<p>oops - yes I did. They sent a letter to alum saying they weren’t going to follow the policy changes at other school. So Early Action it is!</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification, SevenDad! :-)</p>
<p>
Not true in all cases. Vanderbilt very specifically told us that because they guarantee to meet your “need” that it is still binding. As an ED candidate you have to put faith in them that they will meet your need. They were very clear that if you are not comfortable with that, then you should not apply ED.
Several other schools we looked at do not have the financial aid clause in their ED agreement and several schools did.</p>
<p>^^Then I guess they have a clear guideline on how they determine the “need”? Or they just go by the EFC on “official paper”?</p>
<p>Because financial aid does not consider debt load or discretionary spending on, e.g., private school for younger siblings, it’s easy for an offer to be insufficient, and it’s easy to say someone should NOT have applied ED needing FA. So what happens when a school does not have this release policy? Is a student somehow compelled to attend, and then expelled when the bill cannot be paid? Imagine the horrible PR, and therefore why we never hear of this happening.</p>
<p>The release policy is there to make ED accessible to more than the well-to-do. Some schools abandoned ED because it discouraged the needy from applying. But it sounds like some schools are actively using ED to attract only the monied.</p>
<p>Each school uses its own method to determine need, but it’s often far from clear or transparent.</p>
<p>I’ve received a great education on ED/EA and FA… and don’t mean to divert the discussion…</p>
<p>But back to the OP question about BS hurting college chances - do the top colleges have a quota for BS admits? As in Dartmouth saying they only take X number of Boarding School Z applicants each year?</p>
<p>@mamkiwi,
Most schools post their college matriculation stats. It seems that most years top boarding schools tend to send similar amounts of students to the same colleges. For example, let’s look at how many students Andover has sent to Brown recently. Here’s the list:</p>
<p>2010:11 students
2009:10 students
2008:6 students
2007:7 students
2006:13 students
2005:9 students
2004:8 students</p>
<p>(SOURCE: Andover’s college matriculation available here:[Phillips</a> Academy - College Matriculations & School Profile](<a href=“http://www.andover.edu/Academics/CollegeCounseling/Pages/SchoolProfileCollegeMatriculations.aspx]Phillips”>http://www.andover.edu/Academics/CollegeCounseling/Pages/SchoolProfileCollegeMatriculations.aspx))</p>
<p>Each year Andover seems to have sent a similar amount of students to Brown. Does this mean they have an exact quota? No, but I bet they have a general number of students they know they can accept from top boarding schools. It would be nice if someone who works at a boarding school or with colleges admissions could confirm this/tell me I’m wrong.</p>
<p>^^You really need to see the numbers of the admitted instead of the numbers of the enrolled to figure that out. 6 - 13 is still a pretty big range in this context.</p>
<p>Some thoughts of a mom who had two go through PS and one now in BS:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>BS admissions may be swayed by legacy influence more than at PSs. Also the proportion of kids getting into ivy’s could be higher due to the ability of parents to make sizable donations and/or make important contacts. Even if its one or two kids per class, it would sway the statistics.</p></li>
<li><p>That said, BS offer many things that can be hit or miss at PS namely top of the line education and committed college guidance. </p></li>
<li><p>Some kids thrive at BS and some at PS. They are very different environments and the quality of each varies greatly. A child that is in a good place in high school will be a better candidate all around.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>-If you look at matriculation lists of BS, or any PS for that matter, you will see that certain colleges are favored. Id guess this is due to guidance councilors having relationships (and perhaps influence) with certain admission offices, certain colleges liking the educational systems at certain schools and the fact that kids want to go where their friends go. (This isnt something you think about when you have a freshman, but your child may pick his/her college based on peer influence.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think this is a huge factor. My son left his BS to move with us to Europe and his list of colleges, shaped with suggestions from his BS headmaster, is very different from what his peers at BS are looking at. In fact, when he went to visit colleges, he pulled out the list of college matriculations for his school to see who and where he might work out some overnight visits and none of the colleges on his travel agenda had students from his BS. This is not scientific at all, but I deeply suspect that his attitude about college, what he values most in a college, which colleges have good reputations, etc., etc., would be markedly different had he stayed at the BS.</p>
<p>I think wagon ruts from high schools to colleges run deep and I think the students contribute mightily to making them deep.</p>
<p>Does this help bs applicants? </p>
<p>[Princeton</a> and Harvard Reinstate Early Admissions - NYTimes.com](<a href=“Princeton and Harvard Reinstate Early Admissions - The New York Times”>Princeton and Harvard Reinstate Early Admissions - The New York Times)</p>
<p>^^You bet it does. H says it’s in response to demand from across the economic spectrum of interested applicants, but after the beating their endowment has taken, my instincts say it’s all about the benjamins.</p>
<p>So I gathered it’s non-binding EA for H. What about P? non-binding or SCEA? Read the news twice and couldn’t figure it out. Honestly, I think ED would be more helpful, but EA is better than nothing I guess.</p>
<p>that was my take on it also DAndrew</p>
<p>I should’ve said “non restrictive” EA vs. SCEA. EA’s are all non-binding. The news is pretty vague in what kind of early admissions programs they are adotping. We should know more in the days to come.</p>
<p>To D’yer Maker and Mema32’s points about peer influence and wagon ruts -</p>
<p>This is an important reason for reviewing a bs matriculation. Maybe your student has no idea where they want to go, but if YOU prefer a large univ, ivy or LAC for your child it helps to put them in the environment that will guide them toward that path!</p>
<p>Excellent point.</p>
<p>Just to offer the alternative, though. While BS college counselors will steer you toward the schools that they have strong relationships with, don’t feel obligated to follow their lead. I applied EA (back in the day) to a highly desirable Ivy because the school had a strong relationship and I had a strong application by the fall of senior year. However, it just wasn’t my top choice for a variety of personal reasons. In December I found out I was admitted. In January I submitted an application to my top choice, a school my BS had a lousy relationship with since many applied (generally as a backup) but few who were admitted matriculated. Hence the college had caught on and started rejecting or WL applicants who were certainly qualified. I included a letter with my app stating that I was already accepted at Ivy X, but College A was my top choice; otherwise, why submit the application? I was accepted to College A and matriculated, much to the horror of my BS college counsellors (& classmates!). It was the right choice for me, one I have never regretted, and I got an excellent education, excellent enough to eventually go to Ivy X for grad school! 
It’s YOUR 4 years, make sure it’s what you want in an education and a life experience. (same goes for BS, BTW)</p>
<p>^^Today you’d be the dream of college counselors. What a relief to see someone who’d take things in their own hands without “bugging” counselors for a top college.</p>
<p>[The</a> Exonian](<a href=“http://theexonian.com/2011/02/24/opinion/after_all_this_still_average]The”>http://theexonian.com/2011/02/24/opinion/after_all_this_still_average)</p>
<p>honestly, i think that i would do better in my public high school. im currently a freshman there, and my course list next week is the highest classes a freshman can take in anything. few people are in ALL honors and AP us for sophomore year so i would be in the top 10%. my dad was telling me how last year 10 kids were sent to the ivy league, which doesnt seem like much, but if you know about the Montgomery school system in NJ, a VERY competitive and good school, they only sent 10 as well. my school has a pretty good reputation with ivy leagues to my suprise. my neighbors children went to Brown, and there i think the captain of the Princeton football team might be from my school, if not on the team. BS might even LOWER my chances of getting in!
its good to know that either way, whether i go or not, there will still be hope for me and that its not the end of the world. Getting into a good college will still be a chance for me no matter which route I take.</p>
<p>Here’s the article I referred to.
</p>