is boarding school HS a hook for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So selective private schools look to see who needs aid (through signs/signals) when making decisions.
Who would have thought.

Is the moral of the story that not all “need-blind colleges are need-blind for admission.” That schools may be looking for certain “clues” or “signals” to decipher who actually needs aid when creating a class? Is that so surprising though?

Example - schools with the highest percentage of students from the top 1% or top .5% tend to also appreciate activities, sports, academic profiles that hint at a privileged or wealthy background. Why would that be?

bump

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our child's boarding school loves to talk about the advantage of maturity and readiness for living independently, time management etc. in college admissions.

This is absolutely true. My twins both went to boarding school and were miles ahead of their college freshman cohort who didn’t. However , as far as a “ hook,” not as helpful as I would have liked. Neither one got into top choices ( tho both are happy/succeeding—— and yes they did ea/ed. Could have been just really bad years ( entered college 2022and 2023) but also there s the unusual factor of who they were competing with (from their boarding school) who were $$$$$, well-known. One of kids just didn’t have a chance! And he had too grades top recs, co- captain of two varsity teams ( but not recruitable

[Anonymous]

For liberal arts schools, athletes, and international students, it absolutely helps. I was a day student at a boarding school. Boarders loved their experience, but there’s no way I would send my high schooler to live away from me.

[Anonymous]

I actually know a family whose son graduated from Lawrenceville (a top 8 boarding school) with a 3.97 uw GPA and 1550 SAT.

He was rejected by every T10 school and ended up at NYU. Meanwhile, there are kids at Lawrenceville with hooks that get into schools like Penn with a 3.6 GPA as long as they're hooked.

[Anonymous]

Yes. College is easy after succeeding at an elite NE boarding school and colleges know that.

20-25% of the class at Group of 8 schools go to the Ivy League. Another 20% or so go to equivalent top schools.

[Anonymous]

Please define Group of 8. We are in application mode as we speak.

We think there might be few other schools that get that result as well. Because they are small, well endowed, and excellent. If the graduating class has only 60-70 kids, your kid’s odds go up everywhere. They work hard, but also enjoy high school.

We are applying for aid, so our odds of acceptance are not high, but my kid really wants a crack at it. He is the last kid in a big family at home. It has gotten too quiet with old parents. We love him so much. Don’t blame him wanting the big bustling of home life that his older siblings enjoyed. He plans to recreate it in his own way at a BS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please define Group of 8. We are in application mode as we speak.

We think there might be few other schools that get that result as well. Because they are small, well endowed, and excellent. If the graduating class has only 60-70 kids, your kid’s odds go up everywhere. They work hard, but also enjoy high school.

We are applying for aid, so our odds of acceptance are not high, but my kid really wants a crack at it. He is the last kid in a big family at home. It has gotten too quiet with old parents. We love him so much. Don’t blame him wanting the big bustling of home life that his older siblings enjoyed. He plans to recreate it in his own way at a BS

In terms of aid: I know Andover and Exeter at least are need blind. I’m not sure about others. They graduate roughly 300 kids per year and have the results I cited above.

Group of 8 (or Eight Schools Association) is like the Ivy League of boarding schools:

Andover
Exeter
St Paul’s
NMH
Lawrenceville
Hotchkiss
Deerfield
Choate

It’s not to say there aren’t other boarding schools that are great, but these are usually considered the strongest.

Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually know a family whose son graduated from Lawrenceville (a top 8 boarding school) with a 3.97 uw GPA and 1550 SAT.

He was rejected by every T10 school and ended up at NYU. Meanwhile, there are kids at Lawrenceville with hooks that get into schools like Penn with a 3.6 GPA as long as they're hooked.

Happened to our DS who attended boarding school. Didn’t get into top 5 choices and ended up at a state school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please define Group of 8. We are in application mode as we speak.

We think there might be few other schools that get that result as well. Because they are small, well endowed, and excellent. If the graduating class has only 60-70 kids, your kid’s odds go up everywhere. They work hard, but also enjoy high school.

We are applying for aid, so our odds of acceptance are not high, but my kid really wants a crack at it. He is the last kid in a big family at home. It has gotten too quiet with old parents. We love him so much. Don’t blame him wanting the big bustling of home life that his older siblings enjoyed. He plans to recreate it in his own way at a BS

In terms of aid: I know Andover and Exeter at least are need blind. I’m not sure about others. They graduate roughly 300 kids per year and have the results I cited above.

Group of 8 (or Eight Schools Association) is like the Ivy League of boarding schools:

Andover
Exeter
St Paul’s
NMH
Lawrenceville
Hotchkiss
Deerfield
Choate

It’s not to say there aren’t other boarding schools that are great, but these are usually considered the strongest.

Good luck!!

