Re: same subjects taught in prep vs. highly ranked public. One example - in my kids’ private school, in order to take AP Chem you must first take regular Chem and get an A, or Honors chem and get at least a B. Contrast with locally, top ranked public, where the kids on the advanced science track take AP Chem as their introductory chemistry course. The same is true for Physics. How can the classes possibly be comparable? One group is in their 2nd year of study of the subject. I have been meaning to try to see how they all do on the AP exams just because I find it so strange that they push right into AP sciences in 9th/10th grades. They are really hard courses at our school.
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We live in the middle of the country, and my oldest 3 were LPS kids. A few years ago S19 and I went on a trip and did some visits (he was an athletic recruit). I probably talked to 50 people about where we were going (mostly people who asked because of the athletic component). We had visits lined up with Williams and a few Ivies. The comment from my friend who has a PhD and teaches at the local directional to the list was “Wow, Williams is a great school!” The response from the other 50 people when I said Williams [Blank Stare].
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@bernesemtnmama - as I have often posted on CC, the Southern schools are strong for many reasons. Check out my earlier post @ golf, also! I only wish my kiddo was talented enough to get on one of those teams.
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@chardonMN My DD’s PS you have to take honors Chem, honors Bio or honors Physics (just checked and also have the option with A- or above in reg) before taking AP.
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@one1ofeach
Edit: sorry, I have no idea why the quotes did that
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In my kids experience the repeats are not any kind of academic competition. If anything they tend to be the kids getting an 85. My kid hasn’t ever mentioned a kid blowing it out of the water because they’re a repeat.
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I can’t generalize how the repeats tend to do academically. I am 100% for it if it’s a possibility. Being a true 10th grade transfer has its challenges, especially from a PHS! Though, some of my DD’s biggest support comes from the other transfers. That’s why I wanted to clarify that “Incoming 10th probably all repeats unless they are coming from a junior BS“ isn’t the case.
It’s a small school, so when reading this forum, prospects should realize that they won’t be alone if they choose that difficult transition year.
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I am curious about your rabbit hole experience. Especially since for as long as I’ve lurked on here and then posted after lurking I haven’t seen anything I’d consider not pretty accurate about BS in general or in particular schools I have experience with.
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Do you have a specific curiosity? In general, there have been instances of some kids and adults using conjecture in a way that inexperienced kids/families might not be able to decipher. You probably never had that issue because you have a lot of experience with this world. It took our impressionable selves to realize that everyone’s journey to BS is soooo very different.
We should meet 
so you can share your experience. Our kids probably already know each other!
As a Haverford alum with a student headed to Williams this hurts 
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People in academia know those schools and the quality of their academics. Neither is really on the radar for top students in Atlanta. My sons’ college counselor has a background as an AO at two different T20 school, so we have a very similar counseling experience to those of you with kids in boarding school. She will recommend schools that our families may not know about. As far as I can tell, no one from our school has applied to either of those schools in the last five years. So really hard to tell if he will have a realistic chance.
And getting back to another posters comment about Washington and Lee, I think it falls into that same category of schools that people in academics are familiar with. The average person probably has never heard of it. My assumption about that Andover kid would be that he or she is an athlete, eagle scout type,and heavily involved in community service. I would further assume that this student is probably interested in law or maybe finance. This student would probably be in the running for the Johnson Scholarship, which by the way is very prestigious and looks great on grad school applications. Prep school college counselors have a wealth of knowledge and make their suggestions based upon the type of environment the kids are looking for.
That being said, would love to hear your thoughts on how a tennis playing, goofy, jewish, math and physics nerd from the south would fit in at those schools. But don’t want to hijack this thread. It is so very hard guage what the culture of these schools is like when you can’t visit.
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Just sent you a PM.
S18 asked me why D21 was headed to Amherst (which I would lump in with Williams and probably Haverford) when no one has ever heard of them. I pointed out that AO’s at the country’s top med and grad schools, along with hiring officers at places that pay a 23 year old $100,000 a year, know who they are. That’s who she is trying to impress, not the people she went to HS with. I’m sure my D at Amherst and your son at Williams will be fine, even without their approval.
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Isn’t that sad. I agree. We don’t do things to appeal to the people who don’t know.
