Hi guys if any of you have an idea or response please let me know.
I go to a top private school in california, but not many kids go to dartmouth which is currently my second choice. Only one kid has actually attended there, and i personally know him and know he does exceptionally well. In highschool both my gpa and sat score were higher than his. So pretty much what I am wondering is if colleges look at this beyond the class profile that is sent to them and compare the two of us.
If thats confusing to sum it up would they look at his stats and grades at dartmouth and compare them to mine?
Thanks in advance for your help. Let me know if you need anything? Sorry for being confusing again…
I am not an admissions officer, nor do I have a connection to any admissions officers at top tier schools. However, my instincts are telling me no, Dartmouth is not going to compare you to a student they admitted years earlier. The applicant pool will never be the same as the years before: academic-wise, extracurricular-wise, rigor-wise, etc. You are always hearing stories on how admissions is getting increasingly difficult, so what would be the point of admitting you on the argument of “They are stronger than what we received two, three, four years ago”? The only people you will be compared to are the people in the same applicant pool.
At least, that is what my instincts are telling me. If anybody else has different information, fill free to correct me, and regardless, best of luck to you in the process!
One thing that helped my D was on the GC report, her GC said something to the effect of " ______ possesses a skill set similar to or exceeding that of former ______ students that have been admitted to and excelled at elite colleges"
When I was an undergrad at Harvard many years ago we were told that the admissions office kept data on the track records of kids who matriculated from each HS. Made sense to me – over time, it gives the college a sense of how well the HS prepares students for their undergrad program. It may also give admissions officers a sense of whether a particular HS’s grades are inflated (or deflated), whether recommenders are trustworthy, etc. Obviously, many admissions offices don’t have the resources to be tracking this kind of stuff, but some of the highly selective ones do. That said, in general, comparisons are more likely to be at the aggregate level (how do kids from HS x fare once they get here? Does the answer vary if they are science vs humanities majors?) rather than head-to-head comparisons between kids from the same school who applied in different years. OTOOH, if there’s only one prior matriculant from your high school, yeah, the fact that the last kid excelled and your credentials are as good or better than his can’t hurt and might help you.
@exacademic Thanks so much for your help! thats precisely what I was asking. I am applying for the same major so that works as well. and congrats on harvard regardless of how long ago it was
One potentially negative effect that a previous student could cause is that, at some colleges, if a student backs out of an ED commitment, the college puts the student’s high school on an auto-reject list. It is shame on both that student (for backing out of an ED commitment) and the college (for punishing uninvolved future students for that student’s behavior).
In general, this is good. The other kid’s solid performance at Dartmouth will hopefully lead admissions to confidence that they were able to evaluate him correctly. Not all high schools are the same. One school’s 4.0 kid does not equal another school’s 4.0 kid.
The fact that the other guy has done well might solidify confidence in your school’s curriculum in Dartmouth admissions eyes – which for you, if it happens, is a good thing. It might go un-noticed but in general, I’d say it’s a plus. Good luck to you.