<p>My school typically has a good number of people from the top 5% of the class applying ED to Penn each year. In fact, I may be competing against one or two from the top 5 of 700 and a good number of others from the top 35 (I myself am somewhere in the top 20, but I'm not really sure exactly where because my school doesn't rank). In any case, since my school typically only gets a few (2-4) into Penn each year, I thought I should ask about the adcomm's perpsective regarding applicants. Does Penn emphasize the comparison of students applying from the same high school and handle those apps together? Or, will the adcomm treat each applicant on a "case-by-case" basis? Realistically speaking, does Penn enforce a strict quota with each high school?</p>
<p>same question</p>
<p>"Realistically speaking", no one enforces a strict quota on a high-school-by-high-school basis, except maybe for the University of Texas - Austin with its top-10% rule.</p>
<p>It would be silly. With normal random variation, no one would expect a series of high schools each to produce the same, or almost the same, number of attractive candidates year after year.</p>
<p>I have never seen an admissions officer at any selective college say anything other than that each applicant is evaluated as an individual, and that they are not compared to their classmates. I am a little skeptical about that -- at the margin, especially when there are a lot of applicants from one school, it would be awfully hard not to compare them to some extent, at least insofar as their curriculum choices, grades, recommendations, and school-related ECs are concerned. (Those are all important factors, but far from the only important factors, in admissions decisions.) But there's no reason to think that all the admissions people in the world are lying systematically about this. Their intent -- the only intent that makes sense -- is to evaluate each applicant as an individual.</p>
<p>Definitely case-by-case. Two years ago, my school had ten people accepted. Last year just two.</p>
<p>Alright I think that answers my question. Thank you!</p>