@cptofthehouse and @Pizzagirl: With lots of respect for you both, I wonder if you read the entire thread before you posted #9 and #10? I agree with your points IN GENERAL; however, in post #5 the OP said, “I live in an obscure part of Europe and and my GC really is not savvy when it comes to admissions.” That’s the precise context that applied to my post (#8). I am VERY well aware that regional AOs know a good deal about “their” secondary schools (especially AOs from most-selective institutions). But does the foregoing quote from the OP sound to you like Yale’s European AO (a university in which the OP has expressed specific interest) would likly be aware of the nuances his colleagues for suburban Denver or Boston high schools might be? I don’t believe so . . . and that’s exactly why I commented as I did in post #8.