<p>Hey guys, </p>
<p>I was curious as to how students applying to the same colleges are compared(if they are) in the admission process. If they are compared, are they compared in the initial review or only if both waitlisted? What factors is taken with the most weight when compared? Class rigor? SAT/ACT? ECs?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I heard that they are not compared directly but by their extracurricular profiles within a regional pool.</p>
<p>I highly doubt applicants from the same school will be compared side-by-side. It seems really unrealistic since I don’t think admissions officers don’t have the time to compare each pair of applicants from a school. Plus, no two students are the same; each one has different strengths and weaknesses so it wouldn’t be fair to just reject someone if his/her GPA/SAT is lower than another’s when the person with the lower stats may be strong in music or dance or something.</p>
<p>If you are a potential humanities major within a class of USAMO-qualifying Intel finalists (as in, your extracurricular niche is completely different from those of your classmates’), you need not worry about direct competition from your own school.</p>
<p>Instead, you will be compared to other humanities scholars from your admissions region and your socioeconomic background (e.g. suburban upper-middle-class white male from northern California.)</p>
<p>Thanks!..I asked because for our school…there are literally 20 ppl sharing rank #1…(I explained it in a post) and many are applying to the same schools however, the average APs taken is around 5, the lowest, 3, but I am the only taking 15 so I was wondering if it would help me a bit especially since my score was a bit lower than a couple of the people with only 3APs.</p>
<p>Your regional rep becomes very familiar with all of his viable applicants. Many old timers know each school in his area well, know the schools’ standards and what an excellent applicant from that school has looked like over the years. Data is kept on each school and it’s successful applicants.</p>
<p>Colleges do compare students against others at their school and in the region. There’s only so many they want to take from one school, one region, one state. I have seen many, many great students turned away because there were better applicants, recruited athletes, legacies, connected kids in their class. The is especially true at highly selective schools and less true at state schools.</p>