<p>My best friend and I are both applying to the same "reach" schools (HYPS-level). We're also EXTREMELY similar on paper, with near-identical test scores/grades/class rank (2300s, 800s on SAT II, all 5's on AP tests, top 3% in class rank) and the same extracurricular niches: business and community service. </p>
<p>Besides FBLA, we share no activities in common, but they're all similar: for example, I volunteer in an office whereas she is a Girl Scout. </p>
<p>We both have state leadership positions, have won national community service awards, and started regional service projects (she raised $5,000; I reached out to 2000 people.)</p>
<p>However, we're both applying ED to Penn (Wharton.) All throughout high school we've helped each other with our extracurriculars, projects, summer program apps, etc. In fact, we're proofreading each other's college app essays too :) My hope is for us to both be accepted to Wharton.</p>
<p>Here's the problem: our high school has rarely EVER sent any unhooked applicants (non-URM, non-recruited athletes) to top-tier schools. Last year, two people got into Stanford and one into Yale...and that was the best in our school's 200-year history. </p>
<p>If we both apply to the same schools with near-identical applications and backgrounds (no hooks), how likely is it for schools to accept both of us?</p>
<p>You’re concerned about a “quota”. The top colleges are not beholden to anyone in your school nor the others in your area. Thus, why is there a need for a quota? Who are they setting aside slots for? They could take ten from your school this year and none for the next dozen years— if it fits their needs.</p>
<p>Truth is that any individual’s superior application will trump all that. </p>
<p>The fact is that if you or your friend do or don’t get in, it won’t be because of the other person.</p>
<p>So what you’re thinking is that if just one of you applied ED and the other was RD, the one who is ED would have a better chance of being accepted than if both of you applied? That really doesn’t make sense. That would mean that a school would be less likely to take a qualified person if they saw she was similar to another applicant from the school. </p>
<p>Or maybe you’re thinking both of your chances are better if one went ED and the other RD but then you have to decide who goes RD because ED has a higher acceptance rate. I would suggest that you just don’t start down that road at all and keep to your original plans. There is no way of knowing why a college selects one applicant over another. You should be prepared for the two of you attending different colleges.</p>
<p>I would suggest you apply to some different schools if ED. Does not work out! It is usually the same reader for each school. They will notice similarity. Also, keep your essays unique toYOU and showing your voice. Get someone else to look at them besides this friend.</p>
<p>Don’t listen to Murphy’s advice about applying to diff schools.</p>
<p>Yes, you’ll likely be read by the same person. But if both of you have traits the school wants, you’ll move ahead. If not, then not. But it certainly won’t be because there was more than one application from your HS. Murphy is wrong.</p>
<p>My nearby HS rec’d 5 accepts from my HYP alma mater a few years back. A statistical abberation of enormous scale. Why? Because the kids were awesome. Usually, they get 1-2 accepts each year. There’s no pattern to try to spy out. It’s the individual. Apply based on what is best for you, regardless of what classmates are doing.</p>
<p>But I agree with Murphy about the reading essays thing – I might shy away from doing that.</p>
<p>Do what you would do without regard to your friend.</p>
<p>Quota is only a problem when there are too many high performing kids from the same school. Harvard doesn’t want to take 25 kids from the same school. In your case, if there happens to be 2 qualified kids from the same school that has never sent kids there, that is a statistical anomaly. In some respects, it shows that both of you may have pushed each other to do better, and thus exceeded what the school normally produces.</p>