Agreed, its the impact athlete that replaces a graduating student, its the national-level pianist who can immediately join a select group of musicians, its the super scientist that has won all sorts of awards, etc, etc. But it also could that very unique EC that a school would love to promote further. It just depends…
@makp715 you are absolutely correct. There are absolutely brilliant kids and adults who can barely converse in complete sentences, have zero personality and aren’t fun to be around. I guess that is why the interview is so important. Kids are a lot more than their stats - schools aren’t just looking for the right numbers, but the right “fit” as well. I guess that is what people mean when they talk about kids ending up where they belong and the “sorting hat”. Schools are picking kids who they feel will fit in at their school.
@queenmother Yes - half of the minority would be male, the math accounts for that. thats why avalable spots are reduced down from 50% to 33%, and then further reduced to account for legacies and space to add to the class in the 10th grade. My point wasn’t about any particular demographic group,I was only using white males as an example because I had done the math for my own purposes, but about how few spot your son or daughter is truly competing for. As far as your guess that white males have the highest admit rate, I would guess the opposite. I would love to see the application statistics, but I would bet that more applications are received from white males than any other group, yielding the lowest admit rate per application.
I’d guess that among general applicants who don’t have an “in” through family or wealth connections (because, let’s face it, for every school there is a group of applicants who are guaranteed admission for one reason or another), white males probably have one of the lowest admit rates. I’d guess only Asian females and Asian males (in that order) have lower admit rates on average.
Maybe white males have a lower admit rate per applications submitted. However, just from looking at the look books, white males make up the largest part of the study body. So, they are admitted in the largest quantity.
I would be very wary of using “look books” to get a sense of the representation of the student body. Physical features and names may not and do not tell the whole story. You can’t judge a book by its cover, as the saying goes. I think it’s best to refer to the numbers released by the schools.
I think the look book is a good representation of what a studen body looks like. It tends to reflect what I see on the website and what the school reports. It also reflected what I saw when my son visited the campus. The schools that had barely any African Americans in their look books also had the fewest African Ametican students pictured on their website and the smallest number of them actually enrolled. While waiting for interviews, I looked through each schools yearbooks. They verified what I saw in the look books. Diversity was important to me as my son is an URM and I wanted to be sure the school he attended had a sufficient number of students that looked like hm.
@queenmother I agree with you for the specific factor of diversity that is important to your family. But for other factors, including other URMs, I still believe that appearance may not tell the whole story. I hope that your family was successful in finding schools where your son will feel comfortable, not just among the student body but also with the diversity of the members of the faculty and administration.
Don’t go by look books. Purely marketing. The photos and subjects in those photos are often cherry picked and seldom random.
True. Pictures are selected based on the content of the page. Often the best smile, clothing color schemes, or background determine a photos eligibility. Unless looking at a diversity related page (which is bound to show biased photos) don’t look to much into the look books…
Like I said, those schools that showed very few, if any African Americans in the look books also had the smallest number of African Americans enrolled. Like it has been mentioned, this is marketing material. If you are not also marketing to my African American child, then you are probably not as big on diversity as you say. Marketing is intentional. You can say all day that you are working to increase diversity but If I can’t see it, I don’t believe it.
Most of these books show boys, girls, blacks, whites and asians., etc. Since you appear to use marketing catalogues as a litmus test …well, I find that frightening. At schools like PEA many of the black males are also openly gay. They run around in skimpy attire in direct defiance of the dress code and call each other the N word in screech fests in the dining hall. Please explain why that is unacceptable? No one says a word to them. You can see other students looking silently at each other. These schools take as many qualified blacks and other minorities as they can find. I don’t blame them . However, poverty and socio-economic levels would be a far more leveling goal than skin color.
ALL BSs wish more African American students would apply every year… I guess I’m wondering why they don’t.
I’ve known many African American BS families throughout the years, and a recurring theme seems to be how apprehensive they were ( initially ) to even begin this journey.
@queenmother- In your opinion, how can boarding schools do a better job?
( I have to run out for a bit so unfortunately I’ll probably miss the response/ conversation, but I’ll be back later. Thanks 
)
@Center, too bad that you find it frightening. I find it frightening for my child to attend a school that has no one that looks like him. Consider yourself lucky that you don’t have to worry about finding someone that looks like you on campus. I am sure you used some criteria to eliminate schools from your list. Diversity was/is important to me. I eliminated those schools that did not appear to me to have sufficient diversity for me and my family. There are so many issues that my African American son will have to deal with that may not pertain to your child. So what we look for in a school my differ. I don’t think you can chose for me what is important for me and my child.
Last year we attended an PEA open house and toured that same day. We also went back the next day for an interview and student led tour. We didn’t see the many black males that were openly gay running around in skimpy attire screeching in the dining hall. Maybe they hid them the two days we were on campus. At any rate, I don’t know all African Americans and cannot speak on those students behavior. If you are really concerned, I suggest you talk to the school officials. They should be able to help you with finding answers to those things that trouble you.
"well, I find that frightening. At schools like PEA many of the black males are also openly gay. They run around in skimpy attire in direct defiance of the dress code and call each other the N word in screech fests in the dining hall. Please explain why that is unacceptable? No one says a word to them. You can see other students looking silently at each other. "
What the heck? Your biases/prejudices are showing, or likely the biases of your son which have been expressed to you and you parrot. smh.
I LOVE the fact that I stumbled upon a pictures of my daughter in a fun photoshoot with her girlfriends from EVERY background imaginable. This is the benefit of the school she attends. I don’t even know their schooling or SES background but I don’t care an ounce and neither does she. She is blessed to be able to spend the next four years of her life among the most cultural diverse set of high achieving students. Period.
Well, poverty/low SES is very much stratified along racial lines in this country. It’s the visible face of racially based exclusion from participation in the political process, economic development, and social life.
On another note, I hope people know better than to judge my kid and her school by her skimpy Winter Formal attire (“Kiddo, that dress was way too short!” “I know, mom! And it kept riding up!!! But it was sooo cute…” – Ode to Online Shopping).
Empathy is trying to understand the others’ perspectives, contexts, and motivations. We all need to practice it more.