<p>If a student gets accepted to a selective university (ivies etc.) EARLY from a small high school, will this any way lower my chances of getting in REGULARly?</p>
<p>We are the same race by the way, but from different countries.</p>
<p>No. You’ll be independently judged. Selective colleges feel no pressure to self impose a quota on your HS. This doesn’t mean you have a good chance (no one does)-- but your chances aren’t affected by the earlier student, that’s all.</p>
<p>Your chances were low regardless of that other kid.</p>
<p>I disagree on location not being a factor. It may not go against your HS as much as it goes against your county, for example. Selective colleges, in particular, have a stated interest in diversity, including geographic diversity. Assuming for a moment that they have a full raft of applicants who are qualified in every way, selection must necessarily turn to other factors. Why wouldn’t location be one?</p>
<p>Taking two applicants from Cow Pasture, WA means that you can’t take one from Cow Pasture and one from Double Prairie, ND.</p>
<p>@JustOneDad: I’m with @T26E4 on this matter. Please remember the OP specifically focuses on extraordinarily-selective and -prestigious universities. Institution of that distinction and character (perhaps 50 of 2500+ in America) simply do not need to concentrate on geographic (high school) diversity. A kid from Cow Pasture (the richest kid in town, his dad is an attorney and his mom is a physician) brings no real diversity to Brown or Notre Dame (where most of his freshman classmates are much like him), whereas a high-schooler – who has overcome countless indigence-related problems – from metro LA or Atlanta may add something to the university’s cultural and intellectual diversification.</p>
<p>Yes, colleges are interested in all kinds of diversity, but they don’t kill themselves to get it. It’s not like they’re lining up all the potential candidates and picking one from column A, two from column B, but one from column B is also in column F, etc. For many categories, diversity just happens because they happen to be on the lookout - as they’re going through the applications, certain things may get a “plus” factor, like the fact you’re from Idaho and the school rarely has Idaho applicants. They don’t go back and say “We’re missing a Wyoming candidate - get us one from the reject pile!”. And they generally don’t eliminate people once they’re in the “admit” pile because they have too many from one small high school. Evaluations are done by multitudes of people who have no idea that some other student has even been approved by someone else - things are not crosschecked so that the mix is just so.</p>
<p>The one exception to this rule may be at the end of admissions - say they’re down to 10 slots and they have 50 well-qualified candidates. The 10 slots may well go to the 10 candidates that have characteristics that they need to create a well rounded class - not the 10 that have the highest GPA and test scores.</p>
<p>@MrMom62: “The one exception to this rule may be at the end of admissions - say they’re down to 10 slots and they have 50 well-qualified candidates. The 10 slots may well go to the 10 candidates that have characteristics that they need to create a well rounded class - not the 10 that have the highest GPA and test scores.”</p>
<p>Yep, absolutey correct. </p>
<p>@t26e4 @justonedad @mrmom62 @toptier that answered my question 200%, thanks to all.</p>