Coming from a successful high school, New Trier students often think that their chances at getting into a college or university may be smaller because of the competitive and rigorous atmosphere.
While this is a common rumor and concern at New Trier, it isn’t necessarily true. Department chair of post high school counseling, James Conroy, mentions how he thinks NT Students are not at a disadvantage.
“I don’t think they’re penalized. People think there is a quota. There is no quota. People think colleges want to take three from one high school and five from another.”
Conroy mentions how a small university needs a specific member for their band, and if an applying student happens to play that instrument, then they have a higher chance of being accepted.
Another factor to consider is the same 100 schools that most New Trier students apply to, or as the Post High School Counseling office calls it, the “Holy Grail.” Part of the Post High School Counselor’s job is to broaden a student’s list of schools they apply to. This is important because, according to Conroy, it has become harder to get into these same schools.
The more elite and expensive schools, like the Ivies, are now offering more money for anyone who can get in. Previously, however, if you could not afford a school then you would have to choose a less prestigious school offering more money.
Now, Conroy explains, since students who can’t afford these elite schools are getting in, it is making more competition for students like these at New Trier.
This is why the post high school counseling office recommends applying to schools that not as many New Trier students would apply to.
According to Conroy, many elite schools have raised their minority and first generation populations. While this is important and creating diversity, for places like New Trier this doesn’t help because the majority of the students are white and have parents who are college graduates.
Many Big Ten schools are familiar with New Trier and aware of its academic success.
Some students are concerned that more will be expected from Big Ten schools because of their familiarity with New Trier.
A recent rumor regarding the University of Wisconsin-Madison concerns the fact that the university is cutting back on New Trier kids because they expect more from them.
Conroy says that this myth is not true. A few years ago their admissions counselor for our area changed, and the previous one was familiar with New Trier and did many interviews here, therefore letting more students in. This is no longer the case; so it is not the fact that they want higher GPA’s and ACT’s from us. The only reason it changed, according to Conroy, was due to the admissions counselors, “It was nothing that we did.”
Another reason why it is not credible to compare New Trier’s admission to other similar high school’s is because student’s admission is based on their major. For example, if most of the students applying from New Trier are applying to the prestigious engineering school at a university, and the majority of students from another high school are applying to the school of education, which has a lower required GPA and ACT, then the students from the other school are more likely to get in than the New Trier students.
Conroy agrees with this concept, “If we [New Trier] had everybody applying to the school of agriculture, then we would have a lot of people getting in.”
Overall, being a Trevian student in general does not affect one’s admission to a college. Many students tend to believe the rumor that it is harder to get into schools since they went to New Trier, however this isn’t entirely true.
Just because New Trier may have more students rejected from Ivy Leagues doesn’t mean that they were denied because they were New Trier students.
Also, New Trier is not superior just because they may have more students accepted into a prestigious school, it’s based on more factors like GPA, test scores, extracurriculars, factors that actually matter, not a student’s high school background.