- The private schools with the best elite college matriculation records are typically schools with good FA programs, many with 25-45% of the student body on financial aid, so it may be true that "**most** of the parents of these students can afford to send them anywhere", a good number of families do still "have to" go to private colleges a tier down for merit-based scholarships or cheaper public universities. In other words, the perception of how the financial conditions of students from private schools are impacting their college choices is not always accurate.
- The "feeder school" effect while much lessened than in the old days is still a factor. Typically, they feed in one or more colleges that are in the same geographic area. They can easily be spotted by looking at the school's matriculation lists.
- There are certain colleges that have always been popular among private school kids. For example, for the east coast schools, Ivies and urban/suburban elite private colleges in the region such as Georgetown, BC, Tufts, NYU are popular. LACs are more complex. It seems to different private schools, a different set of LACs are more attractive than others. The relationship between school CC and the colleges built over time is part of the equation for sure. Wanting to go to where 'brothers' and pals go is another.
USC class profile: 60% applicants are from public schools.
https://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/docs/USCFreshmanProfile.pdf
No it is not hard to understand at all. I am just trying to follow your logic of applying ED to a school that’s an automatic admit. There are many ways to demonstrate interest. I would think for many students to be able to compare multiple FA offerings would be a greater advantage than just that slight edge of ED, especially when they are such safeties.
If you reread reply #30, it refers to an apparent “safety” that uses “level of applicant’s interest” (i.e. not automatic admit), so an “overqualified” student who has such a school as his/her first choice can avoid having his/her “level of interest” questioned by applying ED.
@ucbalumnus - one should only apply ED to a school that’s one’s first or at least top choice, not to just show adcom “level of interest.” That’s not what ED is for. There are other ways to demonstrate interest. It is a bit of over kill to play the ED card, unless it is truly one’s first choice.
Agree that ED should only be used on one’s first choice (which is not necessarily a reach in a stats-sense for all students).
However, from the college’s point of view, ED actually is for applicants to demonstrate a high level of interest.
Yes, when you propose to someone, from the other person’s point of view it is a demonstration of high level of interest from you, but you better be darn sure he/she is your top pick, not just a safety. Enough said.
Yes, at the publics, those that don’t get into UCLA/UCB tend to filter down to the next tier of UCs - a lot of UCSB, UCSD, Davis, UCI.
Santa Cruz would probably be next. For some reason, most don’t seem to want to go to Riverside or Merced.
USC isn’t a small school by any means, you are right. But I think the perception among the private high school students is that there’s more attention given at USC. Which I actually think is not correct. I guess I don’t really know why they seem to favor USC, maybe it’s just a private v. public school thing.
For many, many good to great southern california high school students, the college decision process is pretty simple. Apply to all the UCs and go to the best one you get into.
UCLA/UCB are #1 choices for many 3.9-4.0 UW, 2100+SAT California students. The apply rate, accept rate and yield rate for those 2 among top students that I’ve seen is huge.
@8bagels Isn’t the selectivity at UCLA wildly exaggerated? The AVG SAT and ACT scores are around 1850 and 28.
UCs do seem to emphasize test scores less than high school courses and grades. They also give significant consideration to applicants who had to overcome disadvantaged situations, which often means coming from a lower to lower middle income background (which tends to be associated with lower SAT scores).
For “unbalanced” applicants in terms of their grades versus test scores, the grade-strong one probably has a better chance at UCLA, while the test-score-strong one probably has a better chance at USC, but both are selective enough that the weaker part cannot be too weak. Also, both have divisions with different levels of selectivity.
The last time I checked their net price calculators, UCLA seemed to be a few thousand dollars less expensive than USC for needy California residents (and a lot less expensive for those wealthy enough to pay list price), so that may be a factor for some. Those from divorced parent families may find UCLA’s FAFSA-only financial aid process to be less trouble than USC’s which uses CSS Profile including for the non-custodial parent.
Average ACT at UCLA 28? Lol, no.
Try 31.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/ucla/freshman-profile/
And that includes a lot of very very low score athletes and URMs dragging the number down.
If you aren’t a world class athlete or URM, you need a top 1-2% act or sat (and a 4.3 GPA with 20 semesters of AP/weighted Honors) to have a decent chance at UCLA.
I’ve seen naviance for UCLA for several highly rated public and private high schools in California.
With less than a 32 act and 4.3, the charts show a sea of red X’s. It’s a very high reach for a student with less than those stats. And you have to have both the 32 and 4.3.
@ferrarepatrick73 and @8bagels , the difference is between those admitted and those enrolled at UCLA:
UCLA
admit/enrolled
2014
28-34/26-32
2013
30/28
2012
30/28
2011
30/28
2010
30/28
A lot of upper income, but not wealthy, parents of elite prep schools kids have stretched themselves thin to fund HS. A lot of them are looking for merit money.
@8bagels Sorry I am correct AVG SAT of around 1900 and ACT as follows:
ACT Composite 28 average
25-32 range of middle 50%
Score of 30 - 36
53%
Score of 24 - 29
33%
Score of 18 - 23
14%
Score of 12 - 17
1%
Score of 6 - 11
I talked to a college counselor recently and he thought kids should toss a bigger web. he basically said certain students need and dream of big names(ivies), some want a big state flagship,some want to stay close to home. but almost none want to look outside the box they and or parents set. he talks to the kids/parents and says… hey look at a couple extra places I could recommend and most are not interested.(my summary of his words) my take also was he really personally wanted more students looking at LAC’s most are not interested.–none of this is a surprise and is probably common at most schools.
I do agree that vanderbilt and duke seem to be really “hot” schools as the OP said.
My D. graduated from the private HS that happen to be #2 among privates in our state. I do not know if you would call such school “a premier private prep schools” “I understand that most of the parents of these students can afford to send them anywhere” - not correct. We are not rich, D. was awarded a Merit scholarship to attend her HS. Many (most, all?) of D’s HS friends were considering Grad. School. So, we looked at the cost of education as a cost of UG + Grad. School.
Yes, correct, her GC was pushing her to apply to Ivy’s. But nobody can make anybody to apply where student does not want to apply. My D. applied to mostly state publics and one private. Her classmates applied to different places. While private awarded her Merit scholarship close to full tuition, she choose to attend at state public because it met her criteria closest.
Maybe there are few families out there that can pay for private k - 12, expensive college + Grad. school, most families cannot afford it. So, many who choose to attend at Ivy and fully paid for it, eventually graduated from Grad schools with students loans. Several families in D’s HS choose different routes for their kids - they did not want them to have huge loans. These kids attended colleges on full tuition Merit awards at non-Elite, non-Ivy. Not sure if I answer your question.
Here’s an interesting article regarding how certain schools like Duke become “hot” among high schoolers: