<p>Hi, I'm new to these boards. My DC was accepted to Loomis with a great FA package and WL at Deerfield, rejected by Hotchkiss, Choate, and PA. From what I can tell, his profile was excellent---99 % on SSAT, excellent grades, interview, essays, and recs, and one outstanding EC, and he is bilingual. What did we miss that these other schools did not even WL him?</p>
<p>My answer to that is who knows??..</p>
<p>It sounds like he is a great candidate, and quite frankly it gives me a headache trying to figure out the thinking of admissions. Sometimes it is that he is not a tuba player (as one CCer’s analogy goes) or maybe it’s BECAUSE he is a tuba player and they already have 15 tuba players.</p>
<p>I am not sure ANYONE on these boards can tell you what one school saw that the others didn’t, it would be all conjecture.</p>
<p>In the end though, be happy and excited about Loomis!</p>
<p>Other than being bilingual, there’s not much about what you describe that sets your child apart from hundreds of other applicants (and these days, even being bilingual isn’t all that unusual). And I assume you applied for financial aid, which makes it all the harder to get in. Loomis Chaffee is a good school, but not in the same league as the others you name, so it’s not particularly suprising that your child got in there and didn’t get in to the others. Since virtually no one gets in off the waitlist at these schools, I wouldn’t waste a lot of time that your child didn’t even get waitlisted there, as it’s practically certain to make no different anyway. Take the offer you got from Loomis, especially given that you got a nice FA package, and be happy.</p>
<p>^^That. And maybe there are too many boys from the same region or even the same school with similar profiles as your son. You would think even so they should WL instead of reject him as he is or is more than academically qualified but apparently these days it’s not how the process works. For example, at Andover, it’s said 75% of the applicants are academically admissible but obviously they are not waitlisting 60%+ of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>interview students and I can tell you that it is useless to try to “guess” what you could have done differently. The answer is NOTHING. The difficult fact of boarding schools these days is that schools are looking for specific things each year - and it changes based on their current student population and what attributes are in the application pile. In another year, the outcome might have been different.</p>
<p>But, playing devil’s advocate, in a different year it could have been more acceptances - or none. Exeter and Andover, for instance, get over 3000 applications for approx. 300 spots. That means they are having to decline 2700 good qualified students because they don’t have space. </p>
<p>A number of parents on CC have been very pleased with Loomis Chaffee. It’s a very good school academically and socially. Why be disappointed with such a good option?</p>
<p>So rejoice. Because if you read the other threads on this discussion board, there are students who have been declined or waitlisted for financial aid, or worse, accepted with no FA and hence have no options.</p>
<p>Love the school that loved your son enough to offer his not only a spot, but good FA. That’s becoming tougher to get each year and in a way - you just hit the boarding school lottery. I’m assuming you liked the school or your son wouldn’t have applied. </p>
<p>Enroll and don’t look back - look forward and enjoy the experience.</p>
<p>^^–agree one hundred percent.</p>
<p>The logic is simple and its $$$. These are the private schools that go to the highest bidder. They take a few with life stories coming out of ghettos. If you are a middle class, asian ORM needing FA, the chances of getting in are in single digits close to zero. With your DCs stats, (s)he’ll be at the top at Loomis, so (s)he’ll make good for a good college. With his/her stats, (s)he will do fine at a good public school as well. So no need to worry.</p>
<p>Oooh it’s like lottery, sort of.</p>
<p>^^^No, not a lottery really. More a selection process where the criteria are dynamic and changing year to year. Applicants, be it to prep school or college, go in thinking that it’s about being the best and the brightest. Which plays a part…anyone would be foolish to think it doesn’t. But it’s also about building a class that is representative of a whole lot of things - backgrounds, talents, socio-economies…AND intelligence. When the “rejections” and waitlists come in it’s really hard not to ask yourself “What did my kid not have/do wrong?” The answer is usually absolutely nothing.</p>
<p>OP, at the peril of oversimplification, DD also has all the qualifications you listed… and she’s trilingual and several outstanding EC with awards and recognition and… she’s WL for all the schools you listed (except Loomis, which she didn’t applied.) She is a middle-class, ORM girl needing FA, and the rest was well explained by chloes. We still thought she had a chance since she had applied to several schools, but were proven wrong. IMO FA might have been a significant factor–making acceptance twice as more competitive than FP, but there might have been others. Who really knows? If you could figure out what they might be, please share with us. If your son can be happy with Loomis, it looks like your family is blessed with great education at a cheap price tag.</p>
<p>We have several friends with kids at Loomis, and they are thrilled with the school. Their children are smart and accomplished. It’s a fantastic school. Congrats to your child for getting in. Don’t give those other schools a second thought. Celebrate your son’s success!</p>
