<p>Ok. To be succinct, atleast 10 people from my school are applying to Vanderbilt. Being friends with these people for over 5 years, I know they all have 3.8+ GPAs, 7+ APs, and 1400+ SAT scores.</p>
<p>Is this going to hurt my chances? My school is a public gifted school, so obviously everyone in my grade is very intelligent and we all sometimes cancel each other out. So is the admissions committee going to put a cap on the number of students admitted at my school? (Though, admissions is getting ridiculously tough anyway, so even if they didn't, it would seem like they capped it)</p>
<p>And, as just a random comment, do you guys think this ISN'T a representative sample of the students from schools applying to Vanderbilt? I guess what I'm trying to get at is comparing yourself to people at my school kind of lowers your academic self-esteem.</p>
<p>Hilsa, is the school perhaps PV? I don't mean to be nosy, but I have quite a few friends at that school!</p>
<p>By the way, I doubt they have quotas per se for each individual high school, they might have a rough quota for each geographical area, but I doubt it goes to each high school.</p>
<p>And no, I do not think your high school is representative of 99% of high schools...isn't PV's SAT average around the 1300s...my school's average is about a 1010. Only 15-20 people have gotten over a 1350 out a of class 650+. So, you're comparing yourself to probably one of the smartest Class of 2009 in Florida. If anything, I think Vandy would like to take most of the qualified kids in your HS vs. less qualified students elsewhere in FL.</p>
<p>I'm from in state, and I'm pretty sure they have to put a limit on qualified TN students they accept because lots of kids around here think they can easily get into Vandy in state, which is actually not true.</p>
<p>Yes, I go to PV. I love it here. And I wonder if I'm friends with your friends! </p>
<p>I know the graduating class a couple of years ago had an SAT average of 1335, except I actually think that number will decline a tiny bit. Though, apparently Business Week seems to think PV is the best school in Florida, which is pretty groovy.</p>
<p>Haha interesting! Well, I am good friends with both Christopher G. and Kasey H-R, and also Jude F. I didn't want to write their full last names, but hopefully you can decipher who they are! Haha, it's funny how small the world (or the internet) can be..</p>
<p>Hilsa - I just had this converstion with a friend whose S is also applying (same HS as my son). As of now, all 3 kids that applied ED, got accepted. I believe there are 5-7 (maybe more) others applying RD. Yes, all of the candidates are very competitve 4.0+ gpa, 2000+ SATS, etc. My friend is guessing they will "cap" the number from this school as well. I'm sure all universities will publicly say they do NOT cap but I can't imagine they don't. </p>
<p>FYI, this is a private, well known school so, like your school, most of the kids are extremely bright, driven and well qualified.</p>
<p>Haha. I love those guys. Do you do speech or film then? Since Chris and Jude are crazy speechies, and Kasey is the next David Lynch.</p>
<p>No one applied ED at my school, though one of my friends got in via MOSAIC and also Chris G (I'm just mentioning him since rockerguy knows him) got in because he made it to the semifinal round of Ingram a month or so ago.</p>
<p>Maybe they won't cap people intentionally, but they'll still only admit maybe 4 more people (I found out even more people applying to Vandy today... making it 13 kids) just because of the competitiveness of the applicant pool this year. I mean, when I was really bored in English today, I actually compared everyone on paper today [everyone at my school knows everyone's stats and ECs since everyone is friends with everyone] and there are definitely a clear top 5, with 4 of us being really well rounded & school spirited, and the other just having ridiculously high SAT I and II scores (even though his ECs are, as he told me, "majorly lacking"). But the non-top 5 are still competitive as well!</p>
<p>Who knows? It just depends on what Vandy is looking for. I'm definitely sure one or two atleast will get in, just because we have NMF, club presidents, blackbelts, Rensselaer Medalists, film connoseuirs, yearbook editor-in-chiefs, etc. all applying. So whatever Vandy wants, I know one of my friends will have that.</p>
<p>last year, every person who applied RD in the top 10% were accepted (5-7) from our high school; no quotas here...no hooks, no URM's, etc.....</p>
<p>BTW, hilsa, aren't you a URM? I would think that would give you a slight edge unless all that are applying are as well.....then you all have an edge.....</p>
<p>Rodney, did everyone have like 1500/34 or something? Or were they 1400/32 students who were just well rounded?</p>
<p>No. I'm whitebread (well, I'm 1/16 Native American, but I didn't want to use that because it's not part of who I am... and I don't want to get in a college just because of something that isn't my own doing). No URM here.</p>
