[quote=joec]Was wondering about this…Would it be “better” / “easier” to get to a top university/school if everyone in your high school isn’t as TOP/Overachieving?

Like I would assume if everyone from the top CV high school applies to say Stanford, they aren’t going to take a ton of people from the same school right?

Course, it doesn’t mean they’ll take someone from the lower high school neither, but I’m assuming the admissions will start getting glassed eyed after reading about the 7th Nguyen student from the same CV school and why they should be admitted…[/quote]

Yes, I have considered this question as well. However, for my family, I think the best decision we could have made is to go for the best/most competitive school possible.

My kid does very well in school, gets all A’s without having to try much. So at a less-competitive high school, I think it is likely he would be coasting a bit, patting himself on the back for being at the top of the class. However, at CCA (similar to Torrey Pines and to CVMS), there are lots of other kids also getting all A’s, plus doing lots and lots of other extra-curricular academically-challenging stuff, as well as sports, volunteer work, etc. This environment has been unbelievably motivating for my kid and I am just amazed at how hard he now works, mostly on extra-curricular academic stuff that he finds to be intriguing and rewarding.

So I think (for some kids at least) the upsides of the stimulating and motivational peer environment at one of these top middle- or high-schools definitely outweighs the downsides of colleges having too large of a pool to choose from.