College admission process question

[Anonymous]

How does the admission process go in terms of the selection of students from a particular school? IS it true that the college or university admits a reserved amount of students? For instance, ABC college takes 50 students from Langley high school even if there are other capable or qualified students from LAngley high school?

[Anonymous]

I do think colleges want kids from a variety of schools so it can be harder to get in from a school with lots of talented kids (Langley).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does the admission process go in terms of the selection of students from a particular school? IS it true that the college or university admits a reserved amount of students? For instance, ABC college takes 50 students from Langley high school even if there are other capable or qualified students from LAngley high school?

This is what the naviance data suggest, same number admitted each year.

[Anonymous]

My understanding is that no, there's no reserved amount of students. They may look at students from the same school at the same time (since part of the process is understanding the environment of the particular high school) but not as a way of filling some quota.

You might be interested in reading Jeffrey Selingo's "Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions." It's a recent book (2020) all about the process and decisions that go on at three actual schools (Emory University, Davidson College and the University of Washington).

[Anonymous]

It’s not by school, it’s by district.

[Anonymous]

Yes, on a tour of a SLAC, the presenter said to the kids: if you look at our stats, we have kid for all 50 states + many other places - we want that demographic; if you think about how many schools there are in each state, and then look the the small number of freshmen we select, you should be able to understand that if we don't accept you, it doesn't mean you weren't good enough.

[Anonymous]

Yes a school like uva could probably by stats alone take 100 kids from Langley and none from a rural school in VA but they won’t do that. They have to take some from all parts of Virginia, and they have to by charter take 2/3 from in state.

My roommate at UVA was valedictorian of her small rural high school. She was head cheerleader, student leader, etc. she also only got like 1150 on the SATs. I remember being shocked by that. Meanwhile my FCPS school sent 30 kids to UVA, and we all had higher SAT scores than that I’m sure.

There is a quota of sorts, is my point, and they try to balance the class regionally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not by school, it’s by district.

I don't agree with that 100% - they may admit a percentage of students who apply, but they don't admit a % of the high school population. Every college admission representative I've ever talked to has said they evaluate the students based on the school they attend. My children attend one of the lowest performing high schools in Fairfax County. If UVA and W&M did not admit one student from our high school, I would imagine "heads would roll." We have extremely smart, talented kids at our high school, it's just easier to stand. Our high school usually only gets single digit admits to the top two VA state schools. But we also don't have a large percentage of our graduates applying to four year colleges.

My DS is at W&M and his stats were much lower than their typical admitted student, but he fell within the top 5% of his high school class. He took the most rigorous courses, had a 4.0 GPA and a 1300 SAT. Got into both UVA & W&M. Like another poster said about her roommate at UVA, my DS was a student leader. If he had attended Langley High School, also within FCPS, there is no way he would have gotten into UVA & W&M with his stats.

[Anonymous]

Yes at a small school.
No at a large school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not by school, it’s by district.

I don't agree with that 100% - they may admit a percentage of students who apply, but they don't admit a % of the high school population. Every college admission representative I've ever talked to has said they evaluate the students based on the school they attend. My children attend one of the lowest performing high schools in Fairfax County. If UVA and W&M did not admit one student from our high school, I would imagine "heads would roll." We have extremely smart, talented kids at our high school, it's just easier to stand. Our high school usually only gets single digit admits to the top two VA state schools. But we also don't have a large percentage of our graduates applying to four year colleges.

My DS is at W&M and his stats were much lower than their typical admitted student, but he fell within the top 5% of his high school class. He took the most rigorous courses, had a 4.0 GPA and a 1300 SAT. Got into both UVA & W&M. Like another poster said about her roommate at UVA, my DS was a student leader. If he had attended Langley High School, also within FCPS, there is no way he would have gotten into UVA & W&M with his stats.

90% of UVA students are Top 10% of their class. It is written write on their website.
If 80% of the students at Langley HS or TJ are 4.2 GPAS then that makes it a little more competition for them to stand out as Top 10% students. Regardless....whomever get thats push for Top 10% still gets calculated into the region/county/district algorithm.

[Anonymous]

I think you've probably gotten what you're looking for but in regards to Langley and UVA, I was told when my kid was a freshman that they'd need a 1520 and a 4.2 to be competitive coming from Langley. The gpa stat is definitely higher now, but the SAT is probably the same. It's the upper X% of the class who is considered. Those kids are competing against each other.

[Anonymous]

It’s definitely by school as well as district. They may have a range (e.g., 28-34 from xyz school) but they have one. They can’t just have 1000 kids from FCPS and 100 from Langley and 5 from a “lower ranked” school.

Btw, every college does this. One example is UNC, they take 82% of their class from in state. It is MUCH harder to get in out of state than in state, with even much higher stats.

All this is to say, it’s not personal, and it’s not always a reflection of whether you’re smart or talented enough or “deserving” enough to go there, so get that out of your head right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not by school, it’s by district.

I don't agree with that 100% - they may admit a percentage of students who apply, but they don't admit a % of the high school population. Every college admission representative I've ever talked to has said they evaluate the students based on the school they attend. My children attend one of the lowest performing high schools in Fairfax County. If UVA and W&M did not admit one student from our high school, I would imagine "heads would roll." We have extremely smart, talented kids at our high school, it's just easier to stand. Our high school usually only gets single digit admits to the top two VA state schools. But we also don't have a large percentage of our graduates applying to four year colleges.

My DS is at W&M and his stats were much lower than their typical admitted student, but he fell within the top 5% of his high school class. He took the most rigorous courses, had a 4.0 GPA and a 1300 SAT. Got into both UVA & W&M. Like another poster said about her roommate at UVA, my DS was a student leader. If he had attended Langley High School, also within FCPS, there is no way he would have gotten into UVA & W&M with his stats.

+++

[Anonymous]

Pomona compares all the kids who apply from a certain school system, e.g., all applicants from MCPS (not from a specific school in MCPS)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pomona compares all the kids who apply from a certain school system, e.g., all applicants from MCPS (not from a specific school in MCPS)

And last year they took 15 total from all of Maryland, so they can really cherry pick.