<p>What do colleges exactly mean when they say something such as, "rigor of secondary school" or "quality of secondary education" in what they put as important admission factors? How much importance do they usually put into it? How do they exactly judge it? Thanks in advance for a response.</p>
<p>They want to see that you took the most advanced courses available (e.g. a normal to high amount of honors and AP courses relative to other students in your school). It’s really important because colleges don’t want students who slacked off in hs by taking easy calsses and will likely slack off in college. So they look at the courses you take and compare them to what’s normal for your school.</p>
<p>Most colleges a request a school profile for your school. </p>
<p>Agree with poster above, they are looking at the classes offered, and if you took the most challenging ones. </p>
<p>They are also looking at the student body, perhaps the average SAT of the class, # of National Merit, etc.</p>
<p>I realize that is very important to take APs and hard classes, but I’m more focused on the actual high school. For example, a Indiana University Bloomington booklet that I have says under important admisson factors, “Strength and quality of secondary education.” I assume that strength would go under AP and other hard classes, but would quality would be how good of a school you went to?</p>
<p>On the surface, no, they aren’t asking about the quality of your school. They know students often have no choice in that matter. What they want to see is something about you – did you have the intellectual ambition to take the most rigorous courses available to you at your school?</p>
<p>That said, there is a disproportionate number of students from high-achieving schools at the most selective colleges. This is due to many things, including the admissions offices’ relationship with certain “feeder” high schools, that these schools may generate (or attract in the first place) more high powered students, that students at these schools apply in far greater numbers to highly selective schools than kids at Podunk Public High… and also probably a level of confidence on the part of the college admissions staff that these students stand a better chance at succeeding in a highly demanding college.</p>
<p>I will add, though, that if you’re an outstanding candidate from the boondocks that can set you apart a bit from all the outstanding candidates from high-end high schools in the Northeast, or similar places. Your odds in that case might actually be a little better.</p>
<p>I think my own kid, being a outlier from the boondocks, benefited from this. Just my guess… but, yeah, I think finding a strong candidate from outside the mold can be quite appealing.</p>
<p>Another reason why some schools are “feeder” schools is because they recruit and pick up those outstanding “boondocks” kids. There is, generally, a disproportionate number of outstanding kids at some of the top schools, so that is reflected in admissions.</p>
<p>^ Thanks for the info, I’m not from either school that you describe though. I am at a public high school in suburban St. Louis, which I think is considered to be very good for a public. I was wondering more how it would work in my favor or not when it comes time for applying for schools (I’m only a sophmore), so thanks.</p>
<p>[Marquette</a> High School: Best High Schools - USNews.com](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/listings/high-schools/missouri/marquette_high_school]Marquette”>http://www.usnews.com/listings/high-schools/missouri/marquette_high_school)</p>
<p>I think it helps at the margins. Being a strong student from a strong school is good. Although colleges deny this happens though, many suspect that you are competing with other students in your own high school when more than one applies to the same college. Speculation is that colleges like to spread the acceptances around a bit, although the colleges will always say they judge each student on their individual merits.</p>
<p>Artemis, your “boondocks” don’t resemble my boondocks. Where I come from no one even knows there is such a thing as “feeder schools.” There are no privates within 100 miles except a couple small mediocre Catholic schools. Heck, you’d have to go much farther than 300+ miles to get near one. No one has ever even heard of them around here. I’m talking real boondocks. ;)</p>
<p>Still the kids from the public high school here have a pretty good acceptance rate at highly selective schools – it’s the only high school in the region though that does, and that’s probably because of the parent demographics of this small community more than anything --fairly affluent and educated who direct their kids to consider such colleges in the first place.</p>
<p>Yes, I am referring to East Coast feeders and East Coast boondocks. A couple of my friends from rural, rural NC were picked up by some of the typical NE feeders for high school. It was a whole “geographic diversity” push, so they told me of a few other cases where kids from off-the-map southern towns got heavily recruited. Although, to be fair, I think the distance of the schools for most of my friends was about 700 miles away from their homes. (I mapquest’d it once because I was curious)</p>