Hello CC,
How high do you feel the sibling admit rate is in Exeter and Andover? Is there a certain reason siblings tend to get in more?
All I can speak to is our experience. All 4 kids admitted to Exeter. On paper all were similarly prepared. As a family, we emphasized education, sports and community service while the kids were growing up. All had similar SSAT scores, awards and levels of commitment to interests. Those interest were different for all- robotics to choir and all played very different sports.
We did get to know the AO over the years as well. Our older kids sat on student panels for potential
Students, volunteered as tour guides, we volunteered on revisit days and sent Christmas cards. He interviewed our first three children for admission and got to know our family over the years as we asked advice on how moving might affect our younger kids chances of admission etc…
Hard to say how any of this directly affected admission decisions but certainly didn’t hurt.
Our school (not PEA or PAA) had a number of siblings. It also had a number of students who had siblings at other schools. The families I knew in both categories could articulate pretty well why the school had – or had not – been a good choice for more than one child in their family.
I think that for schools like PEA and PAA, where there are way more qualified applicants than there are seats, preference is given to qualified siblings. It helps the school maintain a “family” feel in its culture, and it is seen to help with development as well. With that said, the key word here is “qualified”. If a family that knows a school is liking it enough to consider enrolling additional children there, the last thing the school wants to do is upset the apple cart by admitting a student who is not going to thrive.
I think @vegas1 also gives a good example of how a family can have multiple candidates who are attractive to a school – all kids well prepared academically, active in things that the school values, and parents who understood what they were signing up for, etc. While vegaskids probably got an “edge” for being a sibling, they were almost certainly strong candidates in and of themselves. (If I were a betting type, I’d guess that they got accepted at peer schools to PEA as well.)
@gardenstategal How high is this preference? About how much better does a non-sibling have to be to be to get the spot over the sibling?
I have no idea. I would guess that if there were two candidates who were absolutely equal in all respects, the sibling would win. Anything else is too hard to say. The part of the question that’s bogus though, is “better”. What’s better? The school is assembling a community, so is the kid who plays the cello better than the kid who dances or the one who swims?
The flip-side is that siblings may have a harder time getting in to other schools, because the assumption is that they will enroll with their older brother/sister. We are going through the process right now with an older DD at Cate. DS has had to answer the question “Don’t you want to go to Cate with your sister?” in every single interview. I do think that this will hurt his chances at other schools. To the points above, sibling status at Cate is definitely not automatic entry and he will have to be well-qualified in order to be admitted.
Sounds like you have a specific concern. If you do and you’re comfortable sharing the particulars you might get a response that is more on target.
A lot of schools have a sibling benefit. This push is not as great as development or URM, but definitely helps. Especially if the kids are of similar academic qualifications.
Yes, but…
don’t rely upon it to the exclusion of applying to other schools as well. I have heard of siblings who received unexpected news on March 10th. It’s impossible to guess what a school’s priorities will be.
If you are close to qualified you will get in if you are a sibling. It’s a development strategy. If you are full pay verses FA it may be a different story