Can a kid who is not an URM, or recruited athlete or legacy get into an Ivy from a DC private?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:37% of Harvard’s Class of 2025 went to private school. 20% were legacies. I don’t believe every legacy went to private school, which means at the very least 17% of the class was non-legacy private — though it’s almost certainly more.

Only 10% of US seniors go to private school.

The reality is that private schools continue to overrepresent at these schools and it’s not just legacies/hooked kids.

https://features.thecrimson.com/2021/freshman-survey/makeup-narrative/

This does not disprove OP's and PP's point. "Private" is not a proxy for unhooked stats kids of course. Private schools recruit/admit URMs and athletes with similar fervor as the colleges.

So are you positing that all or most of the private school kids getting in are hooked, at a higher rate than public school kids?

No. No one has said that there are zero unhooked private school kids getting into ivies. But the continued overrepresentation of privates at ivies is being used by some posters to prove that little or nothing has changed. So, what I'm positing is the point that has also been made upthread: top privates have already been recruiting/admitting hooked candidates at 9th (and even 7th in my experience) and it's at least in part to adjust to the new reality in college admissions.

They’ve always recruited that way. Do you have data to show they’ve changed how they recruit?

Private schools have always recruited for URM? Really? That is news to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Listen, we're not making this up for kicks and thrills or to start drama for fun. Pretty much no one is getting in who isn't a minority or an athlete or a big donor's kid.
OR feel free to keep paying the $55K per year and keep your head in the sand until your kid's senior year and you see this play out with your own kid. That's honestly probably the best approach.

What you don’t get is that I’m paying the $55k for a fantastic, rigorous education with engaged teachers and peers that is way, way beyond what my kid would get at Jackson-Reed or Whitman. I’m not trying to buy college admission and know that my kid has been well-prepared to do well at whatever college they end up.

Why do you assume that this is not happening at Whitman and JR? My kid is in JR and my older graduated Ivy League kid went to Walls. We've had a great experience at both!

We know people at Jackson Reed and they’re trying to leave! There’s violence at school and drugs at school and after the Sidwell game they jumped kids from Sidwell? I don’t want my kid in that atmosphere that would never happen at a school sporting event ar any of the private schools we’ve ever played.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Listen, we're not making this up for kicks and thrills or to start drama for fun. Pretty much no one is getting in who isn't a minority or an athlete or a big donor's kid.
OR feel free to keep paying the $55K per year and keep your head in the sand until your kid's senior year and you see this play out with your own kid. That's honestly probably the best approach.

What you don’t get is that I’m paying the $55k for a fantastic, rigorous education with engaged teachers and peers that is way, way beyond what my kid would get at Jackson-Reed or Whitman. I’m not trying to buy college admission and know that my kid has been well-prepared to do well at whatever college they end up.

Why do you assume that this is not happening at Whitman and JR? My kid is in JR and my older graduated Ivy League kid went to Walls. We've had a great experience at both!

We know people at Jackson Reed and they’re trying to leave! There’s violence at school and drugs at school and after the Sidwell game they jumped kids from Sidwell? I don’t want my kid in that atmosphere that would never happen at a school sporting event ar any of the private schools we’ve ever played.

Don't choke yourself clutching on those pearls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NCS had one girl last year who got into an Ivy without being a recruited athlete, URM or legacy (VIP or big donor legacy).
The trend seems to be continuing this year at NCS, GDS, Sidwell through ED at least. No kids admitted ED who are no hooked.

Time will tell if anyone unhooked gets in through regular decision.

The admissions landscape has REALLY, REALLY changed in recent (2 or so) years.
The high schools are trying to keep this under wraps but it is a a huge change.

You are very right about the private schools trying to keep this quiet.

For instance, GDS and Sidwell stopped reporting in any publication admissions by graduating class. Now they only show matriculations over the last 5 or 6 years of graduating classes. That’s a big new change.

At GDS, they have started actively recruiting top middle school athletes for 9th grade incoming class. This seems very new for them. Perhaps Sidwell and NCS have long recruited. GDS has not.

Finally, taking the incentives to their extreme, this will mean 9th grade admissions will be even more focused on VIP parents, URM and top athletes.

+1. GDS is being smart

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has data because the schools don't want you to know this.

-But talk to any parent of a senior this year or last.
-Talk to a NW DC college admissions counselor.
-Look at the schools' student-run Instagram pages from last year and this year (not prefect but give trends)

Listen, we're not making this up for kicks and thrills or to start drama for fun. Pretty much no one is getting in who isn't a minority or an athlete or a big donor's kid.
OR feel free to keep paying the $55K per year and keep your head in the sand until your kid's senior year and you see this play out with your own kid. That's honestly probably the best approach.

