@sunnyschool
Not exact number but # of applicants decrease as the grade increases.
i.e. Most number of applicants in 9th, then fewer in 10th, even fewer in 11th, rarely in 12th, and a handful PGs…
Right…I know that…but some schools have specific target numbers; other ones only take 11th if attrition.
Oh… sorry @sunnyschool
I do know that a majority of prep schools in NY and Cali usually accept 11th grade students based on attrition…
Edit: Though they might bend for 10th grade…
@sunnyschool I found the class distribution numbers for Andover on the school profile that is published for college admissions offices. I would guess other schools would have something similar? Or perhaps the info you’re looking for could be found in the admissions FAQs for the schools?
@sunnyschool
Most schools that accept students based on attrition will say so somewhere in their website… wording such as ‘admission based on availability, spots open, etc…’
Andover actively accepts new 11th grade students. IIR about 25 maybe attend in an average year. They structure new students added to the class so a freshman class of 200+ ends up with 300+ at graduation.
@MA2012 what percentage of those 11th graders coming in are recruited athletes? My guess is a lot.
There is not insignificant attrition . Many recruited athletes are repeat sophomores, repeat juniors or PGs
@Center - “Not insignificant” meaning there IS a fair amount of attrition each year at some BS?
@MA2012 wow that is pretty significant for Andover.
I don’t know how many are recruited athletes for 11th grade (and how many are international) at Andover. And yes there is attrition too.
@sunnyschool yes.
Not sure about Andover, but several schools we looked at seem to save room to add kids at 10th and 11th grade - the 9th grade class is less than 25% of their total enrollment. So if Andover is adding 25 in 11th grade it doesn’t necessarily mean they had 25 drop outs. And Andover is certainly a school that recruits heavily in the upper grades for high prominence sports.
Keep in mind that most boarding schools have a finite number of beds, regardless of the grade. So while they certainly have a target of how many they would like to admit per grade, even allowing for attrition and athletic recruitment, the total school-wide number has to be a factor. I remember reading on this board that St Paul’s and Exeter recently had to limit the number of admits in some grades, due to over enrollment in others. So although a school may “usually” take a certain number of new 11th graders, it won’t always be the case.
@GMC2918 yes we were told by Exeter and SPS that they have been dropping their 9th grade numbers for a couple of years due to overenrollment. Also many kids from, for example, NYC stay in their school through 9th for maturity and other reasons. So many schools know that they will have a lot of 10th grade applicants from those schools, junior boarding schools etc. I think it’s a year to year management strategy. Some schools might have several repeat juniors or PGS and other might have none in any given year or sport. Really quite variable.
@skieurope @sunnyschool sorry if there was a misunderstanding. the kids at my school are all really smart, so they get around 1510 in their freshman year, so I’m at the bottom of our top group 
that’s why I called it low