Should We Aim For Less-Prestigious Private High School To Maximize Chances Of Graduating At Top of Class?
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Anonymous
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Our son has a 98th percentile SSAT and is legacy at Phillips Academy at Andover. He's interested in boarding school and we are going through the admissions process right now. I know from his older brother (graduated from STA in 2022) that "feeder schools" no longer exist and all the kids getting into Ivies are either heavily hooked or in the top 5% of the class. He graduated in the 3rd decile at STA and was locked out of the top colleges.
This was reiterated when I attended Andover's college admissions informational session with my sister (her daughter is a 3rd year at Andover) and they told us "there is no more Yale list" and admitted they no longer have any sway in elite college admissions. Virtually everyone from Andover getting into an Ivy are legacy, athlete, URM, development case, connected or the top scholars. My kid isn't hooked, so I am considering applying to less competitive private schools to give him a greater chance at graduating in the top students. My guess is that a 4.0 uw GPA from Episcopal High School/Northfield Mount Hermon/Gonzaga/St. Johns will serve him better than being middle-of-the-pack at Andover/Exeter/Choate/St. Albans Am I correct in thinking this? |
Anonymous
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No.
If you have the luxury of choice (re: your own finances and your child's ability), you should choose the school that best serves him. Trying to strategize college admissions years in advance, when you can't know what you kid will want/need/be like in four years anyway, rarely works out – it just sets up everyone for frustration. Your kid is the same person whether they go to St. John's or Andover, and that distinction isn't the thing that moves the needle on whether they go to Harvard. Pick a high school based on what you all want during high school. |
Anonymous
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How can you possibly predict that your 8th grader could achieve a perfect GPA at these “lesser” schools? Sure, you know he’s a good test taker but great test taker does not by definition equate to top student. I know several national merit finalists who aren’t good at getting their homework done on time.
Plus, god only knows if your child will WANT to go to the MOST competitive college in the world. Maybe he will fall in love with French and want to an amazing French department. Or become a huge sports fan and desperately want to go to the big games and get rowdy with his bros. I think trying to game out success like this is a fools errand. I’m in a mission for my kids to find hard work AND fun AND passion in high school. I assume things will work out better for me than for you. But to each his own. |
Anonymous
| What a cynical approach! |
Anonymous
| Where's Rick Singer when you really need him? Oh, I remember now, he's serving 3.5 years in prison. |
Anonymous
| This is honestly a terrible way to look at the world. |
Anonymous
Actually, he’s out and back in business. |
Anonymous
| As yo can tell from what you've learned about the absence of feeder schools, prestige no longer exists at any level of education. It was always smoke and mirrors and social status. Your kid can go anywhere and still get into your country club. It will be fine. |
Anonymous
The business changed while he was away. |
Anonymous
| Poor kid. |
Anonymous
| Don’t try to min/max your college outcomes in choosing a high school. Pick the right high school for your kid. |
Anonymous
Agreed. But no different than the many parents who send their kids to private schools that are not a good fit but they want for the prestige and connections. |
Anonymous
| NP here - I fully agree with you. At the truly top schools (especially boarding), there are are kids that are flat out brilliant, kids that are generational legacy at the top schools and also pretty damn smart, kids getting recruited for sports and are also pretty damn smart, children of billionaires who are decently smart... it is hard to stand out. I would be making the same choice, especially since you have seen it first hand with your older son at STA; you know it is true and arent in denial. Look for a personality fit at a blair academy/mercersberg/hill school/episcopal over the andovers. |
Anonymous
NP I don’t agree with this approach either, but I definitely think it’s different. Your example gives immediate results - That the parents have somewhat control over. However, The OP is looking at the standardized scores of an eighth grader trying to predict what that child would want/accomplish relative to their peers 4-5 years from now. But yeah, both are ridiculous |
Anonymous
| Can't wait to have OP "settle" on Bullis "only" to have their DC wind up at UMD. The horror. |