<p>We are beginning to throw into the equation of sorting the “list” how many kids applied to a particular college from my childs high school … thinking that the less popular colleges may be easier for her to get in … less competition from her own school. </p>
<p>My daughter attends one of the top boarding schools that routinely sends 1/3 to ivies … my daughter is not in that crowd.</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Some schools compare students from the same high school, and some promise that they don’t. Hard to say. I live in NYC and there are some very excellent public and private high schools that routinely get many, many students into top schools. I don’t know if there is a quota, but I can’t really imagine that they want an imbalance.</p>
<p>Top boarding schools and the like are a package deal, and part of the package is the college counseling. Which includes, to some extent, acting as traffic cop so that all of the kids don’t apply to the same three colleges, and to the extent possible giving each kid the best chance possible somewhere good for him or her. But not Harvard (or Yale, or Williams) for everyone.</p>
<p>Generally, this is one of the things that “top boarding schools” do really, really well. So maybe your daughter (and you) should sit back and listen carefully to whatever signals she is being given.</p>
<p>By the way, what do you mean by “she is not in that crowd”? She is not on a par academically with the super-achieving set of students who appear headed to Harvard, etc.? She is their academic equal, but not social friends? Or the school doesn’t see her that way?</p>
<p>In any event, there isn’t a simple answer to your question. The boarding school may have a good relationship with the admissions staff at X College, and feel sure it can get a number of students accepted there. So X College may be a better bet than Z College, where the boarding school means nothing, even if there’s no internal competition.</p>
<p>My understanding is that universities rarely have quotas, but LACs do. At my D’s old high school, it’s notoriously difficult to get into one particular LAC. That’s because it’s very popular at the high school and lots of kids apply there. With an incoming class of about 300, the LAC has accepted 5 students per year for years and years. The median GPA and SAT scores of those accepted are higher than those for some of the top universities, which are more prestigious. </p>
<p>I do think it helps to apply to schools that are less common, particularly from a desirable boarding school. I think colleges realize that if one kid is admitted, comes and enjoys it, it’s probable that it will get more applications from that school in the future.</p>
<p>I agree with JHS though that the college advisers at boarding schools generally know what they are doing. However, I know some pretty bitter kids and parents who felt that they were coerced into not applying to a particular college, in order to help a classmate.</p>
<p>My daughter is not on a par with the super achieving crowd headed for Harvard. She is a creative soul who finds her own path and is somewhat oblivious to the college hustle … much to her sanity but not mine!</p>
<p>Even so some of her top picks had a solid handful apply last year with at least 3 accepted. We are trying to stay away from schools that have double digit # of applicants from last year. Her class has about 140 kids.</p>
<p>Yes … I feel as though we are doing the college advisor dance. I think returning to the west will also help since most of her classmates will stay east.</p>
<p>LACs do not have quotas, but certainly don’t want to admit a class primarily from just a handful of schools. though candidates from top day/prep schools are admitted in high numbers. (At D’s girls day school about 25% of every graduating class ENROLLS at HYP, with the weaker students at Skidmore and Conn College)</p>
<p>JHS and jonri have it right, the college guidance staff ought to be on top of this, thought applicant families are often disappointed with the college office’s rules and the list that the counselor gives the student applicant. At D’s school, students were limted to 8 applications (excluding the state system) - - 3 reach, 3 match, 3 safety - - with statistical defintions for each categorie (ie: a match was as college/uni where students w/ your numbers were admitted at a rate of 50% or better). </p>
<p>As part of the strategizing meant that if there were 4 legacies applying to a “hot” LAC (Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan, Swatty), other non-legacy and non-hooked students were steered away from that school - - much to the chagrin of the student and her family. This was occaisionally the source of some tension and charges of favoritism when students were affirmatively discourged from applying to certain unis/LACs. OTOH, the pretty much evereyone ended up at a school that was a good match for her.</p>
