<p>I'm wondering what everyone thinks about this. Columbia has not accepted a student from my school in the past few years. I recently found out that someone from my school received a likely letter. His stats are definitely better than mine, but we are not that different. So what I'm taking from this is that after turning down many incredible applicants from my school in the past couple years, Columbia now considers one of our students to be one its best accepted students. Does this mean anything to the 4 other students from my school (including me) who applied? I get the feeling that Columbia may be viewing our school differently this year. And how would they view us, knowing that one the students they want the most comes from the same school?</p>
<p>Another random piece of information- last year, after a few years of 0 acceptances, 4 students out of the 7 who applied to Cornell were accepted. I don't know why this happened, but I almost feel like something similar could happen with Columbia this year. Does this make any sense or am I overanalyzing?</p>
<p>You’re reading too much into it. What happens to applicants at your school doesn’t affect you at all since each applicant is looked at individually.</p>
<p>Unless your school is a big feeder for the Ivies or whatever I really doubt that they know that much about you. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but there are so many high schools that I would think it would be quite difficult to keep tabs on them all.</p>
<p>Maybe there truly is something that stands out about that students. In my school there hasn’t been a Columbia acceptance since 2002, and all of a sudden a likely this year. These things happen- maybe your class is exceptional, and they’ve noticed?</p>
<p>I think schools can have upward trends. My school had only sent one girl to Harvard in 1995. In 2008 they sent a boy to Dartmouth and in 2009 a boy to UPenn. This year, several students have the chance to attend Ivys.</p>
<p>Absolutely. Not many applicants get likely letters, which is why it so strange that all of a sudden Columbia considers a student a student from my school to be at the top of its accepted students.</p>
<p>I don’t think you can say that the applicants from the past were “incredible” or that the applicant who got the likely is not that different from you as long as you haven’t read their complete applications.</p>
<p>trf, the reason why Columbia all of the sudden thinks a kid you know is a top choice is probably because the kid IS a top choice in some way from Columbia’s standpoint and has nothing to do with a reputation change for your high school. Or the kid is lying. Or the kid misinterpreted a letter from Columbia to be a likely letter. One way or another, your application isn’t likely to be affected by his/hers.</p>
<p>I agree with mmmcdowe, and I think it’s most likely the first situation- likely kids stand out regardless of school. Don’t worry about it too much, mmmcdowe is right that your app isn’t going to be affected by your friend’s likely status.</p>
<p>I sort of understand your situation. This year both me and a friend received letters, and our school hasn’t sent anyone to Columbia in years. Everyone else at my school questioned where this put them. From what research they did, I think most of the other students hoping for Columbia determined it wasn’t much of a problem. I guess you’ll find out in a week, good luck.</p>