<p>regarding the discussion re: what ECs /hooks do HYPSM look for, and do not find trite? Private school most likely is a hook. My previous question had been, can you find a statistical trend in phillps’ numbers? 18 acceptances to Harvard out of 280 kids… compare this to 1-3 for the elite public high schools…in our public HS,the kid who won the Siemens top prize got rejected from H,but into Y…I feel that if you factor in HYPSM legacies at PA, and the "big money"factor,you still couldn’t negate all those 18 H acceptances down to the 1-3 for public schools…maybe someone should do a linear regression analysis and control for those outliers…</p>
<p>Another hook , I feel , is Music precollege… but there are likely only 2 in the entire US that would qualify for this hook…Juillard and Manhattan School of Music…the numbers of HYPSM acceptances are published, and there are the same types of numbers for them. I have not found these numbers anywhere else , ie, swimming /athletic team ( anyone know one with >% H acceptances?)…</p>
<p>And…my standard disclaimer… there is so much more to life than getting into HYPSM etc.</p>
<p>Even at the BSs that can boast the best college admissions stats (beyond HYPSM to the top 50 or so colleges/universities), see L’ville’s stats, only the top approx. 50% or so of the class are going to get admitted to what this CC crowd hopes for. That mean, if we look at any HADES, for example, each year there is still roughly half of the class not getting in to top 50 schools. Let’s face it, they were students who were (when they got into a HADES) and would have been-- VERY likely --stars at home. From a college admission standpoint about 50% are worse off collegewise for going to BS. We have one S was a super student/athlete/leader before he went to BS. Now, at BS he’s doing okay, but stressed by the competition, lost his confidence, and certainly not killing it. He would of been better off locally. So with the second S in 8th grade this fall, we are definitely thinking that staying home at a good PS or private day school is the better option. I don’t mean any offense to anyone–just want to present another perspective.</p>
<p>grinzing, quantman: Your experience with your children and the analysis makes sense. Top students (superstars) may benefit from BS, for the rest a good public or private day school might be better. Great work. :)</p>
<p>Then there are the kids who would do average work anywhere, the ones who need a little pushing because they’re very smart but not super-competitive. Would you rather be a B+ student at Average Regional High School or at St. Grottlesex? Do you need some encouragement to get involved in sports and other ECs? Look at the 25th-50th percentile kids at highly selective schools. They’re still going to extremely strong colleges.</p>
<p>I think the superstars will do well anywhere because they have the internal drive to excel. In some cases these kids will have more opportunities at a local public school, in others at a high-powered boarding or day school.</p>
<p>A good local private day school can take care of this population as well as a BS along with all the EC advantages of home. Let’s not forget mama’s homecooked meals. :)</p>
<p>grinzing, Lvillegrad’s stats show that 75%+ of top schools’ graduates end up in a top 50 university or a top 30 LAC (e.g SPS -83.2%, Andover - 79.2%，Exeter - 76.4%), but of course your point stands.</p>
<p>“A good local private day school can take care of this population as well as a BS along with all the EC advantages of home.”</p>
<p>Great if you have one nearby, but unlike places like Boston or NYC, most areas of the country don’t have a variety of private schools from which to choose.</p>
<p>As an experiment (and to test my assumptions, always a good idea) I went to the SSAT website and did a school search for schools within 25 miles of a location. The results?</p>
<p>Why do I really care about whether someone else’s kid will do well going to Andover or some such school ? Am I mad that Andover sold me a bill of goods ? </p>
<p>There can be any number of aspersions that one can make in a forum such as this including as to why it cost me 50k instead of 41.223 K. Did i stay at the Andover Inn at 300$ per day or at the Fairfield at 65$ ? Did I take a private jet to Logan from JFK ? While there are some parents who did (I know them). No, I did none of the above. Believe me it still cost close to that but I am not going to give you an itemized list. To pay what I did, I had to make about 100K pretax which is in the top five percent of household incomes…and this is just for educating one kid at Andover.</p>
<p>Yes, I am sure that matriculation stats are the one metric that every paying parent whose child is no superstar is going to look at. Not to do that is to be stupid. What school you went to is merely cocktail party struts once you go past that age. Which college you attend determines your career, and if your child is driven and ambitious, his self-worth. Just ask all those kids at Andover whose GPA is between 4 and 5 and who didnt make it to the top ten. Just sit down and listen to all those senior conversations at Commons. You cant be blind and deaf just because you are in love.</p>
<p>There are also tons of public magnets and charters that can easily take care of the needs of this student segment. Also, if you are in states/locals without many private schools (say like someplace in ND), your chances of getting into top colleges is great from a local school than BS (geographic hook).</p>
<p>quantman, surprisingly you sound - indignant! While some people on this thread claim that they don’t care about college matriculation, many like me do care. It’s just that getting into “top 10” cannot be the only motive of going to a school can it? What are the other benefits of going to a top BS if the “top 10” goal hasn’t been achieved (or in your case it has been achieved actually) that makes that experience worthwhile?</p>
