<p>Here's some decent news on prep school matrics. You will have to make some assumptions here, but just go with it. I took The Middlesex School's grad numbers from 2004 and 2005. Here's what I found......</p>
<p>2004 86 grads,and 2005 80 grads, if we rank, the top 50% would be 43, 40 students respectively. I then looked at the schools all the grads were attending and counted only the most selective schools. I then divided the two and found that in both years, more than 100% of the top 50% were admitted to the most selective schools. </p>
<p>Of course this does take into account sports, URM, legacies, etc. But what it does say, is that if you attend a "good" bs, and you can stay in the top 50%, actually higher with the years I looked at, you're probably going to get into a top college/Uni.</p>
<p>Actually it does not take into account sports, URM, legacies, etc</p>
<p>"more than 100% percent of the top 50% were admitted to the most selective schools." ?
How is that even possible? Or am I getting my logic wrong here?</p>
<p>Actually it was greater than 100%. I used the barrons most selective, and I also used a selectivity index. Schools had to be 96-99 on the selectivity index. </p>
<p>I think you'll find that there are many schools that fit this scenarion.</p>
<p>tommeister, think about it, the top schools have ivy matrics in the range of 20% to 30% alone.</p>
<p>tommeister, don't quote me on the selctivity index numbers, I may have used 95-99. In either event, the schools that qualified are not chopped liver if you know what I mean.</p>
<p>maybe you have a different concept of what a top school is. here are some examples. Of course the ivy league schools, stanford, MIT, weslyan U, Duke, Tufts, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Colby, Bates, williams, et al</p>
<p>I've observed that many prep schools are using Barrons to summarize their college matriculations. Often they include a statement like this: "xx% of this class went to most competitive/highly competitive colleges as ranked by Barrons (full name of guide here)." Sometimes they will include a % for most competitive and then a % for most competitive combined with highly competitive. Are the Barrons rankings available online, or do you have to buy the book?</p>
<p>Burb Parent, I have the book. It may be online but I'm not sure. I also used a selectivity index , which I obtained on the St. Geaoge's School web site. I did not count the school if it was considered most competitive but had a selectivity index less than 96. Interestingly, most of the schools mentioned on these threads do very well when it comes to matrics. I would estimate that 75% of the students get into very good schools. Unless you are a do or die ivy league type, attending boarding school should serve you well with regard to college choices. Taking the total number of grads and dividing by two to get the top 50, says nothing about who these top 50 may be. You would think it would be the top 50 academically, however, how do we know whether someone is attending say Harvard because of sports or is a legacy, or URM. It's possible any one of these students may be in the lower half. If so, then someone in the top half may not be in one of the most comp. schools. It's also possible that some of the top 50 are URM's, legacies, sports, etc.</p>
<p>By the way, here are a couple examples..... Milton 118%, St. Andrew's 116%, Middlesex 122%, and Groton, a whopping 130%. These numbers were taken over a two, three or four year period. The other schools that were not condiered most comp. were are very very nice schools.</p>
<p>I recently read Dan Golden's book on how admissions to college's favors certain groups. He discusses an article that he wrote for the NYT some time ago regarding the asian-american male (he was ranked high) from Groton who was rejected from all the ivies he applied to and eventually ended up at Johns hopkins and is currently in Med school at U of Kansas. Mr. Golden notes that in that same class, two URM's ranked 60 and 68 out of 79 students ended up at Weslyan, and Columbia. I write this because it gives an example of the top 50 are not necessarily the top 50 academically. If would highly recommend you reading this book.</p>
<p>Thanks! So much to learn about college now...</p>
<p>Burb Parent, yes, so much to learn. My 8th grader is seriously considering Blair as one of her schools to apply. Let me ask you, would one fly into and out of Newark?</p>
<p>if anyone is interested, the book is written by Daniel Golden, "The Price of Admission", how America's Ruling Class Buys its way into Elite Colleges- and Who gets left Outside the Gates.</p>
<p>The Asian American from Groton was ranked 14/79, 1560 on the SAT, on his SATII, he had a 800 on math, 760 on Latin, and a 740 on the Physics test. It goes on to say that his guidance counselor at Groton discouraged him from applying to the ivy league. He was told it would be a long shot. He was rejected from Harvard, Yale, Brown, and Columbia-as well as Stanford and MIT. In fact he was told by his counselor to consider 2nd and 3rd tier schools. I think we can all agree that for asian-amaricans there is a glass ceiling. In his class a number of students who were admitted to harvard had lower credentials but were legacies.</p>
<p>Newark would be my choice to avoid some of the NYC traffic, and I think it is the closest. You can also fly into to Philadelphia, LGA and JFK <a href="http://www.blair.edu/Campus_Contact/cam_mileage.shtm%5B/url%5D">http://www.blair.edu/Campus_Contact/cam_mileage.shtm</a> but you will be faced with a longer drive and city traffic. </p>
<p>So far I am very impressed and pleased with Blair. They seem to have a warm and welcoming "family" environment. At the same time, they take academics and college guidance seriously. They haven't updated their website with 2006 matriculations. You can find it here <a href="http://www.blair.edu/About_Blair/ab_online_bulletins.shtm%5B/url%5D">http://www.blair.edu/About_Blair/ab_online_bulletins.shtm</a> Summer Bulletin page 16 (18 of 50). If you have more questions, feel free to pm me.</p>
<p>"I think we can all agree that for asian-amaricans there is a glass ceiling. In his class a number of students who were admitted to harvard had lower credentials but were legacies."</p>
<p>That is very true.</p>
<p>hope1618, I thinkfor asian-american's, they'll have to jump out of their "mold" as perceived by the elite schools. Something bodaciuos and out of the ordinary may be in order.</p>
<p>Did you go to Groton?</p>
<p>Also have your son look at Lawrenceville & Peddie, both are terrific Schools.</p>