I'm in this camp. Everyone who is denying the veracity of this thread hasn't been the parent of a 2021 2022 HS senior in a DC top private school. Drop a post here when you get to senior year and see then yourselves that it's all changed. Maybe not for the bad but it's not table stakes you assumed when you signed up 4 or 8 years ago to pay $50k a year for your kids.

Once again, no one cares about your anecdotal data. Private school kids have comprised about 40% of Ivy League entering classes for years. Hasn’t changed.

Assuming this hasn't changed, what else hasn't changed is that most are from NYC and New England top privates not DMV schools, which are of course the relevant metric in this forum.

That’s simply because schools tend to primarily draw from kids in their region. But like you said — it hasn’t changed, which further undermines the argument in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Of course they can. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NCS had one girl last year who got into an Ivy without being a recruited athlete, URM or legacy (VIP or big donor legacy).
The trend seems to be continuing this year at NCS, GDS, Sidwell through ED at least. No kids admitted ED who are no hooked.

Time will tell if anyone unhooked gets in through regular decision.

The admissions landscape has REALLY, REALLY changed in recent (2 or so) years.
The high schools are trying to keep this under wraps but it is a a huge change.

You are very right about the private schools trying to keep this quiet.

For instance, GDS and Sidwell stopped reporting in any publication admissions by graduating class. Now they only show matriculations over the last 5 or 6 years of graduating classes. That’s a big new change.

At GDS, they have started actively recruiting top middle school athletes for 9th grade incoming class. This seems very new for them. Perhaps Sidwell and NCS have long recruited. GDS has not.

Finally, taking the incentives to their extreme, this will mean 9th grade admissions will be even more focused on VIP parents, URM and top athletes.

+1. GDS is being smart

GDS still reports where graduating students are headed to college in their school magazine in the Fall. The magazine is available on the website and gets mailed to every family. That has always been the case, and it has not changed. The matriculations data over five years is not new and always been puplicly available in the school profile. College admissions has gotten harder for everyone and its frustration, but we have been a GDS family for over ten years and the information they report has not changed in a material way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading about last year's admits, it sounds like a kid with top stats will not be admitted unless they fit one of these categories. Is that the case?

Does parents high level job connections count as a hook?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading about last year's admits, it sounds like a kid with top stats will not be admitted unless they fit one of these categories. Is that the case?

Does parents high level job connections count as a hook?

Generally only combined with legacy status.
Also, "high level" around here is someone with national prominence well outside of their own industry etc. Almost every parent has "high level connections" within their own job sector.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Listen, we're not making this up for kicks and thrills or to start drama for fun. Pretty much no one is getting in who isn't a minority or an athlete or a big donor's kid.
OR feel free to keep paying the $55K per year and keep your head in the sand until your kid's senior year and you see this play out with your own kid. That's honestly probably the best approach.

What you don’t get is that I’m paying the $55k for a fantastic, rigorous education with engaged teachers and peers that is way, way beyond what my kid would get at Jackson-Reed or Whitman. I’m not trying to buy college admission and know that my kid has been well-prepared to do well at whatever college they end up.

Why do you assume that this is not happening at Whitman and JR? My kid is in JR and my older graduated Ivy League kid went to Walls. We've had a great experience at both!

We know people at Jackson Reed and they’re trying to leave! There’s violence at school and drugs at school and after the Sidwell game they jumped kids from Sidwell? I don’t want my kid in that atmosphere that would never happen at a school sporting event ar any of the private schools we’ve ever played.

Don't choke yourself clutching on those pearls.

Totally! Let's downplay violence by "Karenizing" everyone who raises the issue.
Most overused phrase.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Listen, we're not making this up for kicks and thrills or to start drama for fun. Pretty much no one is getting in who isn't a minority or an athlete or a big donor's kid.
OR feel free to keep paying the $55K per year and keep your head in the sand until your kid's senior year and you see this play out with your own kid. That's honestly probably the best approach.

What you don’t get is that I’m paying the $55k for a fantastic, rigorous education with engaged teachers and peers that is way, way beyond what my kid would get at Jackson-Reed or Whitman. I’m not trying to buy college admission and know that my kid has been well-prepared to do well at whatever college they end up.

Why do you assume that this is not happening at Whitman and JR? My kid is in JR and my older graduated Ivy League kid went to Walls. We've had a great experience at both!

We know people at Jackson Reed and they’re trying to leave! There’s violence at school and drugs at school and after the Sidwell game they jumped kids from Sidwell? I don’t want my kid in that atmosphere that would never happen at a school sporting event ar any of the private schools we’ve ever played.

