<p>Alright, so my English teacher said that our high school never gets kids accepted into Stanford University, despite them even getting EDs into Harvard and Yale because our school's simply not "good" enough for Stanford, and they would throw away or dismiss the application if they see my school's name on it.</p>
<p>I don't plan on applying to Stanford, but I was just wondering, since my teacher described a "blacklist" that school's will never, or will rarely, let them be accepted.</p>
<p>She also said that since my school's in Arizona, most people don't even know it, because of our low educational standards.</p>
<p>I don't...completely agree with her. Sure, there's the statistic that no one at our school's ever been accepted into Stanford, or at least from what I've heard, but is it really possible for Ivies and private schools' admissions to reject applications if they recognize the school?</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that’s a rumor. They’re not going to stereotype kids by high school. A senior from our hs sued Princeton a few years ago and the lawsuit was highly publicized (like MSNBC, CNN, etc), and Princeton still took kids from our school after.</p>
<p>Hmm. Well, there are only a couple of kids, perhaps 5-10 (okay, maybe not “a couple” but, still, not so much) kids accepted into an ivy league each year, and for these students, they are accepted into the US Airforce Academy, Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc. I really don’t understand this.</p>
<p>HYPS admissions seem pretty random, at least from the outside. It’s tempting to try and come up with explanations (black lists, black magic, whatever) but honestly, it’s not worth worrying about. No one is guaranteed an admission to any of those schools; even if you get into Harvard, it doesn’t mean you’ll get into Yale, and even if you get into both of them, there’s no guarantee you’ll also get into Princeton, and even if you get into all of them, you still might rejected… from your state flagship. </p>
<p>Even if someone at Stanford really had some kind of bizarre grudge against your school – like, a graduate of your high school broke into her house and stabbed her puppy in the throat – there’s no way you could prove that (your English teacher probably isn’t a Dean at Stanford) and you would never be able to do a single thing about it.</p>
<p>I would say that is possible, at least in theory.</p>
<p>Let’s say, for purposes of example, that Stanford took the valedictorian of the same high school three years in ago, and each time, the kid bombed out at Stanford.</p>
<p>Stanford might well conclude that being a top kid from that high school may not mean that much.</p>
<p>Perhaps they conclude that that high school’s grading policy is too easier, or something like that. </p>
<p>Don’t forget, with such a low acceptance rate, even super human kids get rejected at Stanford.</p>
<p>I am always amazed on CC where some kid is #1 at his high school, yet only has a 29 ACT.</p>
<p>So I wouldn’t exactly call such a policy, assuming it even exists, as a “blacklist”, but rather, just Stanford’s opinion of your particular high school, based upon its experience with your school’s graduates.</p>
<p>There exist ways in which schools and/or counselors and students can try to buck the system and break rules set by the colleges. In particular, I’m thinking about schools who support multiple ED applications (clearly against the rules). If caught, what remedy is left to the colleges besides implicitly threatening future applicants i.e. tacitly blacklisting a school? </p>
<p>Not as riduculous as it may seem I would think…</p>
<p>The OP is saying that no one has ever been admitted from the school, so it doesn’t seem that there is a likelihood of a blacklist. The English teacher’s theory that the HS is academically on the weaker side is a more likely explanation.
If you are a serious candidate, your test scores and summer activities will set you apart.</p>
<p>Just as likely is that Stanford gets its fill of highly competitive applicants from AZ and can pick the ones it likes the best.<br>
Agree that schools which are known for bending the rules get a tougher look. Same for schools with 17 Valedictorians, lots of heavy test prep and custom internships for all their top kids. That exists, too.</p>
<p>Are you certain that as many top students from your school apply to Stanford as the Ivies? If fewer apply, that can be an explanation. Also, in terms of geographic distribution, Arizonans may have less competition from other Arizonans at an East Coast school than a Western school.</p>
<p>For both my D’s the GCs mentioned that there are schools that our HS doesn’t do as well in admissions as one might expect (in otherwords, almost no one gets in). My eldest D was discouraged from applying to one of these ED because of this. (She did anyway, because it was her first choice and was accepted … so much for that theory).</p>
<p>A pure guess, it may be a bit self fulfilling. If for example, no student who is accepted from High School A has enrolled in School B for the last 10 years, I suppose a yield conscious school might place HS A applicants at a disadvantage. However, I suspect that this isn’t the case, and that any observed pattern is just normal random noise.</p>
<p>Definitely much more at play here. Good admissions offices don’t blacklist high schools. I’d wager that fewer people applied and that Stanford was looking for a different type of student than Harvard (or a type of student that isn’t often found at your school).</p>
<p>However, if other people at your also school think that the plural form of “school” is “school’s,” that’s probably why they didn’t get in.</p>
<p>Hmm. I never thought this topic would get so big.</p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t really know where my teacher got her information, but I still don’t have a clear answer, and don’t think I ever will. But thanks for all the input!</p>
<p>I heard this years ago as specifically occurring from a Cornell Alumni interviewer. Eight kids were accepted from the high school over two years and none matriculated. This certainly is not as reliable as if it came directly from an admissions officer but it was communicated to an interviewer who questioned the years’ worth of poor success to follow.</p>
<p>It’s not common, but it does happen that someone at a HS p… off adcoms at a specific college and its only when the the change of personnel occurs that that college starts accepting kids from that school. The p… off factor could be the yield where the GC and students are using the school as a safety, with noone enrolling, it could be a glowing rec letter, which was far from the truth, or it could be sloppy work on the part of the GC that annoyed the adcoms.</p>