<p>Hello All,
My d is a junior now. She is taking her PSAT this fall. She wants to get admitted in a reputed college. Hope she prepares well. </p>
<p>One of my friend(who is in Boston) recently told me that college administrations give more weightage to the students who are coming from reputed schools (where the syllabus is high). Is that true? My d is doing academically good. But I will rate her school 7/10. I am quite worried.</p>
<p>Thank you for your time.</p>
<p>The better schools know to read applications in context: i.e. they will have on hand the relative strengths of the HS and judge accordingly. Stats such as # of kids who qualify for free lunch, PSAT and SAT ranges, etc. Just because your daughter doesn't go to a nationally ranked HS doesn't mean she's out of contention for even the most selective colleges -- they are interested in kids who do well in their own setting: be it Choate or a rural county HS in S Dakota.'</p>
<p>Admittedly, the "reputed" schools may have more experienced personnel in sending kids to top schools. And the academic prepping may better prepare your D for college's rigors. That being said, if your D is challenging herself, she is already honing the tools that will serve her well in life.</p>
<p>Good luck to you and her!</p>
<p>I suspect it depends on the college, but in my experience schools are looking for people who took advantage of the opportunities they had. A student who took the easy way through at an elite prep school will probably viewed less favorably than a student from a poor, middle-of-nowhere school who went to great lengths to do well for herself.</p>
<p>In my own dorm at a top 10 school, the students I knew included a Choate alum (I had never heard of Choate until she showed up - I'm not from the northeast), someone who went to terrible schools and had been homeless for a time, a few blue-collar townies, a couple of home-schooled kids, a young man who graduated at 16 from an undistinguished high school out west and had been working full-time for a couple of years, a number of public magnet school kids, a guy from the middle of nowhere North Dakota, and many more.</p>
<p>My kids attended a non-prestigious huge average suburban high school where only a small number of students even think about applying to elite schools. I had the same worry as the OP before my kids went to high school, as quite a few of their middle school classmates left the public schools to attend private high school. We kept telling our kids that if they took advantage of everythihg our h.s. has to offer and did well, they would be fine for college admissions, hoping but without really knowing if this was true. Both of them applied themselves to their schoolwork to the best of their abilities and took advantage of many opportunities available to them, both in school and out of school (in very different areas of interest). Each kid was admitted to colleges which are considered very prestigious and selective, and ended up attending a school which is perfect for them. If your daughter follows the advice above and takes advantage of opportunities available to her, including out of school opportunities, she should be fine for college.</p>
<p>T26E4,
Thank you for the reply and also for the wishes. I am relieved :) after reading your post.
Thanks again!</p>
<p>par123-</p>
<p>The selective schools look to see that the student has taken advantage of the opportunities at her school. If there are no AP classes offered, for example, the student is not penalized for having none on her transcript. If there is a wide variety of AP courses available and she has taken only one or two, well, she was not taking a rigorous course load in the context of her school.</p>
<p>Also, selective colleges do not want to have a student body comprised entirely of elite school graduates. They want diversity in all its forms.</p>
<p>Encourage your daughter to take advantage of all the honors and AP courses she can. Encourage her to participate in meaningful activities outside of school. She will be richer for it and she will be in a good position when it comes time to apply to colleges.</p>
<p>jessiehl,
Thank you for your inputs. I am happy that i joined here.</p>
<p>Thank you, MotherOfTwo. My D is taking 5 AP'S this year.She is also doing okay in other activities. She is a straight A student. Wish she gets admitted in prestigious college.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>Thank you, mafool. My D is doing her best she could by taking 5 AP courses this year. She is also volunteering. Hope she gets admitted in good college.
Happy that I joined here.</p>
<p>par123,</p>
<p>My D's underfunded urban public school in colorado sent 3 kids to the Ivy Leagues last year. The exclusive, expensive private prep sent not one. It could be just a fluke. Or it could be that given a choice between a child who made the most of themselves at a crowded public school and a child who did the same at at a privlidged private known for its "nurturing," the Ivies went for the less privlidged student because it took more character to succeed there. </p>
<p>It's just speculation, of course -- and maybe it's just something we, parents of kids at the public tell ourselves to make us feel better ;) -- but it sure felt good to hear how well the public school kids did.</p>
<p>
[quote]
a student from a poor, middle-of-nowhere school who went to great lengths to do well for herself.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well now, that would be the older 2 of my 3 kids, when we lived in such a community. Here's what happened to the oldest: rejected Early Decision at an Ivy. Then, on Regular Decision this: accepted at 4 Liberal Arts Colleges (LAC's) that rank (hate those ranks but am using just to give you a framework) in the top 25 USNews. Rejected again at the Ivy that didn't want him ED, rejected by another Ivy. </p>
<p>The LAC he attended is among the top 3 in that same USNews study. So please don't just look at Ivies. I have no idea whether these LAC's read the applications more carefully, or whether "something" about his application just shouted, "I'm a right fit for an LAC" but he got a great education there, along with financial aid (need-based). ONe of the Ivies called him in off the waitlist in late August for a February enrolment without guarantee of oncampus housing. He declined that, not wanting to mess up his own bonding with his chosen LAC first semester. </p>
<p>The second child applied ED to an LAC but she was double-legacy there, so it can't count for anything to learn from her experience.</p>
<p>The only obstacle to applying from a "nowhere" high school is failure of will or courage, IMHO.</p>
<p>ONce the kids got to the colleges, they had to take complete courseloads every semester until graduation, because of no AP credits, while kids from better-endowed AP schools had fewer course credits needed in senior year, or even graduated a semester early if they so chose. That part was hard when grad school applications were going on during senior year, but it was the only time I heard real frustration from my kids' over the academic background difference. </p>
<p>We took heart, and I'm passing this along to you: tours at these top schools all said that they look for kids who challenge themselves WITHIN their environments, and don't hold it against them if their school offers few or no AP courses or is resource-poor. A look at our h.s. stats showed large numbers of students on free-and-reduced lunches. Guidance Counslors (GC's) were busy bailing kids out of jail on weekends, not helping with college applications. Nobody went to the places my kids applied to, and when they got in, nobody heard of them although they did know about "Harvard 'n' Yale." One other kid from the same h.s. got into Harvard that year. (After that, all quite humble colleges). </p>
<p>Even class rank is understood by these colleges. For example, it was the tradition of our town to use unweighted class rank, so the top 10 students in the school had taken non-honors classes to compete for the privelege of being in the Top 10. The colleges are on to all of these games. My S was ranked #11 in his senior class, but I think you'd say his college had much greater cache than where 9 of the other Top 10's went. (The kid who went off to Harvard ranked 9th in this senior class). I must assume that the colleges and unis know all about these monkey games at the H.s. level.</p>
<p>Just have your student focus on the strengths of his situation. Don't write about the hometown in a disparaging way, for that sounds like a pity party or snobbery. Search your hearts and help your child see the advantages, in the course of a lifetime or work in diverse communities, that his h.s. wasn't so grand. Maybe it's not even necessary to write about this; it'll be obvious from the school's information sheet about itself. In our case, we just created a range of Safety, Match and Reach schools (CC's most valuable advice) and Loved the Safety, just in case. Be sure the student's writer's voice comes through in the personal essay. In an essay or interview, refer to with a positive, but don't focus upon, the h.s. that is so troubling to your thinking at this moment. This way, your child demonstrates s/he's understanding of his environment without being limited or negatively defined by it.
Model for your child this attitude or reaching onward, upward and forward rather than looking back with regret.</p>
<p>I know it feels scary now, but it will work out if you remain true to yourself and pick a RANGE of schools for your list. Good luck.</p>