<p>As a P of Exonian, I attended a "college night." Part of the ceremony included stories about disappointment -- not getting into "the" school of choice. But, the various poor kids got into Williams instead of Yale, Brown instead of MIT, Dartmouth instead of Harvard, Pomona instead of Stanford . . . I left the meeting knowing that about all Exonians get into incredible schools and my own alma mater would be a safety for the vast majority. </p>
<p>BTW -- many of the cum laude kids I knew never applied to HYPS or other Ivies.</p>
<p>Similarly, ajadedidealist, the fact that it was definitely not the top x% that got into the Ivies at my school caused much tension and resentment between students. Since most students know where people deserve to go, it became clear how much certain factors are weighed for or against you (or sometimes just not considered at all).</p>
<p>Why do you care Ivy? Look at # top 20 colleges and liberal art schools (US News). That matter more perhaps. If you are a musician, Julliard is much better than Harvard. If you are into engineering, maybe MIT or CIT.</p>
<p>Well actually my first two choices are MIT and Stanford but I just said Ivy League as if you can get in there, you can get in everywhere generally.</p>
<p>For instance Taft gets about 15-20% IVy and more like 25-30% if you count other top LACS/ universities (duke/georgetownn ect.) Andover does even better--I would guess around 40% go to very good schools.</p>
<p>What a revealing post by newyorka somewhere else said this:</p>
<p>Most of the kids going from Andover are rich and influential with legacies at Harvard. If 15 have legacies at Harvard and are decent grades, and then you take the URMs and atheletes, no unhooked kid will get it. So rather then boosting a person like me (international with no influence and no legacy unless you included cousins) Andover will push me down.</p>
<p>I'm looking at a list of people from Andover who are going to Harvard, Yale, Princeton etc. and there are a lot people who don't fit into any of the categories you mentioned (athletes, rich legacies, URMs). </p>
<p>If you work hard at Andover and do well, you will end up at a great place (if not your top choice) regardless of your background.</p>
<p>Thats relieving! This poster who seemed more experienced and emphatic said to the contrary so thanks bigblue09! btw, is Bigblue referring to Andover?</p>
<p>Work hard! Stop guessing about admission to HYPSM. Do what you like best. Don't build up the ECs just for admission.<br>
You are lucky in Andover (or Exeter, or whatever schools), as long as you work hard, be yourself, you will reach your dream.
Don't waste your time, go to work!</p>
<p>I have to agree with shore. Working hard will only get you so far. Anyways, college admissions isn't the point of boarding school. Sure if you're an unhooked kid you'll have a tougher time getting into a top school than if you stayed at home, but I think the high school experience is worth it regardless.</p>
<p>Cum laude (10-20%) at Andover does fairly well just because they are so smart. The group that does the best though is undoubtedly minorities, followed closely by the Varsity crew team. </p>
<p>The colleges themselves are very peculiar in taking Andover kids: Princeton admitted about half minorities, Yale went for the cum laude crowd, Harvard had specialty kids, same with Stanford. Actually, Stanford's average accepted GPA is probably lower than 5.0/6 just based on the kids that got in/are actually attending. </p>
<p>Not sure what the Harvard deal was, but they probably stayed away because of how nice Yale was being in the early round and didn't want to play cross-admit with them. Some real puzzles RE: who got in and who didn't...</p>
<p>I would add that half of cum laude is chosen in February of senior year and takes into account upper year and the fall of senior year. The other half is chosen at the end of senior year and only takes into account senior year grades. Overall it is about 20% of the class. Other schools choose students differently.</p>
<p>No, not everyone gets a 6 average for cum laude. Many teachers, especially in history and relphil give out only a handful of 6s a year. They usually give these on individual assignments, not as a term grade. I'm guessing the average for cum laude is around a 5.5.</p>