Holton-Arns and Brown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the feeling Holton Arms has too much of a finishing school vibe for admission to Brown. Not enough out of the box thinkers.

+1. It’s not really known for stellar academics. Hard to compete with all the National Merit Finalists and national competition winners that Ivies tend to accept (unless you’re a legacy and/or big donor rich, in which case they should be obvious to Brown.)

Lol what? Do you have current knowledge of Holton???

[Anonymous]

OP here.
Thank you all for your input. Definitely not applying ED as it is too risky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Holton-Arms students don’t seem to get accepted to Brown? Looking at the data, it appears no one has been admitted there in at least 5+ years. My daughter is in love with the school and would love to apply Early Decision, but if the Scoir data is anything to go by, that would be wasting an ED opportunity.

Colleges admit individual applicants, not high schools. If girls from previous years did not get in, they were either academically uncompetitive or weren't compelling applicants. Prep school kids tend to suffer from "cookie cutter syndrome." These are mostly ambitious students that try to one-up each other and end up in very similar extracurriculars and applying for similar majors. This means they cannibalize each other in admissions and struggle to stand out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP- that’s Princeton at our private. We did not know this prior and it was my kid’s first choice. The counselors point blank said “nobody gets into Princeton from here”. And this school does great with the other 7 Ivies, MIT and Stanford, etc. Kid didn’t apply early there because of that and was WL RD. Kind of wish a shot was taken because was accepted to another Ivy and 2 T10s RD. We were just scared off and figured it would be a wasted SCEA.

Meanwhile, this private school has an endowed scholarship that only goes to Princeton students. Seems to be a yearly thing

C. B. Newton Pingry-Princeton Scholarship Prize

https://www.pingry.org/forever-blue/giving/endowed-funds

[Anonymous]

From Holton, my kid was recruited to Brown, Princeton, and Dartmouth for her sport. She didn't choose Brown. A friend of hers in our carpool went to Brown as a legacy. Whoever wrote that Holton is a finishing school" is going off 50 year old news from when I graduated HS. ( I didn't go there, but my friend did).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Holton-Arms students don’t seem to get accepted to Brown? Looking at the data, it appears no one has been admitted there in at least 5+ years. My daughter is in love with the school and would love to apply Early Decision, but if the Scoir data is anything to go by, that would be wasting an ED opportunity.

Colleges admit individual applicants, not high schools. If girls from previous years did not get in, they were either academically uncompetitive or weren't compelling applicants. Prep school kids tend to suffer from "cookie cutter syndrome." These are mostly ambitious students that try to one-up each other and end up in very similar extracurriculars and applying for similar majors. This means they cannibalize each other in admissions and struggle to stand out.

Eh. Wrong. High schools do matter and the historical pattern matters a lot. Whether it's underperforming students once accepted or students backing out of ED contracts. A school like Brown has a gazillion high performing students from a gazillion high performing high schools all over the country to choose from. Clearly something went wrong with individual Holton Arms students in recent years. And that has made it tough for subsequent Holton Arms students. This is why school administration and counselors matter. A couple of bad families can wreck things for a long time for subsequent applicants. Brown has no shortage of great applicants. They don't need Holton Arms. Is it fair, no. But in a world of sub-5 percent acceptances, it doesn't take much for certain high schools to be put on the No Thank You list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP- that’s Princeton at our private. We did not know this prior and it was my kid’s first choice. The counselors point blank said “nobody gets into Princeton from here”. And this school does great with the other 7 Ivies, MIT and Stanford, etc. Kid didn’t apply early there because of that and was WL RD. Kind of wish a shot was taken because was accepted to another Ivy and 2 T10s RD. We were just scared off and figured it would be a wasted SCEA.

Meanwhile, this private school has an endowed scholarship that only goes to Princeton students. Seems to be a yearly thing

C. B. Newton Pingry-Princeton Scholarship Prize

https://www.pingry.org/forever-blue/giving/endowed-funds

Princeton is good about admitting Jersey kids. I’m sure they always take a few Pingry students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From Holton, my kid was recruited to Brown, Princeton, and Dartmouth for her sport. She didn't choose Brown. A friend of hers in our carpool went to Brown as a legacy. Whoever wrote that Holton is a finishing school" is going off 50 year old news from when I graduated HS. ( I didn't go there, but my friend did).

So the way to get into Brown from HA is be a recruited athlete or a legacy, great will get right on that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why Holton-Arms students don’t seem to get accepted to Brown? Looking at the data, it appears no one has been admitted there in at least 5+ years. My daughter is in love with the school and would love to apply Early Decision, but if the Scoir data is anything to go by, that would be wasting an ED opportunity.

