Most Prestigious Private HS In US Suffers Elite College Matriculation Decline, Parents/Admins Reeling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New England boarding schools have always been gatekeepers to the Ivies and other prestigious schools. The point of attending is to get a great education, which should theoretically get you into an elite university, and to make connections that will be fruitful later in life. My husband and I went to elite universities and as parents are now paying a ton of money for our kids to attend private school. Do my children necessarily need to go to Harvard or Dartmouth? No, but I’ll be disappointed if they go to a university that is vastly different from the type of schools where we went if they have a good academic record. I won’t think private was waste, but it would make me question if the cost of worth it.

LOL what a crock.

I have had kids in Public with better admissions than "elite privates" in the NE.

I have also had two to to 1 boarding elite HS and one New England Elite private. Public wins every time.

You are wasting your money if you think one private in the DMV does better in college admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New England boarding schools have always been gatekeepers to the Ivies and other prestigious schools. The point of attending is to get a great education, which should theoretically get you into an elite university, and to make connections that will be fruitful later in life. My husband and I went to elite universities and as parents are now paying a ton of money for our kids to attend private school. Do my children necessarily need to go to Harvard or Dartmouth? No, but I’ll be disappointed if they go to a university that is vastly different from the type of schools where we went if they have a good academic record. I won’t think private was waste, but it would make me question if the cost of worth it.

LOL what a crock.

I have had kids in Public with better admissions than "elite privates" in the NE.

I have also had two to to 1 boarding elite HS and one New England Elite private. Public wins every time.

You are wasting your money if you think one private in the DMV does better in college admissions.

So delusional and bitter. Take a look at the MoCo public school results here and compare those to the Big 5: https://bethesdamagazine.com/2024/09/17/where-do-moco-students-attend-college/

[Anonymous]

I wonder if this is related to these elite boarding schools becoming more and more international.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if this is related to these elite boarding schools becoming more and more international.

No

[Anonymous]

The international student percentage appears to hold at 10-15 percent at the top schools. It is about creating a certain mix and a diverse student body. They take only the kids they want, and have a huge pool from which to select. So I don’t think it has impact.

Less well endowed schools might float up to 15-30 percent international to capture more full pay students.

One thing I have noticed: Top public school students are applying to 20 or so schools, but most boarding student apply to 10. I haven’t seen data that explains the impact this has on outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New England boarding schools have always been gatekeepers to the Ivies and other prestigious schools. The point of attending is to get a great education, which should theoretically get you into an elite university, and to make connections that will be fruitful later in life. My husband and I went to elite universities and as parents are now paying a ton of money for our kids to attend private school. Do my children necessarily need to go to Harvard or Dartmouth? No, but I’ll be disappointed if they go to a university that is vastly different from the type of schools where we went if they have a good academic record. I won’t think private was waste, but it would make me question if the cost of worth it.

LOL what a crock.

I have had kids in Public with better admissions than "elite privates" in the NE.

I have also had two to to 1 boarding elite HS and one New England Elite private. Public wins every time.

You are wasting your money if you think one private in the DMV does better in college admissions.

So delusional and bitter. Take a look at the MoCo public school results here and compare those to the Big 5: https://bethesdamagazine.com/2024/09/17/where-do-moco-students-attend-college/

And where are they big 5 results?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New England boarding schools have always been gatekeepers to the Ivies and other prestigious schools. The point of attending is to get a great education, which should theoretically get you into an elite university, and to make connections that will be fruitful later in life. My husband and I went to elite universities and as parents are now paying a ton of money for our kids to attend private school. Do my children necessarily need to go to Harvard or Dartmouth? No, but I’ll be disappointed if they go to a university that is vastly different from the type of schools where we went if they have a good academic record. I won’t think private was waste, but it would make me question if the cost of worth it.

LOL what a crock.

I have had kids in Public with better admissions than "elite privates" in the NE.

I have also had two to to 1 boarding elite HS and one New England Elite private. Public wins every time.

You are wasting your money if you think one private in the DMV does better in college admissions.

So delusional and bitter. Take a look at the MoCo public school results here and compare those to the Big 5: https://bethesdamagazine.com/2024/09/17/where-do-moco-students-attend-college/

And where are they big 5 results?

