College admission process question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That is a compelling and eye-opening stat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.




That would no longer be the case today. There are entire counties in the west and south of Virginia that send zero kids to UVA. It's in Dean J's blog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That is a compelling and eye-opening stat.

+1000. Came here to say that. It makes logical sense, but so stunning to think about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.




That would no longer be the case today. There are entire counties in the west and south of Virginia that send zero kids to UVA. It's in Dean J's blog.

Show me where she says that?

[Anonymous]

Even if it says this for UVA, they are looking to balance the class, beyond just in state/out of state.

“When it comes to further quotas, there isn’t anything. There’s no target, no restriction, no quota for a specific high school, town, county or region.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That is a compelling and eye-opening stat.

+1000. Came here to say that. It makes logical sense, but so stunning to think about.

I posted this stat--here's the link:
https://www.pomona.edu/news/2021/03/25-pomona-college-announces-new-class-2025

(It really hit home when I saw it because my DD was one who applied and was waitlisted. It just meant that she wasn't in the top approximately 8 female applicants from Maryland that year, not to mention that she hadn't applied early decision.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if it says this for UVA, they are looking to balance the class, beyond just in state/out of state.

“When it comes to further quotas, there isn’t anything. There’s no target, no restriction, no quota for a specific high school, town, county or region.”

IMO that's a half truth. The target might be a fluid one, therefore easy to claim it doesn't exist, but Naviance would suggest there is a target, particulary for NoVa students. If a kid from rural VA can get in with a - let's say for argument's sake - 1300 SAT - there is a absolutely a bar for NoVa students that is higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if it says this for UVA, they are looking to balance the class, beyond just in state/out of state.

“When it comes to further quotas, there isn’t anything. There’s no target, no restriction, no quota for a specific high school, town, county or region.”

IMO that's a half truth. The target might be a fluid one, therefore easy to claim it doesn't exist, but Naviance would suggest there is a target, particulary for NoVa students. If a kid from rural VA can get in with a - let's say for argument's sake - 1300 SAT - there is a absolutely a bar for NoVa students that is higher.

I agree. It may not technically be a strict quota but I can see at my kids' NoVA HS pretty consistently UVA admits about 50 students every year regardless of how many apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You need to dig past the marketing page to the Common Data Set, where is also says that only 42% submit a class rank. So that stat you quote is 90% of the students who submit a class rank, not 90% of UVA students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You need to dig past the marketing page to the Common Data Set, where is also says that only 42% submit a class rank. So that stat you quote is 90% of the students who submit a class rank, not 90% of UVA students.

Even schools that don't submit a class rank, UVA knows its class rank. Naviance in FCPS will show you that 95%+ of FCPS students admitted to UVA are in the top 10% (with the majority in the top 5%) of grades in their class.

[Anonymous]

How can you tell how many kids got in per year in Naviance? I don’t see that info.

[Anonymous]

Yes Op. Yes to your question. Ish. Not an exact number, but yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.




That would no longer be the case today. There are entire counties in the west and south of Virginia that send zero kids to UVA. It's in Dean J's blog.

Show me where she says that?

Go to Notes from Peabody and do as ear has “by county”. She provides the breakdown by county every year. It’s true some counties have only one acceptance or zero and Fairfax has 600 or so. It’s also in her notes on College Confidential. It’s probably also provided by SCHEV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That is a compelling and eye-opening stat.

+1000. Came here to say that. It makes logical sense, but so stunning to think about.

I posted this stat--here's the link:
https://www.pomona.edu/news/2021/03/25-pomona-college-announces-new-class-2025

(It really hit home when I saw it because my DD was one who applied and was waitlisted. It just meant that she wasn't in the top approximately 8 female applicants from Maryland that year, not to mention that she hadn't applied early decision.)

This description of the class is amazingly specific, and fascinating!

[Anonymous]

There is no set quota that they aim to meet from each high school—as in, "We must find fifty kids to admit from X high school"—but there is a rough-but-flexible number which, if they go over it, admissions officers feel they are overweighting one school, and if they go significantly under it they will probably have a conversation with the counselors at that school about what happened.