<p>What ExieMITAlum says is exactly true; the parallels of his story with my own are quite amazing. I happen to also be an MIT Alum (but a Andover graduate, rather than Exeter).</p>
<p>My DD was turned down at Exeter, but wait listed at Andover in the midst of the 2008 fiasco (and of course, the class was oversubscribed…). And yes, it hurt that she was not able to attend either school (I have as high respect for Exeter as I hope Exeter graduates do of Andover, despite the friendly rivalry we share).</p>
<p>For those of you who think legacies don’t get turned down, I hope this disabuses you of that notion: they really, really, do. And as far as I can tell given the descriptions of all of your accomplishments here on this bulletin board, the process is indeed “fair”, (at least at the best of these schools), at least in my sense of fairness (I believe strongly in the value of diversity and that you have to judge each kid in terms of the opportunities they have had/made and how they have taken advantage of them). Had she been admitted, it would have been at the cost of someone else’s child. She was competitive with you all, but not a “shoe in” by any means. I hope (at least for the best schools) that being a legacy only means that extra care is taken in handling the application, not a real leg up in admissions, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.</p>
<p>How my son will fare this March 10, is anyone’s guess. I don’t think he’s currently on this board (though may have read it a bit).</p>
<p>Neatoburrito: I share your frustration with that AO; making suggestions like that without helpful pointers about how make such opportunities actually possible is fundamentally wrong.</p>
<p>And yes, I’ve continued writing checks (and will continue to do so no matter what the decision my son receives when you all do), for exactly the reason that I want kids to have the benefits I did forty years ago…</p>
<p>This may be of interest to some of you. A couple of years ago the Head of Admissions made a power point presentation at an alumni dinner. The overall acceptance rate for applicants was around 9%, but the rate for legacies was around 40%. The AO defined legacies as children whose parents are alumni, not children whose siblings attend the school. The AO also added that the children of legacies tend to be “highly qualified” due to their accomplishments.</p>
<p>Looking at some numbers … apparently about 19% of students are day students living nearby, and about 13% of the student body are legacies … I got that right?</p>
<p>I’m guessing there is a big overlap between day students and legacies. Naturally there are New England families that have lived near the school for generations. Which would lead to a very homogenous group if not for efforts to mix it up with candidates from outside New England.</p>
<p>So … I’m just guessing that New England and day-school acceptances are more heavily weighted toward legacies and that it is much easier for new students to compete (for admission) if they come from outside New England and offer something different - fit-plus-hook.</p>
<p>"This may be of interest to some of you. A couple of years ago the Head of Admissions made a power point presentation at an alumni dinner. The overall acceptance rate for applicants was around 9%, but the rate for legacies was around 40%. "</p>
<p>This sounds more like a matriculation rate - i.e. applying students who receive an invitation to enroll and ultimately do enroll. Naturally legacies with demonstrate a preference to attend the school of their parents, while non-legacies are more open to opting for another BS that also accepted them. Thus the 40%/9% figures are a function of student choice as much as the school’s rate of acceptance.</p>
<p>inchoatehere, I know it’s hard, but do try not to analyze this too much. Trust me, I’ve been there and it really doesn’t help much. Admissions rates vary so widely from group to group that it’s really only useful to say that if a kid is a good fit, they’ve got a slightly better than average chance, but it’s still never a sure thing. Best of luck to your family.</p>
<p>Ditto Neato’s post. I still wonder why my son was accepted/waitlisted where he was. And, even after that great fit acceptance, we ended up holding our breaths for the first six months of bs, wondering whether it was really the right place for our son. </p>
<p>While hindsight might make me say that our kid got in to the absolute perfect fit school for him because of a great interview or because of our geographical location or because we researched schools so carefully (ha!), really, in the end, we just feel very, very lucky that everything has worked out so well.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, day students are not more likely to be legacies. The alumni of the established boarding schools settle all over the world. They may be more likely to be found in New York, London, Paris, Virginia, or L.A., but don’t imagine that New England families are immune to the American tendency to move every 5 years or so (when the real estate market works.) </p>
<p>I agree with neatoburrito. Don’t try to overthink this. You’ll drive yourself round the bend.</p>
<p>I agree with Periwinkle. Many legacy students I met were from not from New England nor were they day students.
