<p>Strange isn’t it? You could call it the “CC HADES effect”…the assumption from the schools themselves is that families will automatically gravitate toward the more selective schools. So for all the talk about “fit,” seems like the psychodynamics of the process from both sides still skew toward stereotyping…because there’s (majority) truth in it, I suppose!</p>
<p>One way to avoid that “assumption” is to NOT apply to those selective schools, to effectively sabotage Tufts Effect…</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I think the key still is fit; it might be best to pick just one or two of the lower tier schools–and to pick them carefully, because they offer something that the other more selective schools don’t, something that hollers your child’s name. Nearly all of these schools have something that differentiates them others–and unusual sport, an arts program, a senior project, an organic farm on the premises. If the student can identify that special thing, and has a particular connection to it, the school(s) might be more inclined to offer the student admission, knowing that they are something more than a fallback.</p>
<p>Yes, DA, that would work - all students could apply ONLY to their safety schools and thereby eliminate the Tufts effect. That’s utter nonsense, though, isn’t it? Why shouldn’t a student apply to a school that qualifies as a “reach” for him or her?</p>
<p>And, prepinthesouth, this has nothing to do with HADES. Most students are going to apply to both “reach” and “safety” schools - regardless of whether their “reach” is a HADES school or some other school. There are “reaches” and “safeties” at every level. For some students, the “reach” will be Exeter, but for others it will be one of those schools so often referred to as “lower tier” schools on this forum.</p>
<p>I think classicalmama’s idea is a good one - don’t pick any old school for the “safety” slot. Make sure it’s a school that matches your interests - where you could really be happy if you ended up attending there.</p>
<p>@GMTplus7</p>
<p>The other parents are correct - the schools don’t compare lists. Too much work, too many applicants (thousands), too little time. They’re focused on balancing the class. So whether a student is accepted depends on a lot of factors:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>what combination of skills and talents are in the applicant pool in any given year.</p></li>
<li><p>how many “needs” the school has to fill (tuba player, hockey player, kid comes from Montana and they haven’t had someone from that state in a decade, etc) from the pool of qualified finalists</p></li>
<li><p>how many students apply that year</p></li>
<li><p>financial aid needs</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The reality is that the schools are now fielding thousands of applications for a few hundred spots. That means many students similar to your son were also declined despite spotless/impeccable records. Too few spots - too many great kids.</p>
<p>If your son had applied the previous year (or applied next year) the outcome might have been different. Many students on the CC boards were turned down or waitlisted last year and reapplied to better results this year. It’s a subjective process.</p>
<p>Many students this year were waitlisted or declined at all of their requested schools. So your family is fortunate to have a choice. </p>
<p>Mostly - the Adcoms are trying to balance their incoming classes in terms of interests, geographical region, economic level, hobbies as well as academic interest. Declining a student doesn’t mean they aren’t qualified, it simply means there were lots of other kids with similar profiles and the school couldn’t accommodate them all.</p>
<p>It’s an imperfect subjective process completed by nice human beings who work until midnight each day trying to sort through the pile and make the best guess they can on who is the best fit for their needs.</p>
<p>Enjoy the school that loved your son enough to take him right away. The grass always looks greener at the school that “got away”, but that’s not necessarily the case once you enroll. On the other hand, if he’s gets off the waitlist - it was meant to be and may open up a slot at the declined school for a student waiting in the wings.</p>
<p>@ccprep,</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Are you sure they didn’t say 16%? </p>
<p>As both Andover and Exeter have high yield rates, the math doesn’t work if 60% of each school’s accepted students were accepted to both.</p>
<p>Periwinkle–depends on how many students apply to both though, right?</p>
<p>An Andover AO said at our revisit that over 60% of those that are accepted to both Andover and Exeter choose Andover.</p>
<p>We saw many of the same families at our St. Paul’s, Deerfield, and Andover revisits.</p>
<p>Andover has approx 74% yield rate. If 26% accept at Exeter and 34% accept at Andover, the yield works out. Also the amount of people accepted into both might have been 55%, 58% etc and the AO just rounded. That would compensate for the people that chose neither andover nor exeter.</p>
