Will being from my High School hurt me?

<p>My school maintains a bineder listing all the places that every senior from my school applied, and all there stats (names excluded) and whether or not they got in. I went through the book and looked at the past 4 years. In that time I only saw a few people who applied, and only 2 people who were admitted to Ivy League schools or schools of similar caliber. </p>

<p>Will this low admission to high quality schools hurt or help me in my chances at schools like Brown, Dartmouth, and Cornell?</p>

<p>thanks in advance for any feedback.</p>

<p>yeah i was wondering similar things, actually on a more general level: do colleges care about the high school u come from or is every student considered in a huge pile of other students?</p>

<p>ReadyToBeDone, bad news is that you probably can expect about the same rate of acceptances as in the past year. In my school (public), year after year it is the same story as far as the number going to Ivys is concerned.</p>

<p>colleges usually have regional admissions officers that really know your specific high school well
Obviously, not all high schools can be compared at the same level else it would be unfair. Demographics of the district play a huge role in how motivated and competitive students are. At my school, everyone is so competitive that we got rid of class rank because it was so ridiculous (you could have a 4.0 weighted on a [5.0 honors], [4.5 accelerated], [4.0 college prep] scale and still only be in the top 60th percentile). For schools like mine, admissions officers really know well, but for your case, in which students aren't very competitive, you must display your abilities to dominate your senior year class.</p>

<p>no...where did you get such a frivolous idea from? Colleges look at the resources your high school has (# of APs, etc.) and if you took advantage of them. Also, they evaluate you based on the meaningful activities you have done. Ultimatly, where you come from doesnt matter</p>

<p>not so much a frivolous idea, asayed...
high schools are unfortunately stratified -- it's true that colleges look at your schedule and compare it with the toughest possible courses your school offers, but your rank (or percentile) at somewhat less competitive schools is far more important relative to a school where the senior class is 1200 very competitive kids. Understand that you must demonstrate your ability to pull away from and exceed what other kids did at your school, readytobedone. That's just the way it is.</p>

<p>well it's not my fault if you go to a competitive school...try an average public school.</p>

<p>so is there such a thing as a set number of students that colleges accept from a particular high school? my school is incredibly competitive, especially our year. we have like geniouses who are bound to get into harvard...u may think harvard is always weird, but there are people taht u just know will get in...for example if u win the IMO??? so i hope i'm not compared with the other people in my school</p>

<p>Your school may be populated with a lot of geniouses, but I bet that only a very few will receive the thick envelope from Harvard.
The top colleges want representation from as many different HS as possible as it contributes to diversity. Consider the following hypothetical example:
Applicant 1: A valedictorian from an uncompetitive public school (X), with SAT 2350, several honors courses, a couple of APs and decent ECs
Applicant 2: A smart student from an elite, highly compettive private school (Y), ranked within the top 5% or 10% in the class, SAT 2400, tons of APs and fantastic ECs. Let us assume that he could have been the valedictorian had he attended School X.</p>

<p>Still, the first applicant will probably trump the second one for IVY league admissions. So it matters where you go for high school, but not always in the way you think.</p>

<p>CollegeBound2007- there is no basis for me to expect to be rejected as no one (very very few people) have ever even attempted to be admitted to ivy league schools. </p>

<p>And I think some people are misinterpreting my original post. I did not mean to make my school come off as not competitive. I can't honestly evaluate the competition as this is the only high school I have personally attended but I can provide some general info, that to me makes it seem relatively competitive. We are an IB school and about 18% (70 out of 400) students in my class are taking the most rigorous path offered as they are IB Diploma Candidates. And this number does not include the many others who take numerous IB courses for certificates.</p>

<p>I think that many readers saw that i said few people have been admitted to ivies and assumed that this meant they were rejected. But the truth of the matter is that few people from my schol have ever even applied. This is for many reasons but the most major being the availability of state schools. in VA we have what is arguably one of the top two state schools in the country, so most competetive students go to UVA and save $30,000 a year.</p>

<p>Please re-evevaluate the impact of going to my high school with this new information in mind.</p>

<p>Also, thanks to everyone who gave feedback.</p>

<p>im sorta in the same situation in readytobedone. except that im not sure how much class rank would really matter in a class of eleven. readytobedon, does your school have any clubs/offer any ecs? if so your above my school. o, and i think only one kid has been admitted to an ivy in my high school's entire career.</p>

<ol>
<li>The college admission officers at the ivy league schools look at the rigour of your curriculum. They want to know if you took the most rigorous curriculum offered at your school. If your school does not offer the same number of AP courses as other schools, or has no honors courses for example, they take that into consideration. All they care about in terms of the curriculum is whether you took advantage of the opportunities your school offered, and how did you perform in those classes.</li>
<li>While it is true that some college admission officers may have particular relationships with certain high schools that generally means that they typically have a history with that school. ie. they may have accepted students from that high school every year and those students might have performed very well at that college or university, and so that college continued to have a very strong opinion of the students that came there and how they might perform at that college. That is not to say that students are not accepted from high schools where there is not that relatiionship.</li>
<li>When one sees a college matriculation list from a particular high school and notices that there are very few attending ivy league schools, usually two conditions are present. One is that a significant number do not apply, and the other is that those who do apply typically did not stand out amongst the other applicants. Many applicants from high schools that do not send many to the ivy league, do not realize that it takes more than high SAT scores, and grades to get admitted, and that it takes more than having leadership in school activities and clubs, community service to get accepted. Years ago a student who had high SAT scores and excellent grades who was Editor in Chief of the newspaper, or head of the debate team, or President of the Spanish Club, captain of the tennis team ect would be expected to be accepted to a top ivy league school. In todays comeptitive admissions market, these things mentioned above have become ordinary. A student from a high school who does not typically have students apply to the ivy league who presents him or herself as a candidate not only with high SAT scores, high grades, rigorous curriculum, but also has great passion, talent, accomplishment achievement ect that are unusual and/or show great commitment, will stand out. This is because the regional rep will be able to say to the admissions committee - I know this area and I know this high school and from this area and high school this is an extraordianry candidate. The reality is that from competitive high schools that send a lot of kids to the ivy league, it is really tough for those applicants too but for different reasons. In a competitive high school often as many as 60 students could be competing for admission to the same ivy league school. The ivy league school cannot take all of them, and they dont pick who has the highest rank and SAT scores. They may want to know rank to see where a candidate fits versus the other candidates, but they look at the entire application. The truth is that once the applicants have within the range of SAT scores of those admitted by the school, SAT scores become just a variable that has been met. After looking at grades they look at what that student has to offer in terms of their extra curricular involvement and what they will bring to the school commumity. It is harder to stand out when one is an applicant with 60 other applicants from their school.</li>
</ol>

<p>So in other words, are you saying that adcoms compare students applying from the same high school?</p>

<p>anybody else have any thoughts?</p>

<p>yeah basically i would agree with everyone who posted. it's not your fault that you come from a high school with low admission. the colleges will realize that part. however, if there are higher level classes available then they will expect you to take some of them. don't expect them to pity you because you come from an uncompetitive high school.</p>