<p>Pingry is like NJ's best private school</p>
<p>5 from the same school (Pingry) got in Wharton through ED. Were there no better applicants in NJ? Or were there corruptions?</p>
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<blockquote> <blockquote> <p>Pingry is like NJ's best private school<<< True. But it does not produce better students than puiblic schools.</p> </blockquote> </blockquote>
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<p>well, we all know that Wharton likes people with famous parents or connections, and so I would guess that kids at Pingry would probably have rich/famous parents</p>
<p>yes, it is corruption, but so is a lot of things =/</p>
<p>yeah it's definitely corruption. there is no possible way that kids who went to an affluent private school with tons of resources could possibly deserve to get into wharton.</p>
<p>Agree with RZA (minus the sarcasm, haha). Say what you will, but you can't blame kids for their backgrounds. They probably still had to be exceptional candidates regardless to get in considering wharton's ~10% admission rate.</p>
<p>Seriously, it could have a lot to do with fact that it's an exceptional private school that's pretty geographically close to Penn.</p>
<p>How many students from Exeter, Andover, etc. are admitted to HYP every year?
Deal with it!</p>
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<blockquote> <blockquote> <p>but you can't blame kids for their backgrounds<<< No one is blaming the kids here.</p> </blockquote> </blockquote>
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<p>Well you are implying that the kids don't deserve it, which is just as bad.</p>
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<blockquote> <blockquote> <p>Deal with it!<<< I guess we have to.</p> </blockquote> </blockquote>
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<p>And it is well worth to pay to go to Pingry.</p>
<p>Average SAT scores (2007) Middle 50%: 610-720 critical reading, 630-710 math, 610-720 writing</p>
<p>There's another way to look at it. S went to a private, independent day school in CT. Last year, about 35% of the class were recognized by National Merit. This year, it was 45%. 45% of the class scored in the top 3-4% of the US on the PSAT! So, to be the top 5% of a class like that is amazing.</p>
<p>BaystateNutmeg - I thought 0.2% is for National Merit finalist.</p>
<p>For better or worse, Penn has traditionally taken seriously its role as educator of the regional elite. Harvard, too, for that matter -- check out the number of people it takes from Boston Latin, Cambridge Rindge & Latin, or BBN. And Penn, because it is meaningfully bigger, has more slots to fill.</p>
<p>There are a bunch of excellent private schools in the Philadelphia area that, year-in and year-out send double-digit numbers of kids to Penn. Their classes tend to be under 100 people, so we're talking >10%. (Not all to Wharton, of course. Wharton is not especially popular with those kids.)</p>
<p>Same deal with the academic magnet public schools in Philadelphia, and the good suburban schools. Central High School has averaged just under 5% of its classes to Penn for the past decade, and Masterman, with much smaller classes and private-school statistics, over 10%. I don't know the numbers for Lower Merion and Harriton, but I would be surprised if they were much under 5%.</p>
<p>I'm certain people at Penn consider Pingry part of its catchment area. If it gets applications from good students there -- especially ED applications -- it is going to accept a bunch of them.</p>
<p>Penn also takes relatively high percentages of the graduating classes of elite boarding and private schools in other parts of the country--e.g., Andover in Massachusetts (an average of 12 Penn matriculants from each of the last 5 graduating classes), Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles (214 Penn matriculants over the last 15 years--3rd highest number after UC-Berkeley with 295 and USC with 263):</p>
<p>Thanks JHS and 45 Percenter. I will stop recommending top students from non-target public schools to apply Wharton ED.</p>
<p>cc2, what's your point? How is taking top kids from top schools corruption? </p>
<p>When the Penn adcom is projecting each year's class, they probably have certain set of goals/targets: get top kids from wherever (happens to be that many of them are from elite privates), get kids from reach zones, diversity, internationals, etc., etc. </p>
<p>Penn can't simply snub top kids because of where they are from. Elite privates probably have a long standing tradition/trend of producing well-qualified kids, therefore they are rewarded with consistent pipeline to Penn/Ivys. Colleges are also competing to lock down the top kids (though we focus more the opposite dynamic on these forums as most of us are students). </p>
<p>I know at my public school, certain schools (Some Ivys, Uchicago, Wash U) almost as if by strict rule take X number of kids from <80 kids class. Our school performs well in the whole standardized tests game and students are also quite active outside class, therefore top schools like to grab the top kids annually and maintain good relations with the school. I'm sure my school or any other public target didn't start out like this. If a public school's teachers and counselor office work hard for many years, then the student quality will obviously improve over time and colleges would take notice. </p>
<p>I don't see what justification you have to call Penn's admission process corrupt. You seem to be annoyed by the fact that top colleges take kids from top schools (elite privates or public targets). It so happens sometime that the kids who have the opportunity to go to these top schools are already from affluent backgrounds. Are you questioning the whole socioeconomic fabric of this country ("rich get richer" type dynamic applied to college admissions)? LOL.</p>
<p>Have you seen the numbers of people from Exeter going to Harvard? This is nothing.</p>
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Wharton and Penn don't ONLY take kids from target private/public schools. In fact, diversity is also a big priority in admissions. Coming from a "non-target" school, as you call it, can actually be an advantage. If Wharton or Penn is a student's unequivocal first choice, then that student certainly should apply ED to increase his/her chances. To recommend otherwise to such a student would be doing him/her a great disservice.</p>
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Average SAT scores (2007) Middle 50%: 610-720 critical reading, 630-710 math, 610-720 writing
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actually, that is about the average at my school as well, and it's public...lol</p>