<p>60% of 60% is 36%. That is pretty close to the number that I estimated accepted at Andover</p>
<p>Classicalmama, we’re speaking of admitted students, “kids who get into Andover…” Their numbers are close enough that it doesn’t work. (I grabbed numbers from the schools’ websites.) </p>
<p>Andover: Admitted Students: 414 Matriculated: 323 yield: 78%
60% of admitted students=248
students matriculating elsewhere: 91
Exeter: Completed apps: 2,581. 19.2% admitted = 496 admitted students<br>
New students (matriculated): 344 yield: 69%
60% of admitted students=298
students matriculating elsewhere: 152</p>
<p>Each student can only attend one school. Andover loses 22% of their admitted students, Exeter 31%. Even if they only lose students to each other, it doesn’t add up to 60%. They do lose students to other schools. I can’t think of any way for a school to know which schools also accepted their students. If you don’t enroll, they do ask which school you chose. </p>
<p>I could believe that 60% of the students who apply to one school apply to the other (although I think that more than 60% of applicants apply to both schools.) The SSAT Shared Candidate Report does allow schools to track how many of their applicants overall are applying to rival schools.</p>
<p>CKSABS, your version, “over 60% of those that are accepted to both Andover and Exeter choose Andover,” makes more sense. It also isn’t 60% of the pool of accepted applicants.</p>
<p>@ periwinkle
I think that it is possible everyone is correct, and we are simply not looking at it from the right angle.</p>
<p>I think that one thing to take into account is that these schools may not have done the statistics from only this one year. They may have done it 3, 4, or possibly 5 years ago, then kept the numbers. Also 53% is fairly close to 60%. If I were an AO i would not give specific statistics, but instead use ‘nice numbers’.</p>
<p>An additional tidbit from our AO discussion: I was told the yield for borders was 1% higher than St. Paul’s, which has the second highest boarding yield (according to the AO). I think the boarding yields were 70% PA vs. 69% SPS.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Very interesting fact that I did not know. Maybe they don’t have time to discuss the thousands of applicants, but they can produce that report on each one that uses a standard application. Or would it even be those that take the SSAT? Do schools know where you sent your SSAT results?</p>
<p>Okay - now that’s a new twist that even I didn’t know. Disturbing. Wonder if the use of the SSAT common apps actually hurt applicants this year. Hmmm…</p>
<p>Is it specific? Or generic. Clearly most applicants are applying to multiple schools. What would disturb me is if the names of those schools were revealed versus generic non-specific statistics about the pool in general (since they’re all taking the same test).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As far as I know, no. The only processed documents that reveal what schools a student applied to are the financial aid statements. And those are generally not seen until an application has made it past admissions (in other words, has made the “first cut”) and has gone on to be reviewed by financial aid. The AOs doing the initial review of an applicant’s file have no reason to look at financial aid.</p>
<p>Further, even if this information were part of the SSAT report, the AOs would likely never see it. At the schools I’ve spoken to, the administrative staff pulls the SSAT scores, puts them in the front of the file and the report itself is never seen.</p>
<p>Obviously, this varies from school to school and some schools, especially smaller ones, might have a different system.</p>
<p>[SSAT</a> Shared Candidates Report](<a href=“http://www.admission.org/data/files/gallery/MemberFiles/shared_candidates.pdf]SSAT”>http://www.admission.org/data/files/gallery/MemberFiles/shared_candidates.pdf)</p>
<p>[Sample</a> SSAT Data Report](<a href=“http://www.admission.org/data/files/pages/Sample%20School%20Market%20Report.pdf]Sample”>http://www.admission.org/data/files/pages/Sample%20School%20Market%20Report.pdf)</p>
<p>More information is available on the SSATB website: [The</a> Admission Organization: How We Can Help](<a href=“http://www.admission.org/how-we-can-help/index.aspx]The”>http://www.admission.org/how-we-can-help/index.aspx).</p>
<p>Just a note, for those who didn’t bother to follow Periwinkle’s links - none of the data is student specific. So, yes, it does track the pool of candidates to School X who took the SSAT (and not just those who used the SSAT application) - but it reveals no information at all about any specific candidate. It’s a marketing tool.</p>
<p>Thanks periwinkle and dodgersmom for clarification.</p>
<p>I believe the schools do not receive data from the SSAT on the other schools the candidate’s applying to. On the other hand, they do receive a ranking of the candidate’s SSAT scores in comparison to last year’s pool. Take a look at this post from D’Yer Maker: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/5196859-post9.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/5196859-post9.html</a>.</p>