Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

[Anonymous]

It is truly amazing how many allegedly extremely highly educated, wealthy people spend huge amounts of time arguing with anonymous randos on a message board about pointless issues. If they are as impressive as they claim to be one would think they would be doing better things with their life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of unnecessary meanness in this thread.

We have one [incomplete] data set -- college outcomes, and most reasonable people would agree that it's a product of several variables -- student quality, school education quality, counselor quality, hooks, luck -- weighted in some unknown fashion and not entirely independent from each other. The whole argument is about which variables carry more weight and how much. In the absence of a clear breakdown of the one data set that we do have (by hooks, etc) this is completely impossible to determine.

And yet, when one school evidently outperforms others -- reputationally of similar caliber -- that's hard to simply waive away.

FWIW, our daughter was accepted to Brearley, really liked it on the revisit but in the end chose a co-ed school. She is very strong academically, but we don't so much care about HYP as an outcome. If we did, however, it would have probably been tempting to choose Brearley just b/c how well they are performing.

Niche is very biased on coastal schools (and specifically NYC since 8 of the top 20 private k-12 schools are in nyc) but they have Brearley very highly ranked. It's clearly a good school with great outcomes.

at The Brearley School Rankings in the U.S.
Best Private K-12 Schools in America
1 of 3,055
Best All-Girls High Schools in America
1 of 288
Best Private High Schools in America
4 of 4,917

[Anonymous]

I have boys. Who cares about Brearley. Move on. This is boring. You're all crazy stalkers anyway.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:People here kept screaming that B has some super amazing pedagogy and counseling that leads to outlier results. Someone did the research, yea it’s a bit weird, but you’re more upset that he or she showed the truth. Don’t post online publicly if you don’t want anonymous internet people to look at you. The school merely accepts richer and more athletic and more FGLI students than its competitors. Your kid probably doesn’t fall into any of those categories, so no HYP for you. Consider whether a shot at Cornell or UChiago (great outcomes that are above average, anyone saying otherwise needs Xanax) is worth 1mm in tuition.

Honest question — did your daughter not get into B, or could you not afford it? It's hard to tell. Or she got in but you didn't find value in spending $1MM?

Only have sons at TTs, so never applied. Some of their friends go. It’s delusional to think any college counselor or school admin has the Midas touch to get its graduates until HYP at these rates. It’s money and sports and FGLI almost every time. Princeton doesn’t want to take ten applicants from an expensive city school, they only do it because they have donors and coaches and diversity mandates to answer to.

Equally ignorant and delusional, mean-spirited and stupid-minded to assume that money, sports (lol, nyc private athletes…), and fgli are the only people who get in. Shut up already. We’re sorry you’ve got mid kids… jfc

Those are, by and large, the types who get in from TTs. You see, a Harvard admissions reader doesn’t want a ton of kids whose parents pay 70k+ and spent their lives in that environment. If you think they want HYP to be finishing schools, you are wrong. And no, they aren’t impressed by any one school like that. Keep on dreaming that Yale looks at B as some mega tier above Dalton and Trinity. They really don’t care like you do.

1) you’re creepy. I beg you: Find something else to do with your time beyond stalking kids on insta.

2) I’m a trin/harvard grad with a sibling who is also a tt grad/hyp grad, a kid in a tt, two nieces and nephews in tt’s etc. I’m telling you you’re wrong. There are some nepos and fgli for sure (but athletes? Not really, maybe like 2 a year), but they are eminently qualified more often that not.

Your cynicism and, frankly, presumptive, borderline racism are boring. Now crawl back into your cave and go to sleep.

Don’t assume one person wrote all these posts. Maybe address the issue at hand, whether one school is “eminently qualified” to send more students to HYP than the school you mentioned.

All the top NYC private schools have excellent college placements. it's a bit silly to be debating whether B is better than Trinity or HM. All three are pretty good.

Objectively, B has got stronger college placements than HM or Trinity. It is not just this year - it is a consistent trend (based on the college counselling page on their website).

Re HYP - I also wrote previously that getting there without any hooks in 2026 is an impossible task but I am also thinking that B may be good at “packaging” already hooked candidates. If it is the case, well done, Brearley college advisors! “Packaging” does matter and it does work. I know a few people who used a ridiculously expensive college consultancy firm that occasionally gets bashed by NY Post for its extortionate fees. Their clients all got the outcomes they wanted. If B can achieve equivalent college placements and provide a good education, this is actually a much better value for money.

[Anonymous]

I know a kid from a T2 or possibly even T3 school who got into HYP within the past few years basically unhooked, full pay (but not wealthy enough to move the needle). Unless there is something about the kid that I don't know, which is possible. Nice kid but not off the charts smart.

Crazier things have happened.

[Anonymous]

https://school.chicardgo.com/nycprivate/blog/

some interesting items on this website.

don't agree with all of it but some might find it useful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know a kid from a T2 or possibly even T3 school who got into HYP within the past few years basically unhooked, full pay (but not wealthy enough to move the needle). Unless there is something about the kid that I don't know, which is possible. Nice kid but not off the charts smart.

Crazier things have happened.

It is easier to get into HYP from a 2T or 3T than a TT, much easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://school.chicardgo.com/nycprivate/blog/

some interesting items on this website.

don't agree with all of it but some might find it useful.

