tell me this isn't true

I have heard that elite schools will accept no more than one or two applicants from a single high school, with the idea of avoiding an overload of students from one school. Has anyone else heard this? Better yet, is there any truth to it?

<p>There's a rumor saying Harvard does that, but it's not true. I hear the rumor every Jan. in my hometown after word gets out that a student has been accepted EA. Everyone at that student's school starts panicking that they have no chance. Even GCs panic.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, Harvard doesn't care. There even are some public high schools (such as in Newton, Mass. or in NYC) where as many as 30 or more students are accepted to Harvard each year.</p>

<p>Of course, other colleges may have different policies, but my thoughts are that most will be more interested in getting the best students from a city than worrying about whether all of their admits in a city come from one school.</p>

<p>Nope, no truth. I've seen just about every elite school accept a large number of applicants from a given highschool. Now, if there is a big rush for a school one year, and the school is a small one, there will be some consideration given that these kids are all from the same school, but most elite colleges do not keep a highschool talley and they accept as they look at the apps. It's at the very end of the process, that they look at things like which highschools their accepted kids come from and do a sweep over for internal equity reasons. Even then, unless a true mistake is found the decision would not be changed othere than perhaps a waitlist instead of a reject.</p>

<p>NSM, one year my S's highschool had a large number of highly qualified kids apply to Harvard. Usually 1-4 kids may be accepted from this school by Harvard, as it is a small school. That year 9 were accepted. All truly qualified kids. So I truly believe H does not care.</p>

<p>Ha! </p>

<p>Me: 1
Vicious bloodsucking dreamcrushing rumor-spreaders at my high school: 0</p>

<p>One of the MIT admissions reps addressed this in his blog - no, it's not true for MIT.</p>

<p>Is Newton, Massachusetts regarded as a really good school system or something?</p>

<p>A girl we know at a boarding school will be going to Princeton this fall, along with two of her classmates.</p>

<p>Don't worry.</p>

<p>At top prep schools, some 30% of every graduating class go to ivies or ivy like schools. This is also true of top magnet schools and a few very affluent public school districts. After that, it's probably true that ist's unlikely for top colleges to take several kids from one school. Your foremost competition is with the kids from your own school and own area.</p>

<p>I think TJ, a magnet public school, sent about 20 kids off to Princeton.</p>

<p>I don't think its true. There's a school in Detroit that sent 15 kids to Harvard last year.</p>

<p>According to a lot of guides and several recent newspapers articles, it is true (but not that bad). I know that "Admisssions Confidential" and "Harvard Schmarvard" talk about it, and I think that "A is for Admissions" does. It is pretty clear that adcoms go thru the apps sorted in order by state and high school name. There are very select high schools like Harvard-Westlake, Thomas Jefferson School of Sci and Tech, Montgomery Blair Magnet School, St Albans, and several dozen others. At these schools, often twenty or thirty students apply to a single HYPSM. Obviously a school like HYPSM which is seeking diversity can not accept everyone. In these cases, class rank is very important since there is often a close relationship between the adcom and the GC's at that school. The adcom doesn't want to alienate the GC's at a feeder school for fear that the GC's will steer applicants away in future years. Also at these schools, records are studied to see how many applicants there were from that high school in the previous year, how many were accepted, and how many attended.</p>

<p>For a school with only 4-5 applicants, they could take 2 or 3 however. I was really surprised by how many people responded in the negative on this thread. It is common knowledge.</p>

<p>"Harvard Schmarvard" by Jay Mathews writes about something funny that happened at Bowdoin in 1995 when 27 students at "one of Washington's best known private schools" applied. (This was 20% of the high school class.) The GC's at the high school tried to discourage it, but only three dropped out. In the end, Bowdoin "noted the quality of the high school and the great interest of the applicants, and it took an unusually large number, seven." That much interest at that high school never occurred before or after 1995.</p>

<p>Well, I've read the Gatekeepers.</p>

<p>Elite schools (in my opinion anyway) doesn't limit itself to Harvard only.</p>

<p>"The Gatekeepers" actually says that some schools (well, Wesleyan in particular) keep a fat book with students separated by the school they go to. Then, how many kids get accepted per school is factored in admissions.</p>

<p>But then again, Wesleyan is much smaller than, say... Harvard.</p>

<p>Thank you, I forgot "The Gatekeepers".</p>

<p>Some colleges seem to favor certain high schools for a time - for ex. there were 4 UPenn acceptances or so at my school the previous yr. and 4 Northwestern acceptances this yr. - all matriculated to these respective colleges. I think yield has something to do with it. Colleges may percieve that they are a popular choice among students at a particular high school and so qualified applicants would likely enroll if admitted, thus they'd accept more from that school than at a school where in past yrs., all the acceptees chose to matriculate elsewhere.</p>

<p>Rank has a lot to do with it when there are many applicants from the same high school. Suppose 15 students apply and the ranks of top seven applicants are 1, 3, 4, 7, 8 , 9, 15. They can't take the applicant ranked 15th without taking the 6 applicants in front of him/her, or unless they can explain it to the GC at the school in terms of diversity.</p>

<p>I actually think that rank is not a deciding factor when there are so many applicants from the same school, especially a competitive one. Chances are that the differences between applicants' GPAs will be negligible - in actuality, does it really make that much of a difference if rank 3 has a 4.5655 and rank 5 has a 4.5602? I think not. More important than minor differences in rank/GPA is how the applicant distinguishes himself/herself from the others in the school - by means of outstanding extracurriculars, particularly compelling essays, unique experiences, etc. These more subjective parts of the applicants are perhaps THE deciding factors in a competitive applicant pool.</p>

<p>I agree if the gpa's are that close. </p>

<p>Princeton has about 14500 applicants each year and accept about 11%. That means that they accept about 1600 applicants. I don't have the figure, but lets say that 20% of the acceptances are from the Mid-Atlantic states. This translates to 320 students from Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and DC. Someone in the thread said earlier that Princeton took 20 applicants from Thomas Jefferson High School which is outside Washington DC. Although TJ is one of the best high schools in the country, there are many best high schools in the country particularly in the DC area. That just doesn't sound right that Princeton took 20 of its allocated 320 Mid-Atlantic slots from a single high school. There is somebody at Princeton running daily reports on the admissions process.</p>

<p>
[quote]
They can't take the applicant ranked 15th without taking the 6 applicants in front of him/her, or unless they can explain it to the GC at the school in terms of diversity.

[/quote]

Sure they can. It happens all the time. Yale did it this year in my daughter's school. The lower ranked student (much lower) had 4 generation legacy and a chair endowed in the family name. GC was furious.</p>

<p>I believe at Yale one is sorted into their regions, or maybe down to their respective high schools where regional admissions officials compare applicants against other students in his/her environment which makes sense, though I could see how it could limit the amount of students per school getting accepted to Yale (say, valedictorian with lots of EC's against an otherwise solid candidate with a little bit everything lower- it would very much make sense to admit the former and think again about the latter). </p>

<p>TTG</p>