<p>I hear really good things about Loomis too. I see things like this happen all the time with kids applying to college from my daughter’s school. Why did they take candidate A with apparently lesser credentials than candidate B? Many reasons ranging from financial considerations to a particular needed talent (We know an oboe player who was admitted to Harvard, Williams, Georgetown and a few other schools in a really tough year) or an interesting/quirky skill.</p>
<p>You can --and will–drive yourself crazy if you try to determine why (and if you think BS is crazy, the world of college admissions awaits and that makes bs look like a walk in the park…). </p>
<p>You can never know. For whatever reason it didn’t happen. It was nothing she did–or didn’t do --most likely–and regardless, the AO wouldn’t tell you --even if they knew.</p>
<p>I am sorry. But It did at a great school so put those other schools in the rearview mirror and don’t look back–look forward. Loomis is terrific and your C will have a great time–esp if you help her feel like she will…</p>
<p>Could be several reasons, could be one or two major reasons such as FA. </p>
<p>Someone that I got to know from CC told me that the admission director of one top school (that is frequently mentioned here) said they can fill the entire class with 4.0, 99% SSAT students if they want. I think that applies to all the schools that you mentioned. So, it is almost impossible to figure out why an academically excellent student such as your DC got denied in a specific year. One thing clear to me is LC saw your DC would be the best fit with them while others may have not. But LC is such a great school. I wish your DC enjoys the school a lot!</p>
<p>
While I understand the point the said AO was trying to make, technically I don’t think it’s is easy to “fill the entire class with 4.0, 99% SSAT students if they want”. There are only certain number of applicants with 99% SSAT per year. To fill the class, you need to make sure enough number of them apply to the same school, are willing to attend when you offer them a spot (chances are they may get offers from multiple schools), spread ideally between genders AND grades, with right ratio of full pay vs FA applicants… The point is that when your child has a GPA of 4.0 and 99% SSAT, it’s reasonable to ask why he/she is outright rejected by multiple schools. Obviously, no one except maybe the AO who read his file and make the call knows the exact reasons. Some reasons are more likely to play bigger roles than others, such as FA, ORM, geographic region. I don’t see OP as a “bitter” parent who doesn’t appreciate a good offer from a BS but rather someone who was puzzled by the process and wanted to know why or more. And, just because LC is a great school doesn’t mean it has to be the most desirable school. I do believe OP is wise and mature enough to evaluate available options and make a not so difficult call in the end.</p>
<p>Because quant data isn’t that important any longer. Even Harvard has admitted that GPA is a semi-worthless piece of data and more and more colleges are going standardized test optional. If that is the case for college admissions when there is a history of accomplishment that a 13 yo just can’t yet possess, then bs admissions moves from evaluation of past performance to speculation as to–as one interviewer at a top school said to me during the parent part of the interview–“children are like little flowers–our job is to find out if they will blossom best in our particular soil.”</p>
<p>etondad, I don’t think we are in as much disagreement as it appears as I too believe the boarding school or college admission is a holistic process, BUT the boarding school applicant pool is no comparison to top college applicant pool considering so many kids with high stats and potential choose to stay local for HS, so it’s a little far-fetched in my view to compare Harvard admissions with boarding school admissions although even Harvard boasts the high stats of their admitted classes. While GPA is really as you said “semi-worthless” without context - that is, without looking at schools, courses and grading habits, SSAT is designed so only a certain number of test takers could get 99%. When it’s coupled with consistent high performance in school, it is a very useful to identify those who are likely to be successful academically, which is one if not the most important consideration for top boarding schools at least. What I am saying is that OP was asking a <em>fair</em> question and it is not as common as it has been made that a “4.0 GPA and 99% SSAT” being <em>rejected</em> by multiple schools.</p>
<p>Our Lawrenceville interviewer this year also told us that they could fill their entire class several times over with 4.0 students with high SSATs but that to do so would be “boring” Truth is the schools want all kinds of diversity and all As is pretty common. A 5% spread on SSATs also says little about a students potential. Maybe Loomis really needs your child’s EC this year? and the other schools are looking for violin or hockey players. It really isnt knowable</p>
<p>Just a little tidbit: </p>
<p>I’m a tuba player and this year I was excepted into Exeter and every time I see someone use that joke about the “tube player getting in” makes me laugh a lot! ;)</p>
<p>I know that the only part of the SSAT that Exeter uses as a barometer is the math section–so the total number isn’t even part of their considerations.</p>