Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

[Anonymous]

Saint Ann’s seems to be the best school matriculation wise in Brooklyn. I’m honestly surprised as I thought it would struggle once test scores were required at Ivies. For people with experience, is it actually better than other schools like Packer and Poly? It seems like a lot of kids major in humanities & arts at top schools whereas Packer and Poly seem to have more practical majors at a wide range of schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brearley only has 13 kids who've posted so far, but it's pretty remarkable already.

Out kid chose HM over B (and a couple of other excellent high school options), and we are not hypsm-or-bust, but still makes you wonder if B would have been a safer bet in terms of matriculations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brearley only has 13 kids who've posted so far, but it's pretty remarkable already.

Out kid chose HM over B (and a couple of other excellent high school options), and we are not hypsm-or-bust, but still makes you wonder if B would have been a safer bet in terms of matriculations.

Are you implying HM is unsafe in comparison or something? ED at Cornell, and boom: DCs get in automatically, and parents can brag their kid is going to “an Ivy.” This is what 16 kids already did this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brearley only has 13 kids who've posted so far, but it's pretty remarkable already.

Out kid chose HM over B (and a couple of other excellent high school options), and we are not hypsm-or-bust, but still makes you wonder if B would have been a safer bet in terms of matriculations.

Are you implying HM is unsafe in comparison or something? ED at Cornell, and boom: DCs get in automatically, and parents can brag their kid is going to “an Ivy.” This is what 16 kids already did this year.

you are right, I am not *really* concerned, just musing tbh. I actually think Cornell is pretty great, especially for what our kid wants to do, and ~45 out 107 at Ivy+Chicago is excellent. Just curious what's going on with hypsm vs Brearley -- I am sure there are parents for whom those specifically are a meaningful metric of the school's reputation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brearley only has 13 kids who've posted so far, but it's pretty remarkable already.

Out kid chose HM over B (and a couple of other excellent high school options), and we are not hypsm-or-bust, but still makes you wonder if B would have been a safer bet in terms of matriculations.

Are you implying HM is unsafe in comparison or something? ED at Cornell, and boom: DCs get in automatically, and parents can brag their kid is going to “an Ivy.” This is what 16 kids already did this year.

you are right, I am not *really* concerned, just musing tbh. I actually think Cornell is pretty great, especially for what our kid wants to do, and ~45 out 107 at Ivy+Chicago is excellent. Just curious what's going on with hypsm vs Brearley -- I am sure there are parents for whom those specifically are a meaningful metric of the school's reputation.

A Brearley parent once told me that the HYP admits are mostly big donor legacies and first gen students. I’m not sure if it’s true though because HM would have students with similar profiles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brearley only has 13 kids who've posted so far, but it's pretty remarkable already.

Out kid chose HM over B (and a couple of other excellent high school options), and we are not hypsm-or-bust, but still makes you wonder if B would have been a safer bet in terms of matriculations.

Are you implying HM is unsafe in comparison or something? ED at Cornell, and boom: DCs get in automatically, and parents can brag their kid is going to “an Ivy.” This is what 16 kids already did this year.

you are right, I am not *really* concerned, just musing tbh. I actually think Cornell is pretty great, especially for what our kid wants to do, and ~45 out 107 at Ivy+Chicago is excellent. Just curious what's going on with hypsm vs Brearley -- I am sure there are parents for whom those specifically are a meaningful metric of the school's reputation.

A Brearley parent once told me that the HYP admits are mostly big donor legacies and first gen students. I’m not sure if it’s true though because HM would have students with similar profiles.

Multiple Brearley parents have told me the same thing. From the looks of it, it seems true.

[Anonymous]

Just curious because my knowledge of college rankings are somewhat dated. Do people generally view Duke and UChicago to be a higher tier now than the lower Ivys?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just curious because my knowledge of college rankings are somewhat dated. Do people generally view Duke and UChicago to be a higher tier now than the lower Ivys?

