Thought it might be interesting to share acceptance rates and yield during this odd, pandemic year.
Thacher
- Acceptance rate: 13%
- Yield: 76%
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I can’t speak for other institutions but the Loomis Chaffee Log ran an article on Loomis’s acceptance rate for this year and it was 21% with a yield of 49%. Relatively large drop from the acceptance rate of 26-27% that we saw over the last several years.
I also read on another CC post that St. Paul’s had an acceptance rate of 15% with a yield of 71%
From the post Revisit debriefing we had I believe the acceptance rate was more like 15% this year with a 70% yield this year. There are different acceptance rates per grade/class year also, Lower %of acceptance (more applicants) for 9th grade, for example.
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Hmm… You might want to let Deerfield know that someone posted their 2019-2020 acceptance rate as 17% on Wikipedia.
Not that Wikipedia is a reliable source of anything (by definition of what it is – crowd-sourced, unchecked user entries), but 2019-2020 would be last year anyway, right?
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Isn’t 2019-2020 the current school year and admissions cycle?
The new class starts fall 2020. So this year’s admissions cycle would be 20-21. It would be confusing (to me anyway) to label the admissions cycle differently than the entering class.
FWIW - I trust the Dean of Admissions and the numbers from the actual AO team over numbers posted to Wikibots. The statistics for the incoming 20-21 class and acceptance for new students entering grads 9, 10-PG are going to vary by class year. For example, for the 2019-2020 entering class there were 50 new Sophomores added to the rising Sophomore class of 107. So in September there were @ 157 Sophomores. IMHO “Loki”(as the kids say) it seems easier to get accepted to DA as a Sophomore…but not useful to split hairs because frankly we all have bigger things to worry about this year.
Deerfield’s acceptance rate was indeed approximately 15% for this fall. More applicants this year, but due to over-enrollment from this past year, they accepted fewer students to anticipate (correctly) a growing yield.
@Golfgr8 not sure exactly if its easier to get in as a sophomore. A lot of those kids might be coming in from a JBS so there might be a lot of competitive applicants vying for those 50 spots.
Thacher’s website indicates its yield last year was 84%, so its yield declined significantly.
I don’t understand why the school only receives 700-750 applications per year when it has few BS peers in Southern California. Its applicant pool is small, and size doesn’t necessarily drive the number of applications.
It has little boarding school competition, and about 20 million people live within a 3 hour drive.
The major East Coast boarding schools receive 1200-3500 applications per year.
Not just the numbers. There is another factor at play - the competitive pool of applicants for specific schools who are well known for sports. Some schools attract many talented Student Athletes (who are also academically competitive) for their well known crew, lax, squash, and hockey programs (as examples)…SO, it’s not just the numbers, but who is applying to those schools. If you play club soccer, club lax or travel team hockey for example, you will see many talented athletes applying to the NE schools *- they want that “play” and they also have their club commitments.
- Shout out to my brother’s old BS -Shattuck - for hockey (not in the NE, and an awesome hockey program)! Second shout out to Hilton Head Golf Academy. Third shout out to Holderness - kiddo’s friend is a competitive skier and that is his home away from home.
- Cheers to all you talented kids out there pursuing your passions in sports, performing arts, visual arts, debate, etc !
@UltimaCroix Why does the number of applications matter? Getting into Thacher is hard enough with its self-selected pool of applicants.
There are several reasons why Thacher doesn’t get more applications:
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Far fewer people on the West Coast send their kids to boarding school. It is not quite considered acceptable, lol. The #1 question we get when people hear that our child is at boarding school is, “Why? Did they get into trouble?” People assume boarding school is where you send kids with behavioral issues.
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Most boarding school families are on the East Coast and have lots of choices. Many will only apply to schools that are a 3-4 hour drive away. That means that most boarding school families in the US don’t even consider Thacher.
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Thacher freshmen are expected to get up at dawn to shovel horse manure and spend an additional hour a day on horse care. If you don’t like manual labor, prefer sleeping in, or have no interest in horses, you do not apply to Thacher. (There’s no way I would have applied when I was a kid! And most teens I know do not relish the idea of getting up early to do manual labor. Congratulations to those parents whose teens are waking up early to do chores around the house!)
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All Thacher students spend at least two weeks camping in the wilderness every year. If you can’t stand camping, Thacher isn’t for you. (I’m not a camper, so I would have been miserable at Thacher at least two weeks out of the year.)
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Thacher isn’t as well known. If you are chasing prestige and want to impress people by telling them where your kid goes to school, Thacher won’t do. Most people haven’t heard of it and its not near the top of the rankings. (The up side is that Thacher attracts families that are much less status-conscious than some of their East Coast equivalents. It also makes the school community more laid back, less hierarchical, less socially competitive, more collaborative, and more welcoming.)
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Thacher is significantly smaller than peer schools with only 260 kids. That means it doesn’t have some of the sports, activities, or coursework that many kids might be looking for: No crew, no hockey, no swimming, no water polo, no Model UN, etc. If you are looking for a BS experience that feels like a mini-college, Thacher isn’t for you. (Ditto if you are looking for a BS where you can party.)
My theory as to why yield is down this year: The aspects of Thacher that are most distinctive are very difficult to deliver through distance learning/online.
