It will be interesting to see next year how BSR is updated ( if anyone cares by then!)
There may have been a huge increase in international applicants?
Can’t have been that many. Other like schools would have seen similar increases. Not just this school
I mean, don’t usually school’s accept the same number of kids per year? Perhaps they just saw an abnormal level of applicants this season?
yes schools accept similar numbers every year (unless they are actively expanding).
Actually, SPS is actively shrinking this year… 
from their current size of 541 to their ideal size of 526. This explains their lower than usual admission rate for this cycle, at 11.5%. Source: sps.edu and personal communication with the Admission Office
Well, just over the weekend I read the Globe article about the new surge of students from China: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/03/26/chinaschools/3e9malNHYbwSgGkJqiAcbM/story.html. I recommend you all read it, as the scale of the surge is stunning.
The article does mention that elite boarding schools limit the number of students from China. However, other schools are stepping up to fill the need. Lexington Christian Academy is acquiring dorms; other schools are enrolling international students.
So we need to wait until more schools report their numbers. I gather that some schools (and colleges) work with agencies to screen foreign applicants. That would depress the number of official applicants, as presumably the students screened out by the foreign agency wouldn’t complete an application.
To a certain extent, it also reflects how well a school markets itself. I can’t predict which US colleges will suddenly become “hot” with American teenagers. I haven’t a hope of trying to predict which boarding school will become hot in China.
Yes saw that article. But it’s been ongoing for a few years. It’s not so much that elite schools are limiting the numbers from China as they don’t need the money and they want to retain a balanced student body so just because they get more applicants for a specific pool doesn’t mean that they will increase the numbers from that pool.
A reduction of 15 students is unlikely to make or break the admissions rate rubric. 
Most likely this is “right-sizing” after too many students accepted in prior years and getting those triples reconverted back into doubles.
I’ll prefer the obvious explanation that MX did not have an 8% acceptance rate.
@skieurope even Exeter accepted fewer kids this year in order to rebalance their numbers. These things do happen but a 2.5 times increases in applicants…?
I think I had seen that Exeter accepted somewhere around 440 last year as opposed to 396 this year (all grades). This could simply mean that some students left?? I don’t know the % admit though.
The Andover admitted page lists their acceptances at 14% this year. I don’t have any direct knowledge of other schools.
@Center Agreed. Which is why I think the Middlesex numbers are either misinterpreted or just wrong.
@skieurope actually it is Westminster that is in reference (or at least that is what I am referring to). 
@MAandMEmom yes Exeter admitted 396 this year. We heard two years had been over enrolled/over accepted so they are ratcheting back to get their numbers to where they were.
I will/would be interested to know the breakdown of classes at Exeter. Are they piling on PGs? I guess I’d be interested in knowing this for all the schools we are revisiting. Add that to the bank of questions…
Choate had an unusually low acceptance rate this year: 17% vs. the normal 20-21%. Also heard that FA is harder to get for new students as some of the current students needed to change their status to FA need. The North East is still in a recession…
There you go, @itcannotbetrue. I shall now officially blame our Choate WL to your FA needs… 
Ouch! @GoatMama . Wish I could blame you back for SPS, but regional scholarship and all, it won’t that way!
BTW, at California yield event, AO talked to admission rate at Choate being down 4% from LY, which would put them at around a 16% admit rate this year.
And the real admit rate for the top schools is far lower than people realize: back out legacy, athletes, URM which generally are going to be full FA. Then back out the UR geography and the requisite development admits and the spaces left for everyone are significantly fewer than it seems at first blush. The rest of the schools benefit from the flow downstream. Those schools are at huge risk for having over accepts if spaces at the top several schools are fewer than typical.