<p>I've heard that it's a "bad" year for Andover. By that, I think it means the percent of graduates matriculating in top colleges is significantly lower than prior years. Does anyone have any details? What about other top schools? The "downward trend" has been talked about for a while, but haven't really been seen at Andover at least (e.g. the Ivies+SM percentage had held steady above 30% for the past several years).</p>
<p>Out of respect for the class of 2011 here’s your answer, though I’m not sure the question is worth answering. From the website, here’s a description:</p>
<p>“The Phillips Academy class of 2011 [329 grads] will matriculate at 104 different colleges and universities in the fall. Top choices, accounting for nearly 38 percent of the class, include Stanford, 15; Yale, 14; Harvard, 13; Columbia, 12; Cornell, 11; USC, 10; UPenn, 9; Boston College, 8; and Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Princeton, and Washington University of St. Louis, 7 each.” </p>
<p>I’ve got the official complete matriculation list and it’s astonishingly good. Over 30% went to Ivies+SM+Oxford/Cambridge. But this calculation gives a narrow view because the denominator includes, for example, a grad going to the Naval Academy; 6 smart kids going to the U of Chicago; an immensely talented actor who chose the Vassar theater program; a gifted singer/songwriter headed for Berklee College of Music; many kids who opted for the LA colleges such as Amherst or Wellesley or Williams or Pomona or other fine institutions; future engineers who found better options outside the Ivy League; TomtheCat, headed for a very special and selective program at Edinburgh; and many other good outcomes. So no, it’s far from a “bad” year.</p>
<p>The diversity of college destinations has been a “constant” in a school like Andover. That doesn’t explain the drop of ivies+sm rate this year. But wait, did you say ivies+sm+Oxford/Cambridge > 30%? Then it’s not that bad after all. So the number of Oxford admits made up all the “losses” ivies? How many Oxford/Cambridge admits are we talking about here?</p>
<p>There are 4 Oxford/Cambridge bound students, not all Brits.</p>
<p>You don’t go to a BS for ivy matriculation, you go for the experience.</p>
<p>
I just re-read your answer. Why are you so defensive? As Invent pointed out, “You don’t go to a BS for ivy matriculation”, but it doesn’t mean it can’t be talked about. As a popular metrics, ivies+SM includes many most selective and popular college destinations and therefore is often referred to when talking about college matriculation. The ivies admit rate at Andover did drop this year but not “significantly”, and I am glad it didn’t significantly.</p>
<p>I was responding mostly to the unfounded rumor that you repeated—you didn’t just ask if anyone had matriculation data, you repeated the rumor from an unnamed (and clearly uninformed) source that it was a “bad” year for Andover. Andover’s class of 2011, with the reputation at the school of being very high achieving (as implied in some Phillipian jokes, and some data presented in the Phillipian) doesn’t need me to defend it! I also hesitate before answering something that would inevitably bring up the question of importance of Ivy matriculation from poster(s) who I think should just ignore threads with matriculation in the title.</p>
<p>What rumor? It turns out true after all. If you look at the stats from the past few years, the ivies+sm rate at Andover was somewhere between 31%-36%. It IS lower than 30% this year. Is it a “significant” drop? No. But you gave me the actual data and it got cleared up. I don’t understand why you got offended. If you don’t think the question was “worth answering” then don’t answer it. You don’t have the obligation to offend a school or a class. Then everyone else has the rights to inquire. Every thread doesn’t have to be a moral lesson or have to send the “right message”. Since when talking about ivies matriculation has become a taboo?</p>
<p>DAndrew,</p>
<p>There are several reasons - other schools are becoming more aggressive about FA/merit Aid and competing for the same small pool of students. For instance 125 schools showed up for the Taft college fair. There are only 150 students in the graduating class. </p>
<p>Students are coming to BS these days from a broader array of experiences than ever before so IVY (and top schools) may not be the goal for many of them. </p>
<p>After going to BS - the “thrll” of an IVY may wear off as it seems like “more of the same.”</p>
<p>Too hard to tell. I don’t think it’s lack of caliber (and certainly by the state of public schools it’s not competition from PS students. I really think it’s because BS are now coveted and have more options then ever before as the internet makes researching and applying much easier.</p>
<p>A better indicator (not advertised) might be # of students who applied to a certain subset of schools, # of acceptances, and final # matriculation.</p>
<p>Then you’d be able to compare the stats more accurately.</p>
<p>^^OK. Good analysis. Really, I was just trying to collect some college matriculation data of some top schools. My bad that I asked the question too “dramatically” thus set the stage for another value debate. Anyone happens to have this year’s matriculation data of your kids’ school?</p>
<p>I agree that the “researching through the internet” of colleges is allowing elite BS students to virtually taste the other-than -Ivy -Schools. Many students choose not to go to the Ivys because they don’t offer what they want or need. In past years of Pre Internet they would go to the Ivy on reputation alone.
