Milton Academy (and other Prep Schools like Phillips, Groton, St. Pauls…) are really hard to get into, I worked my ass off to get into Milton (and Andover). I’m now a sophomore there and I’ve noticed something very peculiar about Milton’s college placement.
For the past 5 years, Milton has about 10 students every year attend Brown as an Undergraduate. I am friends with a few Brown students too. Does Milton and Brown have like a bond like Roxbury Latin and Harvard? The Brown Admissions director came to my school for a lecture once. Does Brown have preference over Milton students? I really hope so, because its really hard to do well at Milton, like really hard.
Also, a more broad but still relevant question, what does Milton and other prep schools do in order to help students get into top schools or at least student’s top choice?
Milton, or any other top boarding school, does not get students into Brown, or any other top university. What they do do is teach students the skills which will make them viable applicants. No HS can guarantee that a student will get into his top choice.
You should probably ask your college guidance counselor. Or recent graduates.
Many prep school GCs have close relationships with college admissions officers. They talk on the phone about specific applicants. I agree with skieurope that there is no guarantee of admission. In fact – I have a friend whose daughter went to a top prep school and was devastated that she didn’t get into any Ivies or top schools, because it turns out that what the colleges were looking for at that school were applicants who were able to deliver hefty donations. But there is no question that some prep schools have relationships with certain colleges.
The Boston Latin-Harvard thing is different. That’s a commitment to accepting local students. Brown accepts a lot of kids from local private schools and Classical HS for the same reason.
In my class at Brown there were almost 30 of us from Andover. There was no special relationship between the schools, but Brown was just very popular at Andover back then (in the late 80s and early 90s), so many students applied. I guess if the folks at Brown see the grads of particular schools do well there over many years, they are glad to have them.
But re: tippy tops, the top prep schools tend to filter down to the students they want to present as their best. That’s where the relationship has its play. Students not competitive for particular top school can find themselves encouraged to apply elsewhere. If a kid goes ahead and insists, they may not find magic in the LoRs.
When I went to Brown, many years ago, I was accepted from Hope High School, a Providence public school, not high-performing, generally, like Classical. I also noticed that in my daughter’s recent class and other recent classes, several kids got in from Central Falls High School and Pawtucket high schools, I think, continuing a historic overrepresentation of RI applicants. I also think that, for some schools, and Milton probably included, the historic admit numbers have been pretty consistent. This is just based on anectdotal readings from CC, but I do recall seeing that, for some high achieving schools, the numbers seem to be fairly consistent year to year.
Stop focusing on how the high school you go to will help get you into college. Focus on how you will help you get into college. It comes off as extremely entitled to be asking this question considering how many people cannot afford four years of prep school in addition to four years of college but are just as deserving as applicants from these schools. You do not deserve a spot at Brown more than anyone else does just because you had the opportunity to go to a good high school.