I was looking into what high schools send the greatest percentage of students to Ivy League colleges and I found a website. I wonder if its accurate because it seems like it is. I was surprised at of all the schools in the US the one sending the greatest % of students to Ivy League colleges only sent 37%. Is that accurate? Aren’t there incredible high schools where literally almost every kid is super talented and bright because of how competitive they are to get into and less than 2/5 of students end up at an Ivy? Does that mean the Ivies are limiting students from certain high schools so that they are not as represented? It seems like a greater percentage would be qualified. The school ranked 70th highest in Ivy League placement only sent 12%. I would think there would be at least 100 high schools sending 1/5 of their students to Ivies.
So a couple of things.
Feeder schools do not have the same sway that they had a generation ago.
Half the graduating class at Andover and Exeter is in the bottom 50% of the class.
Feeder schools are disproportionately represented by recruited athletes, legacies, and faculty children.
No university admits high schools; they all admit the student that fit what they want from a class.
Choosing a high school based on college matriculation data is folly. Ditto for comparing 2 high schools with this metric
Most (probably all) Ivy League schools state that at least 50% and often more than 60% of their incoming classes come from public schools. How is it that 100 “feeder schools” – presumably private, given your description of them – could possibly send over 20% of their classes to Ivies? We’re talking enrollments, not acceptances, right? That math doesn’t seem to work.
NO high school will provide a sure path to an Ivy League college. A 37% admission rate to the Ivies is remarkably high for even the best of high schools. This does not mean that the Ivy schools (which, by the way accept or deny applicants independent from one another) limit the number of students from any given HS.
The acceptance rates at Ivy league (and equivalent) colleges are typically under 10% and often under 5%. There are simply more very well qualified students than spots available. Non-academic factors such as essays, LORs, ECs play a part in AOs distinguishing between a group of academically qualified students.
The good news is that there are many outstanding colleges and universities. Keep in mind that the Ivy League is a sports conference – a number of universities and LACs are just as challenging in terms of both admittance and academics as Ivy League schools (ex. Stanford, MIT, Duke, Williams, Amherst to name but a few). Many many more wonderful colleges and universities will provide students with a fantastic four year experience on every level.
At some point it will be more about what a student achieves rather than what school the student attends that will determine his/her future path.
Feeders can be public. Princeton High, Stuyvesant, Lexington (MA) High are all feeders.
I’m aware. It’s just that most high schools with competitive admissions, as OP described feeders, are private.
Everything @skieurope said… also
Your expectation to see even higher ratio in exceptional schools seems to depend on the false premise that getting into an Ivy merely requires being “super talented and bright” – that there is a way to engineer admission with educational or extracurricular rigor alone, and that the best schools can get everyone to that objective standard. But with acceptance rates now in the 3-6% range, all of the Ivys turn away technically “perfect” students (perfect GPAs and test scores) with long lists of exceptional accomplishments. This is the great frustration of so many, but its the reality. Instead they end up with their choice of many more super bright and talented students and intentionally fill their class with a wide range of different exceptional skills, life experiences, etc.
Among those is intentional geographic and economic diversity. If they already have far more exceptional students than the have slots, why would they take more from the same places instead of spreading it out? Beyond being in the same small elite private schools, and usually requiring great wealth, many of these schools are themselves clustered in the same regions. All top 3 and 7 of the top 10 are in NYC. All of the top 11 from your list are in in NY or MA. Half of the top 50 are in the tristate area around NYC. If you have ever seen the press releases that come out after admission, these schools brag about student from almost every state and dozens of other countries. Filling their classes with kids from a handful of schools on a small island isn’t accomplishing that. They also are very conscious of the ratio from public vs private schools.
To be clear, it is not that they have a quota and are screwing over top kids from these elite schools who don’t get accepted, it is that there are more than enough comparably amazing students elsewhere.
Also, I don’t think even the best resources private schools can guarantee engineering exceptional candidates. They may be able to make sure they get good grades, take hard classes and score well on tests, but that just scratches the surface of what it takes to stand out in Ivy admissions. They may try, which is why they emphasize recruitable sports that most schools don’t offer. But they can’t lift up a whole class that way.
I would also say two things are artificially inflating their ratio of Ivy admissions to what would otherwise be a much lower number. 1) A great many of these students have other massive family “hooks” that already gives them an edge in admissions regardless of their school – famous, Uber rich and powerful parents who the colleges want to cultivate, important legacies, etc. 2) Most of these schools are small. If they were the the size of a typical public school even if they were just as exceptional, they would see a lower ratio admitted.
Far more applicants are qualified than the Ivies have room to accept. The stats and accomplishments of many students who don’t get accepted are pretty much identical to those who do get accepted. Merely being qualified isn’t sufficient.
I did not attend an Ivy League university. I did get degrees from two universities that are similarly ranked (MIT and Stanford). In my experience the other students in the same programs had come from a very, very wide range of different schools. A few came from famous schools (such as the Bronze High School of Science). Some had come from very good public schools (such as from Newton, MA or Lexington, MA). Some had come from rather mediocre public schools. Most had come from their local public high school.
Other people I know who have degrees from famous universities say pretty much the same thing. Other students in the same programs come from all over the place.
I also would not pick a high school based on the number of students that it sends to a highly ranked university.
I think that anyone looking for a school to attend (whether high school or university) should look for one that they can afford and that is a good fit for them, take the classes that make sense for them, participate in the ECs that make sense for them, treat people fairly, do as well as you can, and have faith that it will work out in the end. “Work out in the end” might not include an Ivy League school, but that is okay. There are a lot of very good universities.
None of those public examples made the list on the OPs site of top 70. Either the list is flawed (very possible; does not saying only private but who knows) or more possibly the number of total students at those publics is high enough that the ratio is lower despite sending lots of students on an absolute number basis. Princeton doesn’t publish its ratio or single year absolute number, but I suspect its lower than the 12% at the bottom of the list, out of a graduating class of over 400. The number would definitely be lower but Princeton U acceptances skew the total since there are so many faculty kid admissions in any given year.
You also assume that everyone wants to attend an Ivy League school which isn’t even close to true even at these “top” schools. Had my daughter shown the slightest interest in the Ivy League (she did not) I would have made her read “Excellent Sheep” by William [Deresiewicz before allowing her to apply. Fortunately there was no need.
Spot on!!
This should be a sticky on this site. People need to understand this.
I think the term itself is invalid. It implies that schools actually can “place” students.
If you do the math (100 * class size * 20%), I suspect the problem will become self-evident vis-a-vis the first-year enrollments at the 8 Ivy’s?
Not sure where their numbers came from but they are highly suspect. I just did a 5 minute sanity check for two for the schools on their list that I know very well and in both cases the numbers were massively overstated.
Yes! (Were there really nearly 10 replies before this point was made though?)
This is a pretty transparent astroturfing post from @linkendincg, promoting a website that I suspect he was also promoting as @C_G1 back in December of 2022 (here)
… and possibly as @christophergrigsby back in November 2021 (here)
… and possibly also as @brianlinked in April 2021 (here)
… and possibly also as @wheatbar7 in November 2020 (here)
Can we close this thread down?
Yes!
Detective @LionsTigersAndBears is on the case. 