnet schools, and two well known prep schools) but that’s really it. My AP Lang teacher last year told us that we shouldn’t try for any good schools like that since our school isn’t “competitive” though. I’m just a little worried that our school might be that “low” that adcoms will overlook any individual from here. </p>
<p>colleges always look at the opportunities the high school has to offer, and how you utilize those opportunity. Our school si one of the top in the nation, and we have a lot of our students got o Ivy League, however, many great students have been rejected as well. Sometimes its just the way it works. My high school offers over 20 AP Classes, but I plan on just taking 12 of them. If your high school does not offer many classes that will challenge you, then try to make a name of yourself in everything else. Have a high SAT, Extra Curricular, Volunteering, have a job maybe, internship?, and maybe some leadership role in community. Your environment should not be what defines you… You are who defines you for the colleges to look at. Hope this helps. 
</p>
<p>@sarai02 That’s the thing, my school offers over 20 AP classes as well, I’ll have 14 AP classes done by the end of senior year. I’d say we are given fair opportunities (except internships since it’s in a fairly isolated town) which is why it just doesn’t add up to me. </p>
<p>I don’t think there’s a problem with your HS. A school that offers over 20 APs is definitely better than most. With applicants to selective colleges facing single digit acceptance rates, the reality is there will be A LOT more rejections than acceptances, but it’s inevitable that some top acceptances will eventually come. Good luck.</p>
<p>@sherpa Thanks, I really REALLY hope I’m part of the first class to send someone to a top 10…</p>
<p>Best of luck to you @wilguen. Even if you or your mates don’t get into one of these schools, your AP Lit teacher’s advice is still 100% WRONG. Top colleges want great students and won’t purposefully penalize kids for what zip code they live in or what HS they attend. If the applicant is strong and desirable, those things don’t matter.</p>
<p>If this is asking about yoruself, and if you look at your GPA/scores and you really are up there with the scores then go ahead and apply.</p>
<p>Looking at your HS as a whole, and not you in particular, and given that your HS is fairly new (built 2004), I can think of a few things that may be coming into play:</p>
<ol>
<li>You offer a lot of APs, but what are the average scores? There are schools that pump out a lot of AP classes, but unless the average AP score is 3 or above, they may be of limited worth. Also, which APs? - some are worth more than others.</li>
<li>Grade inflation - lots of 4.0 kids find out their 4.0 isn’t worth much when their ACT/SAT score is fairly weak. I’d be curious what your school’s average test scores are.</li>
<li>The numbers game - how many are applying? If only a few are applying to the top schools, you may simply not be having enough kids apply to generate acceptances.</li>
<li>Not knowing the system or helping kids get through it. This I think is often the key. In our area, the newer high schools, even in the higher income areas, simply don’t make it a priority to help the kids get through the system. The four HS that dominate admission to the elite level schools (two public, two private) have dedicated college counselors that do nothing but help kids get into college at any level. They are not GCs and they are invaluable - they have personal relationships with the colleges admissions offices and can guide kids through the maze of classes, ECs, and especially essays require to gain admission. They aren’t afraid to tell helicopter parents what will and won’t work for their kid. Simply put, they are the most valuable people in the schools, and parents know it.</li>
</ol>
<p>The schools without these specialists simply fail to provide the necessary assistance to get even 36 ACT students into the Top 10 - I’ve seen it happen. Same kid at our HS with a great college counselor, he would have made it because he would have been primed to do it from sophomore year on. Instead, he was floundering all senior year with no clue what to do and no way of undoing the damage done by not really challenging himself in any way or getting great ECs that would get him in the Top 10. Yes, he got in a great school and a great program for him, but that pile of rejection letters hurt. It takes more than just academics - academics is just the start, then you need to wrap the rest of it around that.</p>
<p>First of all, well over 90% of applicants get rejected from Stanford, Yale, and MIT. I doubt it is anything against your school in particular. All you can do is apply and see what happens. </p>
<p>I think you have to simply incorporate the track record of your school into your overall strategy. There are some top schools/Ivies that seem to always take kids from our high school, and some that simply never take any kids - but seem to like kids from other area high schools. There definitely seem to be relationships that get established between certain colleges and high schools. It doesn’t mean that at some point someone from your school might not get accepted, but it might not make sense to invest considerable time, effort and money into applying to a number of schools in that tier. </p>
<p>Lots of good advice. It could be nobody has come along who had knocked the socks off an adcom yet. As noted above, lots of kids get rejected at the top schools. </p>
<p>Be realistic about your chances, but give it shot. </p>
<p>I was the first from my school to go to a top school back in the Dark Ages. The high school was fairly new, large by my community’s standards, and most kids went to the local Us. But after me there was a steady stream of applicants to selective colleges getting accepted.</p>
<p>@MrMom62 I honestly agree with every one of those points. Although the averages are general good, a lot of the top kids here have gotten mostly 3s and everyone who i listed that’s applying to these schools has exactly a 30 or 29 on the act. There are around 8-10 kids applying to these schools this year. The last point really hits home, as the counselors urge us to apply to state schools (this is the most depressing part about it all). That said, I only know these stats for my current year, so Im not sure how true it is for previous years. </p>
<p>Hopefully my URM status will give me somewhat of a leg up from most years, as I know this year, last year, and the year before had literally all whites and Asians in the top 2%.</p>
<p>Well there’s your problem - 29 or 30 isn’t going to get you in the Top 10 unless you’re an athlete. It might get you in if you’re a URM, but probably not even then. The counselors are recommending state schools because of price and they probably don’t know how to work the money angle. And I’m sure it’s what the parents really want, so that’s the direction they go.</p>
<p>Honestly, I’d look at the 10th to 25th ranked LACs and somewhere around #25 on the nationals if you want you want to be realistic. Toss a couple of apps at the higher ranked schools if you want, but it’s probably not happening.</p>
<p>@MrMom62 Oh I wasn’t the one who got a 29/30. I got a 33 on mine and I’m retaking it in Oct (Expecting a 35 since after 11 practice tests my average was 34.75). </p>
<p>I agree with @MrMom62 about GCs. As a default strategy for GCs who don’t want to offend any parents, “recommend the most compatible state school” is pretty good. </p>
<p>Getting more sophisticated about recommendations requires also being willing to get into tougher conversations and play some parent-relations politics. </p>
<p>MrMom’s suggestion to look at the high-but-not-top-ranked schools is sound advice. Even for a highly competitive Ivy applicant I’d still suggest including a couple of schools in that range because the top of the list has become so selective. They’ve really gone beyond “Reach” schools into “Go-Go Gadget Arms!” </p>
<p>We talk a lot about safety schools here, but I also think it’s important to fill in the spectrum between your most aspirational school and your safeties. There’s a difference between Reasonably Aspirational and Ludicrously Aspirational. </p>
<p>When I did my applications back in the day, I ended up thanking myself for having the wisdom to make some Reasonably Aspirational choices, or I would have ended up at my safety school.</p>
<p><a href=“List of Top, Prestigious Awards - #841 by riffed - High School Life - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/302001-list-of-top-prestigious-awards-p57.html</a></p>
<p>How many kids from your school have a rank 7+ award?
The only kids who deserve to go to MIT, Stanford, or Caltech are kids with a perfect 4.0 unweighted GPA, a lot of AP/IB classes, a 2300+/35+ SAT/ACT score, and one or more of the following: URM, legacy, overcoming a difficulty (homeless, cancer), famous parents (President’s children), and a rank 7+ award.</p>