Does School's "name value" crucially affect one's chance of going to university?

[Ishimura]

Do you think that one's school's name value or reputation crucially affect one's chance of going to university?

I am just wandering because all of my friends, who graduated from so-so high school, in US, no matter how they work hard, failed to get into ivy-leagues...

Thank you for your time reading it!

[susanne]

I don't think so; at least I know in Australia it isn't.

We're the only public school in SA that offers IB and public school is always looked down upon by asian parents, however this has never affected people achieving high, really. There are people who goes overseas to attend uni (one of our last year's prefect is in New York University in Abu Dhabi but unlike another girl from a private school, his achievement was not on the newspaper), there are also people who got perfect scores, there are people who got accepted into medicine without having achieved a perfect score. I don't think school is so much an issue affecting your chance, but rather it's your work and personality that is the decisive factor for many universities. Going to a private school and going to the public school doesn't make much difference, theoratically,

Ivy is pretty hard to get in, and more or less it's like trying to get 45/45 for IB, which depends a great deal on your luck as well,

[dubyawhy]

Not for most schools.

For places like Eton, Andover, Exeter, etc....yes.

But everyone else is equal.

[flinquinnster]

I would think that your school name makes minimal difference. Even if it does in the really marginal cases, I would argue that it works opposite to what is expected. So, whilst 'big name' schools that are private schools (or public schools in England, I suppose) might be favourable, some US Ivy League Universities might actually want to try and pick applicants who appear to be from a less privileged background. However, I still think that there are obviously considerations that make a 'brand name' school preferable, like recognition or a preconceived notion of the 'superior' education the student has received.

So honestly, I don't think the name of the school itself would make a difference to an applicant's chance at getting into a university. However, the conditions and education associated with a school will obviously make a huge difference.

[ChocolateDrop]

I think there's other factors that affect admissions, such as previous grades like iGCSE and GCSE or equivalent exam grades. Most of the time, the best elitist schools are the pickiest ones with waiting lists and high admissions criteria so they have access to students with prior good grades anyways. Or tests are conducted to the asses the applicant's potential ability. These schools are also renowned for the quality of their education as well as sometimes these schools are pricier than other less deemed elitist schools so people may want to try harder to get grades worth the spend, thus [so many] students end up getting good, high grades to complement their previous grades. This would in turn make them impressive candidates, along with the fact that they might have other experiences and extracurriculars to put on their application. At the end of the day, we're often not shown all this information so we may be inclined to think it's just the name of the school.