<p>Another perspective–there’s a wonderful quote on SPS’s web site that should give parents debating Ivy matriculation statistics a reason to pause. Don’t get me wrong, I am an Ivy league grad who would love for my D/S to go to my alma mater, but the reality is that acceptance rates are now under 10% and there so many factors into those numbers that are outside of our control. So, as parents, let’s focus on what parents can influence, which is so well stated in this quote below:</p>
<p>What determine success and happiness in life, of course, is not the quality of the college to which a person goes but the quality of the person who goes to the college. . . . If you focus on helping your child develop into a good person who does her best to develop her talents and interests as well as her concern for people, then “success,” however you define it, will follow in proper proportion."</p>
<p>The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness, Ned Hallowell</p>
<p>Good point, erlanger, but don’t you think you will hear this over and over from the schools every year? It qualifies “mainstream” education and I guess should always be mentioned before any “practical tips”. ;)</p>
<p>You deserve a big BEAR hug for that wonderful “practical tips” post! I enjoy your other practical posts as well. Many may not admit a good college is on their minds when they send their kids to BS (sounds politically correct, conforming), But I’m sure it’s on the back of their minds. :)</p>
<p>This quote is a bundle of contradictions, almost like a wise/sage statement. What happens if you define success for you is getting into a great college?</p>
<p>This is again a setup and trap for parents by adcoms/schools. The schools including HADES know 70% of their kids won’t get into an ivy. So by setting up this quote on their website, they are trying to avoid the complaints from this 70% of parents (like we told you so). They don’t have the problem with the other 30% of parents as their kids already got into the ivy. Now everything is cool and dandy. </p>
<p>I think I deseve more hugs, but maybe not from this crowd. I just don’t see the point of making the argument over and over that BS DOES NOT help college admission, top BS’s low admit rate and high yield ARE NOT justifiable, and any matriculation stats are just an “accident”. To kill the “charm” of top schools? Well good luck with that.</p>
<p>I think the BSs want to lower expectations of parents, 'cause not everyone can matriculate to an IVY. I understand that. I also understand that as parents most of us want to give our children a good education and support to be both happy and successful, able to be self-fufilled, reach their potential, make use of their many talents, AND make a decent living. Not sure the BSs need to remind us what our roles are as parents by posting reminders on their websites. I haven’t seen this, so am only going by what others are posting.</p>
<p>Because some parents go beyond being supportive and make their kids sick from the pressure. One need only look at Tuesday’s posts to see what she was up against in choosing courses. And because I was joking with another Adcom after my daughter’s interview about wanting to buy a Condo close by. The Adcom laughed and said “I know you’re joking, but you have no idea how many parents we interview who are serious about it.”</p>
<p>Parents can be supportive and stay back and allow the student to navigate the system, or they can be needy, overbearing and/or demanding in ways that make other students on the applicant list seem more attractive.</p>
<p>Hence, when my daughter interviewed I made it clear she was “driving the process”, I was only “driving the rental” to get her to her interviews, and not once in our discussions did college choices ever come up (in private or in her interviews).</p>
<p>Schools are looking for what families and students will bring to the community, not parents who only see BS as “fly over country” on the way to a top college.</p>
<p>Like I said, too many students to choose from to have to deal with the drama. Hence the web pages.</p>
<p>Forewarned is forearmed. Ignore at your own risk.</p>
The education is not just from schools. It’s coming from some parents here on CC too. The strange thing is that despite the fact that some “top” schools draw more attention than other schools, the top school parents rarely brag or question the value of a lower tiered school. It is the non-top school parents who are constantly questioning the intention of the parents of students who go to top schools and trying to correct the misconceptions that they believe have disillusioned the top school parents and drove them to send their kids there.</p>
<p>Benley:I think I deseve more hugs, but maybe not from this crowd. I just don’t see the point of making the argument over and over that BS DOES NOT help college admission, top BS’s low admit rate and high yield ARE NOT justifiable, and any matriculation stats are just an “accident”. To kill the “charm” of top schools? Well good luck with that. </p>
<p>As I’ve said before, most of the excellent college matriculation stats for a boarding school are determined at their own admissions process. They do well because of the raw material of the students they accept. Fine. But that’s not the whole story. Some have claimed that a student who would get into a HYPMS school from a BS would get in no matter where they went to HS. While that’s true in many (maybe even most) cases, I can’t believe that’s true in all cases.</p>
<p>Some posters on this site claim that the value of a BS is what is gained from the experience of being there ant that is all that it offers (I certainly agree there’s a lot of value there, of course). But why is it so hard to belive that some of the value that is gained by going to a BS will have the collateral effect of improving the eventual matriculation possibilities? That may not be your primary (or even secondary) focus for attending BS, but you may reap that benefit anyway.</p>
<p>Let’s take a simple example to support my point. Let’s say a student had never played lacrosse and his local school doesn’t have a lacrosse team. But, this student happens to have an amazing latent ability for the game. He goes to BS, he picks up a lacrosse stick early freshmen year when he encounters some buddies just tossing around a ball in the middle of campus. He gives it a try and it just feels right. He then plays a bit with his friends and goes out for the team in the spring. By the time college applications roll around, he was just all-league his junior year. His grades and test scores are minimally acceptable for Yale, but aren’t enough to get him in on their own. But the Yale lacrosse coach needs someone playing his position and takes a liking to him on his visit. Boy ends up at Yale. Did going to BS help his chances? You tell me.</p>
<p>I could just as easily have constructed an academic based example, but I hope I’ve made my point.</p>