This is correct-ish except replace NMH with Loomis (I work for TSAO). NMH is a great school, however, with the nicest boarding kids in NE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t boarding schools base admissions quotas or whatever, at least in part, on where the student’s HOME residence is? Like, Andover student whose family home is in rural Louisiana is counted as from rural Louisiana, not ONLY from Andover?

Yes, I think so - there’s a cyclist who just won two gold medals. Grew up in Alaska, went to Andover and Harvard. Her Harvard rowing bio listed her hometown as Homer vs. Andover. It helps them a bit in the future with college admissions.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Yes of course, it signals full pay.

Why would it need to "signal" anything?

Need aware schools get all the finance info and the small number of need blind/meet full need schools don't consider.

Yes but full pay is more complicated than that. They are looking for other signals.
Schools are looking for potential donors/ speakers/ networkers or ppl who will employ graduates. We are seeing how hard it is for grads to get jobs…

Our college counselor said it was important for both parents to have updated LinkedIn with clear senior leadership/executive titles conveyed in job titles in common app.

The signaling is very important for AO (many of who do look at LinkedIn after 1st pass). The $$$ privilege may not hurt at all at certain private colleges and can actually help.

Please name which schools look at these factors. Or is this the rumor mill?

It’s pretty easy to figure out if you parse through data….

Vanderbilt; Rice; Cornell; Dartmouth; WashU

Look at the % of admitted students in the top 1% of HHI (or better top 0.5% of HHI if they break it down that far). Vanderbilt; Dartmouth & WashU make sense.

But isn’t this thread about advantages for boarding school students? Some boarding schools are feeders. Not shocking news.

Again you are saying "look at these numbers" without any direct evidence or even a logic chain.

At best this is a "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy.

There is no evidence need blind schools make admissions decisions based on economics.

Wow. That Reddit link makes a crazy case for his income/wealth subtly impact admissions decisions.

“I also think that if there was any doubt beforehand, this further magnifies the questionable priorities that many of these institutions have. I was just at Yales admitted students days and I was surprised how it felt like one in every three or four people I met went to one of the big NE boarding schools...”

Sigh... no one doubts the stats show wealthy students are over-represented at elite schools. It's because they have every advantage and make better candidates independent of their ability to pay tuition. They are a self-selecting sample.

The question is will an admissions officer at a need blind college admit one student over another because of the "signal" that they will be full pay.

The answer remains "No".

The signal isn't that they may be full pay, it's that they may be a donor. Top NYC and LA privates get the same treatment for the same reason

So this is a different claim than the one made in the thread above.

But it is also technically false since donor and potential donor admissions come through the development office.

lol
That’s a ton of naïveté.

lol
That's another BS claim with no evidence that implies you have special knowledge and the conspiracy is in full effect but you have cracked the code because you are special. You're a college admissions flat earther.

Provide some evidence or we can debate who is more naïve.

(ps it's you)

I didn’t make the donor claim, but I’m not sure what’s controversial here?

Donors are given special status and one can assume potential donors (8 figures not 7) would also be given that status? Or celebrities, senior corporate leaders, or politicians?

The thing that I think is wrong in this thread is that it’s not $$$ that matters to certain private colleges but it’s $$$$$. So if you are a random biglaw partner, the school does not care. If you are the head of a giant global company, or a celebrity, they care. For all those other reasons listed in other places here.

And at boarding schools, I’d imagine it’s a lot of Wall Street, hedge fund, billionaire $$$. That counts and matters at certain private schools (prob not T5). A lawyer does not matter. Even if you make $2-3 million a year.

Hope that makes sense?

No, it does not make sense, because that is not how it works.

Donor admissions come through the development office. Admissions officers at need blind schools do not consider an applicant's ability to pay when making admissions decisions. There is no "signal", there is no code, there are no application secrets.

It **IS** that simple.

Donor applicants:
At some schools like Northwestern, yes. You are correct, no sep process/app secrets.

At Penn and Dartmouth, absolutely not. I know first hand - there is someone who guides you through your initial campus tour from the Dev office and you notify them of the date and time of submitted admissions. It’s a parallel process. For Penn, you have to be in the top 1% of donations.
Dartmouth is based on dollar amount and duration of commitment.

There are a few other schools - but I won’t out them here. The way to find them: look for schools with the highest # of private school kids. Not many in T25 but a few stand out. I think some were mentioned earlier.

bump. for those looking for intel on full pay as a hook. this is more like VIP.

[Anonymous]

I was in a group of parents and we got to know each other decently well.

One kid attended BS and got a scholarship to do so. She wanted to attend BS to improve her chances with college choices.

She was not from big money. Well, she didn’t get accepted to the high-flying schools of her classmates. I felt bad for her. She still ended up at a good SLAC but not one that had major name recognition.

