Hi everyone! I know this may be an annoying question, but does anyone know how much going to a preparatory boarding school like Exeter/Andover/Deerfield help with getting into an Ivy League school? I know they have a higher matriculation rate, but will it actually help you get in?
It depends on which prep school; one year Dalton had zero acceptances at any of the ivies. So if you can, choose wisely: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/12/13/making-harvard-feeder-schools/
That said, the competition within each of those high schools is absolutely fierce. For example, Stuyvesant, which has a graduating class of about 900 students, sends about one-quarter of their graduates to the ivies, or another top college such as Amherst, Swarthmore, Tufts, Williams, Duke, Georgetown etc. What’s implied, but not spoken: seventy-five percent of all Stuy graduates don’t attend a top name-brand college. So, would it help you gain acceptance to an ivy league school by attending Stuyvesant? Yes, but only if you are in the top 1% to 5% of the graduating class. I imagine it’s the same at the rest of the feeder schools.
As a graduate of one of those HS’s, I’ve said this many, many times on this site: going to a top boarding/prep school will not get you into Harvard or any other school just because one attends said prep school. What a prep school will do is help the student develop into an applicant that is coveted by top colleges. Additionally, these schools have experienced college counselors who can help navigate the system. But to be crystal clear, while the HS will provide the tools, they will not do the work for the student; it’s still up to the applicant to prove that s/he deserves to be admitted.
^^^This. And don’t underestimate some of the “genetic” hooks in these pools that you will never be able to acquire. 90+% of the classes at all of the top boarding schools do NOT go to Ivies and, among the students who do, some were destined to go there before they ever set foot on campus. You go to a good boarding school for a stellar high school education, not for college results. Boarding schools are not feeders; they do not “get you in.” Instead, they prepare you well to hit the ground running at whichever great college you matriculate (and there are scores of great colleges, not just those that make up an acronym).
EDIT: Ah, we cross-posted, ski. 
Ahhhh, I really hope going to one will help me. I know it’s supposed to but I really want to know that if I perform the same in a public high school or a boarding school, will I have better chances at the boarding school?
^^ Nope! Attending a prep-school will not help you – at least not in the way you are thinking. This from Stuyvesant’s high school profile . . .
When a prep-school such as Stuyvesant (which BTW is public) publishes that kind of notice to colleges, you can bet the competition is ramped up more so than at any other public high school. FWIW: students are admitted to Stuyvesant based upon an SAT-like test. The acceptance rate is about 3% – less than Harvard’s RD Admission rate – so every student is a tippy-top student in their own right. Most students admitted to Stuyvesant would be better off going to their local school rather than going to the mega-pressure cooker magnetic science and math high school. The same might be said for you! It really depends on your drive and whether you can be the best of the best of the best!
So according to that, why would anyone go in the first place?
^^ Because they are driven type ‘A’ personalities who love and enjoy the challenge of being the best of the best of the best! Because they LOVE academia, they love being in a classroom of like-minded competitive kids all clamoring for the top grade without a goofball or class clown in the room.
Full disclosure: My daughter graduated as Salutatorian of her class at Stuyvesant (academically ranked 2nd out of 860 students) and was admitted to Harvard, but rejected at Yale and waitlisted at Princeton. My son was ranked about 20th in his class at Stuyvesant (out of 900 students) and was admitted to Yale and Princeton. Both agree that their college experience at HY was easier and LESS rigorous than heir high school experience. The flip-side of that – at least from a parent’s perspective – is that their so called prep-school rigorously prepared them for the challenge of an elite college.
I agree with Gibby. I know someone who got admitted to Stuy and didn’t go because of the mega pressure cooker atmosphere there. I have walked by Stuy. It looks like a state penitentiary. On the other hand I have heard nothing but good things about Exeter.
skieurope said
“What a prep school will do is help the student develop into an applicant that is coveted by top colleges. Additionally, these schools have experienced college counselors who can help navigate the system. But to be crystal clear, while the HS will provide the tools, they will not do the work for the student” I couldn’t agree with that statement more
@iwantsuccess: I have a friend whose three very bright children have all gone to Philips Andover, where she went to high school. It’s a family tradition for them. They work hard in late elementary school and middle school in order to be competitive applicants. The campus is lovely–it is as nice as some liberal arts college campuses. There are lots of opportunities to reach and grow and she believes they should do this as high school students. None of her children have attended an ivy league or similar college, though had they stayed at our local high school, they would have been competitive candidates. All are beginning young adulthood with interesting stories and success on their own terms. On the other hand, I have local friends who guide their children toward attending our excellent but somewhat obscure state flagship and then applying to competitive graduate schools. Some of us want our children to be home for high school, attend ivy league or similar liberal arts or technical schools, and make their own way into graduate school. Who is to say which approach is right? (And @Gibby posted as I was composing. Of course, there are kids like his, too.)
