<p>For this upcoming school year, I might be transferring to a private-elite high school. Many kids who attend this school are as smart as the graduating top 10 at my current high school (most going to U. of Minnesota, Yale, Princeton) and most there go Ivy League. With all of these really intellectual kids, will colleges skim you over if you're ranked 50, out of a class of 100 geniuses? If not, would it be better to be that rank, or number one in a regular middle class American high school?</p>
<p>I don't plan on going to Harvard or anything like that, seeing as only one person I know of has made it there in the past few years, but if I really wanted to, which would be the better choice to do?</p>
<p>Hard to answer. The top schools definitely take the rigor of your HS curriculum into account; I’ve sen some say it’s the single most important factor in admissions. To that extent, coming out of a top private HS that already sends a lot of kids to the colleges you’re applying to may be an advantage, as the HS will already be on the colleges’ radar screen and the quality of your courses will be beyond question. On the other hand, I assume HYPS can easily get the top 20% of that elite HS’s graduates and may feel they don’t need to reach down deeper into the class to get the students they want. </p>
<p>It’s much harder to get noticed coming out of a “regular” public HS. The top colleges can’t expect you to do more than take the most challenging classes your school offers, and if you do well and come out #1 in your class, they can’t really expect anything more. On the other hand, there will be a valedictorian at every high school in America, and they won’t all get into the most selective colleges. I’d say if it really is a question of being #1 at an undistinguished HS and 50th percentile at a super-elite HS, you might have a slightly better shot being the #1—but it’s probably a longshot in either case, because the kids they’re really looking for are the top 10-20% at the super-elite, and a smattering of vals and sals from elsewhere who are also legacies, URMs, recruited athletes, etc. But if you’re just looking for a very strong college, say a Carleton, Grinnell, Oberlin, Chicago, Northwestern—then I think being from the super-elite HS and doing well there, and having comparable test scores and good ECs, etc., is probably a better bet.</p>
<p>Is it a college prep school? Exeter? Andover? If you’re school’s something similar to those prep schools, then I think it’s worth going to the private-elite. If not, then it’s not worth it.</p>