That’s the problem with threads like this (starting with the title-The smart money?). They always seems to devolve into a “private school kids are exceptional” vs. “private school kids are entitled little snots who are only successful because of Daddy’s money” debate.
To generalize about private schools is as useful as generalizing about “college.” There are myriad prep schools with a range from religious schools to schools for kids with LD’s, to schools that specialize in sports, to schools for good but unexceptional kids, to schools that are the HS equivalent of Harvard and Stanford.
Again, I question the usefulness of such a thread other than perhaps to satisfy people’s curiosity. Going to NYU or Georgetown is not going to vault your kid into the full pay prep school stratosphere, particularly if it means taking on heavy student loans to do so. How useful is “Follow the smart money in investing; follow the smart money in college selection.” (from the OP) followed by a listing of a group of popular prep school colleges with sub 10% acceptance rates?
What I would find more interesting is a list of accessible, affordable colleges kids from these schools attend. What is it about George Washington or Babson that makes it so attractive to Exeter students? Middlesex sent more kids to Santa Clara University last year than to Harvard and Princeton combined. Why is that? Why is Harvard-Westlake sending so many kids across the country to Boston College? Why are Lawrenceville kids hot on Bucknell and SMU?
What I find interesting about some of the matriculation data, is not the number going to Ivies, but the caliber of the balance of the schools kids are matriculating at. For instance at Collegiate in NYC, the ‘lowest’ ranked school someone is attending would be Union or Case. That’s staggering. And when you consider most of the kids started at that school in K, makes it more impressive. At boarding schools, they have the advantage of selecting high scorers, but with schools like Trinity and Collegiate the majority of kids started there at age 6.
Wisteria- retention at these schools is not 100%. There are kids who end up in the local public HS or a less rigorous private, or parochial school, at 5th and 8th/9th grade. And kids who leave in 11th.
Lots of reasons- some behavioral, some due to LD’s which can’t be fully addressed, some just academic.
But it’s not that every 6 year old who starts at Collegiate is heading to a top tier private college 12 years later. Many do, many don’t.
I think that the one takeaway from threads like this, is about the"vibe" of some colleges. For example, if GWU is filled with prep school kids, then that affects the vibe at that school, which can help you decide if it is a fit for you or not.
George Washington has a party vibe + respectable ranking + very cool tier 1 major cities. Ditto NYU. Ditto USC. Ditto Boston College. Not rocket science to see their allure.
Updated the list to now include 25 prep schools which represent ~10,000 matriculants from 2017-18 School Profiles.
Breakdown of where matriculants enrol is roughly the same (37% at Ivy + SDCM, 21% at LACs, 32% at other private colleges and 11% at public colleges), however the ordering of the colleges has changed now.
To see the updated list, access using the previous link: bit(*)ly/PSCollegeMatric
ANY College graduate who lists, on his CV, where he went to HS, will discover that most people doing the hiring [ who probably did NOT go to a hoity-toity boarding school], will take a dim view of such oblivious arrogance.
good grief… 8-|