<p>When we are applying to these schools, do they evaluate Freshman, Juniors, and Sophomores separately? As in, if I am applying to be a Junior, are the freshman and sophomores my competition?</p>
<p>no... just people applying for the same grade</p>
<p>and people of the same gender.</p>
<p>why just same gender? I guess they want it even, kinda like why they want to be diverse, but couldn't that desire for diversity lower the school's standards?</p>
<p>Hypothetically, if every single boy that applies is better than every girl, or if every Asian is better than every other race, shouldn't only the boys get in, or the Asians? That is just my opinion though...</p>
<p>that is your opinion, and i wish it worked that way</p>
<p>it's a diversity thing.</p>
<p>Then, alot of international students would get in. After all, your average kid wouldn't apply to some place like Phillips Exeter, especially if it's all the way in America.</p>
<p>Coed schools don't like to develop huge imbalances in the number of boys and girls. For one thing, they don't have coed dorms, so if the boarding spots are traditionally 50/50 boy/girl, they'd like to keep it that way. It's much easier to continue with an existing division of resources. Also, a school which is out of balance, such as 65/35 boys/girls, might have a hard time recruiting families.</p>
<p>This would mean that if more boys apply to a certain school than girls, the acceptance rate for boys would be much lower than for girls. (Note that in college admissions, it works the opposite way, i.e. more qualified girls apply than boys, and boys have an edge.)</p>
<p>For the other point, admission to a school isn't on an absolute scale. Even if there are gradients between applicants, it isn't a cut and dried question of "good, better, best." Applicants don't arrive with a stamp on their foreheads. Also, beyond a certain point of ability, academic achievement isn't the point. They aren't only academic institutions. Most of today's big names were founded with the goal of forming their students' characters. Hothousing geniuses was not, as far as I know, a goal of the great boarding schools.</p>
<p>Quality is so hard to judge, and a student's future is hard to predict. What looks like a "mistake" today may be a brilliant choice. Look up Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie on Wikipedia. I defy you, from their early school careers, to predict their career trajectories. Particularly Stephen Fry had an, er, interesting youth. Yet the admissions people who gave him multiple chances were, in the long run, right.</p>
<p>i think financial aid plays a large role in this as well</p>
<p>really Aspirant94?</p>
<p>i think so, because some schools like Brooks have different deadlines for people applying for financial aid, which probably means that the applicants who need FA and who dont need FA are probably considered separately.
but then again, im not sure (:</p>