CoLLEGE QUESTION!!?

Question

Does it matter which High school you come from when you are applying to the following colleges?

MIT
Stanford
UC Berkely

Answer 1

Well, if you are trying to get into public state universities, you might have a harder time getting in if you didn't go to high school in-state.

But as for the private universities, your high school doesn't matter. Just know that you need to take the most challenging curriculum offered, get very high SAT and SAT Subject Test Scores, and do outstanding extracurriculars if you want to get into Stanford or MIT.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, it does.

Since nearly half of all USA students graduate from HS with a GPA higher than 3.3, how are the colleges supposed to tell who is actually well educated and who is just a graduate of a school that gives everyone A's.

So, the admissions guys make it their business to check out the schools and see which ones really have tough courses. They would know how many kids from a high school have done well at their college in the past, and how many came in with good HS GPAs and then fell on their faces in college.

One admissions officer told me that he had a two high schools on his list where 30% of the kids took AP courses. But in one HS only about 1/10 of the kids got 3 or higher on the test, and in the other about 3/4s of the kids got 3 or higher. So are both schools equal?

You can validate your HS GPA by getting a really high score in the SAT tests. If you get high marks and high SAT that confirms the grades, but if you get high marks and low SAT then it either means that you had a bad day or that your high school is misrepresenting itself. (If you get low marks and high SAT the colleges take that to mean that you are lazy and couldnt be bothered to do your schoolwork.)

Answer 3

I have tons of friends who went to UC Berkeley from a California public school. It's easier to get in there if you're a California resident, because it's a public school, but that being said I have a close friend from out of state who managed to get into UCLA and Berkeley, as well as every other UC she applied to -- not easy, but doable!

Other than that they'll just check out your scores, class standing, transcripts, etc. Far more important than your school is whether you took advantage of some of your school's most rigorous classes.

Go for it. Apply to all of them, just make sure that with an ambitious list like that you also have a fallback, ESPECIALLY if you're applying for an impacted major. I had just as good grades and better sats than some people I know who went to UCLA, but I didn't get in because I applied for their theatre major, which rejects something 90+ percent of its applicants.

Just keep in mind that even if you don't get into your dop choice, you can still have a great college experience. I am glad I didnt go to UCLA because my college life has been everything I hoped and dreamed it could be.

Last thing, kinda off subject. If you're looking at MIT, Berkeley, and Stanford, I'm gonna assume you're interested in the sciences and math. If I may be so bold as to suggest another college to look into: Harvey Mudd. It's a really small, private (pretty exclusive, but worth the try) school that only teaches undergrad, it has a great quirky atmosphere, and small classes, which you might not find at those other three. They really take care of their students. I know several people who go/went there and they all said it was a fantastic experience.

so look into it.

;)

Answer 4

yes, they are going to compare you to other applicants from your school, and they will know what classes and extracurriculars your school offered, so they want to see that you have been active in your school and taken the most challenging classes. People who say they are just interested in GPA and test scores are wrong, colleges want you take take a full load of interesting and challenging classes in high school.

Answer 5

No because all public high schools have the same basic curriclum that they have to fllow.

What does matter is your grades, extracurricular activities, and your test scores.

Answer 6

Colleges don't look at where you're from, but more of how you did there. They look at GPA, SAT and ACT scores, if you took honors classes, extracurriculars, etc.

Answer 7

nope.

just your gpa, sats, etc..