Private schools/Big 5 don’t usually disseminate information the same way public schools do. You’ll have to visit the private schools’ CCO websites and student run class IG pages. Then…voila!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New England boarding schools have always been gatekeepers to the Ivies and other prestigious schools. The point of attending is to get a great education, which should theoretically get you into an elite university, and to make connections that will be fruitful later in life. My husband and I went to elite universities and as parents are now paying a ton of money for our kids to attend private school. Do my children necessarily need to go to Harvard or Dartmouth? No, but I’ll be disappointed if they go to a university that is vastly different from the type of schools where we went if they have a good academic record. I won’t think private was waste, but it would make me question if the cost of worth it.

LOL what a crock.

I have had kids in Public with better admissions than "elite privates" in the NE.

I have also had two to to 1 boarding elite HS and one New England Elite private. Public wins every time.

You are wasting your money if you think one private in the DMV does better in college admissions.

So delusional and bitter. Take a look at the MoCo public school results here and compare those to the Big 5: https://bethesdamagazine.com/2024/09/17/where-do-moco-students-attend-college/

And where are they big 5 results?

Private schools/Big 5 don’t usually disseminate information the same way public schools do. You’ll have to visit the private schools’ CCO websites and student run class IG pages. Then…voila!

Then there's nothing to compare.

[Anonymous]

Elite colleges are done with elite feeder schools — for the unhooked that is. Smarter to move to the sticks and go to a non-hyper-competitive public HS. Apparently no one from this school had ever been admitted.

https://www.primepublishers.com/voicesnews/news/community_news/nonnewaug-high-seniors-gavin-sandor-and-andrew-grivner-make-history-with-yale-acceptances/article_54ccb824-25eb-4d8a-b4a9-064a2bbaf250.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Elite colleges are done with elite feeder schools — for the unhooked that is. Smarter to move to the sticks and go to a non-hyper-competitive public HS. Apparently no one from this school had ever been admitted.

https://www.primepublishers.com/voicesnews/news/community_news/nonnewaug-high-seniors-gavin-sandor-and-andrew-grivner-make-history-with-yale-acceptances/article_54ccb824-25eb-4d8a-b4a9-064a2bbaf250.html

This person has no idea what they’re talking about. Don’t take advice about your children’s education from randos on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most kids who are at Andover aren't there because they are specifically targeting Harvard or its peer schools.

This.

It’s about networking with a certain peer group…often as a legacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most kids who are at Andover aren't there because they are specifically targeting Harvard or its peer schools.

This.

It’s about networking with a certain peer group…often as a legacy.

Going to Andover is a bigger deal to some people than attending Harvard these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most kids who are at Andover aren't there because they are specifically targeting Harvard or its peer schools.

This.

It’s about networking with a certain peer group…often as a legacy.

Going to Andover is a bigger deal to some people than attending Harvard these days.

100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most kids who are at Andover aren't there because they are specifically targeting Harvard or its peer schools.

This.

It’s about networking with a certain peer group…often as a legacy.

Going to Andover is a bigger deal to some people than attending Harvard these days.

100%

There is a group of prep schools that are now functioning the way Ivies and their peers used to, from a social perspective. The Ivies were never a purely academic affair.

Andover
Exeter
St Paul’s
Deerfield
Hotchkiss
Choate
Groton
Lawrenceville
Thacher

I’m sure a few other schools as well? You leave these places with a network of national (and a splash of international—but just a splash, thank you!) friends. And a very high percentage of them will have influence which might be helpful to you. You, of course, will help them as well.

Yes, they also offer terrific aid and social mobility to many students. And that is awesome. But the concentration of mutually useful kids is too high to go unnoticed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Phillips Academy Andover, the most elite prep school in America only got 4 kids into Harvard in 2025. In the class of 2023 12 kids got into Harvard. Similar trends are at other top schools with only 6 getting into Yale in 2025 and 12 getting in 2023. Only 4 matriculated to Penn in 2025 compared to 7 in 2023. Only 13 got into UChicago, compared to 21 getting into UChicago in 2023. The trend holds across most elite schools such as Northwestern, Duke, etc.

There seems to be serious anti-elite trends in college admissions. They clearly see these kids as "privileged" and are holding it against them. In this new era, you might just be better off sending your kid to public school.

https://d2e3a5v56wj8r4.cloudfront.net/files/CCO_Profile_2024-2025.pdf

https://d2e3a5v56wj8r4.cloudfront.net/files/SchoolProfile2023-2024.pdf

I wouldn’t say it’s a trend if you’re only tracking 2023-2024, right? You’d need to track matriculation results for several years to be able to declare a “trend.” It’s possible the class of 2024 just wasn’t as strong as the class of 2023. We see this a lot in our DC’s private school. Some classes hit it out of the park; others don’t.