Have been hearing from a few elite boarding/day private schools parents that students in those schools did not fair well in this years Early Action/Early Decision announcements. Some schools saw year over year acceptance rates at Ivies and other top colleges drop as much as 90%. Elite private schools that normally send 10 to 20 to select Ivies in previous years only got 1 or 2 spots at those same schools this year and those generally went to either $$$ donors, legacies, or URM.
Curious what others are seeing in other top 20 boarding/top 20 day private school ex-missions stats?
You can check the thread for 2018 parents. We’ve talked a bit about this over there. My DS has reported that this hasn’t been a good year for Ivies, but that being said there have been numerous admits in their relatively small class.
As I noted in the BS 2018 thread, from what I gather, it’s been a fairly strong application cycle so far at 7D2’s school (George School — which I don’t know if most people would put in “top 20” or whatever).
I don’t think anyone thinks of George as some Ivy feeder a la Andover but I’ve heard that they had a higher than usual admit ED/EA admit rate at Ivies and other selective colleges this year.
It may be that it was a particularly strong class of applicants or that this class just happened to apply to more selective schools than is usual for George. Or some other reason.
Thanks for the info. Though St. George is not a top 20 it certainly fits with my personal theory on what may be happening. In each of the respective press releases about EA/ED stats the admissions offices cite higher diversity statistics in the incoming early classes particularly related to first generation college students and overall economic diversity.
If the top colleges are targeting greater economic diversity and demographic inclusion then boarding schools and elite private day schools are the obvious place to make cuts. Typically 50% to 70% of boarding school students receive no financial aid. St. George would be a significant counter-narrative to my theory unless St.George’s numbers are coming from 0.1%ers.
Not sure what the real cause is and we likely will never know but there has certainly been a long-term multi-decade trend to give boarding schools fewer spots each year.
How would anyone know right now but the college counseling office? If any schools report on it this early, it’s a new thing. Most don’t at this stage of the game to my knowledge.
"Elite private schools that normally send 10 to 20 to select Ivies in previous years only got 1 or 2 spots at those same schools this year and those generally went to either $$$ donors, legacies, or URM.’
It’s early. I don’t think any school get as many as 20 kids into any specific Ivy during the early round.
All that being said, it’s getting more competitive for everyone as acceptance rates continue to fall. It makes sense that boarding schools would see an impact along with everyone else especially as colleges increasingly focus on pulling students from every quarter and value diversity in all its many permutations.
Good news is there are plenty of excellent colleges with superb educations beyond the Ivies and other super selective schools with sub 10% acceptance rates. Boarding schools should be attended for their own excellent educations. Put aside emphasis on prestige solely and there are fantastic schools that would love to have BS students matriculate.
^Kids at these schools know if their friends have gotten in. And @SevenDad’s D’s report is accurate. But i agree that it’s too early for anyone to know how an entire class has fared. I have known many kids who didn’t get into Stanford ED but then got into Yale RD. Hardly the washout the early reporting might have suggested.
Thanks for everyone’s valuable input and great points made all around.
@SevenDad Thanks for the clarification and, yes, I was thinking of that other school in RI known for wealthy families.
@doschicos “I don’t think any school get as many as 20 kids into any specific Ivy during the early round.”
Generally you are spot on, each of the HADES schools have in recent years generally sent 10 to 20 each to Columbia and 5 to 15 each to HPY with overall 20% to 28% to Ivies plus MIT/Stanford. Since the HADES schools have historically received a disproportionate share of the spots in previous years I suspect those spots are being reallocated to economic diversity candidates. Obviously those schools won’t be happy about that but seems long-term this is a change for the greater good. I’m just surprised it actually happening if in fact it is. I agree it ain’t over until it’s over and RDs could swing this right back.
@CaliMex “What you do with your education matters more than where you got it.”
Generally also agree with this sentiment and the Economist did s great study that clearly showed in STEM professions what you studied was much more important than where you studied it for long-term career/salary prospects. The study noted select liberal arts professions give an edge to top liberal arts colleges.
The only notable exception to the “school doesn’t matter” that I know of is Manhattan, NYC. Each of the Ivies has a clubhouse in midtown for its alumni. There’s a professional networking group called IvyExec that also caters to Ivy Alums. And there are a number of recruiters and firms in NYC that heavily recruit from these schools. There are even online dating sites that require an alumni email address from a top school to register. So in Manhattan your undergraduate college can play a significant role in your social life, your professional network, what interviews you get, and even who you get to date. Outside of the Manhattan/Brooklyn bubble I’d say what you studied matters much more than where you studied it.
“each of the HADES schools have in recent years generally sent 10 to 20 each to Columbia”
That’s certainly too high. Maybe you are thinking acceptances? Only Andover and Exeter are going to be sending more than 10 each year to Columbia, not even positive about that. The others are going to be more like 5-7.
Found the data:
Hotchkiss: average 3 per year to Columbia (2014-17)
Andover: 8 in Class of 2017
Deerfield: no more than 4 on average for five years (2010-2014 - can’t find more current)
Exeter: average 14 per year (2015-17)
SPS: average 4 per year (2014-17)
Plenty of Columbia legacy at each of the HADES. Looks pretty tough to get in from most of the HADES, although obviously there are more acceptances than matriculations.
I’m an Ivy League grad who lived in Manhattan for many years. None of my college friends were involved in any of those clubs, dating services, etc. With each passing year, how you excelled in your last job becomes increasingly more important than where you went to school.
Choate, while a fine school, begins with a C, so does not fall under that silly HADES acronym. Anyway, according to the school profile, they’ve sent 39 in 5 years, so slightly less that 10/year. For that matter, of the HADES schools, only Exeter , at 42 in 3 years, averages over 10/year.
@SatchelSF Fair enough, to Columbia PEA sent 22 last year, PA 8, with the others coming in the 5 to 7 range. I think PEA may have had an outlier success with 22 in a single year that happened to bring my average up.
@SevenDad Agree and I think @skieurope HADES has become equivalent to GLADCHEMMS in recent years on this site. Make no mistake about it C is a CHADES school.
@CaliMex Participation in those Manhattan clubs and services is not required of alums and many, like you, may have no interest at all. My point is that for those who are interested in participating in the NYC based social and professional networking opportunities these school’s alumni networks afford it does matter whether you attend one of these schools or not. Your larger point is spot on…outside of that peculiar bubble, it really doesn’t matter much where you went to school and there are lots of academically rigorous colleges. When I lived in Silicon Valley for a few years I found that my Ivy degree was not valued there and college dropouts with start-up funding had more cred.
Most of the reported matriculations found on school profiles are for four or five years so its difficult at best to tease out one particular year. Wouldn’t it be nice if they asterisked certain categories like legacy, etc…joking of course.
Anyway, according to the school profile, they’ve sent 39 in 5 years, so slightly less that 10/year. For that matter, of the HADES schools, only Exeter , at 42 in 3 years, averages over 10/year.