Thank you in advance for your input!
Where ? I don’t know about that one !
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I don’t think there is any hard evidence to back this up one way or the other, but my gut tells me that no, the admissions rate is no different for prospective sophomores than prospective freshman. While there are fewer openings for new sophomores, there are also fewer applicants. Having said that, schools that traditionally take a big chunk of applicants from junior boarding schools may have a lower admit rate for non-JBS applicants.
Of course, you can always ask the admission office if you would be better off applying as a sophomore or as a repeat freshman.
I have been told by admission officers at multiple schools that most financial aid is given to rising freshmen. Admission rates might be the same, but if you need FA, I think you’d be better off repeating. (In turn, it’s likely that full-pay applicants have even more of a leg up after ninth grade.)
It depends on the school. It also depends on how well the school estimated the yield of that class the year before. If they had more members of the class of 2019 commit than expected, there may be fewer beds available for applicants to that class the following year.
Thank you everyone for answering my question.
We are looking at Blair, Peddie, Loomis chaffer, Lawrenceville or Taft.
Any schools (not necessary the ones we are looking at, but similar) you guys would recommend with relatively higher acceptance rate for 10th grade?
Thanks
Thank you for your info.
You mentioned “schools that traditionally take a big chunk of applicants from junior boarding schools may have a lower admit rate for non-JBS applicants”. Could you name a few of these schools? We are looking at Blair, Peddie, Loomis chaffer, Lawrenceville or Taft.
I was accepted to Peddie this year for 10th grade. The letter said they received a record number of applications. When we asked how many sophomores were admitted, they said 12 girls and 12 boys.
I am assuming you are boarding. Loomis had over 2300 applicants this year. For 9th grade there are 30 spots each for boarding girls and boys. 10th grade they add 15 each gender. There are probably 7-10 each for junior year. If you do the math, factoring in %30 day students, it comes down to approximately 800 applicants for each gender of boarders. I have no clue as to how the 800 breaks down, but obviously very competitive either way.
Look at NMH…
any admission advantages to apply as a day student to a boarding school? or it is a disadvantage?
It depends on the school
I saw an article in the Phillipian a while back that listed the acceptance rate for boarders as 14%, and the acceptance rate for day students was 22%. (This was 2008ish.)
@dayndboard - There are 10 Junior Boarding Schools in the JBS Association. Here’s one example: In 2014 Rumsey Hall School sent 9 students to Taft.
Keep in mind that number doesn’t reflect who is going. It’s only a number ( albeit a large number considering that Taft is an extremely difficult school to get into ). You’d have to break it down because it’s likely a mix of repeat Third Formers ( and possibly some Third Formers who opted out of their Seventh Form JBS year ) , Fourth Formers, Day Students ( both Forms) and maybe a few Taft and Rumsey faculty kids. Or, it could reflect a year that Taft decided to accept 9 Fourth Form students- which can easily happen so you never know…
Every JBS Seventh Form Class is different. Each Class has their own taste and preferences and it varies from year to year- in many ways it’s like a Senior ( Sixth Form) Class at SS… One year it might be Ivy all the way and the next year it might be all LACs . But- if I were to identify a current JBS trend , I would say that most families are staying away from the big name schools and are looking for a more “boutique” SS experience for their kids. JBS students/parents are a very knowledgeable and discerning bunch: They’ve already invested a sizable sum ( up to 150K ) and they’re known to look at Secondary Schools admissions through a different lens. Plus- they have awesome SS placement Heads/teams to guide them.
It’s also important to note that there’s a mix of FA and FP applicants applying to SS from JBS. It’s a very competitive/attractive pool of applicants because they’re prepared and ready to hit the ground running. If you want to see where JBS students matriculate - all JBS websites have SS Placement Lists.
All the best and good luck!
Repeating freshman year could be a good option as well. Not sure if that’s a part of your plan but it’s definitely at least something to consider. Socially, coming in as a new grade 10 is difficult, but still doable. Many prep school students repeat 9th grade for social and academic reasons and to be more prepared for their prep school experiences. It helps with chances a lot. I got waitlisted at a bunch of schools on my first try, but then the next year got accepted by them as a repeat 9.