<p>Hi all - I’ve decided to post a copy of the matriculation list that was forwarded to me by the admissions office at Deerfield. The list contains data from 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010. The # of students who matriculated at each college was provided to me for the years 2012-2010. I’m hosting this on my dropbox account. Feel free to take a look</p>
<p>But the list looks just as impressive without any numbers next to any college names. The numbers next to the names aren’t telling you anything important, and they fluctuate year-to-year at every school based on exactly what Pops said above. GMT’s post is a perfect example of this; his DS is not applying to any ivies (neither is mine) for different reasons, but both kids are qualified. If every kid at a particular BS were Ivy-qualified but none applied, would that indicate to you that the school was somehow going downhill? Or would you conclude that a school where top-notch students weren’t interested in ivies was somehow substandard? I’m trying to figure out what you think those numbers mean.</p>
<p>What’s incomplete or inaccurate about the statement that a list includes all colleges where five or more students matriculated or a list that shows all colleges with matriculations over the past five years? Why do you conclude that less granularity is an attempt to hide something, especially when the schools WILL share those numbers if you request them?</p>
<p>I don’t understand all these arguments… if you don’t like Deerfield for its presumed lack of transparency, perhaps it’s not your school and you don’t have to bother to get in. BS application is not like 1040. You have the freedom to shop elsewhere.</p>
<p>There may be a growing feeling that students deserve some confidentiality. On Naviance, for example, if only a few students from your high school apply to a college, you won’t see the scatter plots. It’s too easy to identify individuals when the numbers are small. </p>
<p>After paying for tuition for four years, families may strongly prefer to choose colleges which offer merit aid and/or full rides. Parents living in Texas may prefer their child attend UT. Students strong in STEM might have a different college list–CalTech, Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Harvey Mudd, strong engineering programs across the country, combined BS/MD programs. With the rise in international experiences, some students want to attend college outside the US. </p>
<p>In other words, it’s not necessary to look for any conspiracy or trouble. Although I must admit, I have not noticed any reluctance on the part of the schools to admit children whose parents dream of top colleges.</p>
<p>Like with the “top” boarding schools, the “top” colleges and universities isn’t a set list. Sure, the most “prestigious” schools might be the Ivies plus Stanford/MIT and the top 25 LACs, but that doesn’t mean that a great state school or any other small school will do any student any better. Some students, like boarding school applicants, dream of an international school, a smaller school, an arts school, etc. Some won’t do very well in the lecture halls of a top school; some need advising programs. Some want a built-in medical school; some want to graduate in three years. What fits their needs might not be what most people, particularly those that float around the BS/CC situations, consider a “good” or “top” school. </p>
<p>Parents might think their kid needs to attend a state school or a school with big merit scholarships- because maybe they won’t be eligible for financial aid. It’s not always only about the kid but about what the family needs, or what will do the kid better. Maybe some of that saved college money can be spent traveling abroad for a year after graduation, so he wants a merit scholarship. Or maybe he plans to attend graduate school. It’s incredibly subjective. Besides, the schools fluctuate from year to year because people fluctuate. Sometimes a class might be more international and want to head home or travel. Sometimes they want a smaller school or an arts/athletics powerhouse. That’s why it’s so important to look at five-year or three-year averages to get a better sense of it. Finally, college matriculation lists don’t matter so much. If you are a perfect scorer on the SSAT with well above average SAT scores in 7th grade, play three varsity/JV sports, started a club, are class president, and write in the literary magazine, you have decent chances of getting into college no matter where you attend school. It’s about the experience, not about heading off to college.</p>
<p>Then why are these called college prep schools? If they don’t help you get into the college of your choice, they may not be doing much college prep, heh!</p>
<p>You’re prepared for going to college, not being accepted to it. I personally find it ridiculous to expect every student from a “college preparatory school” get into the college of their choice. </p>
<p>It’s simply not going to happen. Harvard isn’t going to take all of the 370~odd Andover graduation class.</p>
<p>The schools listed on CC provide an opportunity to students, not a guarantee. I attended one of the BS on listed on this forum, as did my brother. We both attended great universities, have top level management positions in strong industries, and can afford to live in wonderful communities. My children will, hopefully, attend my alma mater. I am constantly thankful for the wonderful education my BS provided. I took advantage if it. Others did not. There will always be students who make poor choices no matter which school they attend. As the old adage states: You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink. Congratulations to all of you who have been accepted to one of these amazing schools. They are ALL great, and will provide you with wonderful learning opportunities. Enjoy!!</p>
<p>I don’t know why Choatiemom is so obsessed with defending Deerfield. Telling you a list of 75-100 colleges or so where ten or more students have been accepted (not even attending, which even in that case would be bad data) over a period 5 years tells you absolutely nothing. It’s very simple to provide the number of students attending a particular college (regardless of the number of years, which is a personal choice) in a given year, and they have now chose to deliberately hide that information or not make it readily available while it has been historically in the viewbook or on the website. This was a DELIBERATE change reflecting some sort of goals or interest of staff at the school. Complaining about Andover is ridiculous; they provide matriculation statistics that are complete for one year and specific numbers (omitting schools with too few matriculants for the multi-year data probably due to space because it is a large school). Andover should receive no criticism in this regard while Deerfield should. Usually though the schools that do not make this information READILY AVAILABLE to applicants tend to be schools with weak reputations and drop out of the group considered truly elite. It is a strange and risky decision. I genuinely wonder if it’s because 2013 was a particularly bad/harsh year for applicants or what because even the data posted on this thread is old data (2013 just lists where students attended without numbers).</p>
<p>Andover used to publish individual yearly matriculation. But now they also report only a 3-year summary of matriculation that doesn’t include the colleges that less than 5 students went to.</p>