Groton-like Colleges

Colleges Listed by Concentration of Groton Graduates (2014-2018, 5 or more matriculants)

  1. Scripps
  2. Bowdoin
  3. Hamilton
  4. Georgetown
  5. Williams
  6. Chicago
  7. Harvard
  8. Middlebury
  9. Dartmouth
  10. Brown
  11. Trinity
  12. Princeton
  13. Yale
  14. Tufts
  15. Columbia
  16. St. Andrews
  17. W&M
  18. BC
  19. Duke
  20. UVa
  21. Northeastern
  22. NYU
  23. UNC--CH

Comments

  1. The ordering goes beyond raw matriculation statistics to determine the colleges at which Groton graduates are represented in greatest concentration.
  2. Groton was chosen as an example of private boarding institutions for attributes related to its own highly selective admission criteria (https://amp.businessinsider.com/most-selective-boarding-schools-in-america-2016-2) as well as for the accessibility of its matriculation data.
  3. NESCACs comprise half of the top eight colleges.
  4. Ivies comprise six of the top fifteen colleges.
  5. Colleges in geographical proximity to Groton, notably Harvard, Tufts, BC and Northeastern, appear in disproportion to more distant colleges.
  6. Three public universities serve as popular destinations.
  7. Obvious factors, particularly those related to sample size, limit the significance of the ordering.

https://www.groton.org/page/academics/college-counseling/matriculations

  1. Of the 22 U.S. colleges listed, all but 2 register as "most selective" by *U.S. News*.

You forgot Northwestern University in your initial post. Seven (7) Groton students matriculated at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois from the classes of 2014-2018.

(Easy to do as it was tied with Northeastern,)

Thank you, @Publisher!

  1. Scripps
  2. Bowdoin
  3. Hamilton
  4. Georgetown
  5. Williams
  6. Chicago
  7. Harvard
  8. Middlebury
  9. Dartmouth
  10. Brown
  11. Trinity
  12. Princeton
  13. Yale
  14. Tufts
  15. Columbia
  16. Northwestern
  17. St. Andrews
  18. W&M
  19. BC
  20. Duke
  21. UVa
  22. Northeastern
  23. NYU
  24. UNC--CH

Interesting that Scripps is #1 yet no other school in the Claremont Consortium made the list.

Noticeably absent are Amherst College, Penn & Cornell. Also, Swarthmore, Haverford, WashUStL, MIT, & Vanderbilt.

Lots of great West Coast schools MIA: Stanford, Pomona, UC Berkeley, Harvey Mudd…

Ditto with Midwest: U of Chicago, Oberlin, Wash U, Kenyon, Carleton, Macalester, Denison.

I would have expected Williams and Wesleyan to be on that list more than Scripps.

By way of comparison because both Groton & SPS are super elite boarding schools , I googled St. Paul’s School college placement. Under SPS Facts :

Colleges & Universities most attended by SPS (St. Paul’s School ) grads over the last 4 years:

  1. Georgetown–27 students

  2. Brown–24 students

  3. Harvard–22 students

  4. Dartmouth College–21 students

  5. UPenn–20 students

  6. Cornell–19 students

  7. Yale–15 students

  8. Boston College–14 students

  9. Columbia–14 students

  10. Princeton–13 students.

Very interesting. All 8 Ivies, Georgetown & Boston College.

@merc81: Which schools do you consider to be peers of Groton ? Is Groton also 100% boarding ?

@merc81 I am really confused if I go to your link here are the top 10 schools for Groton at the same link you provided. Why is your list different than mine?

https://www.groton.org/page/academics/college-counseling/matriculations

Georgetown University 26
Harvard University 22
University of Chicago 21
Brown University 19
New York University 13
Bowdoin College 12
Dartmouth College 12
Princeton University 12
University of Virginia 11
Yale University 11

@ReluctantDad : My SPS list & your Groton list are apples to apples comparisons. @merc81’s list is concentration of students at each school in order to create a bit of Groton culture at that college or university.

Wondering how you’d define the culture and the influence it might have?

For this it would be hard to overlook the St. Grotlesex designation, which serves to properly group these schools fairly closely by founding dates as well: St. Paul’s (1856), St. Mark’s (1865), Groton (1884), Middlesex (1901). Others could include familiar names from Exeter in New Hampshire to St. Andrew’s in Delaware.

Groton boards 87%.

@CaliMex: Note that the University of Chicago does appear (#6).

OK, so Scripps has about 5.5 Groton kids per thousand, 5/1000 at Bowdoin, 3/1000 at Dartmouth, and 2/1000 at Brown. What insight does this give us? Not sure the campuses’ cultures are becoming Grotonized at these levels…

What would it mean to be “Grotonized”?
Would love to understand the cultural factors. How is Groton’s culture distinct?

Groton was chosen as a school representative of certain attributes that may transfer well to the college level. Nonetheless, a meaningful answer may derive from an academic basis. Groton, for example, excels in the teaching of Latin and Greek (https://www.groton.org/page/news-detail?pk=889346). Interests such as these can continue more naturally in college if a sufficient base of students enters with strong preparation.

… but only if the students are interested in pursuing Latin and Greek in college. I only know two Groton grads and neither took a single related class in college… Do most continue with the Classics?

Maybe I am just cynical. But could this be a reflection that certain colleges just love well-connected rich (white) kids more than others? For example, Georgetown probably has the least diverse student body, both racially and socioeconomically among top-25 (USN rank) colleges (the total FA they gave out was far lower than some others).

@IWannaHelp: Georgetown loves full pay students. Probably due, in large part, to its small endowment relative to its prestige and stature.

To the OP : “Groton-like colleges” - Do you refer to colleges that Groton students like, or do you seek information on colleges tha have similarities to Groton?

@Golfgr8: The normalized ranking in the orginal post points toward colleges that share enrollment aspects with Groton, and therefore these colleges appear “Groton-like” based on this particular statistical viewpoint. As a corollary, in creating these levels of representation, applicants from Groton seem to have revealed a preference for the colleges listed. Further opinions on the topic would be interesting to see (though note that the single-year sample limitation has already been acknowledged).

Although the thread title might suggest otherwise, Groton serves as only a case example. For another example, this was calculated a few years ago and was based on the concentration of representation at the listed colleges for Forbes#1 ranked Trinity School (minimum 5 TS matriculants, 2011-2015):

  1. Hamilton
  2. Harvard
  3. Colgate
  4. Columbia
  5. Brown
  6. Yale
  7. Kenyon
  8. Amherst
  9. Dartmouth
  10. Penn
  11. Wesleyan
  12. Bowdoin
  13. Chicago
  14. Pomona
  15. Middlebury
  16. Williams
  17. Duke
  18. Princeton
  19. Emory
  20. Cornell

That’s funny - I had actually noticed that my Scripps kid knows a weirdly large number of people from Groton, but I’d assumed it was just a friends-of-friends networking effect.