Don't choke yourself clutching on those pearls.

Nope not clutching pearls - being honest. If you can afford to send to private and you keep your kids enrolled in schools where your kids don’t feel 100 percent safe then I think you are being selfish. If you can’t afford private then that is different but they do offer financial aid. Yes it is true there are drugs at school and also violence. Have personally heard of incidents. My private school kid never worried about getting jumped in the bathroom or even jumped after a sporting event against other private schools and I would not want them to. Also at our school teachers are in the bathrooms so there are no drugs in there. Kids are not doing drugs at school. So you can brag all you want about public school and insult private kids’ college acceptances but the truth is we are not sending them to private for the college acceptances. The most important foundations of learning have already happened - speech, writing, and ability to speak and share in class - small 8-10 classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Listen, we're not making this up for kicks and thrills or to start drama for fun. Pretty much no one is getting in who isn't a minority or an athlete or a big donor's kid.
OR feel free to keep paying the $55K per year and keep your head in the sand until your kid's senior year and you see this play out with your own kid. That's honestly probably the best approach.

What you don’t get is that I’m paying the $55k for a fantastic, rigorous education with engaged teachers and peers that is way, way beyond what my kid would get at Jackson-Reed or Whitman. I’m not trying to buy college admission and know that my kid has been well-prepared to do well at whatever college they end up.

Why do you assume that this is not happening at Whitman and JR? My kid is in JR and my older graduated Ivy League kid went to Walls. We've had a great experience at both!

We know people at Jackson Reed and they’re trying to leave! There’s violence at school and drugs at school and after the Sidwell game they jumped kids from Sidwell? I don’t want my kid in that atmosphere that would never happen at a school sporting event ar any of the private schools we’ve ever played.

Don't choke yourself clutching on those pearls.

Nope not clutching pearls - being honest. If you can afford to send to private and you keep your kids enrolled in schools where your kids don’t feel 100 percent safe then I think you are being selfish. If you can’t afford private then that is different but they do offer financial aid. Yes it is true there are drugs at school and also violence. Have personally heard of incidents. My private school kid never worried about getting jumped in the bathroom or even jumped after a sporting event against other private schools and I would not want them to. Also at our school teachers are in the bathrooms so there are no drugs in there. Kids are not doing drugs at school. So you can brag all you want about public school and insult private kids’ college acceptances but the truth is we are not sending them to private for the college acceptances. The most important foundations of learning have already happened - speech, writing, and ability to speak and share in class - small 8-10 classes.

Exactly. If you have the means to send your kid to a school where they feel safer and don’t do so, I have no respect for you as a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading about last year's admits, it sounds like a kid with top stats will not be admitted unless they fit one of these categories. Is that the case?

Does parents high level job connections count as a hook?

Generally only combined with legacy status.
Also, "high level" around here is someone with national prominence well outside of their own industry etc. Almost every parent has "high level connections" within their own job sector.

I beg to differ. Some schools need to place their students after graduation in internships and other areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading about last year's admits, it sounds like a kid with top stats will not be admitted unless they fit one of these categories. Is that the case?

Does parents high level job connections count as a hook?

Generally only combined with legacy status.
Also, "high level" around here is someone with national prominence well outside of their own industry etc. Almost every parent has "high level connections" within their own job sector.

I beg to differ. Some schools need to place their students after graduation in internships and other areas.

yeah, but they're not giving preferential admissions to kids from a Big3 unless their parent is an actual VIP--someone who is nationally known outside of their field or the CEO of a massive company (good example: supreme court justice)
Big law partners, doctors, even most CEOs are a dime a dozen at a Big3 (like 80% of the parents)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but chances of acceptance are better from a public.

Might as well save your money.

Not true. At all.

You can say this, but to those of us who follow college acceptances in NWDC it really does seem that ED from public is better than RD from private for an unhooked high stats kid. And for many families the >$200k they save by staying in public is the difference between ED and RD.

This is true.

5 years ago, it was rare but possible to be entirely unhooked and get in from a DC private to a top Ivy. Today it’s impossible based on the stats of last 3 classes. How do I know? Multiple kids who have been at one of the top DC private schools. This year is like last year and the year before so far. Impossible for unhooked. And legacy is not a hook. Legacy VIP or legacy mega donor (7 figure or higher). Not a callous comment just pointing out the change.

I also feel the same way about the $ we spent on private. The education has been great but I do think we could have had the same at BCC or Whitman and had money for massive tutoring if needed and still saved $10s of thousands per year

The sole job of private school is not to get kid into top Ivy but for some parents of top academic kids, this was a critical factor and the entire thing has changed for this at least.

Nope... you aren't following trends in public education if you believe this.