<p>I am sorry if my tone was such. Lets go on being factual and helpful to parents like you who are looking for advice from parents like me who have been there.</p>
<p>Look, it depends on the child. Frankly we have not even whispered about one huge risk of sending a kid to a BS like Andover. And that is of disciplinary action. Have you wondered why the graduating class in 2010 is only 295 instead of the usual 350 or so ? Despite aggressively adding uppers, lowers and pgs ?</p>
<p>The answer is that kids leave or are expelled. By my calculations (Andover does not release this information) as many as ten percent of the class of 2010 have left every year since the class was founded. Many of those who stay (as many as fifty to sixty seniors, I believe) have transcripts scarred by statements about alcohol or drug usage or similar stuff. </p>
<p>You have to agree that seventeen and eighteen year olds all over the country consume alcohol and use prescription drugs without prescription for staying awake,getting high etc. At Andover you have the additional thrill of outwitting those counsellors and deans. Which teenager with red blood coursing in his veins will not dare that ? And so they do. </p>
<p>However a local day or public school has no reason to find out or report on such things. The great kid who was numbers behind yours when your child was at the local school is now not only the top kid the teacher has ever taught but is a paragon of social responsibility compared to your child who is now probably not even in the top ten percent but is also submitting a confessional attachment to his essay because the school requires that you report disciplinary violations. Tell me, why do you need this ?</p>
<p>Which brings me to your query: What aspect of bs life is so wonderful that I will let my child tread mine fields like these in the blissful hope that nothing untoward is going to happen ? I will hold to my conviction that if you have a bright and driven child you are better off at a good local school ((public or day) until Andover revamps its culture, its refrain that they know what to do because they have been doing it for two hundred and fifty years and admit that there are several aspects that need to be totally reengineered. There are no aspects of life there that are worth the risks that you will be taking.</p>
<p>Getting into Andover: despite some of the text here in the last couple days touting the value of PS, some of us still want the value of an Andover education - including the good, the bad and the ugly (yes, scars and all).</p>
<p>So are there some feeder schools? I’ve been astounded that the rate of getting in is really less than 17% the overall acceptance rate.Parents have argued that if you take out hooks for athletes, legacies and URM’s etc. your child’s chances of getting in are more like 10 - 11%. Then, I’ve gotten some PM’s stating that their kids are no different than my kid–top grades, SSATs, recs, EC’s etc, but what they have that I don’t have is a feeder school. Can someone enlighten me as to what feeder schools in MA send kids in droves to Andover? I need one, thanks. Because without it, I’m behind the eight ball yet again!</p>
Now that we’ve come this far, could you be more specific here? What’s the problem? How do you think they should “revamp” and “reengineer”? I know this may sound like negative campaign against one school, but remember we are talking about Andover, a big boy I think can take a blow or two.</p>
<p>“Also, if you are in states/locals without many private schools (say like someplace in ND), your chances of getting into top colleges is great from a local school than BS (geographic hook).”</p>
<p>Attendance at BS doesn’t change your state of residence. If your family lives in ND and you attend school in Connecticut you’re still from ND.</p>
<p>Not from where we sit, Pulsar–the geographic hook is not enough to get kids in my town into good East and West Coast schools. Just this year, the top 2 students at our school were denied their first choice, top 50 LAC’s. For some of us, resources, advising, EC’s, academic choices are severely limited, and BS is a sort of savior for our kids.</p>
<p>sue22:
Attendance at BS doesn’t change your state of residence. If your family lives in ND and you attend school in Connecticut you’re still from ND. </p>
<p>I thought it did thus the student would have residence in CT. Does someone have the answer to this?</p>
<p>Not exactly the question asked, but from a FAQ for the UMass system:</p>
<p>Question: “I attend a Prep school in New Hampshire, but my parents live in Massachusetts, will I be eligible for In-State classification?”</p>
<p>Answer: As long as you are a legal dependent of your parents, you will be classified as a Massachusetts resident. Additional documentation may be requested to support this claim.</p>
<p>And from another site:</p>
<p>“How does a prospective student know if a state college or university will charge “in-state” tuition?
In the United States, public higher education institutions use “state residency” (the place of a student’s permanent home) as the key factor to judge eligibility.”</p>
<p>The census also counts the parental home as the student’s place of residence.</p>
While some people on this thread claim that they don’t care about college matriculation, many like me do care. It’s just that getting into “top 10” cannot be the only motive of going to a school can it? What are the other benefits of going to a top BS if the “top 10” goal hasn’t been achieved (or in your case it has been achieved actually) that makes that experience worthwhile?</p>