I believe Hotchkiss had very few places available for 10th grade this year, which probably explains the 4.5% admit rate for that gradee. 13% was for the admission rate either for 9th grade, or for all grades.
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In the post above, it was stated that they asked an AO for 10th grade admission rates. For MX and H’kiss it was 4.5%. I was asking wondering if you meant the 13% you heard was for an overall admission rate for all grades averaged out, or just 10th
The 13% was most likely in reference to overall. The admitted freshman classes for these classes was relatively the same this year. Conversely, an overadmitted class of 2024 likely contributed to a lack of 10th grade spots, pushing down spot availability in a year already surging in applicants across all grades
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Not sure about that. I would say that the AO gave 4.5% out of all applicants, since I find 4.5% really hard to believe for 10th grade.
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The 50% is last years. Schools were caught short last year (not the big name schools) and some compensated for it this year. None of this affected where my son applied BTW.
I know that my Milton AO said they actually admitted more tenth graders this year because they under-enrolled in 9th graders last year. Which was quite surprising.
I would’ve thought there would be more 10th grade spots since we had the covid outbreak which may have caused people to surrender their deposits.
I know some schools over accepted 9th last year afraid yield would take a hit, so they ended up with an overenrolled 9th grade. This means there were fewer than usual 10th spots for next year.
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This is believable. Fewer spots because of over enrolled '24 plus an increase in applicants.
I honestly don’t think it’s healthy or necessary to speculate on the admit rates for 10th grade vs. 9th.
As many posters have suggested up the thread, every school’s situation is different from year to year. My DC1 was debating whether to repeat 9th or go to 10th several years back, so we raised this question to all the top schools that we knew well. All the HoAs confirmed that each candidate would be evaluated on an individual basis. While they have a target number, they usually have some flexibility in the # of intakes for each grade every year - as long as dorm beds do not become an issue.
As a candidate, your first priority is to make your case as compelling as possible, and not let 2020/2021 numbers mislead or bother you. We are in unusual times, and things will soon go back to normal. Top 15 schools will have admit rates in the teens and yields of 65% to 70%, while schools ranked in the 15-30 range will likely have admit rates of 20-30% with yields being 45 to 50%.
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While I agree that all applicants should focus on putting their best feet forward regardless of the grade for which they apply, I am less confident that admit and yield rates will return to normal. It depends on if the schools require the SSATs. If optional, the number of applicants will stay higher than recent history.
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I agree with this. TO allowed many more people to apply. Yes, it was good to give everybody a chance, but it also let people unsatisfied with their scores not submit which made them want to apply to the best schools.
Schools next year should do what Hill did this year to make the admissions game more fair. You should have to submit scores unless you have a valid reason not to (ssat/isee not offered in your country, not a safe home environment for the test)
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Here’s what Hill did for the 2020-2021 admission cycle
11th, 12th, and PG applicants were required to submit testing.
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Loomis also asked for me to get a third rec if I chose not to send.
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as did Mercersburg. I submitted testing everywhere so I wasn’t worried about that.
I sent my scores to 4/8 of the schools where my ssat matched those average scores. But for Loomis I sent my ssat and the extra rep, because we threw in that ssat score last minute.
The people I know who work in or with admissions (consultants who talk to lots of admissions folks) pretty much all say that SSAT scores do not provide a lot of useful information to them given all the otherparts of the application (and interview)… They can, in general, pick the students who will do well at their school based on other things (including a writing sample done at the interview, for example. )
At the same time, testing is an obstacle for many applicants, and not just in covid times! It is especially so among students from areas/communities where few apply to prep schools (day or BS), not just in access but also in prep.
Being TO makes it easier to apply for students who would probably have good scores with good prep (but lack access or prep). It also makes it easier for a weaker student who simply cannot produce good test scores to apply. Admissions must try to figure out which is which but I suspect that many of the “weaker” students are recognized by the AOs as that.
In my mind, TO increases the pool SOME by bringing in really good candidates for whom getting to or prepping for tests was an issue. (Think of this as access.) This does make the schools more selective. It also increases the pool by a lot of students who are quickly identified by AOs to not have a shot at all. These make the schools more selective in terms of numbers but less so in reality. (I could go to an open audition for a Broadway show, but I’d be a threat to nobody!)
I hope that to the extent there are more people interested in BS going forward that it has the effect of creating awareness of the many excellent options out there, much as it has in the college world. There are lots of schools that offer an amazing education and experience that are less well known. Hopefully, they will be the beneficiaries of some of this interest as well. Not getting into Exeter doesn’t mean you can’t go to a great BS any more than not getting into Harvard means you need to go to community college.
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It would be interesting to watch how long the top schools can stay test optional without compromising their academic standards. I still think standardized tests are an important barometer for gauging a candidate’s scholastic aptitude - at leas, they make it easier for the AOs to evaluate the candidacy of each student.
Also, the boarding school situation is somewhat different than colleges because part of the reason that more parents are sending kids to BS is because they wanted the kids to stay in COVID-free bubbles, and many schools have done an excellent job at that.
With the increase in vaccinations, hopefully the # of apps will come off and the admit rates will normalize somewhat in the next cycle.
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As long as test optional stays, it seems that the number of apps will also stay the same. We are unsure if schools will stay TO, but it’s expected so. This helps schools express how selective they are, but we have to wait and see how things play out with those not submitting scores. They may or may not perform as well.
However, that being said, standardized testing is starting to be less predicting of someone’s candidacy. A number of factors plays into someone’s case. Schools also believe verbal scores are irrelevant, which if a student has high reading and math scores but a low verbal that is bringing their overall score down, they may disregard verbal. Vocabulary doesn’t exactly tell if a student is good in ELA. Reading scores prove that more. A score alone does not admit a student, so many other reasons do.
Only time will tell how their academics hold up in the next few years. If they see that academics start to tumble, they may go back to test required. When that happens, the cycle will start to normalize again.
I think that is a great point about application rates and covid bubbles. I believe many parents were willing to invest to get their child into a “bubble” learning environment. In so many places globally, education suffered and there was a wide variance in the ability of schools to deliver on quality education.
One example: one private school had to chaperone international kids over the christmas break as the parents did not want the kids returning home at the risk of not being allowed back into the school/country due to travel restrictions.