The question arises, "Are the Ivys losing some of the best in BS because they are not competing for students on the same level as the top “other” colleges?</p>
<p>I don’t think the major players in the “top 10” list (e.g. HYPMS) are hardly losing any of the best from the top boarding schools located in the eastern part of country in particular. The other ivies may lose some talents mostly because of financial reasons as other non-ivy top schools may aggressively recurit the top students by giving out more FA or merit based scholarships. If anything, the competition is getting more and more intense each year… Realizing that there won’t be an agreement on matters like this or even any possible convincing research out there, I say let’s just broadly define college admission success. Check out [Boarding</a> School Stats : Matriculation Stats](<a href=“http://matriculationstats.org/boarding-school-stats]Boarding”>http://matriculationstats.org/boarding-school-stats). Let’s take those metrics as some sort of benchmark and see how top BS did this year.</p>
<p>I like that Junior’s school tops the “strong” school matrix.:)</p>
<p>personally, i do want to know matriculation stats which reflects stduents/school achievement. however, I don’t care about S,M plus ivies number at all nowaday.
unless you can tell
- how many students get admission of S,M and ivies but decide to go to other top schools.
- how many students final decision is leveraged with scholarship/FA.</p>
<p>Without these details. percentage of S,M plus ivies meant nothing to me.
To me, PA matriculation stats looks very good to me.</p>
<p>bluegene, overall, HYPSM are some of the colleges with the highest yield. For example, Harvard has had a yield of 76-78% for the past few years. This is partly because they are the colleges with the most generous FA policies (other ivies are more or less so as well). Imagine students admitted to Andover and Exeter choose other boarding schools that are equally or even more expensive because of money. It happens but not so often, right?</p>
<p>PA matriculation stats still look good, I agree.</p>
<ol>
<li>yes</li>
<li>yes</li>
<li>I would ask, “How many students never apply to the Ivies & MiT, Stanford, and would probably get in if they did”? Not that these schools care.:)</li>
</ol>
<p>I agree that PA looks very stellar as always re kids moving on to top schools. But I wonder if that really matters to anyone except kids and families attending PA.</p>
<p>Not meaning to be provocative, but isn’t what’s really important to me is how the kids are doing who are graduating from my kid’s school? For those of you who know more and have more experience with Naviance, the application most high school college counseling services use, does Naviance give each student a picture of where they fall given their GPA and SAT scores, compared to previous students who have matriculated from their own school?</p>
<p>So in other words if my student wanted to go say to Williams, s/he types in his SAT and GPA and then he can look at the scatter of how many previous students at same high school applied to and got accepted to Williams with the same scores? How does it work?</p>
<p>That is close to how Naviance works. Scattergrams show your kid’s test score and GPA plotted against 5 years or so of data showing kids from their school’s scores, GPA and admission outcome.</p>
<p>This thread was not started to boast PA’s matriculation stats, nor was it to criticize it. I meant to take advantage of CC to get a preview of this year’s matriculation data in top schools before the official data are out. Apparently no one is interested, so it’s fine if the thread died. I know I can’t rely on prep school forum for something like this. Some CC parents are shy and some are more aggressive, but they are all above and beyond ivies+SM, or any other ways in differentiating good and not so good colleges. 
And any talk of college would imply some are better than others. So, well.</p>
<p>To add to 1012mom’s comments, the scattergrams are based on individual colleges, so you can have one for college A and one for college B, and so on.</p>
<p>We know your intentions of starting this thread, hahaha!!! :D</p>