What demographic is both overrepresented generally and also rich in legacy and athletic hooks at the highly rejective colleges?
Again, move off the Harvard lawsuit and get closer to topic. While phrased nicely, my earlier post was not a request. It is not necessary to get in the last word.
Kids who attend highly selective high schools and/or high performing, and wealthy high schools located in overrepresented regions. (A competitive Bay Area private school, for example.) Such schools tend to be relatively rich in both legacies and recruited athletes, and some are also relatively rich in very well qualified URMs.
Such schools (at least the private ones) are also much more likely to have dedicated college counselors with a good deal of knowledge, history, and connections to many of the highly rejective private colleges. Such college counselors are likely to be able to tell a high achieving student which of the highly rejective private colleges are more likely to see that student as a fit (from the college’s point of view) and strongly encourage the student to apply there (and ED), rather than having all of the high achieving students apply to the same few colleges while ignoring others that may be more likely to admit some of them. I.e. what may ordinarily be “reach” for everyone may be a “match” for a specific student based on the college counselor’s knowledge of and connections to the college (the connections do not help getting admitted, but can help the counselor know which student is more likely to get admitted there).
On the other hand, the highly competitive public high schools in the Bay Area may not be too legacy-laden, since many of the students’ parents attended state universities in California or foreign universities, rather than highly rejective private colleges with legacy preference, and they probably do not have dedicated college counselors with knowledge and connections like at the high end private schools. So students at those high schools probably have no choice but to see highly rejective private colleges as “reach”.
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Sure, but none of that impacts my point.
Also, there are public high schools which are relatively rich in legacies, For example, those in wealthy areas or near universities and/or research and technology hubs. Gunn would be one such example.
I have to wonder, for schools that are not need-blind, is ability to pay something that increases the chances of admission. All else being equal, accept the kid that is full pay.
Public high schools near universities may be more likely to have a higher density of faculty and staff kids.
Here is a good article about schools balancing the “shaping” of their classes with financial realities. What College Admissions Offices Really Want - The New York Times
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REA admits are more likely to enroll than RD admits even at a school like Harvard, so there’s an incentive for colleges to admit early applicants. That doesn’t mean, however, all colleges would give early applicants an admission boost (there’re certainly some notable exceptions).
Many applicants seem to feel that early applications enhance their chances of admission to their “reaches” and they’re generally (but not always) right.
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With test blind policies, there has been disappointment in kids applying to UCs with admission rates in the 60% range, applying to non highly selective majors, with GPAs with admission rates in the 90%range who have been wait listed and ultimately denied due to lack of space.