Lawrenceville is the top 10 BS that I am talking about. Also BTW, the lesser known BS is outside the top 30.
Nope was not referring to Lawrenceville as 2nd or hidden anything.
L’Ville is a Ten School but on CC it’s not considered in the BIG five ( Andover, Deerfield, Exeter, Groton and SPS ) so @twinsmama’s post was actually very funny and accurate.
Never mind that @twinsmama’s post was plain ole amusing.
Come on, everyone, lighten up! Life is better with smiles. 
Oh. Now I have to go back and “like” @twinsmama’s comment. 
While the stats for Princeton may be reflective of some faculty children attending Lville - last year Lville sent 14 children to Columbia and 8 to Yale, 7 to Duke etc which certainly has absolutely nothing to do with proximity. In last year’s class of 205 students 57 attended Ivies or Stanford that is more than a quarter of the class - pretty darn respectable.
Sorry all, especially the OP. I was a nincompoop. By the time I made my infamous post, I had entirely forgotten what the OP had said. But I still made myself snicker…and I’m glad some of you joined in. I’m also glad not to be the only one who bestows random likes based on the general awesomeness of the poster, @PhotographerMom @london203 @ChoatieMom et al.
@twinsmama Mostly I “liked” it because you made me smile.
Let " In last year’s class of 205 students… " wash over you.
And- yes, it is pretty darn respectable for a SS Class that size 
but seriously- Can someone please explain how counting kids ( who got into HYPSM ) on a BS Matriculation List helps an incoming THIRD FORM KID/ PARENT? Aren’t there more pressing matters at hand? Like maybe your kid having their butt handed to him/her on a platter every single day for the next four years?
Freetwinsmama
Why is it that I find myself using that like click more often all of a sudden…
Posters are addressing OP’s “pressing matter”. OP is not here to receive a general education about BS. And, are you suggesting L’ville hands the student’s butt on a platter every day while that unnamed other school does it every week?
FreePhotographerMom
Could we be serious, and not so touchy, for a moment?
The original question was,
With due respect, I think you’re framing the problem incorrectly. Most (all?) selective colleges practice “holistic admission.” This means, roughly, that they look at the “whole student” when creating a class.
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When comparing the Big Name schools to other, good private schools, remember the Big Name schools may have more “hooked” candidates. Hooks include: recruitable athlete, development candidate, legacies. For some schools, their student body may contain more wealthy Ivy League legacies than the norm, even for private schools.
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Sometimes schools publish their “college profile.” This allows you to get a feel for how stringently the school grades, and how widely dispersed the school’s test scores are. Some schools grade quite harshly. I would not assume that a family can predict a student’s GPA on the basis of middle school grades.
When you look at such profiles, remember there’s a drop out factor. If a student isn’t cutting the mustard in her courses, many parents will opt to withdraw the student.
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The Big Name schools often enroll students who are far ahead of their peers in terms of courses taken. “Most demanding course schedule” can be out of reach even for a student who enters from the top of his middle school.
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Holistic, again. The road to admission from a good boarding school is not paved by grades alone. When you live a a school, you have the opportunity to get involved in the life of the school. A student whose application shows he has taken on leadership roles at school will have an advantage over those who may have slightly higher GPAs, but little community involvement. I do believe the Greene’s concept of the “upper one thirder,” that is, that the student who will likely be in the top third of his school will have the time and energy to really stand out during college admissions.
I think the best measure of a boarding school is to look at where the bottom 50% of the class goes. So, look at the WHOLE matriculation list top to bottom. There can be a big difference from school to school. And, if you are a parent who hasn’t had a student go through the college process, do research on these colleges as I’ve bet you might not have heard of many but that doesn’t mean some aren’t very good schools. The college admissions process has changed greatly since we went through the process 30 or so years ago.
As @Periwinkle suggests, let’s get back to original question, which really is about whether a kid is likely to get into a “better” college if he or she has a higher GPA from a second tier school, or a slightly lower GPA from a first tier school. This is, of course, an unknowable. But I would nonetheless offer two comments (in addition to Periwinkle’s, all of which I agreed with).
First, I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that the kid who gets a 4.0 at Lesser Known School would necessarily get a 3.8 at Better Known School, or vice versa. There are lots of kids who rise to a challenge, and lots of kids who tend to perform on the level of their peers, whatever that level happens to be. I can think of plenty of kids (including some of mine) who would probably get about the same grades no matter what school they went to (within reason). Also, at most of these schools, there are plenty of different levels of classes and for the most part, the GPAs are unweighted. So a lower level math or science class at Better Known School could well be easier than a higher level class in the same subject at Lesser Known School.