Also, her first year dorm was pretty bad.

My takeaway was “wealth matters.”

She had strong grades and student profile so I doubt that was the issue, but it could be.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes of course, it signals full pay.

Why would it need to "signal" anything?

Need aware schools get all the finance info and the small number of need blind/meet full need schools don't consider.

Yes but full pay is more complicated than that. They are looking for other signals.
Schools are looking for potential donors/ speakers/ networkers or ppl who will employ graduates. We are seeing how hard it is for grads to get jobs…

Our college counselor said it was important for both parents to have updated LinkedIn with clear senior leadership/executive titles conveyed in job titles in common app.

The signaling is very important for AO (many of who do look at LinkedIn after 1st pass). The $$$ privilege may not hurt at all at certain private colleges and can actually help.

Please name which schools look at these factors. Or is this the rumor mill?

It’s pretty easy to figure out if you parse through data….

Vanderbilt; Rice; Cornell; Dartmouth; WashU

Look at the % of admitted students in the top 1% of HHI (or better top 0.5% of HHI if they break it down that far). Vanderbilt; Dartmouth & WashU make sense.

But isn’t this thread about advantages for boarding school students? Some boarding schools are feeders. Not shocking news.

Again you are saying "look at these numbers" without any direct evidence or even a logic chain.

At best this is a "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy.

There is no evidence need blind schools make admissions decisions based on economics.

Wow. That Reddit link makes a crazy case for his income/wealth subtly impact admissions decisions.

“I also think that if there was any doubt beforehand, this further magnifies the questionable priorities that many of these institutions have. I was just at Yales admitted students days and I was surprised how it felt like one in every three or four people I met went to one of the big NE boarding schools...”

Sigh... no one doubts the stats show wealthy students are over-represented at elite schools. It's because they have every advantage and make better candidates independent of their ability to pay tuition. They are a self-selecting sample.

The question is will an admissions officer at a need blind college admit one student over another because of the "signal" that they will be full pay.

The answer remains "No".

The signal isn't that they may be full pay, it's that they may be a donor. Top NYC and LA privates get the same treatment for the same reason

So this is a different claim than the one made in the thread above.

But it is also technically false since donor and potential donor admissions come through the development office.

lol
That’s a ton of naïveté.

lol
That's another BS claim with no evidence that implies you have special knowledge and the conspiracy is in full effect but you have cracked the code because you are special. You're a college admissions flat earther.

Provide some evidence or we can debate who is more naïve.

(ps it's you)

I didn’t make the donor claim, but I’m not sure what’s controversial here?

Donors are given special status and one can assume potential donors (8 figures not 7) would also be given that status? Or celebrities, senior corporate leaders, or politicians?

The thing that I think is wrong in this thread is that it’s not $$$ that matters to certain private colleges but it’s $$$$$. So if you are a random biglaw partner, the school does not care. If you are the head of a giant global company, or a celebrity, they care. For all those other reasons listed in other places here.

And at boarding schools, I’d imagine it’s a lot of Wall Street, hedge fund, billionaire $$$. That counts and matters at certain private schools (prob not T5). A lawyer does not matter. Even if you make $2-3 million a year.

Hope that makes sense?

No, it does not make sense, because that is not how it works.

Donor admissions come through the development office. Admissions officers at need blind schools do not consider an applicant's ability to pay when making admissions decisions. There is no "signal", there is no code, there are no application secrets.

It **IS** that simple.

Donor applicants:
At some schools like Northwestern, yes. You are correct, no sep process/app secrets.

At Penn and Dartmouth, absolutely not. I know first hand - there is someone who guides you through your initial campus tour from the Dev office and you notify them of the date and time of submitted admissions. It’s a parallel process. For Penn, you have to be in the top 1% of donations.
Dartmouth is based on dollar amount and duration of commitment.

There are a few other schools - but I won’t out them here. The way to find them: look for schools with the highest # of private school kids. Not many in T25 but a few stand out. I think some were mentioned earlier.

bump. for those looking for intel on full pay as a hook. this is more like VIP.

Now we know why four Trumps attended Penn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was in a group of parents and we got to know each other decently well.

One kid attended BS and got a scholarship to do so. She wanted to attend BS to improve her chances with college choices.

She was not from big money. Well, she didn’t get accepted to the high-flying schools of her classmates. I felt bad for her. She still ended up at a good SLAC but not one that had major name recognition.

Also, her first year dorm was pretty bad.

My takeaway was “wealth matters.”

She had strong grades and student profile so I doubt that was the issue, but it could be.

at some ivies, if you are not full pay, you don't get the dorms with AC....

[Anonymous]

Used to work in an admissions office.

Boarding school signifies a teen has wealthy parents who will likely be donors to the school, and that their parents don't want to be around them much.