<p>Admission rate from a particular high school is irrelevant. Cornell admits 18% overall, but S’s school regularly has more than 50% of applicants accepted. Every year, over 10% of the entire graduating class is accepted there. Yet, at some schools comparable to Cornell, our kids are less successful than overall (Penn admits under 10% of applicants, Georgetown rarely admits anyone, etc.). For whatever reason, some colleges may love or hate a particular high school.</p>
<p>I think you are correct. My D’s high school regularly sends 3-4% of the graduating class a year to MIT. Harvard has admitted one out of ~150 applicants in the last four years.</p>
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Northwestern’s engineering seems underrated by many on CC. But it’s actually ranked pretty high by the latest NRC rankings. Here are the R & S 5th percentile rankings:</p>
<p>Applied Math 4 & 4
Biomedical 10 & 13
Chemical 6 & 6
Civil 9 & 8
Electrical & Computer 16 & 8
Material Science & Engineering 4 & 4
Mechanical 3 & 2
Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering 4 & 1</p>