All boarding schools have superb academics and extracurricular activities, right? If that’s all you’re looking for, there are lots of boarding schools to consider and all are equally handicapped by pandemic-related closures.
But two of the three things that make Thacher different from nearly every other boarding school are impossible to deliver online: The horse program, the outdoors program, and the community. There is no online equivalent for the first two. Why choose Thacher if you are worried you might not have the opportunity to experience what makes it so special?
(Note that even with a steep decline in yield due to coronavirus, Thacher still has a higher yield than most boarding schools… and that Thacher seems optimistic about its ability to open by fall.)
BTW: Not sure why this has devolved into a discussion about Thacher. When I started this thread I assumed people would JUST post the stats for their particular boarding school and be done.
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(1) Most people don’t know the yield numbers.
(2) My impression is that those who do know yield numbers usually consider it bad form to talk about them publicly. It is similar to bragging about how much money you make. People who make a lot of money come off as bragging, and people who make less don’t want it pointed out to them publicly. No one wins.
I have always been surprised that Thacher is so public with its yield numbers. It seems contrary to its ethos.
The only thing yield tells you is that a school is good at deciphering whether the applicant is likely to enroll. That’s it. And its probably easier to predict at Thacher than elsewhere for two reasons: 1) There are a lot of legacy families. 2) Kids who don’t even mention the horse and outdoor programs are probably not seeking Thacher out for what makes Thacher distinct.
Why all the Thacher bashing, though? Thacher is hardly the only school that shares its yield.
@CateCAParent You seem to have a strong dislike for Thacher? Cate and Thacher have a LOT in common and the schools have often helped each other out. Mr. Cate was a Thacher teacher, after all, and Cate had a robust horse program, too, until a fire decimated the herd.
Those of you who don’t like Thacher need not apply 
But my intent with this thread was to see if COVID19 had any impact on acceptance rates and yield. Not sure why you are all so intent on discussing Thacher or asking questions about Thacher. There are dedicated threads for that.
I don’t dislike Thacher. I agree it has a lot in common with Cate and I appreciate its ethos of hard work and decency.
Not to re-hash an old thread that helped no one, but it throws me when a down to earth school that is anti-prestige like Thacher emphasizes things that are associated with prestige. It is against message.
Yield is about more than how well the school targeted its applicants for admission. Yield is perceived by many as a proxy for prestige. The higher the yield, the more people are choosing that school over a competitor. The lower the yield the less competitive a school is. The whole discussion is icky.
I think that is why you aren’t getting the response from others you were hoping for regarding yield. The intention is confusing and the topic makes people bristle.
Maybe if the question was framed differently, like what you just said above but without the reference to Thacher, people wouldn’t have focused on Thacher. Also, it is too soon to tell what the impact on yield is, so the timing of the post, along with how it is framed, made it seem like it was about something else other than what it was. I am as interested as the next person about how the pandemic impacts admissions and matriculation. But we can’t know yet.
Although I haven’t looked specifically, I don’t recall a lot of schools posting yield numbers on their website. I recall from revisit days some schools mentioning it, but that is different than posting on the internet. While acceptance rate is shared on Niche, yield isn’t. That is probably a conscious collective decision by the schools.
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@CaliMex I looked back, and you have posted fairly often about Thacher’s acceptance rate and yield over the years. You are obviously very proud of the school’s numbers.
Not sure why a parent would be proud of such a thing, you didn’t go there (at least in this generation), your child did. Parents need to stop living vicariously through their kids and acting as unobjective boosters of their kids’ school.
Best to offer helpful and objective advice to prospective boarding school parents and kids, not humble brags.
If that is the intent I think looking at the yield now is pretty pointless, you want to see who actually matriculates in the fall. Our school was actually surprised by yield higher than anticipated given the pandemic, but they certainly acknowledged a number of incoming and existing families are on the fence and waiting to hear what the fall will look like before making the final call.
@CateCAParent Yield has nothing to do with prestige – especially at a small school that isn’t well known. It is about the AOs ability to tell which of the outstanding applicants are serious about their particular school. But I get that people don’t understand the concept of yield. (Hence the scores of applicants who are shocked when their so-called “safety” school rejects them. How dare they? lol.)
Given the pandemic, I suspect the lower yield numbers across the board might also be because some parents want their kids at home, closer to home, or at a less expensive school – not because they are choosing a different school.
In any event, if your primary motivation is status or prestige, you pick a larger, better-known school (and probably one where your kid doesn’t have to do hard manual labor like shoveling horse manure every morning, including weekends!)
@UltimaCroix I have posted MULTIPLE times that Thacher would have been the WRONG school for me. I would have been miserable! I actually hope that some of my posts have discouraged families from considering Thacher. It is not the school for everyone. It really is about fit. (I tried to answer your Qs as thoughtfully as possible because I initially took your interest/curiosity to be sincere. Not so sure any more.)
@417WHB Yes, the ultimate figure is matriculation in the fall. I thought yield might be interesting as an early indicator of confidence (or not) in the prospects of boarding schools being able to provide a residential experience in the fall… or of the $ investment being worthwhile given the economy’s prospects and the possibility of distance learning.