<p>Well, my high school (private), just last year, put 5 seniors out of a class of around 100 into Princeton last year. They also have a 66% admissions rate into MIT. </p>
<p>Does coming from a high school like this help you get into an Ivy League school, or MIT?</p>
<p>I have one of the same situations as you, but not with Princeton or MIT, it really helps if you are the most competitive of the applicants, because that is who they compare you to. Schools like MIT and Princeton can only take so many from a single HS, so as long as you have better stats than your peers and as long as you are in the school’s scoring range and write good essays, with decent ECs, then it looks good.</p>
<p>No. I’ll bet you many of the Princeton admits were legacies, URMs or athletes.</p>
<p>Good schools help a lot with schools below the top 15 or so. The kids graduating are mostly extremely well prepared and often are full payers.</p>
<p>But for ivies and their peers, it can actually make things harder. These schools are full of legacies at top colleges, top URM students who are much in demand, the wealthy and connected and often have lots of good athletes. This usually leaves unhooked kids out in the cold at the very top schools, as colleges don’t want to accept too many from any one prep school.</p>
<p>At schools below these, it really helps. The grads usually have great test prep and are top scorers. Many work with private college counselors and produce great applications.</p>
<p>Prep schools are no longer favorites at top colleges as they move for more diversity and want more low income and middle class students, more internationals and kids from a wider variety of places.</p>
<p>So really, it’s a mixed bag. Most unhooked grads would have had a better chance at an ivy from their local public school but they have a way better shot at schools ranked 15 on down from the prep.</p>
<p>To a degree. It helps in that you will receive a superb high school education, thereby increasing your abilities and giving you the opportunity to be a candidate for top schools. Many kids with inferior educations have the capacity to become great learners; they just never have the opportunity to. Some top schools also have connections with certain colleges, enabling increased quotas for particulate private schools. Also at a school like yours you probably don’t need to be the valedictorian/salutatorian to have decent chances at a top school, though I’d still say top 5-10% is still important.</p>
<p>With that said…Private schools also may be disadvantageous because of the competition that goes on at those schools, making it extremely difficult to maintain a high class rank. There’s also the issue that these private schools are often filled with legacy cases/URMs/sometimes athletes, putting unhooked applicants at a disadvantage (remember, top schools carry general quotas for certain high schools). There’s also word that top schools are accepting fewer prep school kids every year. Overall, it’s a double-edged sword. I do think, though, that while it isn’t the silver bullet that once got many kids into top schools, a strong high school education is still the way to go for the foundations it establishes throughout one’s life, enabling that person to succeed regardless of the school they get into.</p>
<p>I go to a “fancy” high school and I agree with hmom5. If you want to go to Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, or WashU, it’s laughably easy. If you want to go to Harvard and don’t have legacy/URM/recruiting/$$donations$$, you’re basically screwed. They grab the hooked kids and move on.</p>
<p>^ Not 100% true. I go to a pretty elite high school (not very top, but lots of Ivy grads nonetheless) and there are only so many of those hooked applicants you speak of. I agree that if the general quota for a school is 1-2 then, yes, unhooked applicants are in trouble (damn you, Stanford and MIT) but we have unhooked applicants get into non-HY Ivies a lot (those 2 really seem to cater to their legacies; I’m sure Princeton does as well but we do well there), and yes, those unhooked HY admits do pop up occasionally as well.</p>
<p>With that said, I totally agree with your statement about getting into the WashU-tier schools. We have like 15 kids going to Cornell and 15 going to Vanderbilt in a class of 360 this year alone.</p>
<p>If you got to a very recognized high school and do well I’m sure you will get into many top 25 universities. HYP are always reaches for everyone. I’m sure if you are qualified for MIT then you will probably get accepted. However, if you go to a super competitive school and don’t shine compared to your peers then it might hurt more than it helps.</p>
<p>From what my sister says at Colubmia, it sounds like going to a prep school/elite private REALLY helps. She said there are a boat load of people from Horace Mann, Trinity, etc who are ranked like 20 or 30 in their class and aren’t even as close to as well prepared as she was (went to a random little catholic school). At least at Columbia I think it helps.</p>
