<p>I am a returning sophomore at Hotchkiss. When I applied to BS, my parents and I were under the impression that it would make getting into an ivy easier. Now, believe this is certainly not the sole reason I applied and we knew what we were getting ourselves into.</p>
<p>However, after my first year there I've heard that going to BS makes getting into ivies really hard because you are compared to only other BS'ers. I was wondering, though, is going to BS all bad for ivy admissions? </p>
<p>I mean, let's say you go to BS and have the 4.0 GPA. Once you've made that initial cut where kids with unacceptable grades are taken out of the pile, does BS end up helping you? My aunt who is familiar with college admissions, namely UPenn's admissions, said that after the whole grades thing the name recognition of the school does help at least a little bit to at least get you a little higher in the pile(if not more than some admissions officers are willing to admit.) </p>
<p>Does this hold true with any of former BS students/parents and you all's experience with ivy admissions? Or am I just giving myself a false sense of security?</p>
<p>It actually really depends. Although I am not incredibly certain how the process is with boarding schools, I do believe you are going to be placed into a different pile (there is an admissions officer for each region - Connecticut has it’s own, and is split probably to two piles: Prep Schools and Public Schools). </p>
<p>But, as you stated, you are currently going to Hotchkiss. So, for example, let’s say your dream school is UPenn. Since you are going to such a competitive school where about 70 students will also apply to UPenn and where less than 10 are going to get accepted, the competition is going to be much more fierce. But, if you are let’s say Class Valedictorian with a 4.0 UW GPA, a great athlete, don’t need FA, and have amazing ECs (all of these stats can vary a little), there really is no stopping you now, mostly with the name recognition of your school. If UPenn can see that you are striving at one of the most competitive schools in the nation, they’ll see that you’ll be able to fit in and take on the courseload that comes with an Ivy League education. </p>
<p>But, as I stated before, the competition is going to be much more fierce. They can’t accept 70 students from Hotchkiss, even though they are all qualified. They try keeping it at a balance - accepting students at public schools (although they might not be as qualified as you, they understand that since they don’t have all the resources you have) while accepting an amount from prep schools (not sure what the ratio is).</p>
<p>Yep, competition will be more fierce than just about anywhere elsewhere, since as JoshB mentions, most of the class will actually be qualified and many will apply. Add to that, the number of private school acceptances at some Ivies is going down as they focus on other admission drivers–such as internationals, URM, first generation 2 college, etc. It’s not the golden ticket it may have once been.</p>
<p>Yes, the days are long gone when you enrolled at Hotchkiss, you also were accepted at Yale. Still, top BS’s carry weight in the Ivies. Look at [Matriculation</a> Stats](<a href=“http://www.matriculationstats.org%5DMatriculation”>http://www.matriculationstats.org). According to the stats on that web site, many top NE boarding schools (PA, PEA, DA, Groton, L’ville, Milton, SPS) send 20 to over 25% of their grads to Ivies these days, while others (Choate, Hotchkiss, Middlesex) have 15 to 20% of their senior classes enroll at these great colleges. So, to answer your question, “No, BS’s are not bad for ivy admissions”.</p>
<p>BS does not “decrease” your chances of getting into a good college, if that was the case many people would stop applying to private schools this instant (it’s 40K a year people, that’s a *****load of money) and HADES would stop sending 30%~ of their students to ivies every year. Is it difficult to be in the top 30% at a school like Exeter? Probably, but so is making it into the top 10% of a ok-better public high school.</p>
<p>Remember that “ivies” are not the only great schools on the planet. Try to broaden your horizon and look elsewhere as well.</p>
<p>Some of my “research” on this issue (at Andover) suggests that it’s not simply a matter of being in the top 30%, but rather being in the top 10-20% and having good ECs or being outside it and having a strong hook. Yale, for instance, will take a lot of kids in the top 10%, but no one or maybe 1 person in the next 10% go to Yale. There will still be 6-10 kids unaccounted for outside the top 20%.</p>
<p>So there’s a lot more to it than just being in the top x% at an elite boarding school.</p>
<p>Yale is not the only school in the nation, or only good school for that matter. You do have a good point there, but I don’t see why the same reasoning wouldn’t apply to Public Schools as well.</p>
<p>All I’m saying is that while people tend to criticize BS applicants for thinking going to HADES will get them into ivies + etc., it’s equally as ridiculous to think that going to HADES kills your chance of getting into a good college.</p>
<p>Yale was just the college that came to mind. iirc, something like 93% of the top 10% at Andover went to Ivies + SM (and it was generally HYPSM), then the next 10% went to top LACs and the “lesser” Ivies, with a large number of the matriculations at these top schools unaccounted for in the top 20%. I was merely saying that being in the top x%, even at a HADES school, isn’t sufficient on its own (unless at Andover you’re a straight-6 student, of which there might be 1 every several years. Then you pretty much have a pick of any school.) which I had taken as something you were trying to convey in your post.</p>
<p>Do HADES-esque schools help one’s chances of going to an Ivy? For some students they will. Do they hurt? For some students they will. Generally, the students will be much better prepared than their peers wherever they go (I’ve heard students say “You’ll work just as hard in college but get much better grades,” which seems to be the case with most of my friends).</p>
<p>@Uroogla, so what kind of student do you think going to a HADES school would hurt. Also do you think it would be impossible for a HADES student in like the 50% of the class to get into a top school?</p>
