[apparent]

One of the charts in TFA shows a discontinuity in admissions rate around 75% UPP. This means that if you send your kid to a HS that is underserved when you enroll, but drops below the critical 75% threshold because too many other families are doing the same, then the school could fall out of the strong-benefit category.

The kid would still have a better chance than if he applied from a high-performing school, but it wouldn't be as much of an advantage.

Socially, I'm guessing the kid could face some challenges because (1) other high performing students might not like him because he's a curve-breaker, (2) teachers would know what the family was up to and could view it as distasteful, and (3) if the student went to UCSD or another school where this is a well-known hack, there could be stigma for having gamed the system/being less-smart.

[kelipso]

No one cares what high school you went to in college, unless maybe you went to the same high school yourself.

[apparent]

Most of the time, no one knows. But if you're from a nice part of LA or SD but you went to a HS in a bad part of town, people might wonder why you went there, or figure it out for themselves.

I think in most cases fellow undergrads would see it as just playing the game, but some might see it as "cheating" or like you didn't earn your spot as much as they did (if they were from a HS that was from a good part of town).

[aprilthird2021]

> other high performing students might not like him because he's a curve-breaker

Not that common in high school to have classes and exams curved. Also kids don't care.

> teachers would know what the family was up to and could view it as distasteful

They also don't care

> if the student went to UCSD or another school where this is a well-known hack, there could be stigma for having gamed the system/being less-smart.

College kids also don't care and there are lots of other ways to game the system. Ocne you're at school, no one cares who gamed the system to get there and how they did it