Also, the 9% and 40% I mentioned in the previous post were acceptance rates. During the dinner the AO also presented matriculation rates which were much higher, more in the realm of the 70%-80% range. They were using the matriculation rate to illustrate how well they were doing against peer schools.<br>
The Need-Blind process was also discussed that evening. Prior to Need-Blind, the admissions committee would reduce the applicant files to a pile that they want to accept. The head of financial aid would then step in and say, well, this year our financial aid budget is this much so you will have to replace some of those files with ones that can pay the tuition. A member of the board of trustees read through some of the files that were replaced and was heartbroken.
Today, that school doesn’t have to go through that extra step of replacing files to meet the financial aid budget. That’s a great achievement.</p>
<p>Oh my god, harimeexD, I feel so much respect for you. You’re mature, willing to reapply and possibly be hurt again- I second GMTplus7’s suggestion for you to send this essay in. You probably won’t read this… but good luck, wherever you are now! Best wishes.</p>
<p>Thanks folks … yes I can obsess a bit sometimes … I am an analyst by trade, and an anxious parent at that, so cut me some slack! ;-)</p>
<p>Anyway, there were some good stats discussed on this thread: Exeter Admissions Office Preliminary News - and those don’t seem to jibe with 9%/40% figures discussed here. If we assume 40% of legacies get admission letters on 10 March, and student population runs about 13.5% legacies, that means that about 17% of non-legacies get admission letters also. Anyway, I’ll try to let it go. If anyone is interested you might take a gander at that thread.</p>
<p>Ah, well. You know, depending on the composition of the pool–which I don’t know(!!!), it could well be that some school has a 9% admit rate for non-legacy applicants.</p>
<p>121/1,000 = 12.1% admit rate, of which 1/3 are legacies</p>
<p>I made the math easy, but you can see, can’t you, that Brandenburg 5’s 9%/40%, is possible? As long as the legacy proportion of the overall pool’s comparatively small, there could be drastically different rates of admission for different segments of the pool.</p>
<p>Suffice it to say that if you’re not legacy, an URM, have a hook, or come from a feeder school or a feeder program, you’re acceptance rate is far lower than the average one published by the school.</p>
<p>I agree with those who state not to overanalyze. It’s a crapshoot if you’re unhooked. Just present your best self and hope for the best. </p>
<p>Remember if you don’t get in, it’s not a reflection of your inability to do the work, i.e. “not good enough.” There are so many factors that come into play.</p>
<p>Not my definition of diversity. Seems like a rather lopsided, homogeneity that does not reflect society at all. Many, many other BS have such stats much more reflective of society as a whole.</p>
<p>I suspect these student body profiles reflect a process which is need-blind (or nearly need-blind), is open to all, and places enormous weight upon proven academic ability and “youth from every quarter.”</p>
<p>The racial diversity as in the elite schools may not be the accurate reflection of the racial composition of the real world but it’s the reality elite educational institutes are facing today. The high demand from a great number of intelligent and hardworking Asian students, and the long held belief in lifting up the URM’s and the underprivileged presence on campus are the main shaping factors. Schools that are not diversified this way may have a different philosophy but sometimes it is because they are not as hotly pursued by the students of color with high calibre or they need to focus more on the revenues from the FP students than on finding the most qualified students.</p>
<p>GMT…I meant to say that the the population is overlyweighted towards those of color and my other point is that local, middle class white kids requiring FA probably fare the worst in the admissions race. Just my opinion. No data to support.</p>
<p>DAandrew…that is why I do not think some of these BS would be a fit for my son. I want him to be in a diverse and balanced environment. His local public HS is more than 92% causasian, which I do not find acceptable either.</p>