Colleges admit individual applicants, not high schools. If girls from previous years did not get in, they were either academically uncompetitive or weren't compelling applicants. Prep school kids tend to suffer from "cookie cutter syndrome." These are mostly ambitious students that try to one-up each other and end up in very similar extracurriculars and applying for similar majors. This means they cannibalize each other in admissions and struggle to stand out.

Eh. Wrong. High schools do matter and the historical pattern matters a lot. Whether it's underperforming students once accepted or students backing out of ED contracts. A school like Brown has a gazillion high performing students from a gazillion high performing high schools all over the country to choose from. Clearly something went wrong with individual Holton Arms students in recent years. And that has made it tough for subsequent Holton Arms students. This is why school administration and counselors matter. A couple of bad families can wreck things for a long time for subsequent applicants. Brown has no shortage of great applicants. They don't need Holton Arms. Is it fair, no. But in a world of sub-5 percent acceptances, it doesn't take much for certain high schools to be put on the No Thank You list.

This is not how college admissions works anymore. Elite universities want a wide range of students. Even Sidwell struggles to get kids into Brown nowadays. A few years ago, Sidwell went like 0/12 on Brown applicants.

Elite universities no longer see top prep schools as a "bonus." They see them as a marker of privilege. Elite prep school students are held to higher standards and have a tougher group of peers to compete against.

[Anonymous]

Gotta love the sense of entitlement. It's not like other Ivy League schools are banging down Holton's doors for students. Barely a handful of grads are admitted to HYSPM per year.

Like most if not all of the top area privates, the go to schools at Holton are the usual suspects: Tulane, USC, Wash U, Emory, Northeastern, Chicago, etc. But these schools routinely admit top public school grads from the DMV as well. The college admissions advantage gained from DC privates over publics is a thing of the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the feeling Holton Arms has too much of a finishing school vibe for admission to Brown. Not enough out of the box thinkers.

+1. It’s not really known for stellar academics. Hard to compete with all the National Merit Finalists and national competition winners that Ivies tend to accept (unless you’re a legacy and/or big donor rich, in which case they should be obvious to Brown.)

I think you should take a look at Holton's last few years of college acceptance on Instagram. Lots of Ivies there. Just not Brown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love the sense of entitlement. It's not like other Ivy League schools are banging down Holton's doors for students. Barely a handful of grads are admitted to HYSPM per year.

Like most if not all of the top area privates, the go to schools at Holton are the usual suspects: Tulane, USC, Wash U, Emory, Northeastern, Chicago, etc. But these schools routinely admit top public school grads from the DMV as well. The college admissions advantage gained from DC privates over publics is a thing of the past.

The top 10% kids at Holton get into Ivy + schools. The next top 10% into Northwester, Wash U and such. Holton does very well on the college admission front.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love the sense of entitlement. It's not like other Ivy League schools are banging down Holton's doors for students. Barely a handful of grads are admitted to HYSPM per year.

Like most if not all of the top area privates, the go to schools at Holton are the usual suspects: Tulane, USC, Wash U, Emory, Northeastern, Chicago, etc. But these schools routinely admit top public school grads from the DMV as well. The college admissions advantage gained from DC privates over publics is a thing of the past.

The top 10% kids at Holton get into Ivy + schools. The next top 10% into Northwester, Wash U and such. Holton does very well on the college admission front.

While I agree with your general point, it is not as straightforward. Several of the Ivy admits this year are not in the top 20 percent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From Holton, my kid was recruited to Brown, Princeton, and Dartmouth for her sport. She didn't choose Brown. A friend of hers in our carpool went to Brown as a legacy. Whoever wrote that Holton is a finishing school" is going off 50 year old news from when I graduated HS. ( I didn't go there, but my friend did).

So the way to get into Brown from HA is be a recruited athlete or a legacy, great will get right on that

Hint: Legacy status + athletic recruitment are the best ways into any Ivy/top school for students coming from elite privates + public schools. The SC has cut such opportunities for URMs. And, being rich alone is not good enough...one has to be " name on a building rich".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love the sense of entitlement. It's not like other Ivy League schools are banging down Holton's doors for students. Barely a handful of grads are admitted to HYSPM per year.

Like most if not all of the top area privates, the go to schools at Holton are the usual suspects: Tulane, USC, Wash U, Emory, Northeastern, Chicago, etc. But these schools routinely admit top public school grads from the DMV as well. The college admissions advantage gained from DC privates over publics is a thing of the past.

The top 10% kids at Holton get into Ivy + schools. The next top 10% into Northwester, Wash U and such. Holton does very well on the college admission front.

Yea, maybe, but only 10 enrolled at Harvard, Yale or Princeton in the last five years, only two at Stanford, and none at MIT. Take out Penn and Duke and meh - not much there.