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

[Anonymous]

Most sensible parents choose private school for the 13 years of education it offers, not the four years that follow.

If you’re willing to trade your kid’s foundational education and entire childhood educational environment for a slightly better chance for four years at a slightly better college, then good luck, I guess.

[Anonymous]

You’re underestimating the network you get from boarding school even if you don’t go to an Ivy. I went to Milton as a day student and I would 100% send my kid to a boarding school as a day student even if they ended up at BU or Tulane. My brother got his job at a hedge fund during the Great Recession in past because of a prep school connection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 don't think you understand the difference between being accepted to a school and matriculating (i.e. enrolling). Based on your sources, we have no idea how many students got into Harvard, we just know how many decided to attend. Maybe the students are down on those schools!

Yes. I was just going to make this point.
First, the stats OP provided are for the Class of 23 and the Class of 24, not the Class of 25. Kids in the Class of 25 are still making their final decisions.

Anyway, the Class of 24, which apparently did scandalously worse than the previous class, applied to a total of 397 different colleges. The Class of 23 applied to only 307. That’s around 30% more colleges just applied to by the Class of 24 over the Class of 23. Presumably that widened the pool of possibilities for ‘24. The number of colleges kids are actually attending varied only by one: 107 for ‘23 and 108 for ‘24. So while the number of distinct colleges the classes enrolled in remained nearly constant, the number of choices the Class of ‘24 had likely increased by quite a bit.

These numbers also represent where graduates are actually matriculating. It’s possible that 16 kids in each class (totally making that up for illustration purposes) got into Harvard, but while 12 in the Class of 23 chose to go there, only 4 from the Class of 24 did because they had more acceptances to choose from overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most sensible parents choose private school for the 13 years of education it offers, not the four years that follow.

If you’re willing to trade your kid’s foundational education and entire childhood educational environment for a slightly better chance for four years at a slightly better college, then good luck, I guess.

No idea what you are talking about. This thread is about an elite boarding high school. The school starts in 9th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I send my kid to private because it’s the best fit for DC now, not for any supposed boost into elite colleges. Those admissions are always a crapshoot even for the tippy top students from any school.

This this this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I send my kid to private because it’s the best fit for DC now, not for any supposed boost into elite colleges. Those admissions are always a crapshoot even for the tippy top students from any school.

This this this

Sure but having to attend a second tier school will make you rethink your choices.

[Anonymous]

College admissions in this cycle are very different this year than they were for the class of 2024 across all DMV privates, so I think the OP has a point. At our Big 5 private, very few Ivy admits this year or even top 20. All Ivy admits were legacies that I know of or athletes. This seems to be the case everywhere- for example, GDS had 7 Harvard admits last year, and only a couple this year per those posting on Instagram. So yes, it would appear the tides are turning across the board for elite privates and college admissions this year. Top kids have to “settle” for UVA. With the economy taking a turn for the worse maybe next year will be better for these kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 don't think you understand the difference between being accepted to a school and matriculating (i.e. enrolling). Based on your sources, we have no idea how many students got into Harvard, we just know how many decided to attend. Maybe the students are down on those schools!

Yes. I was just going to make this point.
First, the stats OP provided are for the Class of 23 and the Class of 24, not the Class of 25. Kids in the Class of 25 are still making their final decisions.

Anyway, the Class of 24, which apparently did scandalously worse than the previous class, applied to a total of 397 different colleges. The Class of 23 applied to only 307. That’s around 30% more colleges just applied to by the Class of 24 over the Class of 23. Presumably that widened the pool of possibilities for ‘24. The number of colleges kids are actually attending varied only by one: 107 for ‘23 and 108 for ‘24. So while the number of distinct colleges the classes enrolled in remained nearly constant, the number of choices the Class of ‘24 had likely increased by quite a bit.

These numbers also represent where graduates are actually matriculating. It’s possible that 16 kids in each class (totally making that up for illustration purposes) got into Harvard, but while 12 in the Class of 23 chose to go there, only 4 from the Class of 24 did because they had more acceptances to choose from overall.

Thank you for your input. This debunks the “this is Trump’s fault” narrative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College admissions in this cycle are very different this year than they were for the class of 2024 across all DMV privates, so I think the OP has a point. At our Big 5 private, very few Ivy admits this year or even top 20. All Ivy admits were legacies that I know of or athletes. This seems to be the case everywhere- for example, GDS had 7 Harvard admits last year, and only a couple this year per those posting on Instagram. So yes, it would appear the tides are turning across the board for elite privates and college admissions this year. Top kids have to “settle” for UVA. With the economy taking a turn for the worse maybe next year will be better for these kids.

That’s not true for Sidwell. About 25% of the class is heading to an Ivy+ and all of them are not “hooked.” You should check out Sidwell’s IG account.

On a related note, the admissions tide is turning towards private school full pay families. Wealth has never/will never go out of style. Colleges are businesses and the current administration’s funding cuts will make them even more cautious about admitting too many students with too much financial need.

[Anonymous]

Yup, money is the ultimate hook. Individual merit is waaay below money on the list of institutional priorities. .

[Anonymous]

Rich people suck and are bad for civil first world societies. We should get rid of them.

[Anonymous]

Rice is expanding to increase revenue, not to bring in more financially needy students, despite whatever official reasons for expansion are being given:

https://www.khou.com/article/news/education/rice-university-expansion-federal-funding/285-9221b8bb-52b4-4fa5-a559-6db8c16ae948

HOUSTON — Rice University is embarking on a significant growth plan to increase enrollment by 30% while simultaneously facing unexpected challenges from Washington, according to President Reginald DesRoches in a recent interview.
The prestigious Houston university, consistently ranked among the top 20 colleges nationally by U.S. News & World Report, plans to expand its undergraduate student body from approximately 4,000 to 5,200 by 2028, representing a 30% increase since 2020. The graduate population, currently at 4,100, is also set for substantial growth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's about the parents' connections, not the schools. Uber wealthy well connected parents are still getting their kids in. But with the emphasis on FGLI and athletic recruits at many elite universities and colleges, there simply are fewer open slots. "Regular" wealthy and connected families don't have the advantages they used to.

Nevertheless, Sidwell is still getting kids into Ivies at a far higher rate than the VA and MD magnet schools, despite the latter groups of students having tremendous academic accomplishments and sky-high test scores (plus few parents who use paid college consultants).

Wrong

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College admissions in this cycle are very different this year than they were for the class of 2024 across all DMV privates, so I think the OP has a point. At our Big 5 private, very few Ivy admits this year or even top 20. All Ivy admits were legacies that I know of or athletes. This seems to be the case everywhere- for example, GDS had 7 Harvard admits last year, and only a couple this year per those posting on Instagram. So yes, it would appear the tides are turning across the board for elite privates and college admissions this year. Top kids have to “settle” for UVA. With the economy taking a turn for the worse maybe next year will be better for these kids.

That’s not true for Sidwell. About 25% of the class is heading to an Ivy+ and all of them are not “hooked.” You should check out Sidwell’s IG account.

On a related note, the admissions tide is turning towards private school full pay families. Wealth has never/will never go out of style. Colleges are businesses and the current administration’s funding cuts will make them even more cautious about admitting too many students with too much financial need.

Your Sidwell insecurities are showing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re underestimating the network you get from boarding school even if you don’t go to an Ivy. I went to Milton as a day student and I would 100% send my kid to a boarding school as a day student even if they ended up at BU or Tulane. My brother got his job at a hedge fund during the Great Recession in past because of a prep school connection.

Hey, me too! (waves)