<p>Unless having a dad who didn't go to college and a mom who only went to community college counts. I'm like a pseudo first generation college student.</p>
<p>All the rest of the people applying from my school are white/European too, so, again, we all overlap.</p>
<p>But I don't know the decile percentage of everyone else. I know I'm tied with ~10 others in my class who have the top weighted GPA (but since my school doesn't rank, we're all just top 10%). But I know most of the others have very slightly lower weighted GPAs, so they may just make top 10%, or may be top 20%. But does being in the top 10% help that much, or, conversely, does being in the top 20% hurt you that much?</p>
<p>I've posted this before, but it has been awhile and I'm sure the thread has sunk down pretty low. In S's class there were about a dozen kids from MBA in Nashville and 10 (including his roommate) from a hs in Columbus, OH. Remember these are numbers of kids attending. In D's class, I believe Dean Shain said at the move-in day reception for parents that the two largest schools represented were MBA and Mountain Brook and it seems like the the number for each was around 10 attending. I would think in both cases the number admitted from those schools would have been slightly higher.</p>
<p>Here is the data from my highschool, medium sized, very very competitive public school in Illinois. So far, I am the only one to get in (out of the three people who went ED 1 or ED 2). I am the typical 32, well rounded person with some semi-unique characteristics. No major hooks or URM though (maybe five or six people in my graduating class of 400+ are URM...kind of sad).</p>
<p>From our school in the past six years Vandy has accepted 20%, denied 57%, and waitlisted 15% of our RDs (the other 10% withdrew) and accepted 54% of our EDs. I'm sure that many of the RDs were just 'why nots' because they have the money to throw at applications.</p>
<p>Just to keep throwing out numbers (i'll stop with the ED stuff since thats over), our average accepted ACT is a 31 RD and a 4.17 weighted (note: I was a 3.86 weighted).</p>
<p>All of this information and more was available for every college from my school during the entire college process which I loved (being a numbers freak myself). When looking at these numbers, you have to take into account that they are over the last few years and admission to top colleges and especially Vandy have really become more difficult in the last two years. So take it with a grain of salt. I just thought I'd share my high school's stats since we're comparing schools relative to quotas and acceptance rates.</p>
<p>There are MANY more kids applying RD at my school right now and I know for sure four or five of them that I believe will get in. They are all around great students with good ECs. I even know one who is in at UChicago but will choose Vandy if he gets in. Crazy! =)</p>
<p>Tennessee students, especially from the Nashville area, do not believe it is an easy admit to Vandy at all anymore. I know a lot of incredible deny/waitlist families in the last couple of years. One girl was val at a very good private school and extremely well rounded, she went to Wake, another very capable student who was double legacy got the waitlist letter as her parents were planning yet another alum fundraiser in their home! She went to UGA. Several children of highly placed faculty at the medical center had children either denied or waitlisted as well. Vandy does not show much love to us local folk.</p>
<p>These school quotas are the dirty little secret of the college admissions process.</p>
<p>At my son's high school, only one student goes to a particular elite college each year, even though there is more than one student with the credentials for admission into that particular college.</p>
<p>This creates a dysfunctional process where:</p>
<p>(1) Parents are afraid to discuss their children's college plans with other parents.</p>
<p>(2) Students are willing to discuss colleges with friends. However, when the students discuss college plans with their guidance counselor, the students are unhappy because the counselor won't give an opinion on whether the student can get into a particular college.</p>
<p>(3) I don't know for sure, but believe the guidance counselors want to maximize the college admissions record for the entire class. They decide ahead of time which student will be "the one" who will receive the high school's sponsorship for admission into a particular college. The counselors know ahead of time that most of the other applicants to that college will have no chance. Sometimes there will be a surprise and another student will be the one to get in, but it doesn't happen very often.</p>
<p>I would like to be wrong about number 3. Unfortunately it is probably true. A guidance counselor is the gatekeeper's gatekeeper.</p>