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On that same note even less people have heard of Choate, Deerfield and Lawrenceville than Amherst, Williams and Haverford…
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In the recent years, more students are broadening their college list geographically as much as the colleges are trying to draw from all over. NYC privates like the one my older kid went to used to send a ton of kids to the Northeast SLACs like Williams/Amherst/Bowdoin/Bates/Middlebury/Swarthmore/Haverford. Kids still go every year but definitely not as many as 10 years ago. But we now have kids going to Carleton, Pomona, Davidson. And of course the bigger southern schools are all rage, Duke has always been very popular but it is beyond hot now, Vanderbilt is not far behind, Wake Forest, Tulane, Emory, Miami, Elon and the list goes on. Same for Midwest kids have always gone to UChicago, Northwestern, Michigan but now also Wisconsin is super popular, CMU, Penn State etc. I think that is a great thing, the Ivy or bust mentality was never healthy to begin with and I think change of scenery is great for college especially for kids who never never really set foot outside of the NE. My older one did it and it has worked out really well, could not be happier. So I think if you cast a wide net it will work out. Worst case scenario, you transfer. A couple of friends of my older dc did that, and had amazing results from transfer applications.
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Congrats to your daughter on Amherst. FWIW, my husband has never heard of it either.
It is every bit as prestigious as an ivy. And at the risk of angering the Ivy Leaguers, the focus on undergraduate teaching can be a superior college experience for a lot of students.
I have enjoyed reading your posts on this thread. You took the words right out of my mouth several times. Hope your youngest hears some good news from her boarding school soon.
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Just reading this and wanted to add some “context thoughts”. I wanted to say that I found the college application process extremely stressful. It is and it’s clear that it remains so. And it’s much easier to have the perspective that it all works out when it’s in the rear view window!
In contrast to what many have said, my kid would almost certainly never have been a viable applicant for the college he chose had he remained at our LPS. I am pretty sure that as an unhooked student at the middle of the GPA pack from a BS, he was positioned much better for admission, and then for success when he got there, than he ever could have been otherwise. This was because of the rigor in the classroom and the support he got to really cultivate his “best self”.
The colleges know that if a student has been successful at BS - and that doesn’thaveto mean exceptional- , they can handle the work at college.
And yes, it is true that no college is going to take 50 kids from one school either.
In one of those surveys done by our school, a very very high percentage of families said they had been very pleased with their college outcomes. It’s not because they all got into Harvard. I suspect instead it’s because so many were counseled toward schools that would be good fits and where the odds of acceptance were reasonably in their favor.
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Our son’s GC department at his BS is outstanding in every way but especially this year. The institution of TO has allowed many students to greatly increase their number of applications and the GC’s have to follow up with them on every one including sending transcripts, recommendations, etc. It is a department of two in our school and they haven’t missed a step. I’m sure the are working overtime every day. On the other hand you can tell that many colleges were unprepared for the onslaught of applications which is a large part of the reason that they keep pushing back deadlines for notifications of EA and other scholarship related items. If your kids all got their applications in on time this year thank your school’s GC. I’d be interested to know if the average LPS is faring as well.
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My D went to a parochial college prep day school. Competitive admission entry with 99% going to four year colleges. 20% of her class scored above the 98th percentile on their SAT/ACT. Two students had perfect scores.
One student from her class was a recruited athlete to Harvard. Zero to other T10s. Why? No one applied. Not because they “wanted a football school” or a big school, but because the vast majority of the class chased merit. This school had a ton of socioeconomic diversity and was on the voucher program, so what was touted was the amount of merit money awarded to the senior class every year, not the percentage at HYPS.
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For those of you (or your kid) who went to a BS and later went to an LAC, do you find the experiences too similar, or perhaps even limiting in some ways? I recall @Publisher alluded to it previously, but I’m wondering whether others had similar experiences/opinions.
funny @gardenstategal I am in the midst of the process with DS (we will wait to see what happens this spring), but I have not found it very stressful at all…even in the midst of COVID changes.
I have been much more uptight at times with the BS process, even though I have been through it before.
Maybe this is b/c DS wasn’t stressed or b/c his CC wasn’t stressed or because the CC dept at his school was ultra-communicative and put our fears to rest frequently. IDK. But no matter what happens this Spring, I feel like DS will land in a good place for him and he will make the most out of the college experience.
Maybe, the BS application experience taught us that more than anything else, actually, and THAT is why I am not very stressed.
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You just described my kid exactly. Deferred ED1, and deferred from a bunch of EA’s, one “likely” EA acceptance. Shocking results for her stats. Went from 10 to 18 apps. Hang in there!
Good luck to your child! We hear from another EA today - fingers crossed!