<p>ExitMITAlum:*Because some parents go beyond being supportive and make their kids sick from the pressure. One need only look at Tuesday’s posts to see what she was up against in choosing courses. And because I was joking with another Adcom after my daughter’s interview about wanting to buy a Condo close by. The Adcom laughed and said “I know you’re joking, but you have no idea how many parents we interview who are serious about it.”</p>
<p>Parents can be supportive and stay back and allow the student to navigate the system, or they can be needy, overbearing and/or demanding in ways that make other students on the applicant list seem more attractive.</p>
<p>Hence, when my daughter interviewed I made it clear she was “driving the process”, I was only “driving the rental” to get her to her interviews, and not once in our discussions did college choices ever come up (in private or in her interviews).</p>
<p>Schools are looking for what families and students will bring to the community, not parents who only see BS as “fly over country” on the way to a top college.</p>
<p>Like I said, too many students to choose from to have to deal with the drama. Hence the web pages.</p>
<p>Forewarned is forearmed. Ignore at your own risk.*</p>
<p>That’s a great point. I tend to say that BS enhances what a student already has - but I love your comment that it may awaken a latent skill. Never thought of it that way. Nice job. </p>
<p>I was non-athletic until I went to Exeter and discovered rowing. Continued through all four years of college and at one point was requested to try out for the Olympics (I declined - but that’s another story). Exposure to crew would not have happened if I had stayed home.</p>
<p>I have posted previously on this thread (I think it was this thread) that I feel confident that BS will increase my children’s chances. I don’t think it’s a ticket in and I really don’t care if it is or isn’t. My thinking is that our local schools offer so very few ways for a child to distinguish himself, that it’s not surprising that they don’t do well in competitive admissions. Exeter will offer son a myriad of ways to excel; where here, there really isn’t much beyond the run-of-the-mill high schools sports competing with other small rural districts. It’s great fun and most of the kids are perfectly happy going to junior college and then a state school and that’s terrific. But if a kid has a keen interest in say, political philosophy or literature or comparative religion or ornithology or medieval history…well, they’re just kind of screwed.</p>
<p>It is first about quenching that thirst and second about letting colleges know that that thirst is even present.</p>
<p>Found out today that yet another top student is leaving our district for private school and it is not so that the student will have a better chance of getting into Harvard.</p>
<p>I’m from a small Southern town. The public high school there didn’t have many extra curriculars, including wrestling. So instead of attending that high school, I went to a prep school where, by pure happenstance, the dominate sport was wrestling. While I was there, the team won 90 dual matches in a row. I tried out for the team as a sophomore but didn’t make the first string varsity until my senior year. Once I got my chance, I took advantage of it. I lost only one match my senior year, placed second in the National Prep Tourament and was a High School All-American wrestler. When I was accepted to Harvard, the head wrestling coach there sent me my acceptance letter. </p>
<p>If I didn’t go to prep school, I would have never wrestled. If I had never wrestled, I would have never attended Harvard. </p>
<p>I think that comparing college admissions for two groups of BS students might shed some light on the discussion whether/how BSs help kids to get into the top colleges. </p>
<p>Group#1: students attending a BS for all 4 years, and
Group#2: students attending a BS only for 2 years, junior and senior years.</p>
<p>If BS really helps to “cook the pizza” than Group#1 should do much better than the Group#2 for a number of reasons, but mainly for being exposed to that great cook for a longer period. </p>
<p>While if Group #2 is doing comparably well (and there is additionally a big challenge for that group to start a new school in a junior year), then I would assume that the whole story is mainly about picking the right ingredients.</p>
<p>This test will be biased in favor of getting better results for the Group#1 since the Group#2 has clear disadvantage. But if the Group#2 is doing at least as good as the Group#1 I would consider that as a strong evidence of “picking ingredients” and maybe “wrapping”, but not so much of really “cooking”.</p>
<p>If anyone can do this type of analysis – that will be interesting.</p>
<p>I would think students entering 11 th grade have higher success rate. They were selected with a more certain indicator for success. The school takes less risk. For students I personally think it’s not wise to join a new school at 11th grade. They risk more and gain less</p>
<p>For the sake of college admission, students entering BS in 11th grade are facing greater challenges and taking big risks. Unless there’s a convincing evidence that BS will give one that much needed advantage in college admission one’s local school can’t provide, one really should be very careful in making that decision. Although many such students do end up in top colleges, it is very likely that they would’ve done it in their local schools as well - maybe much easier and with less stress. I think masha’s daughter is a case in point. Andover really helped her little. She would’ve done it in her public school - saving the travel, stress, etc.</p>
<p>As for students who are staying in BS for four years, they are good “ingredients” but still “raw material”, so they depend on the schools to cook and wrap and get them “marketed”. Now, I don’t think the top schools have the most efficient way in helping their students getting into selective colleges - the academic rigor in ALL subjects and the highly demanding nature of the whole experience are sometimes “counter-prodcutive” for college admission purpose. On the other hand, they may prepare their students very well for college. I think the schools should try to strike that balance, and I think they are to a certain degree.</p>
<p>I’m deleting the rest of the post because I’m just speechless about the new “11th grade” motivation/value discussion.</p>
<p>I mean, really.</p>
<p>Where do you get these theories?</p>
<p>For what EVER reason students enter boarding school at WHAT EVER age, it’s a personal decision not open for dissection. Not everyone goes to Boarding school because they are desperate wannabe’s hoping for a leg up on some fictitious path to a specific college. Sometimes (believe it or not) they want the challenge, family or school situations have changed, it’s a chance to do a college type experience early or they just want to get away from needy, overbearing, insufferable, helicopter parents. (given some the posts on CC site I vote for the latter as a major motivating factor).</p>
</p>