Wow did I just screw myself over?

Applying to College
1

<p>Well, I am a senior this year (woohoo!). When I was a freshman, I decided my school wasn't exactly challenging enough and applied to boarding schools. I narrowed my choices down to Thatcher (CA), Cate (CA), Phillips Exeter (NH), and Andover (MA). I was accepted to Thatcher, Cate, and Exeter and was wait listed at Andover. </p>

<p>Since Andover was truly my number one, top choice school, I waited; however, it was the end of April and I heard no answer. Discouraged, I decided to just stay at my high school since I really did not want to go to the other three. My high school is a private school in the South known for its college prep and AP classes and state champion sports, so I am happy that I stayed academically and socially. </p>

<p>Now, I am applying to several highly competitive schools and started thinking back. Did I make the right choice staying in the South? Was I wrong to decline the other three schools? Does a boarding school help one's chances in getting into a competitive school like UC Berkeley, Stanford, Yale, and Duke?</p>

2

<p>I wouldn't think so. Even students from not so stellar public high schools can still send their best to such schools. If you have the stats, I don't see why it would be a problem. :)</p>

3

<p>It's too late now to do anything about it anyway, and you really shouldn't live your life thinking about the "what ifs"
...</p>

<p>just my opinion of course :)</p>

4

<p>No, in fact unless you were near the top of one of these elite private schools you're just as well off from your southern school. These Exeters and Andovers use to be exclusive feeder schools for the Harvard and Yales, but are no longer. Really, now it's tough for everybody to get in so don't forget the smaller "ivies" (Amh, Wms, Wes, Swarth, Haver, Bowdoin, etc.) where you can get more personalized att'n. But even these can be a b.... to get into, so make sure you apply to a myriad of schools to cover your bases.</p>

5

<p>wow i didn't know those boarding schools aren't really feeder schools to the ivies anymore, charlie's world! that makes me feel better haha. thanks everyone!</p>

6

<p>Hmm... it actually could have been a mistake. I have a friend who went to Galloway (a small private school in Atlanta) and he said even the kids at the tippy top of the class couldn't get into Ivies just because the school wasn't known for being that challenging. If you think about, about 30 kids a year get into the Ivies from Exeter, Andover, Taft, Hotchkiss, etc., but only 1 or 2 (if any) from small, not well known private schools.</p>

7

<p>Charlie's World, top prep schools and magnets are still feeders to ivies and beyond. According to the admissions data I found (which is reputable), 15% of the student population of andover is accepted into HYP. And those are the hardest schools in the country to get into, lets not even begin to look further down in the prestige chain.</p>

<p>You will be hard pressed to find one public non-magnet school that sends that number of people to HYP.</p>

8

<p>Top 20 Matriculation list for Thomas Jefferson H.S. for Science and Technology
Class of 2006. Class size 430.</p>

<p>1) UVA 105
2) Wm. and Mary 34
3) VA Tech 29
4) Princeton 21
5) Duke 19
6) MIT 11
7) Carnegie Mellon 9
8) Harvard 8
9) Stanford 7
9) WUStL 7
11) Georgetown 6
11) GA Tech 6
13) Columbia 5
13) Cornell 5
13) Northwestern 5
13) Rochester Inst. of Tech 5
17) Brown 4
17) Yale 4
17) U of Rocehster 4
20) Dartmouth 3
20) Johns Hopkins 3
20) Wake Forest 3
20) Boston U 3
20) U of Miami 3
20) USC 3</p>

<p>Here's TJ, one of the most selective and prestigious public magnets in the country. By breakdown</p>

<p>11.62% went ivy
21% went ivy + stanford, mit, jhu, duke, wustl
90% went to top 25 school (only exceptions i could find are umiami, bu, vtech, rochester inst of tech ... and i dont even know if these are under top 25 or not, they're just names that i didnt recognize)</p>

<p>edit: found andover</p>

<p>'01-'05
1/ Harvard / 73
2/ Cornell / 64
3/ Brown / 59
4/ Yale / 58
5/ Georgetown / 56
6/ Pennsylvania, University of / 53
7/ Columbia / 44
8/ Princeton / 42
9/ Dartmouth / 31
10/ Chicago, University of / 29
10/ Southern California, University of / 29
12/ Johns Hopkins / 28
13/ MIT / 27
13/ Northwestern / 27
13/ Stanford / 27
16/ Wesleyan / 26
17/ Boston College / 24
18/ New York University / 23
19/ Tufts / 22
20/ Duke / 21
20/ Vanderbilt / 21</p>

<p>In four years, andover has sent 173 students to HYP, 424 to ivy league, 556 to what i consider on par with ivies. regarding andover class size, andover.edu says</p>

<p>How many new students join each class at Andover?
Every year, nearly 200 new ninth graders, or juniors, begin their journey at Andover. They are joined by an average of 85 new peers in the tenth grade, or lower year, and 20-25 new eleventh graders, or uppers. A total of 30-35 new seniors and postgraduates round out the graduating class.</p>

<p>Basically class size is 300. 173/4/300<em>100 = 14% go to HYP
424/4/300</em>100 = 35% go to ivies</p>

<p>Still don't think top prep schools are feeders?</p>

<p>note: i go to a crappy public school, but i am not deluded.</p>

9

<p>Those stats are amazing (and very sad for my public school eyes to look at).</p>

<p>And those are just matriculating students. Acceptances would be even higher.</p>

10

<p>Of course kids from top preps get into top colleges. The same qualities that got them into the preps will carry over to college. There qualities can include - brains, money, connections and excellent preparation before the app process.</p>

11

<p>Like 60% of the kids that go to the Ivies/top 25 come from public schools. Top preps aren't everything :S You'll still get in if you have the grades/scores/ecs/etc.</p>

12

<p>Some of you public school folk seem to be applying this college business to private schools in general- I go to a private Catholic high school in the Midwest. We send about 15-20 kids to UMich, our state school, every year, but it has literally been decades since anyone's gotten into / attended an Ivy, MIT, Stanford, etc. I know of one kid about 5 years ago, perfect ACT, who was accepted to Dartmouth but turned it down for a ton of money at UMich.</p>

<p>I don't know why this is, to be honest. I just want to show that while the school obviously plays a role, it's also partially the type of kid that would attend these schools that plays such a large part in getting all these insane acceptances.</p>

13

<p>Don't forget that at schools like Andover and Exeter, many students are going to be rich legacies, and no matter what high schools they went to, they would probably get into to top schools anyway.</p>

14

<p>but you cant undersell the opportunities provided at such schools and the ease of excelling where the framework has already been laid and excellence is the expectation of everybody.</p>

15

<p>Being a top student from a public hs in the south certainly won't hurt you. In fact, being from the south will enable you to offer geographic diversity for colleges and universities outside the area.</p>