Several of the decisions we got mentioned this year was their most competitive ever (in terms of number of applications for available seats).
Is this the case every year, or did 2016 indeed see a sharp increase in prep school applications? I know US prep schools are a major thing in China, and that may have contributed.
Seems to be that way year after year, very similar to the more competitive admissions process for colleges.
Lawrence Academy said they had a 30% increase in number of applications this year.
Berkshire has seen a big increase each year for the past 5 or 6 years.
@cameo43 . Berkshire has indeed become a major new player in the BS arena. Really revitalized itself.
Westminster accepted only 1 out of 10 this year. The competition is up all around, but my personal theory is that the economy is allowing more options for people than a few years ago.
@Jktnyc . that is an interesting statistic. where did you hear that from?
I suspect it’s not the most competitive year across the board. For example, I suspect Andover has not had a new record number of applicants this year. Of course, they’ve been downplaying their selectivenesss to some extent recently (for example, they stopped mentioning the mean SSAT of incoming class and dropped the section about new students with special achievements from the “welcome admitted students” page), still, from what I read 420 students this year were admitted, so with an admit rate of 14%, it means they’ve received 3000 applications. Not a record high.
If a school isn’t specifically touting that it is a record year in their releases and acceptance letters, assume it is not a record year. They would, no doubt, tout that fact if they could.
From what I saw, Andover has pretty much been holding steady in terms of selectivity for the past few years. Although I entered during one of those years where they would mention all of the “special achievements” of the admits, which made me feel rather rattled, as I had none of those achievements(None of these really made a difference when we all actually got to Andover though).
Choate says on its website this year’s acceptance rate is at an all time low of 17%. Previously I believe the published rate was around 23%.
Year of Millennium Babies?
We noticed that Exeter accepted a lower number than in past years. As in fewer students.
Exeter is currently over enrolled, so I think they accepted less students than usual as means to control overcrowding, which isn’t too big of an issue currently, but could have been had we continued to over enroll.
(i go there btw so i think i’m on the right track with this speculation)
to “Center” : the statistic came from the school itself.
What is to explain the dramatic rise in amount of people with success in getting into at least one school, and often more, this year when contrasted to last years m10 freakout thread?
Our letter from Middlesex said “over 1150 students applying for approximately 100 places”. Thats about an 8% acceptance rate (unless they over-accepted top candidates by A LOT, assuming that many would choose a different school). According to the stats, Middlesex in the past is about 18%.
NMH also, IIRC, had a much lower application vs. seat ratio…(~10%?) than normal. Again, with the caveat that they probably over-accept top candidates, that still looks to me like these school have had a significantly lower acceptance rate (or many more applicants- take your pick) this year.
Even Andover and Exeter only have 60-70% yield (percentage of kids accepted that attend). While I’m sure Middlesex has a pretty good yield, considering the most well regarded schools only have 60-70% yield, even assuming Middlesex has a 50% yield would be a stretch. But if Middlesex did have a 50% yield then they would have to accept 200 kids, making the acceptance rate closer to 16%. I hope that made sense.
I believe Andover’s yield rate is slightly higher. I believe it is somewhere closer to 80%. I know during my year, 2012, it was closer to 85%
Do you think there is a difference in yield rate for day and boarders?