Hi. I’m an international and I got accepted by NMH. However, my mom is obviously disappointed about it cuz of the ranking stuff (I also applied to a lot of better schools). I’ve already paid deposit and I didn’t get off any waitlist so far so I guess I’ll probably just go there. Do rankings really matter? And if you can be a top student in a mid-tier school are there still good chances to get into a top university?
Pay no attention to those rankings. NMH is a great school and will get you wherever you want to go. Search this forum for information and conversation about NMH. Congratulations, you’re in for a wonderful time and a great education in a beautiful place. Tell your mom the food ranks among the best.
NMH=mid-tier =))
In all seriousness, if you applied to boarding schools, and will be attending NMH, in order to get into a top university, then you’re attending for the wrong reason.
Short answers to your questions:
No.
Yes.
My son will start in fall. See you there!
Thanks! I’m really looking forward to their homemade ice cream and maple syrup
Well tbh most internationals (at least from my country) apply to US boarding schools in order to get into a top university because it is very competitive here now. And I do have other reasons to go to boarding schools.
It’s competitive for US citizens as well, but bottom line, the boarding schools cannot/will not guarantee admissions to top colleges, regardless of how “highly ranked” they may be.
I love NMH, and would have happily been HoggerDad!
I’m going to play the devil’s advocate here and say that while boarding schools cannot guarantee admissions to top colleges, certain schools maintain a very good relationship with certain top colleges, and it would really help to be a student there come college applications.
I think it’s safe to say that MOST boarding schools ( in the Top 30 - which NMH certainly is ) have extremely good relationships with certain top colleges… after all- these schools have been around for over 100 years… you’d hope so- right?
And- it doesn’t necessarily “help” if you have a ton of applicants from one school applying to the same college. In all honesty- some kids would be better off applying from an underpass on I95.
Also important to remember : It’s the student not the school…
@juuuulianaar Actually, I believe it would be harder to get into a “top university” from boarding schools because of the small fish, big pond scenario and of how much more competitive the students are at BS.
NMH is also an EXCELLENT school. Just because it isn’t in the acronym GLADCHEMMS or HADES, doesn’t mean that it should be considered “mid-tier” or “not good enough so students can get into top universities”…
There’s a plethora of information here on CC. Try putting in “NMH” in CC’s search tool or “NMH CollegeConfidential” in Google.
PhotographerMom, I have no doubt that an NMH student could get into a top college, but as a senior with friends at a variety of boarding schools (hidden gems or more selective ones), I have to respectfully disagree with your implication that colleges view all the schools as equal.
A friend of mine is near the top of his class (top 2%) at a hidden gem boarding school occasionally discussed on here, yet he failed to gain admissions into his top choices like Cornell, Duke, Dartmouth and Penn. His friends at said school are also not doing as well as they expected, and he’s going to NYU, which by the way is a perfectly good school. However, looking at my peers at Lawrenceville and at other frequently mentioned schools like Taft and Hotchkiss, I would say that students at these schools tend to have a much easier time getting into an Ivy/comparable/top LAC.
@MBVLoveless As @PhotographerMom quite correctly stated:
As neither you nor I are admissions officers, and neither of us has seen all the applications in question, additional specifics as to why your friend was rejected is conjecture at best, but it was most likely not due to the school.
Again, I would have to respectfully disagree. The fact that schools like Georgetown could be seen as a “safety” school for the top students at certain schools, but not at others, is quite telling.
Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree then, since I can’t imagine Georgetown ever being seen as a safety school.
@MBVLoveless We cannot know in any particular individual’s case what determined acceptance/rejection, nor why their “record” (10-0, 0-10, 5-5) is what it is. These boards have hashed this out for years, whether we’re talking about elite preps or elite universities, and you’ve read the posts yourself. Sure, Lawrenceville has lots of kids going to the elite institution that was one of their top three picks, but run the numbers. Loads of Lawrentians got rejected from schools that they “should have” been accepted to. There is a “rationale” to the holistic admissions of these universities, but the crush of qualified and overqualified applicants means there is a “lottery” effect. So, I’d agree that, in the aggregate, L’ville and its peers have an outsized record on elite admissions, but that fact may end up being no consolation to the individual applicant from the same who got rejected. Hence, the student can only do their own best at what they control, and will hopefully understand that the choices of others may let them down (a variation on “it’s the student, not the school”). ~O)
MBV is a respected long-time poster and I’m somewhat like the fly stuck to the paper. So . . . another post to agree with much of what s/he already wrote:
- yes, some BS have very good relations with some elite universities
- right again, colleges do NOT view all BS as equals
- will repeat that yes, the aggregate acceptance rates are higher than those at most other schools. Though certain public and private day schools (Roxbury Latin, Stuyvesant, T.J., Trinity, etc.) have just as high or higher admissions.
- so go to the acronym BS if elite U is the main reason for attending high school, but have high confidence that you will be top 10% there, or top 20% if not.
- But, most importantly, the admissions people themselves have said for many years that they're choosing the student, not the school -- and that's one key point of disagreement. I can't see any reason to question the colleges' sincerity on this. They also say that there are no quotas, and a putative aversion to "privilege", but I'd expect some wiggle on these.
I do, however, think that a lot of the highly-qualified college applicants from boarding schools like Lawrenceville, Taft, Hotchkiss, as well as from the big city elite day schools, are full pay for all eight years (9th to bachelor’s) and that even the need-blind Ivies + choose them disproportionately to fill the 40% or more of each class that always is full pay. I wish I had statistics to support this hunch. To me, this helps explain the fact that about 20 boarding schools historically get 50% or more of each class into highly selective colleges and universities, though these 50% certainly come from all economic means.
Hi! I’m sorry for barging in but my sister is currently a senior in NMH and she had also applied for the same reason! (She’s an international student as well) If it helps, she got into Cornell University. And I’d say that attending NMH definitely helped her out on that one 
I’ve visited NMH twice before and their ice cream is amazing! Congratulations for getting accepted!