<p>omedog, this may not be an anomaly at your nephew’s school. You would have to know prior acceptance history, not just a parent’s impression of the school. Numbers of acceptances may be down for many schools, though, due to the huge increase in applications to top schools every year.</p>
<p>But to be more specific, the top private schools in Seattle cost over 25K, so if this school costs less than 20K, I’d guess that it is one of the religiously affiliated schools. Is that correct? These are some wonderful schools, but they do not typically send large numbers of students to top LAC’s and ivies in any year. I assure you, the top school in Seattle, that generally has at least 1/3 of the graduating class as national merit semi-finalists or finalists, is still sending a large percentage of their students to the schools of which you speak.</p>