How does the high school you attend impact admission?

DadTwoGirls
Sun, 22 May 2022 15:13:34 +0000

I have rather limited experience relevant to this question, but what I have seen suggest that it really doesn’t matter. Finding a high school that is a good fit for you seems to matter quite a bit more.

Long ago when I was an undergraduate student at MIT, I was surprised to find one student who had only graduated #7 in his high school class. However, he had done high school at the Bronx High School of Science. Being #7 in an average high school probably would not have gotten him into MIT. However, if he had attended an average high school, he would almost certainly have finished higher in the class.

Meanwhile I had attended a mediocre high school and my freshman year roommate had attended an even worse high school. If we had been only #7 in our high schools there would have been no way that we would have gotten into MIT. However, since we had attended less competitive high schools, we had finished much higher in the class.

My kids and their friends had similar experiences.

University admissions seem to be very good at compensating for the strength of the high school that you attend. In all of the complaints that people have about university admissions at top schools in the US, I do not think that this is or at least should be one of them. Most likely one reason for this is that universities have been doing this for a while, and have already accepted quite a few students from a wide range of high schools and have seen how students from different high schools actually do at their university.

To me the summary of this is that you should attend a high school that is a good fit for you.

I also would not want to use up too much of your college fund at a private high school unless there is a very good reason. IMHO for most of us in the US saving money and attending a local public high school is probably the best approach, even if we want to end up at Harvard or MIT or Stanford (all of which have become high reaches for nearly every student).