<p>I have always believed that a middle-of-the-pack student fares much better applying from even a lesser day/prep school than from a top public.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>The paranoia over hs quotas for admissions is an absolute myth. Our hs sent a ridiculous number of kids to Stanford last year, none to Harvard and a ridiculous number to Harvard this year, zero to Stanford. If anything, I’d say there’s a case to be made that highly selective schools suddenly hit on a particular hs and recruit big time from it in a particular year. It’s almost as if a critical mass of great applicants from a single hs gets the attention of the Adcoms and raises the chances of all applicants from that hs.</p>
<p>Someone told me they look at home zipcodes as well as HS. So if your child attends a school in a different town from where you reside you might also consider what’s going on at your local public HS. Anyone know how this factors in?</p>
<p>S’s high school is similar to your D’s. We’ve been told that there are not quotas. There are years that certain schools have taken quite a few of our students and years that not that many kids were accepted. When you are talking about the small LACs, I can see where it could be tough going if many, many kids from a given school apply. However, I have seen as many as 9 kids accepted by some of these little, selective schools. Sometimes it can be an advantage to be in a crowd where there are a lot of legacies and development types. I think it might be difficult to turn down a student clearly “superior” to some legacy tips. </p>
<p>For the larger schools and the HPY types, I really don’t think there is a quota. If there truly are a very large number of kids who should be accepted from a given high school, I think those schools would accept them. The selectivity criteria are such that it is very unlikely such a thing is going to happen, however.</p>
<p>I think it’s true that sometimes a school will have a particularly good relationship with a college. Back in the day, anyone from my boarding school could get into Vassar because the founding headmistress had gone there. Every couple of years there would be a girl rejected everywhere (back in the day when we only applied to 3 or 4 colleges) and they’d call up Vassar and off they’d go.</p>
<p>I don’t believe there is a quota, but I do believe that there are mysteries out there. How else to explain why every year, twice as many students get accepted by Harvard than the other schools?</p>
<p>I know that schools who have the time, staff, and care to do so will go over acceptances by school to make sure that severe inequities did not occur. Many books written by admissions people have said so, and it does make sense. It does not mean that every little inequity or inconsistency will be addressed, but they will review the whole picture. Most often waitlist is where someone is placed rather than actually rejected if there is an issue. It is not a big line item from what I have heard, but some consideration is given to the situation.</p>
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<p>In NYC there are very few zoned public high schools. It is not unusual especially at the top public schools (esoecially stuy, tech, bx science and hunter who all send a good number students to the top schools year over year) to have students from all over the city.</p>
<p>OP - one thing to keep in mind is if your daughter is not one of those high achievers at her boarding school, you may need to work harder for her. Prep schools need to keep up their rankings by getting at least X% of students into top 20s, then they just need to place 100% of kids.</p>
<p>I do think students from the same school are competing with each other. My friend’s son decided not to apply to UPenn because of high number of applicants from his prep school, instead he applied to Cornell with fewer applicants. Prep school’s GC will often have a conference call with adcoms to go over each applicant before the final decision is made.</p>
<p>Your child’s highschool milieu does affect his/her strategy, especially for medium and small selective colleges. We live overseas and my son’s international highschool was immediately recognizable. Although an astounding percentage of its graduates went on to college (something like 98%) and top graduates traditionally landed spots at the very best colleges worldwide, the number of students accepted to an individual college or university was always limited.</p>
<p>No one had attended my son’s #1 choice for as long as any one could remember. For various reasons, the counselors had no personal relationship with the college, and quite frankly, no interest in encouraging applications. My son applied ED and was accepted. Unbeknownst to him his class salutatorian, an outstanding and talented student, applied to the same small liberal arts college. He was accepted of course (he was accepted everywhere he applied) and ended up attending the same school as my son. </p>
<p>Even though the sal’s profile was very different from my son’s, I think that because of the size and uniqueness of the highschool and because of the size and selectivity of the college, had they both applied RD, my son’s chances would have diminished. </p>