I think that has been the case for Chicago for a while, not sure about Duke. General rankings are a very rough metric, a lot of these non-HYP schools may have particular strengths in certain areas (e.g. for economics Chicago is superior to every Ivy except perhaps Harvard; Cornell is stronger than Harvard for computer science and the best Ivy for animal science).

[Anonymous]

I work in finance and most of my colleagues have got their kids in "TT" schools (I don't but it's a different story). The general profile of Brearley/Spence/Dalton parents is a bit different from HM's. B/S/D parents in my circle are primarily HYP legacies. HM parents are often immigrants or NYC "transplants" who are equally successful and well-off but who care less about HYP brand. They are fine with their kids ED'ing Chicago and minimizing stress associated with college applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in finance and most of my colleagues have got their kids in "TT" schools (I don't but it's a different story). The general profile of Brearley/Spence/Dalton parents is a bit different from HM's. B/S/D parents in my circle are primarily HYP legacies. HM parents are often immigrants or NYC "transplants" who are equally successful and well-off but who care less about HYP brand. They are fine with their kids ED'ing Chicago and minimizing stress associated with college applications.

Spot on. I'm a former Spence parent, and I remember when I told my parents (both went to Yale, as did I) that my DD was going to UChicago and didn't get into Yale, they said, "why not an Yale? Or an Ivy?" The families at Spence are like my parents - they pay quite a bit of attention to the HYP brand. It's an old way of thinking, as back when my parents went to college, HYP was synonymous with the highest prestige, or the creme de la creme to the East Coast families. Nowadays, there is more competition at the elite university level, with Stanford, MIT, Duke, UChicago, JHU, Northwestern, etc. I can imagine how Brearley and Dalton might be very similar to Spence in this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in finance and most of my colleagues have got their kids in "TT" schools (I don't but it's a different story). The general profile of Brearley/Spence/Dalton parents is a bit different from HM's. B/S/D parents in my circle are primarily HYP legacies. HM parents are often immigrants or NYC "transplants" who are equally successful and well-off but who care less about HYP brand. They are fine with their kids ED'ing Chicago and minimizing stress associated with college applications.

I know quite a few immigrants (from India, especially) at Dalton, who went to Ivies for grad school where legacy doesn't really count. All quite financially successful. I don't think Dalton cares as much about Ivy legacies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We talk about it like just getting in is a golden ticket, and it’s not. It can be a boost, but plenty of people have graduate from HYP and gone on to be….not much.

I don't get this. If you're really academically talented kid is going to go off to college, why not send them to hyp if they are admitted? The academic offerings at hyp are very strong and you might get a lot more aid than you would somewhere else. It is not the job for these students to do something that you think is much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in finance and most of my colleagues have got their kids in "TT" schools (I don't but it's a different story). The general profile of Brearley/Spence/Dalton parents is a bit different from HM's. B/S/D parents in my circle are primarily HYP legacies. HM parents are often immigrants or NYC "transplants" who are equally successful and well-off but who care less about HYP brand. They are fine with their kids ED'ing Chicago and minimizing stress associated with college applications.

I know quite a few immigrants (from India, especially) at Dalton, who went to Ivies for grad school where legacy doesn't really count. All quite financially successful. I don't think Dalton cares as much about Ivy legacies.

At Dalton K parent interview this year, we were specifically asked which colleges we attended. Same happened to almost all parents who interviewed at Dalton this year. We heard they like Harvard parents the most.

[Anonymous]

All the K-12 applications that we filled out asked where we, as in the parents, went to college. The topic never came up during any of our parent interviews (including at Dalton, where our kids now attend), but the schools clearly know where we went to college and grad school. Not ivies FWIW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the K-12 applications that we filled out asked where we, as in the parents, went to college. The topic never came up during any of our parent interviews (including at Dalton, where our kids now attend), but the schools clearly know where we went to college and grad school. Not ivies FWIW.

I was asked where I went to for preschool interviews too! We got into multiple feeders despite not going to Ivies for undergrad.