<p>It depends how you look at it. Stanford considers the available opportunities within their high school and environment when evaluating students. If a student attends an unknown HS that only offers 1 AP class, he is not expected to take as many advanced classes as a student attending Exeter. I have a relative who was admitted to Stanford without taking a single honors or AP class because she grew up in a small, rural farming community where different level classes within the same grade were not offered. If a student at Exeter took her same course schedule without advanced classes that student would have far less chance of being admitted. Similarly it’s most likely going to be easier for a student at an unknown HS to maintain a high class rank than at Exeter and most likely going to be easier to stand out among his classmates. The relative I mentioned and her 3 siblings were all valedictorians of their HS. This isn’t as impressive as it sounds, considering that hardly any students at the HS took classes seriously or planned on attending college after graduating. Instead they planned to stay in the farming community. It would undoubtedly be more difficulty to achieve a high class rank at Exeter. The non-hook students I’m aware of who were accepted with weak stats generally came from public HSs that did not have a history of Stanford admissions, rather than well known privates that get many admissions each year.</p>
<p>For example, I was accepted to Stanford several years ago from an unknown HS without hooks. I had a 3.4/3.5 HS GPA and 500 verbal SAT (800 math). One of the areas that helped me stand out was I had the initiative to take a good number of college classes at external universities beyond the level that was offered at my HS and achieved A’s in all such classes. Most of the classes I took at external universities are offered to students at Exeter (Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra,…) within the HS, so it wouldn’t be anywhere near as helpful for admissions for an Exeter student to take the same class schedule as I did. It’s a similar idea with LORs.</p>
<p>Stanford also makes a point of looking for persons with a variety of backgrounds who bring something unique to the community. This can be advantageous for persons who grew up in an environment that differs from most apps, including not attending a top private/magnet. For example, there was a recent poster on this forum who mentioned that her unhooked daughter was admitted with an 1890 SAT and haven taken only 1 AP class. She grew up in a rural community and was heavily involved in Future Farmers of America. I expect that she brought a unique voice to Stanford with her unique background.</p>
<p>That said, I’d expect that student attending the well known private HS who thrives in the challenging environment with more opportunities generally has the advantage. However, if he does not do very well, then I’d expect most would be better off from an admissions standpoint had they remained at their local HS. As I mentioned earlier, the RD thread with decisions for members of this site does not show an obvious advantage either way, like it does for various other factors (ECs, awards, URM status, …), suggesting it does not have a huge impact among forum members.</p>