<p>As it was the counselors were amazed and my son had to hear more than once, “You’re going to the same college as X?!” [Mental response: Do me a favor, don’t do me any favors.]</p>
<p>Lesson here: Think through your child’s strategy and don’t depend on the counselors’ strategy.</p>
<p>ED can affect chances that way. Many kids are spooked into applying ED for that reason. I know of two kids this year who applied to Tufts and Emory ED (respectively) when they truly wanted to go to Upenn and Duke. They felt that the tide was against them considering who was applying to those schools from their schools. On the other hand, there were a few kids accepted to UPenn and Duke who were surprises.</p>
<p>It seems to me if your child wants to attend a particular college-then the schools GC should do everything in their power to support your child-especially if you are paying for a private hs. If your childs choice is a reach, and your child is aware that they are applying to a reach school but they still want to apply, then you as their parent would most likely do everything in your power to support your child’s choice. It’s your child’s life-not the private HS we are talking about here, correct?</p>
<p>Well, the GC works for the school and has the schools best interest at heart, which means as good a placement as possible for as many students as possible. Also, I’m not sure it’s worth at GC “doing everything possible” for a student that’s a real long-shot. Why waste one’s limted juice on a lottery, instead of throwing one’s weight behind a candidate where it’s likely to make a difference?</p>
<p>NYC, and others with children in private HS…is it possible that the gC in these hs have a self-imposed quota of the number of students they go to bat for-and if your child is now #4 in the total number applying to a particular school that they will only “support” 3, and encourage you and your student to look at another college? That way THEY can stay within the range of projected acceptances.
Of course I am not advocating your child apply willy nilly to a school-but-IF the child thinks they are up to the rigor of that school-and they like the offerings of that school/feel its the right school for them-and they realize it may be a long shot-then why not support their choice? The private hs is being paid to provide guidance-and support. Ultimately, Imo, it should be the child’s and the parents choice-and the private hs gc should take the time and effort to support that choice.
Now, if the GC are constrained in time-then they could impose a number of schools they will write letters for-not-I am only going to write a letter if I think that school will accept your child. There are too many students applying today to not feel the acceptance pool is somewhat of a lottery in getting your child accepted.
My values on this topic stems from the fact that my DD attended a public hs where the GC had 700 students per GC. The student had to advocate for what they wanted, and often had to find the words to help the GC see the benefit of taking the time to help them with letters, et all-when the GC really were just set up to process the most time effective college selection-which was the state universities & colleges. Your child is dealing with a GC who is handling maybe 50-150 students-or maybe even less than 50. Why not help your child push that envelope-and support them in their dreams? You may be pleasantly surprised.</p>
<p>Let me tell you what happens if you do that here in the Big Apple. </p>
<p>My kid went to public school. However, some of our neighbors go to private school. Two of them went to the same school. One kid really, really wanted to go to College A and talked a lot about it. He applied early decision and always intended to.</p>
<p>A friend of his got interested in the same college, in large part from hearing the first kid enthuse about it. He decided he too would apply ED to that school.</p>
<p>It was a bit of a reach for both kids, but the second kid had better stats.</p>
<p>Second kid and parents were called in for a conference. College advisor said he thought it unlikely College A would accept both students ED. Second kid could apply there ED if he wanted to, but before he did, he should be aware that the college advisor’s rec would say in no uncertain terms that if the college were only to take ONE kid it should be the OTHER kid with the weaker stats. Second kid decided not to apply ED. </p>
<p>That’s the real world. First kid got into his dream school early. Second kid ended up at a different LAC.</p>
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<p>Had kid B been mine, the “college advisor” and I would have been wrasslin’ in the bar-ditch. Highly un-professional action on the part of the “counselor”. Highly. It would not have ended after their threat.</p>
<p>What is this ? Third grade? Somebody called “dibbsies” on a college? That’s just silly.</p>