Anonymous wrote:We aren’t low income as a family or first generation to attend college, but live in a low income zip code and teen attends large public title 1 school. Will graduate in top 1%, lots of DE and AP classes, expecting SAT to be above 1500 based on PSAT scores. No national awards, but some cool ECs, strong leadership, job, interesting hobby. No one, or rarely anyone, applies to college out of state. He is wanting a school in top 5-20 (which are all out of state). Does coming from a school with limited resources and no one from your high school applying give an admission boost?

If the school is a large urban or suburban school it might help get evaluated in context. I have seen the very top kids from schools like these get some excellent admissions in the Bay Area (Stanford, UCB) but I have also seen kids shut out. It is really going to come down to their other factors like type of leadership, community involvement, etc. along with everything else.

If you were coming from a rural coded Title I school the advantage would be much stronger because it fits both current ideas of 'neglected groups' and you will be evaluated in the context of little being available for ECs.

I have a service provider whose daughter goes to a Title 1 HS in the area. She got in early to UVA with a full ride. Same grades and EC at Yorktown might have just gotten her in, if she was lucky.

100% especially if you are URM.

Anonymous wrote:I sure hope not.

Certainly it is. Applications are reviewed in the context of the high school. No one in history has achieve a score above 1200, his 1500 definitely places him very well.

I sure hope not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We aren’t low income as a family or first generation to attend college, but live in a low income zip code and teen attends large public title 1 school. Will graduate in top 1%, lots of DE and AP classes, expecting SAT to be above 1500 based on PSAT scores. No national awards, but some cool ECs, strong leadership, job, interesting hobby. No one, or rarely anyone, applies to college out of state. He is wanting a school in top 5-20 (which are all out of state). Does coming from a school with limited resources and no one from your high school applying give an admission boost?

Um, no. If anything, it's probably a detriment.

Do you have some cynical notion that admissions officers will look more favorably on a child who has "survived" a ... what ... ghetto environment or some shit like that?

DP.

Completely disagree.

My kids are at a Title I school that punches well above its weight in admissions. Multiple T10 admits every year, even for kids who are not FGLI or otherwise preferred.

Anonymous wrote:Kinda.

But you still have to have great GPA, SAT, and ECs.

It helps a tiny bit.

I agree with this. I also believe that schools that are majority non-white give a small boost to white kids who have attended majority non white Title I schools. Schools see them as a good fit.

Of course, everything else on the application has to be in order as mentioned.

Anonymous wrote:We aren’t low income as a family or first generation to attend college, but live in a low income zip code and teen attends large public title 1 school. Will graduate in top 1%, lots of DE and AP classes, expecting SAT to be above 1500 based on PSAT scores. No national awards, but some cool ECs, strong leadership, job, interesting hobby. No one, or rarely anyone, applies to college out of state. He is wanting a school in top 5-20 (which are all out of state). Does coming from a school with limited resources and no one from your high school applying give an admission boost?

Um, no. If anything, it's probably a detriment.

Do you have some cynical notion that admissions officers will look more favorably on a child who has "survived" a ... what ... ghetto environment or some shit like that?

Kinda.

But you still have to have great GPA, SAT, and ECs.

It helps a tiny bit.

From Dartmouth data, if you are a disadvantaged student, a 1550+ will triple the acceptance rate. It's not important how you call it. Hook or not hook, the advantage is huge and real.

No. There are only five hooks.

The example in OP might be an advantage, but it doesn’t put you in a separate bucket. That’s what a hook does.

Yes; it’s a hook.

Not on the level of a hook.

Coming from a school with limited resources is typically relevant in a few ways. School clubs/activities are judged in the context of the high school. Sometimes the high school can indicate low-income but that typically only matters if the student is a Pell recipient - sounds like that is not the case, and other factors will be considered that may indicate the truth, such as parent education and employment. The most significant benefits of being at a title 1 high school would be ease of being at the top of the class for grades and a potential (but unstated) inference about race background.

The downsides of a low resource high school include (1) potential lack of rigor available and (2) not being as prepared for college academically compared to a high school with average resources.

Anonymous wrote:We aren’t low income as a family or first generation to attend college, but live in a low income zip code and teen attends large public title 1 school. Will graduate in top 1%, lots of DE and AP classes, expecting SAT to be above 1500 based on PSAT scores. No national awards, but some cool ECs, strong leadership, job, interesting hobby. No one, or rarely anyone, applies to college out of state. He is wanting a school in top 5-20 (which are all out of state). Does coming from a school with limited resources and no one from your high school applying give an admission boost?

Probably not without first gen or low income. Your kid may do well based on the rest of their resume though.

We aren’t low income as a family or first generation to attend college, but live in a low income zip code and teen attends large public title 1 school. Will graduate in top 1%, lots of DE and AP classes, expecting SAT to be above 1500 based on PSAT scores. No national awards, but some cool ECs, strong leadership, job, interesting hobby. No one, or rarely anyone, applies to college out of state. He is wanting a school in top 5-20 (which are all out of state). Does coming from a school with limited resources and no one from your high school applying give an admission boost?