Does going to a Big 3 school really help with college admissions?

[Anonymous]

I think the takeaway is Wilson is the way to go for the family that would really need to stretch to pay for STA or the like.

(Hat tip to the rabble rouse unthread who said they thought Maret was one of the Big 3. Clever how you worked that in.)

[Anonymous]

How do you know if you are in the the top 10% if they don't rank?

You know your DC is or isn't in the top 10% after their 1st college guidance counselor session when they review the college list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

How do you know if you are in the the top 10% if they don't rank?

You know your DC is or isn't in the top 10% after their 1st college guidance counselor session when they review the college list

But college admissions is all about hooks and placating wealthy donors to the school, so being in the top 10% must not matter right?

[Anonymous]

I looked at STA class of 19 list. No penn as was noted but 61 out of 83 in schools ranging from Stanford to Boston College. My subjective listing put BC at the bottom but it might get not be. No idea where to rank Rice, Bates or Washington and Lee as well but their list is strong notwithstanding my lack of ability to rank some really good schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the takeaway is Wilson is the way to go for the family that would really need to stretch to pay for STA or the like.

(Hat tip to the rabble rouse unthread who said they thought Maret was one of the Big 3. Clever how you worked that in.)

How do you arrive at that without any knowledge of actual matriculation from any of the schools? Based on the random anecdotes you saw here? That’s like asking what the weather is like in Hawaii in August and going on anecdotal reports rather than looking at the historical averages.

Does anyone have Wilson’s college matriculations? I’d like to have the information when evaluating

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I looked at STA class of 19 list. No penn as was noted but 61 out of 83 in schools ranging from Stanford to Boston College. My subjective listing put BC at the bottom but it might get not be. No idea where to rank Rice, Bates or Washington and Lee as well but their list is strong notwithstanding my lack of ability to rank some really good schools.

Rice is a top school, in the general vicinity as WashU. The others, not as much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:STAs most recent class placements are an interesting indication. More than 20 out of the 80 or so kids went to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and Chicago. A bunch more went to Duke, Vandy, Penn, Cornell, Columbia and NYU. When 50 or so out of 80 do that well ( and many of the others went to UNC, Michigan, Wash U, Amherst, and the like) there is something positive going on.

How many of them are legacies or donor admits? How many are athletic admits?

A small percentage, just like at public schools.

I don't have that data, but I would bet it would show that the share of legacy/donor/athletic admits are much higher in StAs than in public schools. kids like that fencing admit whose dad paid a million dollar "donation" to the foundation of the Harvard fencing coach and bough the coach's house for 2x its market value and is now under investigation now.

Here's an interesting story story called:
43 Percent of White Students Harvard Admits Are Legacies, Jocks, or the Kids of Donors and Faculty
based on data from the recent Harvard lawsuit.
https://slate.com/business/2019/09/harvard-admissions-affirmative-action-white-students-legacy-athletes-donors.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your concept of merit is very narrow in that it excludes ability to pay. That might be a defensible definition, but it is arbitrary.

WTF!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your concept of merit is very narrow in that it excludes ability to pay. That might be a defensible definition, but it is arbitrary.

WTF!?

Well yes, clearly students lucky enough to be born to parents rich enough to pay full freight deserve credit for their being born to wealthy parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have that data, but I would bet it would show that the share of legacy/donor/athletic admits are much higher in StAs than in public schools.

But there are 9 times as many public school students than private.

[Anonymous]

Not the point at all. Point is that the baseline here is dealing with students who do not want to pay what the schools charge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Controlling for things like standardized test scores, athletic ability, legacy status, underrepresented minority status, and accomplishment in extracurricular activities, does going to a Big 3 school help students get into very selective colleges?

I've heard parents at MoCo public schools, especially the ones other than Whitman and BCC, say the answer is yes. They point to the fact that some colleges almost never accept students from certain public schools that churn out high achievers every year.

I've also heard parents at Big 3 schools say the answer is no. They say that students who would be at the top of some other school end up in the middle at a Big 3 schools and get rejected more often than they should. They also say that Big 3 schools have lots of students whose parents went to Harvard and Yale, etc., which means they get the benefit of more legacy admissions.

Let the fireworks begin!

No controlling for these things absolutely not. The kids from Big 3's who get into Ivy's most likely would have gotten into the same schools even if they had gone to public. The reason you don't see more public school kids going to Ivy's is because they aren't from the same demographic. My friend's daughter was accepted to Columbia, but she is at UVA now because they felt it was too expensive. Obviously any family that has spent $40,000 a year for 12 years for K-12 education wouldn't think twice on spending $50,000+ for Columbia. In public school, many families that technically could pay tuition for expensive private colleges, are just way more uncomfortable with spending the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Controlling for things like standardized test scores, athletic ability, legacy status, underrepresented minority status, and accomplishment in extracurricular activities, does going to a Big 3 school help students get into very selective colleges?

I've heard parents at MoCo public schools, especially the ones other than Whitman and BCC, say the answer is yes. They point to the fact that some colleges almost never accept students from certain public schools that churn out high achievers every year.

I've also heard parents at Big 3 schools say the answer is no. They say that students who would be at the top of some other school end up in the middle at a Big 3 schools and get rejected more often than they should. They also say that Big 3 schools have lots of students whose parents went to Harvard and Yale, etc., which means they get the benefit of more legacy admissions.

Let the fireworks begin!

No controlling for these things absolutely not. The kids from Big 3's who get into Ivy's most likely would have gotten into the same schools even if they had gone to public. The reason you don't see more public school kids going to Ivy's is because they aren't from the same demographic. My friend's daughter was accepted to Columbia, but she is at UVA now because they felt it was too expensive. Obviously any family that has spent $40,000 a year for 12 years for K-12 education wouldn't think twice on spending $50,000+ for Columbia. In public school, many families that technically could pay tuition for expensive private colleges, are just way more uncomfortable with spending the money.

But I thought there were plenty of really rich people and legacies sending their kids to Wilson. Make up your minds, folks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably not, but these schools have a vested interest in making you think there’s an inherent advantage.The only way to truly know this is to see all the data you listed in your OP. The schools don’t provide that.

I think the real advantage is in a kid getting more concentrated attention from college counselors than they’d get at a public high school. But I don’t think that translates to kids getting into better colleges so much as it means they apply to colleges that are a genuinely good fit for them.

+1 The schools won't come right out and say that coming from their school will help with college admissions, but they will say other things to give that implication. Like when they talk about how the school provides top notch college counseling - that is said to give the impression that the top notch counseling is going to help them get into colleges that they might not otherwise get into. Because other than that what's the benefit of top notch counseling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:STAs most recent class placements are an interesting indication. More than 20 out of the 80 or so kids went to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and Chicago. A bunch more went to Duke, Vandy, Penn, Cornell, Columbia and NYU. When 50 or so out of 80 do that well ( and many of the others went to UNC, Michigan, Wash U, Amherst, and the like) there is something positive going on.

How many of them are legacies or donor admits? How many are athletic admits?

A small percentage, just like at public schools.

I don't have that data, but I would bet it would show that the share of legacy/donor/athletic admits are much higher in StAs than in public schools. kids like that fencing admit whose dad paid a million dollar "donation" to the foundation of the Harvard fencing coach and bough the coach's house for 2x its market value and is now under investigation now.

Here's an interesting story story called:
43 Percent of White Students Harvard Admits Are Legacies, Jocks, or the Kids of Donors and Faculty
based on data from the recent Harvard lawsuit.
https://slate.com/business/2019/09/harvard-admissions-affirmative-action-white-students-legacy-athletes-donors.html

Translation: I'm speaking out of my ass.