@ChoatieMom wish we had known that back in January. We applied for FA thinking what the heck, maybe they will throw 5k at us. As it turns out, we weren’t close to qualifying. Accepted at top 2 schools anyway (w/out financial aid grant) so in the long view it didn’t matter.
Our school is definitely not one where kids are raised to go to BS, but it is one where there are established relationships with BSs and, even more so, the local independent schools, for kids who go that direction. Much of the advantage is in the private schools having a history with kids from the school, and also providing families with guidance as to fit and where they have realistic chances of being accepted. Among the kids in my son’s class applying to BS/independent school, most applied to only a small number. Only one kid, who needed full FA, applied to maybe 8 BSs, and another applied to 8 or 10 schools because they weren’t sure whether they’d go the day or boarding route.
“Take a look at Pomona College’s new Class 2021 admit stats. >60% students of color. yes, URM is still a big advantage in many elite college admission decisions.”
Well, actually slightly less than 57% domestically. I’m sure Pomona has zero problem attracting students of color - and highly capable ones, I might add. Those percentages just reflect the demographics of both the US and California specifically with higher percentages of Asian and Hispanic/Latino students. But, we’re talking about boarding schools and they are not approaching these levels - yet. If it really was some huge boost, why several high stat students mentioned here who are URMs not getting accepted? I still stick by my opinion that the pull of being an URM tends to be overblown.
@ChoatieMom – good to know! @Korab1 & I had the same thought–wth, let’s try & see. The more I think about it, when kid2 comes around, we will probably need FA more than ever because having to pay two tuitions will put us under a bridge! =)) So, we may be in the same boat regardless.
I am curious about how a student’s personality comes through in the application process. Obviously, during an interview, but some colleges don’t use interviews. And, I know several parents who interview prospective students and feel that their opinions do not matter one bit. So does that leave the personal essay?
@1340bal This is a thread about private high schools where the vast majority of time interviews are a requirement.
As far as colleges, if they don’t require interviews, I think they weight personality very little in the admissions decision. It’s more stats driven.
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Where have you been, doschicos. Seriously, I like that we can agree to disagree. Choate, my kids’s school I think reports something like >50% students of color. I tried to find it on their website, but it may have been removed.
31% students of color at Choate, per Choate’s view book on Choate’s website: https://issuu.com/choaterosemaryhall/docs/choate-viewbook/20
Here’s where I’ve been, @preppedparent, where the facts are. 
Exeter and Andover usually are at the lead in terms of racial/ethnic diversity. Unless the numbers quoted specifically state that it is only domestic, assume any number given for diversity includes international students (it usually does include them) which means the measurable numbers of Korean and Chinese students are in that number.
Exeter - “41% are students of color” (their new website sure is clunky)
Andover - “Students of Color: 46%”
Choate - “29% are domestic students of color” (also a clunky website)
https://www.choate.edu/uploaded/Documents/Academics/College_Profile.pdf
I have a feeling it is less about ticking boxes and more about what a particular school needs in that particular class. That’s why it feels so arbitrary to us at outsiders. Is the star violinist or hockey player about to graduate? That school will fall in love with the violin prodigy or hockey rock star that the school in the very next town turns down in favor of the kids they need to replenish the Debate and swim teams.
@doschicos your clunky website description made me smile 
Why, in this day and age…
Maybe it’s just me but I didn’t find them too intuitive. I dislike when changes are made and don’t really seem like improvements. Showing my age… 
@CaliMex Further to your point, us lay people also don’t know who else is applying to the same schools who may have similar profiles (with the qualification that those attending middle schools/JBS’s that send many to BS may have some measure of insight). Maybe an applicant is one of eight violin prodigies applying to the same school that is only looking for one or two.
@doschicos to respond to your comment about Texas not being underrepresented, given the fact that Delaware can fit inside the city of Houston, we must keep in mind that Texas is a gigantic state. We are from an area that is 6 hours from any city that anyone has ever heard of and on the border. So, no, Dallas, Houston & Austin have BS and affluent communities and are well represented among BS applicants whereas Brownsville, Del Rio and Monahans are destitute with poor educational structures and few out of state, much less within, have ever heard of these areas. We are from the latter. It is almost 600 miles to Houston from us. For my son to play hockey, we have to drive the 350 mile, 6 hour trip to Dallas. If I had a nickel for the number of times I had to draw a map for interviewers as to where we are, I wouldn’t need FA! :))
Unfortunately, for their diversity score, what matters most for boarding schools are just names of states regardless of details.
That’s true about Texas, but BS don’t seem to value having representation from every quarter of Texas as much as they value having the state of Texas colored in as represented on the map. Again, not saying it is unimportant, just not a geographical hook per se.
It’s difficult to tell how much of an advantage being URM would be by looking at the stats of “student of color” because we really don’t know if the current percentage of black or Hispanic students lower than their representations in the population is because there aren’t enough admissible black/Hispanic students applying, or because the schools are “intentionally” keeping URM underrepresented as it is (which is doubtful). If it’s the former, then URM would still be an advantage because well it’s still underrepresented.
Well, the last US Census was in 2010 so getting a bit dated now and it had the non-hispanic white population at 63.7% so, from that standpoint, Exeter and Andover are doing quite well reflecting demographics. California was 42.3% non-hispanic whites, so Pomona represents that state’s demographics.
I just looked at some other school’s websites:
SPS 39%
Deerfield - zero reference to diversity. hmmm
Groton 43%
Hotchkiss 37% U.S. Students of Color
So Asian is ORM for sure, and that skews the “students of color” stat. We need to look at black and Hispanic student percentages separately.
^^^And I would add Native American