<p>With the Notre Dame part, I don’t know why the kids tend to choose it. One of my friends got equal $$ at Cornell and Notre Dame, but chose Notre Dame because it had better weather and a nicer campus. Plus, my school is pretty heavily Catholic and very sports-centric, so that could play into ND’s advantage.
13 students being sent to Ivies annually is incredible. Unless you go to a top prep school (e.g. Phillips Exeter, Andover, Choate Rosemary, etc.) or an uber-selective public school (TJHSST, NCSSM, TAMS) you must have really good guidance counselors with connections.
I think that total, we got 4 students admitted to Penn, two into Cornell, one into MIT, and one into Brown (but she’s going to Penn), and one into Stanford. Of that total, only 4 are actually going to one of those schools. From my understanding, these numbers are pretty standard amongst the top public schools in PA.</p>