<p>Which of the following students has the advantage in Ivy League admissions decisions?</p>
<p>Student A:
3.9 GPA
Top 10% of class
2300 SAT
Took hardest classes available
Strong ECs
Went to a school like Andover or another Ivy feeder</p>
<p>Student B:
Same everything except they were valedictorian and went to an unknown public high school in the South.</p>
<p>Assume everything else (recs, essays, etc.) are the same.</p>
<p>Is student B a recruited athlete? legacy? URM?</p>
<p>No, like I said assume EVERYTHING is the same except Student B is the valedictorian (less competition at his/her school) and goes to a school that is pretty much unknown.</p>
<p>I can easily say just because a unknown high school is ‘less competitive’ does not mean that, that student did not work as hard if not harder. I go to a small school in a medium-small town in Georgia. My school has never sent anyone to ivies, ever. I came in and decided i wanted to push the envelope, i can tell you it is harder to go against every person in your school than to take AP Bio and get a 5. I fight every day because when i say i want to go to a top 20 university, they laugh and they ridicule. Socially its not easy, academically its not easy either, because everyone is against you moving ahead of the ‘norm’ and i have less opportunities than a lot of people to stand out.</p>
<p>^ poster is fairly representative of my situation also. I attend a rural high school in Wisconsin (about 550 students), and the best college anyone has ever gotten accepted to was MIT three years ago. However, everyone is extremely supportive of one another, I mean we have 47 people in math club this year! I don’t have the same opportunities as say, someone from NYC, but I do have my own ways of standing out. If anything, I believe attending a less known high school, while still excelling in your interests/passions, makes you stand out more than an Ivy league feeder school.</p>
<p>Beatles11, my school has a total of 190~ kids pre-k through 12th. Its a uphill battle with only one or 2 people supporting me</p>
<p>I’d say they have about the same chance. The kid from Andover is not going to look that great in comparison to his classmates because of his SAT score. The kid from the unknown school is going to look pretty good in terms of his score in comparison to other similar kids, but he’s coming from a school (most likely) with weaker advising and a weaker curriculum, and the colleges won’t know anything about it.</p>
<p>in reality, there are not two candidates alike. even if there are, one could put a comma in a wrong place in her essay LOL. it’s all speculative. i always take admission folks at their words, and that is, they give consideration in context of your school. your school profile reveals quite a bit information they need. we can’t second guess what we don’t know. on another hand, if you’re from a rural school with that kind of stats, i don’t know you can beat out the andover guys, but you’d give them the run for their money 
btw, there’s a dad here on cc with two rural HS Ds attending Harvard. hope he chimes in.</p>
<p>You are assuming that the Ivy in question would accept only one of the students, that they are in direct competition for some single slot in the incoming class.</p>
<p>Most likely, both students would be attractive candidates and would have the same shot at acceptance (in other words, it’s a lottery).</p>
<p>Andover is obviously a known quantity, so the applicant from that school is impressive and the Ivy knows the student can do the work expected of him.</p>
<p>The student from the small school in the south is also an extremely attractive candidate. It’s obvious that he did not have all the advantages of the Andover candidate, but it’s also obvious that he is an extremely bright and competent student from his grades and scores. His application will stand out from the pool of run of the mill smart candidates and his presence would increase the diversity of experience in the incoming class.</p>
<p>Remember that almost all of the students applying to Ivy caliber schools are Ivy caliber students…students with a 3.2 and an 1850 SAT are not a part of the applicant pool. </p>
<p>Also remember that the university is assembling a class, almost like assembling an orchestra or a football team. As it’s a given that all the applicants are academically strong, it then become more of an issue of what individuality a person brings to the whole.</p>
<p>25% of kids at Andover get 2220 or higher on the SAT. I suspect that kid with a 2300 will not be a standout, at least in terms of scores. On the other hand, the kid from the small school may have the highest score in the history of the school.</p>
<p>They’ll both get into highly selective schools.</p>
<p>I think the unknown hs is going to have a tiny tiny advantage due to the probable geographical diversity. I come from a rural area (think Amish/mennonite and lots of them) and have noticed when kids DO apply to prestigious universities (which is rarely) they are accepted or waitlisted. But this is my extremely narrow view so take it with a grain of salt. :)</p>
<p>Being top 10% at Andover is extremely hard. Half the kids at Andover are qualified to do well at an Ivy, so to be in the top 10% means a lot I think. Most Andover kids come from the top 5% of their public schools and most andover kids are fairly wealthy so they went to good public schools at that. </p>
<p>I’d say the Andover kid. Some public high schools are horrible and standardized tests are a decent but flawed indicator of intelligence. Anybody can study for 6 months for a standardized test and do well, because by virtue of being standardized and commercialized, they’re fairly easy to predict and anticipate.</p>
<p>Then again I am a top 10% Andover kid, so hopefully others see it my way :p</p>
<p>Edit: Our GPA is out of 6, so a 3.9 is not very good. My best friend had a 3.9 and only got into schools like Brandeis, BC, and NYU and he would be bottom 5% of the grade academically. Also had no hooks and was an international Korean.</p>