<p>^Yeah, as raiderade said, going to prep schools/elite privates like Andover, Exeter, Chadwick, Milton, and Deerfield helps one getting into a top 25 school. Btw, raiderade, rank 20 or 30 in class of how many students? Being number 20 or 30 in a class of 500+ is actually an achievement. However, I’m guessing you’re speaking in terms of 100-300 students, since we’re talking about prep schools.</p>
<p>raideraide: Here is what you are missing. The kids who come from the elite independent schools are almost all high achievers. They are tested, screened, and re-tested before they are accepted. In big cities, and in the elite boarding schools, spots are very limited, so it is very competitive. Most of these “private” schools do not rank, aside from showing the range grades for each course taken. Even if some schools do rank, and a student is number 20 out of a class of 100, that student is still probably a VERY high achiever. I guarantee you that the students who come from the private elites are extremely well prepared, and generally find the transition to the most challenging university a lot less strenuous than students coming from most (not all, of course) publics.</p>
<p>^wrong. one had mid 600 sat scores (below average) and hadn’t had nearly the kind of writing experience that my sister had. she went to a ny prep school that’s very famous. I’m sure she’s very bright and the school prepared her fairly well, I think that the connections and money she has aid her immensely.</p>
<p>Both of you are right. Elite schools are filled with students with money, connections, and that work hard (nothing to do w/ SAT scores).</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. I was just wondering if coming from a school that has a little bit of reputation would pull a little more weight than coming from a public school.</p>
<p>If anything, maybe it would get the college application noticed?</p>
<p>sorry, i just read my post and it sounded really rude, i didn’t mean that. i do agree with you, prep schools are really difficult to be admitted to and therefore would, in theory, have brighter students who are probably more motivated. i agree that there are definitely two parts, the fact that they are smart and that colleges are generally very familiar with their high school, and the wealth/connections/etc they have.</p>
<p>Oh! Two more questions!</p>
<ol>
<li>What is a URM?</li>
<li>I only got to go on a scholarship, will not being a full payer REALLY hurt my chances that much?</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>URM=under represented minority like Native American, Hispanic, Black, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Do you mean scholarship to your current high school? If you are applying to Ivies (which it sounds like you are) than they are need-blind so it doesn’t matter how much you can pay. Lower ranked schools do care and being a full payer should help. Exactly how much I have no idea.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Actually, at top colleges, you will have an advantage over your affluent prep school peers if your family is low income.</p>
<p>Oh, cool 
I feel better now, and yeah, the scholarship is to my current high school… would be impossible otherwise…</p>
<p>For students from average family/middle class, attending elite prep schools is definitely disadvantage. First one forth students are wealthy or hooked and another one forth or less are URM. No matter what their GPA ranks are, they will get into any school they want. The rest from average family or middle class get into second tier schools at best though they have higher GPA or academic achievements. </p>
<p>Don’t forget the prep schools’ GPA is UW and a lot of hooked/athlete/URM take easy courses and still get same or even higher GPA though the schools encourage students to take hard courses. So very often you see Asians with top GPA go to lower Ivy schools and hooked/URM go to HPYSM. BTW, even you are not hooked to ivy school but your family are very involved with the prep school (big donation - 10k/year), you still have a big edge over the rest from middle class who pay full tuition but unable to donate as much as other wealthy family. Those students usually work hardest but don’t have chance for HPYSM. But if you want to a doctor, you had better go to JHU, WU at St Louis, or even WU (Seattle). I guess there is less URM or hooked in medical school admission.</p>
<p>OKHYPSM, your description is somewhat true but a little bit over-described. My S goes to a school falling into that category. We had 12 asian students in class of 2008. College enrollment results was like HYPSM 1 each, Cornell 2, Columbia, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Boston U and a prestigious college in UK. Their parents are affluent but did not donate over 10k except for one.
Kids of over 500k donors did not go to HYPSM. I heard that a student with strong legacy with H didn’t apply to H but went to Y.
Legacy and Money matter in many cases. But it doesn’t necessary prevent hard working asian and/or middle class students from such hs from enrolling in top colleges. (I hope)</p>