<p>So my high school has had 3 students accepted to Harvard in the last 3 years, and no one to any other Ivy League school (except Cornell). I know of another school who only had acceptances at Yale over the last few years (and Cornell, once again), and another that also has had its students accepted exclusively to Harvard as far back as I am aware. The Yale school and mine are large public magnet schools in Canada, the last school is a private. </p>
<p>Do trends like this affect admissions? I really love Yale and want to apply SCEA but I'm worried since my school has never sent a kid to Yale, only to Harvard. Since Harvard knows about my school, perhaps they would take a closer look at applications, etc? Or are all of these just big coincidences?</p>
<p>I don’t know much about the canadian college process, but I’m sure it is even harder for students from canada to get into top U.S. schools. With that said, all I can say is that you make sure one of your supplemental essays for Yale is the “Why Yale” essay. I’m applying to Yale scea too and I think this essay, when craftily and creatively done, is very strong, because you are given a chance to tell the college WHY exactly you want to attend their school the most compared to similarly ranked schools that I can assume you are equally qualified for. Hope this helps. Maybe someone with more knowledge on this specific situation can help.</p>
<p>“Do trends like this affect admissions?” Given the extremely small sampling and the extremely low admit rate by H or Y, I don’t think you can call anything a trend. The top colleges emphasize no quotas or favorite schools – the strengths and weaknesses of the individual applicants trump all. That being said, the regional officers will have particular knowledge of some schools over others – but that doesn’t necessarily mean favoring students from said high schools. Apply to Yale. You know no one has good odds – whatever HS they attend. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>I think it’s clear that when we’re talking about very rigorous high schools, there are SOME colleges that consider students from SOME high schools highly desirable. From my D’s selective enrollment, grade-deflated school, there are some very selective colleges that recruit heavily on campus and that year after year take many students whose GPAs are well below the college’s norm. And there are some colleges that accept almost no one.</p>
<p>There definitely are instances when a college will “blacklist” a high school and refuse to admit students that are accepted to peer institutions. I recall one year at our high school when Cornell accepted eight students and none chose to matriculate. The local alumni interviewer told me that it was no coincidence that Cornell offerred no or very few admissions for many following years.</p>