Second, even if it is true that OP’s kid would have a higher GPA from Lesser Known School than from Better Known School, I think it also depends a lot on how much higher/lower. For instance, getting really top grades (like verging on an A+ average) is impressive, no matter what school you go to. When I interview job candidates at my company, I’ll happily interview anyone was number 1 or 2 in their college class, even if I’ve never heard of the college before. It takes serious smarts and hard work to be the best of any group. And on the “lower” end, if the “lower” still puts the kid in the top quintile of GPAs from that school, that’s a very different story than if it puts the kid in the third, fourth, or fifth quintiles.
College admissions committees know the stronger schools and understand that kids had to be pretty good going in to get in to these boarding schools. Adcoms understand these students have experience living away from home and being independently responsible for their education.
On the other hand, rankings matter to colleges. Given choosing a student from Lesser Known and Weaker School with a 4.0 GPA who is ranked second in class of a mixed population or choosing a student from Better Known Fancy Pants School who has a 3.5 GPA and is ranked in the top third of his/her class of all strong students, there would be a lot of inclination to choose the student from the Lesser Known and Weaker School because of that student’s relative ranking and relative GPA.
Now don’t go jumping on me and arguing about other issues coming in to play. For argument’s sake, assume everything else between these two-from opportunity, family education level, race and ethnicity, economics, extracurricular interests, and so on is exactly the same. Colleges want to be higher ranked. It helps their overall success in every way. In order to be highly regarded and ranked, a college needs to have the best applicants, or, the seeming best applicants. So while the two students above are nearly identical (let’s even say they have the same SAT scores). the higher GPA and higher class rank will serve the college’s marketing better.
(continued on next post)
continued from previous post…
Our third child is waiting for his last college admission decisions. We’ve been to this rodeo a few times. I’ve spoken with various adcoms and guidance counselors. You are facing a difficult decision-do you wish for your child this stronger education which may disadvantage them in the college admissions process though ultimately serves them better, or do you take the easier route, going to school where your child is the star, with less effort? who may or may not come out as well prepared for college but will likely appear more qualified for college?
No matter what, there are no guarantees. There are so many stories of kids out there with stellar stats who don’t get in to their top picks, so choosing the easier school for the better appearing credentials, if that is a choice which needs to be made, does not guarantee admission to the colleges of choice.
Many BS don’t provide class rank. If no class rank is provided, a college doesn’t have to report it on their Common Data Set or in any other way. Therefore class rank can become a totally moot point.
That may be true, but the reality - based on my personal experience and close tracking of a top BS’s college data (not just matriculation but actual who gets in where) for several years - is that there’s a great diversity within the cohort of students (which is about 1/3 of the class) getting in top colleges. Many students I know including my own did get in highly selective colleges without the usual suspects of hooks. On the other hand, my limited experience with private schools with poorer track record of top college matriculation indicates that the few that did attend those highly selective colleges are mostly students WITH hooks. And when it comes to HYP etc., nowadays, even kids from the middle class suburban public schools are rarely be able to get in just on grades, test scores and a few ECs. They are recruited athletes, URM or kids who have won Intel Science awards. In my view, for the well rounded kids without hooks, while their chances are slim anywhere their best chances are at the academic powerhouses of well known prep schools, magnet schools and the few highly ranked public schools.
I understand that this is an area with a lot of myths of all kinds. While I believe what I have said because it’s based on solid research and personal experience, I don’t advise parents/students to assume they will gain advantages in highly selective college admission by attending a top BS. There are too many factors to play into the results in the years to come. However, I am strongly against the idea that one would be better off by attending a lesser known prep school either. If it’s just for the sake of college, I’d actually suggest a very poor public school if not an inner city school. If you want magic, then go for the extreme.
Late to this party …on spring break trip overseas.
My spouse and I attended great colleges. We have a 25th reunion this year! We are under no false impression that our children will follow in our footsteps as legacies at either place. They are at a great school that works for them. I would echo the post that suggested a lesser-known school might require a stronger hook (legacy, URM, athlete) etc. to gain admission to a top college.
We did not approve of our children’s BS choices with an eye on where they will attend college. We agreed because we think SG is a special place that meets their needs. When the time comes and they begin to explore colleges maybe on a stretch one of them might look at our alma maters. Neither is the kind of student we were and with the admissions competition I am comfortable that they will probably go to different colleges. Think of the number of great schools that are outside the East Coast we have all learned of since our graduation.
DS says he wants to study overseas (he has already lived in London twice). DD says her goal is to play field hockey in college. These are two limiters that will most closely shape their college lists.
We think of BS as a series of experiences that are forming our kids. That is our focus. If it gets them into Stanford or Amherst or Princeton or Middlebury or wherever who knows?
We live in an East Coast urban area right in town. If either kid said “I want to go Ivy” we would have suggested they enroll in the local public school. Their chances probably would have been much higher since this city’s schools are quite bad, and (hopefully) our kids would shine in class and with ECs - not a guarantee when kids are being shot in schools! Our family chose a different path but it has never been in the hopes of moving onto the expressway to Ivy glory. I would urge @wheretwogo to possibly broaden the goals of the investment her family is about to make.