So, we come from a very average town…definitely not a T20 feeder but not a community that struggles either. Just a squarely-in-the-middle average school.
My kid is very high stats for our school; pretty great ECs; top ranked…you get the idea.
He had a recent interview with a certain T20 school and felt it went very, very well. In regular circumstances, we’d feel he has just as good a shot as any other kid.
Here’s the question: Our high school has never sent a student to this particular T20. But, this year, they took a classmate of his in the ED round. My son applied RD.
Everyone always says that colleges don’t have quotas per high school, but is that really the true story? Is this college really going to take two students from our high school this year when they’ve never taken a single student in the entire history of our high school…ever?
We are trying to find a reason not to feel discouraged by the circumstance. Will his classmate being accepted in the ED round really have absolutely zero effect??
This is from eons ago, so take it for what it’s worth. When I was a senior in high school, the guidance counselor called me into his office in February or March and asked me if a certain Ivy school was my #1 choice. He said “if you tell me ‘no,’ then they’re going to take ___ (another kid in my grade).” I said I wasn’t 100% sure, it was down to that school and one other, so please don’t tell them “no.” I ended up getting in and going there, the other kid didn’t get in and went to another Ivy. And the following year my college took exactly one kid from my high school. And the year after that they took exactly one kid from my high school.
Who knows, maybe it was all a coincidence. Certainly it was decades ago, so in any event admissions practices could be different now.
I will say this, my oldest kid’s high school, a private school that sends dozens to the Ivies, quite definitively tells kids that certain tippy-top schools try to limit the number of kids per year from any one high school.
This is why the ED game drives us a bit crazy. My son considered ED’ing to this particular school but we decided it wasn’t financially feasible. We don’t expect any financial aid so we can’t sign on the dotted line for such a hefty tuition price tag without at least considering his other options.
Well, have any previously applied? That’s an obvious precondition for sending someone there. Then a student must prefer to attend, and not choose a college of greater personal appeal.
hi my school’s a small (50 per grade) competitive private school so it might be different but we sent 3 to upenn, 3 to vandy, and 2 to dartmouth last year. I really don’t think the quotas are real. Obviously it’s not the same caliber but this year 15 of us have gotten into pitt so far. As long as the students aren’t exactly the same, it doesn’t matter
I think it depends on both the high school and the college. D20 is attending a LAC where each class has 750 students. Her HS usually has 5-7 who apply there and 1-3 acceptances every year but no one has attended since 2013. D was accepted ED last year, 6 others applied RD but none were accepted. Two of them had similar grades, ECs, and test scores as D but holistic admissions can cause various outcomes so who knows the real reasons for anything.
Not “quotas,” but sure, practical “limits.” People tend to look at their own hs in isolation, when there are others- down the street, across town, or in the wider area. And those other hs, what they produce this year (or upward trends,) can affect the college’s decisions. Maybe they take 2 or more from some of those others, this year, and reduce your hs to one admit. Or maybe your applicants duplicate common interests and some other hs is offering different. Or there’s a surprise jump in volume of apps from your area. You can’t control for any of this.
You need, imo, to try not to worry about this. If your child is a great candidate, he/she is a great candidate.
Best wishes.
At D19’s high school, in the 5 years before her college application cycle, Columbia admitted between 0 and 3 students per year from her school. In her year, they admitted 9. Anyone looking at prior years might have thought they had a quota, but that theory clearly didn’t hold.