<p>If a student is going to be unhappy at boarding school, odds are their performance will suffer and they won’t do well. </p>
<p>It’s far from impossible; the majority of students at these schools go to the so-called “top 25” schools. Thus, students outside the top 50% must go to these schools, even assuming that everyone in the top 50% go to these schools (and some don’t because of finding a better fit elsewhere). Additionally, if you have something strong going for you, it’ll make up for below-average athletics. (With that said, Andover doesn’t formally rank, though the notion of the top 10% and top 20% can be defined by cum laude inductions.)</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that everyone that goes to BS DOES NOT want to go to an Ivy. The world does not begin and end with 10 schools. There are many more additional schools, "LACs, Hidden IVYs, etc. </p>
<p>Example, not all kids that got accepted at Andover or Exeter selected to attend, otherwise they would have 100% yield and never go to their wait-list. If Andover selected you, but you felt DA was a better fit, a student might select DA. Keep in mind after the bs experience, many more students know themselves better and have a better idea what type of “fit” they want.</p>
<p>If you end up at the bottom of your class, you’re pretty much screwed however you look at it. </p>
<p>However, if you rank about or above the median, your chances of admission to a good school remain good. Simply put, there’s more leeway for you, even if you aren’t the brightest among the bright.</p>
<p>Moreover, you’ll have the skills needed to succeed at whichever school you end up. This is crucial.</p>
<p>Yes, there is much competition for Ivy admission at many boarding schools, but you have to understand the whole picture before you despair at “lowered chances.” At present, around 30% of Andover graduates matriculate at Ivy Leagues + MIT + Stanford. Yes, Andover’s SAT and GPA averages among accepted students to Ivies are admittedly higher than those of schools’ averages. But this does not mean that all of these people who achieve the university’s averages and are not accepted from Andover would have been accepted from a different school.</p>
<p>My argument here is based upon the quality of education at Andover and other boarding schools versus MOST public schools (note that I UNDERSTAND that this is a generalization and that I know that school, no matter which, is what YOU, the student, make of it). I, for one, have buffed up my CV a ton since I arrived at Andover and have been stretched FAR beyond ANYTHING that my old school would have offered me. I entered a ton of advanced classes here and did very well on my SAT and APs… but would I have done this well at my old school? Would I have been pushed this far at my old school? Would I have been as good a student at my old school as I am here, even though perhaps my concrete statistics (class grades) may be numerically lower?</p>
<p>Who knows. It’s all very hypothetical and, on a certain level, hypothetical. The answers to the above questions for me are no, no, and no. I might not get into an Ivy here, but I might not have at my old school, either. The bottom line is that regardless of where I matriculate, I’ve been pushed harder and farther here than I ever would have been at my other school; I think differently, am more analytical, and, my favorite, almost everywhere I go, life lessons I learned from Hamlet in English 301 pop out at me. I could care less if I’m not going to an Ivy. In fact, Brown is the only Ivy on my list, and my main reason for applying there is that its curriculum is open and I can do what I want. You should choose a school because of what you have to gain from it and what you’ll be able to give back. You should not think of Ivy League schools and things to gain from a fine education.</p>
<p>We used to say a “C” at Exeter was like an A+ anywhere else. </p>
<p>I understand why people get so torqued up on stuff like this but I wish they wouldn’t.</p>
<p>Here’s the deal. If you enter BS thinking it’s going to give you an edge for an IVY you’re kidding yourself. They can “smell” the desperation and entitlement from a mile away. With college admissions pools actually growing and percent admits going down - it’s tough no matter what. As tough as getting into BS.</p>
<p>Having said that, colleges aren’t stupid. They know how tough most BS curriculums are. It’s like going to college early in many cases.</p>
<p>Be yourself. Do your best and let the universe take care of the rest.</p>
<p>As an interviewer for both college and BS I can tell you “high maintenance” kids fall to the bottom of the pile pretty fast compared to their peers. It comes through pretty quick in an interview even if the student thinks they are hiding it.</p>
<p>Relax. It will be fine. You don’t have to be perfect, just motivated and a hard worker.</p>
<p>I must say that I disagree with Balto’s comment strongly. There are plenty of people who get accepted into those schools with none of those stats. Colleges are actually very diverse. I’ve been through the process second handedly</p>
<p>For me personally (also a returning sophomore at H’Kiss), I anticipate boarding school strengthening my college application. Why, you may ask, do I know so far in advance? My grades at BS have been, on the whole, better than when I was at public school because I find classes more engaging, and it’s much easier to get involved when there is a plethora of opportunities available on campus. I also think I’ll be able to get better recs from teachers because they will know me pretty well by the time I’m a senior (I also behave much better in class here, teehee). Good grades at boarding school definitely look better than good grades at public school, but just going to a good high school won’t set you up to go ivy. We all still have to work at it, but being top 5% at H’Kiss means more than being top 5% at XYZ High School.</p>
<p>That was a lot longer than it needed to be, but overall, no, boarding school definitely won’t be bad for college admissions if you maintain good grades. HTH and let me know if you have any more questions!</p>
HTH and let me know if you have any more questions!</p>