Sacred Heart over Riverdale? And Nightingale is not on the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a kid from a T2 or possibly even T3 school who got into HYP within the past few years basically unhooked, full pay (but not wealthy enough to move the needle). Unless there is something about the kid that I don't know, which is possible. Nice kid but not off the charts smart.

Crazier things have happened.

It is easier to get into HYP from a 2T or 3T than a TT, much easier.

Lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://school.chicardgo.com/nycprivate/blog/

some interesting items on this website.

don't agree with all of it but some might find it useful.

Sacred Heart over Riverdale? And Nightingale is not on the list.

Yeah not sure what data they are using but it’s completely inaccurate if you look at the actual matriculation data on the school websites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a kid from a T2 or possibly even T3 school who got into HYP within the past few years basically unhooked, full pay (but not wealthy enough to move the needle). Unless there is something about the kid that I don't know, which is possible. Nice kid but not off the charts smart.

Crazier things have happened.

It is easier to get into HYP from a 2T or 3T than a TT, much easier.

Lol

I’m not sure why this is funny. You’d rather have a 1600 and 4.0 at a 2T and probably be valedictorian than a 1600, 3.8, and being at the 85th percentile at a TT. The competition at a TT is extreme.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a kid from a T2 or possibly even T3 school who got into HYP within the past few years basically unhooked, full pay (but not wealthy enough to move the needle). Unless there is something about the kid that I don't know, which is possible. Nice kid but not off the charts smart.

Crazier things have happened.

It is easier to get into HYP from a 2T or 3T than a TT, much easier.

Lol

I’m not sure why this is funny. You’d rather have a 1600 and 4.0 at a 2T and probably be valedictorian than a 1600, 3.8, and being at the 85th percentile at a TT. The competition at a TT is extreme.

2T/3T vs TT may not make that much of a difference (it is still NYC, still a private school, etc). The girl from California who got admitted into Yale had to pretend she was from a rural place in North Dakota. Her lie eventually came out and she got expelled but still… she was able to get in with her fake identity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a kid from a T2 or possibly even T3 school who got into HYP within the past few years basically unhooked, full pay (but not wealthy enough to move the needle). Unless there is something about the kid that I don't know, which is possible. Nice kid but not off the charts smart.

Crazier things have happened.

It is easier to get into HYP from a 2T or 3T than a TT, much easier.

Lol

I’m not sure why this is funny. You’d rather have a 1600 and 4.0 at a 2T and probably be valedictorian than a 1600, 3.8, and being at the 85th percentile at a TT. The competition at a TT is extreme.

Yup. Top kids at 2T and 3T schools are just as good as kids at TT schools. It is the bottom half of the class where things are different. So the top 25-30% of kids (plus/minus depending on the school) do just as well for college as at TT's, and often have a much happier four years of HS.

It is no different than how the top kids at a random flagship state school are just as good as kids at HYP. It is just the median kid at these schools who are a lot different.

[Anonymous]

The view of all these private schools filled with hooked kids is flawed. Some rich families, FGLI, POC, definitely there. But our experience leads us to believe that the number is much lower that the inflated percentage mentioned.

Looking at Spence for this year - 54 girls have public posts - my guess is that's around 85% of the class give or take.
The list is below. Taking out the HYP or bust mentality (which is silly) - it appears to me that 48/54 girls are going to a pretty decent school.

Penn: 6
Chicago: 5
Cornell: 5
Harvard: 4
Princeton: 4
Michigan: 4
Brown: 2
Columbia: 2
Williams: 2
WashU: 2
Berkeley: 2
Yale: 1
Dartmouth: 1
Northwestern: 1
Vanderbilt: 1
Emory: 1
Rice: 1
Tufts: 1
Wellesley: 1
Swarthmore: 1
Barnard: 1
Colgate: 1
Wake Forest: 1
Vassar: 1
Northeastern: 1
Chapman: 1
Kenyon: 1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The view of all these private schools filled with hooked kids is flawed. Some rich families, FGLI, POC, definitely there. But our experience leads us to believe that the number is much lower that the inflated percentage mentioned.

Looking at Spence for this year - 54 girls have public posts - my guess is that's around 85% of the class give or take.
The list is below. Taking out the HYP or bust mentality (which is silly) - it appears to me that 48/54 girls are going to a pretty decent school.

Penn: 6
Chicago: 5
Cornell: 5
Harvard: 4
Princeton: 4
Michigan: 4
Brown: 2
Columbia: 2
Williams: 2
WashU: 2
Berkeley: 2
Yale: 1
Dartmouth: 1
Northwestern: 1
Vanderbilt: 1
Emory: 1
Rice: 1
Tufts: 1
Wellesley: 1
Swarthmore: 1
Barnard: 1
Colgate: 1
Wake Forest: 1
Vassar: 1
Northeastern: 1
Chapman: 1
Kenyon: 1

Assuming you are identifying the bottom six as not "pretty decent." Wake, Colgate and Vassar are all excellent schools, particularly assuming those are kids well into the bottom half of their high school class. I hate Northeastern and how it is obsessive about gaming the system but for certain programs it is excellent and kids turn down elite options to go there. Chapman is underrated on the east coast. And Kenyon is fine. Stop being such a snob.