At our school, what rank do we need to be admitted to a Top 20 university?

The content I'm posting today is a edited video content from a seminar invited by the parents of BCA (Bergen County Academies), a renowned science high school located in New Jersey, featuring the director of A-ONE Institute. It discusses the question of what rank a student needs to achieve within the school in order to gain admission to a prestigious university. Although the content is tailored to BCA's seminar, there are aspects applicable to individuals, so I hope this information proves helpful.

Allow us to demonstrate A-One Institute's method of analysis and estimation regarding what rank one needs to achieve to enter certain universities.

The table above lists the top 10 universities based on the US News ranking (Note: Columbia is excluded from US News rankings). Due to tied rankings, there are 11 universities listed, and approximately 1,000 to 1,500 students are accepted from these 11 universities in New Jersey.

Although a consistent number of students are admitted each year, there's a realistic limit to admitting more students suddenly, even if there's an exceptional pool of students in New Jersey. This limitation arises because many overseeing institutions conduct audits if they detect a significant bias towards specific universities.

In New Jersey, there are 531 public high schools and 221 private high schools.

According to our experience at A-One Institute, even achieving first place in the lower half-ranked high schools in the state doesn't guarantee admission to a Top 10 university. The same applies to private schools.

If you've seen cases of students from poorly ranked New Jersey high schools entering Top 10 universities, then these schools are likely in the top half rather than the lower half of the rankings.

Considering schools in New Jersey that have potential for admission to Top 10 universities, approximately:

• 266 Public High Schools

• 111 Private High Schools

Students ranked first in these schools will enter the Top 10 universities!

This suggests that 377 students will smoothly enter the Top 10 universities.

Let's examine how many top-ranked high schools are located in New Jersey. BCA is within the top 500 rankings, and the number of high schools within the International Ranking 500 in New Jersey is:

• 24 Public High Schools

• 12 Private High Schools In total, there are 36 high schools.

If we categorize these 36 high schools into Divisions 1 to 4, where Division 1 represents higher-ranked schools and Division 4 lower-ranked ones, each with 9 schools, the number of students entering Top 10 universities from each division is:

• Division 1: 22.5 students

• Division 2: 17 students

• Division 3: 13 students

• Division 4: 7 students

With 9 schools per division, multiplying by 9 results in a total of 536 New Jersey high school students entering Top 10 universities.

Even students with notably lower GPA and SAT scores sometimes get admitted to Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, or Yale. Most of these students are specialized in music or sports, constituting approximately 8.5%.

Therefore, around 89 out of 1,043 students in New Jersey are specialized students.

377 (Top half-ranked schools' first place)

536 (Students from high schools ranked within the top 500 entering Top 10 universities)

89 (Performing arts students) = Approximately 1002 students.

In reality, 1,043 students were admitted to Top 10 universities in New Jersey, and each year, around 1,000 to 1,050 students achieve admission to Top 10 universities. This estimation aligns closely with our A-One Institute's analysis.

If your child isn't even the first in the entire school or a specialized student, they need to fall within the category of 536 students, divided into Divisions 1 to 4 within the top 500 high schools, to enter a Top 10 university. Analyzing BCA data from the past 6 years based on the criteria mentioned earlier:

To get into the Top 10 at BCA (assuming solely based on GPA), one needs to rank within the top 30 in the entire school.

A school where you can rank within the top 20 will be suitable for entry into the Top 20 universities, requiring approximately 63 ranks within BCA.

For entry into the Top 30 universities, a rank of about 88 within BCA is necessary. For entry into the Top 40 universities, a rank of approximately 102 within BCA is required. For entry into the Top 50 universities, a rank of around 128 within BCA is estimated.

Considering BCA's yearly intake of around 280 students per grade, aiming slightly above the mid-point would mean admission to a Top 50 university in the United States.

However, it's not easy to fit within this top half at prestigious institutions like BCA due to a specific reason—the decrease in the number of Koreans, part of the Asian demographic.

You can observe the increase in Chinese students from the table above. You can see the increase in Indian students from the table above. Can you see the decrease in Korean students?

Even from the table representing green card applicants, you'll note increases for China and India while a decrease for Korea is evident.

Among the Asian majority in the US—mostly Indians, Chinese, and Koreans—Korean representation dropped from 14% (2013) to 8% (2021).

Assuming 10% of BCA's yearly intake of 290 students is Asian and applying an 8% ratio for Koreans, we get a figure of 2.4 students.

If there are about two Korean students within the top 30 in the entire BCA, it's a natural occurrence. If more than two, it means Korean students are performing exceptionally well. While one might question why Chinese and Indian students excel, it's primarily due to their larger population, making it an unavoidable phenomenon.

Based on our extensive experience at A-One Institute, we've discussed what rank one needs to achieve at BCA to gain admission to prestigious universities. Following this discussion in the seminar, we talked about the Upside Potential that enhances a student's value and the Downside Risk that may diminish it.

The information shared today is based on Bergen County Academies as the benchmark in New Jersey. However, it might be worthwhile to analyze your current state's data to understand at what rank you can secure admission to a Top 10 university. We'll strive to bring more informative content in the future.

Thank you.