I don’t know anything about that, but not requiring the SAT would make accepting known quantities like academically proven boarding school kids an even more reasonable approach to filling some of the class, no?
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Not requiring the SAT would free up the college to take kids in a more unstructured fashion – whoever they want
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UChicago is a unique example - they were test optional long before Covid and structured their admissions team to handle the extra work. I think their issue is more that lots of kids don’t expect the rigor when coming from an average American highschool and just don’t want that kind of college experience.
Regarding the “BS families chose this and should have know they’d be shut out of ivys even when they’re top 10% of their class.” I think that’s an immature and surface understanding of the issue we’re talking about. It’s also not pertinent to the conversation that there is inarguably grade deflation at some BS compared to a regular American highschool. Presumably the education is exceptional in comparison and that why families make the trade off. The fact that the best prepared kids in the country are having a hard time with college admissions is a side fact that shines more light on the messed up way colleges are prioritizing their admissions.
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It’s also not true. I remember looking through the cum laude (top 20%) list during commencement last year, and was shocked at the proportion going to Ivies—something like half.
What I’ve noticed post-Covid is that elite universities are still taking the students who would have gotten in regardless of what school they went to; it’s those who benefitted from the “feeder school bump” who’ve had a harder time.
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“it’s those who benefitted from the “feeder school bump” who’ve had a harder time.”
This. Understand that the group who is no longer benefitting is generally also highly capable and impressive, just not exceptional. So in past, they got into tippy tops and did just fine there. They weren’t getting “free passes”. As the nature of college admissions and attendance has changed, the tippy tops are able to switch out the BS “average excellent” students for ones who bring something else to the table.
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Unfortunately…this.
Really? What institutions do you think BS is a ‘scarlet letter’? It’s not that I don’t agree, I’m just wondering which institutions… TIA!
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Probably need a new thread, to not derail the topic here.
Good idea SportyPrep!!
I wonder how many of these cum laude kids would go to ivies if they were from public schools. Assuming they have the exact same achievement without just the LV name, their academics and total package probably would rank at or near the top in any good public school. They might have even better matriculation than the actual results you see.
Of course people can argue that these kids have opportunities that most public schools don’t have. But most likely they will find ways to excel if they are in a public school.
My guess is that many kids take the advantage of opportunities to be better in prep schools, but are somewhat punished because of the pool they are in. At the end of the day, the chances of getting into top colleges are probably the same as or even lower than in a good public school.
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The things that are hard to replicate in a public vs a good prep school is peer quality, unless it is a very large public such as the Plano TX school system or similar where you have a critical mass of very strong kids. Likewise with a top private college vs a flag ship public.
Another important difference between a public and prep are the non STEM and writing focus at a prep in addition to the STEM focus. I also heard that a lot of the homework you get in a public school system is voluminous, but not always high quality. By comparison I think my kid has not had more than 8-10 hours of HW per week in 11th/12th grade at a private day school.
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I really don’t think so. There are hundreds of fine public schools where even valedictorians with excellent character, etc. get rejected by every Ivy to which they apply.
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Oh, plenty of exceptional boarding school students (not just highly capable and impressive) get rejected by all of the Ivies to which they apply. In my experience, most of these are Asians near the top of the class.
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@ameridad, not to mince words, but “plenty” and “exceptional” are mutually exclusive. That’s really my point.
But I agree with you that there are plenty of wow kids at BS. Ime they still end up with great college placement, but they may have to “settle” for Williams or Tufts.
From all of the matriculation lists I’ve seen from the boarding schools described here, all students end up at a top college, defined as a college that is a good fit for them and will get them anywhere they want to go. Where disappointment can occur is when a student/family attempts to buy what the BS is not selling—any particular college result.
Boarding schools guarantee rigorous academic preparation for any college or university; they don’t guarantee an admission result for any particular student. They provide everything a student needs to be successful in college, but the burden is on the student to take advantage of what is offered to make themselves attractive to the colleges they are interested in.
College admissions decisions are made by colleges not boarding schools. Boarding schools’ reputations for preparing students to succeed in higher education is the customer service they provide. Colleges know what a BS education means. They don’t need to dig too deep to understand the attractiveness of a candidate who has already lived away from home and done well in a known, competitive academic environment. In that sense, BS is also providing a service to colleges by sending them highly qualified, pre-vetted applicants.
Ultimately, college matriculation is a by-product of the service boarding schools provide. It is not THE product. After many years of consistently preparing students exceptionally well for college and colleges benefitting from these strong students, the BS matriculation lists naturally begin to show the correlation between the strong academic preparation (service) boarding schools provide and the types of colleges that are eager to admit students who have benefitted from these programs. The lists are long; all of the colleges are good.
Boarding schools are not selling college results; they are selling the means for students to be successful at the colleges they apply to. Those who think they are buying entrance to a particular college or limited list of colleges are those most likely to be disappointed because they have brought expectations to the transaction that the BS never indicated it would or could fulfill.
Many come to this board and say, “Well, if BS isn’t going to help me get into (lotteryschoolX), why would I take that risk?” This question shows a basic misunderstanding of the boarding school product and is at the heart of the frustration over a grading rubric that doesn’t help the potential customer buy what the school is not selling.
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I should have clarified unhooked. Although I think legacies are starting to have a harder time…the urm, legacy hook are both still pretty strong. And frankly almost every kid in the top 10% has a legacy at an Ivy. It’s the few who don’t who are floundering.
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I disagree. I think boarding schools are still, disingenuously, selling college results. There’s almost no other reason to publish college matriculation lists or trot out all the Ivy kids on revisit day for a college panel. It’s just that most (many?) families know it’s balony.
Don’t most (if not all) private day and boarding publish their results in their school profiles? Doesn’t every private HS use their college acceptances as a selling point? I think that’s just the business of education… can’t really fault them for that IMHO.
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I’ve seen mixed results on this account regarding unhooked kids. I’ve seen unhooked kids be more than 70% of matriculations at tippy top ivys some years – not BS in this case, but a day school.
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I agree—ours are majority unhooked (private day), but from friends w kids at top BS, they have huge numbers of legacies and fac brats, as well as athletes, in the admitted numbers at highly rejectives. It’s the main reason we never considered BS (besides cost), because considering all the factors that come with it, our private day provides outstanding rigorous college prep plus a more consistent path to top schools for unhooked kids over the years.
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