Top boarding schools are no longer golden tickets to Ivies or elite LACS. They will be the first to tell you so. In the olden days, they could call up, say Dartmouth, and say I got 5 kids who are a great fit and want to go to the Big Green, and they’d be in. Not so any more. In our experience, kids who have the best shot at the ivies now from BSs are URMs. They also have help if they qualify for Questbridge. First gen, URM, poor students who go to notable BSs and who can stand out in some unique way have the best results for ivy admission. Yes, some other ORM and regular students who stand out in Science Olympiad and recruited athletes also do well with their ivy league quests.
@preppedparent so I am a URM, but I was born in the US. Does it actually help that much if I’m otherwise just as qualified as a white kid?
40 per cent of the kids at Harvard are from private schools. I think private schools represent about 10 per cent of the students nationwide. So I think private schools can help but for a lot of different reasons
That makes sense
@iwantsuccess These top boarding/prep schools are of course no guarantee of entry into an ivy. They do help though in many ways. From my experience I have realized that these top high schools do a very good job at preparing their students for the rigor of the Ivies, Stanford, MIT etc. I remember that my classmates at Penn who came from these schools had a much easier time adjusting to the rigors of Penn and some would even go as far as to say that Penn was less competitive and intense than their high school experience. Of course the ivies do accept heavily from these schools because they know that these kids are very well-prepared for college success.
@iwantsuccess Going to a top boarding or day school will give you a great education and the first two years of college will be easier because you will have seen a lot of the material already, and in prep school you’ll be with a more academically homogenous group of people, which tends to add enrichment (and competition) to the mix. Some of the schools are considered “feeders” to specific Ivies but there are many reasons for that besides producing well qualified candidates - there could be a geographical component, overlap with professors or families of professors, and wealthy donors. The top schools don’t really have an “in” that is generated from the college counseling office, for many those relationships are present before high school begins. That said, you have to consider what your ultimate goal is, do you want a boarding or private school experience for it’s own sake, do you want to be well prepared for college, or do you just want to get into an Ivy? The competition among those in prep schools for a place in an Ivy class is fierce. There are typically up to 40 applications for each top college from each graduating class. So you have to ask yourself a question, are you prepared to do the kind of work it will take to be in the top 20% of a prep school class? Because it’s hours a day of homework on top of sports and ECs. It can be wonderful and also grueling. The education can’t be beat but there is a price to pay. If your goal is entry to an Ivy and you are already at the top of your class, you may want to consider sticking to your school, taking the most rigorous course work available, and take all of your subjects for four years - graduation requirements are often much less than the requirements to get into a top college. There are also other questions that need to be considered, your test scores, are you an athlete, etc… Anyway, good luck, I hope your college dreams come true! My D17 is waiting to hear if her’s will!
I believe a good prep school will increase the chances of a kid who might not develop all their talents in another school, but there is so much completion in top high schools that it so much harder to get high grades and stand out. If you can do really well without the help of a prep school, you’re probably better off. But for many kids the great high school brings out the best in them.
@collegedad13
Stuy doesn’t look like a state penitentiary. I’m sure I’m just missing some joke or something, but just wanted to say for others reading - It’s a beautiful building on the water.
A good private prep school often can make a difference for a URM. There’s no question that colleges are willing to stretch to admit URMs, but my sense is that if they are taking a risk they prefer to take a risk on a kid who they know has experienced an academically rigorous environment based on educational values that are in line with the college’s values, and who has essentially been pre-screened by counselors they trust. That’s not so much an issue if the kid is a top performer at public school like Stuyvesant, or Thomas Jefferson, or Boston Latin, or any school with a proven track record of academic success at every level. But if a kid does not have that kind of school as an option, or has some academic weaknesses that may keep him or her out of the top echelon at a super-competitive public, going to a private prep school can help. It certainly won’t be a guarantee of getting into Harvard or Yale, or Amherst, or any particular college, but it may increase the likelihood of a “better” result to some meaningful extent. (Putting aside exactly what “better” means in this context, and whether any of the many other issues in the prep-vs.-public choice may outweigh whatever the small but “meaningful” difference is in admissions success.)
Because my kids moved from a well-regarded private school to a well-regarded public academic magnet, I saw what happened to their URM friends at both schools. That’s hardly a scientific sample, of course, and the kids were not identical, either. But my sense was that the private school kids did a tick (or two) better than the public school kids of comparable ability.
@JHS Thanks, that’s helpful!