Hello! I’ve been thinking about applying to a certain Ivy school (that I don’t want to call out here), but I have been discouraged from doing so because there’s a sort of well-spread old wive’s tale/rumor in my town that the college holds a grudge against my high school and doesn’t admit anyone from it because of something that happened in the past. Is this true? Like, is this something that actually happens?
I get that this sounds convoluted, but it has been around for such a long time that I’m starting to believe it a little.
There is another thread like this on CC. The upshot was that for that high school one college did seem to not accept those applicants. My memory seems to tell me that a CC commenter came up with a possible strategy. I’m going to let another person explain this more fully or provide the thread.
@marvin100 I’m pretty sure the “no one from x school gets into princeton” thing has been going on for longer than 4 years at my school; maybe this is because no one applies due to the “grudge”? I am still not sure. What was the situation in your case?
@“Erin’s Dad” how long does this last in your experience?
Thank you!
The usual stories of such have to do with the high school supposedly being put on an auto-reject list due to a student in the past backing out of ED admission. However, I have not seen such a story where the college actually came out and said that specifically, rather than supposedly quietly rejecting subsequent year applicants without any other explanation.
Obviously, if colleges do this, it does nothing to deter students’ ED shenanigans, since the punishment hits future applicants from the high school instead of the guilty one. It also means that the college may miss out on admitting worthy future applicants from that high school (though super selective colleges may have plenty of other applicants from other high schools to choose from).
@ucbalumnus is this also the case if someone was accepted regular decision but then backed out? what if they were accepted restricted early action (since that is the policy the school I am looking at follows)?
Case 1: student gets multiple acceptances, so turns down all but 1. A slighted school retaliates. I have read that some schools that build relationships with a HS see it as a 2-way street. The counselor can talk to them and go to bat for a student that on paper may not be a strong candidate. The flip side is they expect the counselor to be explaining the strength of their school to students. If they find they are consistently failing to enroll strong applicants from that HS that they expect to get some of, they may elect to send the counselor a message.
Case 2: student accepts, but gets off a waiting list and withdraws. This is summer melt. At this point the kid is out of HS, I doubt many colleges would hold the HS accountable.
I’ve heard from some of my Northeast prep school friends that if someone form their HS applies SCEA to Harvard and doesn’t accept the offer their school gets blacklisted for a year(s).
@mikemac that was actually pretty helpful. I was wondering like if a student was accepted regular decision but then chose another school. The school I’m talking about has already had our school on a blacklist so I don’t think I’ll get accepted anyway? But thank you anyway for all the info!
So in this situation they would be rejecting the school because (allegedly) the person signing off on ED applications was either deliberately or neglectfully signing off on multiple ones for the same students? I’m curious about this.
I’d like to point out that college’s don’t blacklist schools, people do. This is ugly and unfortunate but admissions officers are people too, complete with many of the same character flaws shared by the rest of the population.