Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

[Anonymous]

I agree Spence outcomes are excellent. I am impressed they actually send students to MIT (I know it’s only 1 girl per year but Brearley hasn’t sent anyone over past 5 years).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The focus on Trevor is so funny, in part because it's really its own place...I know multiple kids who have gotten into "better" schools, with high ISEE scores, and didn't get into Trevor, and applicants with terrible ISEE scores and middling grades who did. I think they know who they are and know what kids they want, and maybe this is what drives this one poster crazy.

Trevor has yield management and rejects “better” applicants they know won’t select Trevor over their TT options. Trevor accepting students with “terrible” scores isn’t the endorsement you think it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former Brearley parent. Year after year about 25% of class goes to HYPS. With those in particular, it is a lot of legacy, but plenty of normal legacies. Only about 1/3 maybe get into their early schools so most of what you see is not legacy. Plenty of fancy families but plenty of regular families

Other kid went to a different TT with great results as well but not quite the same.

Honestly, I can’t explain why colleges love Brearley so much. But I can say that these results are not reducible to hooks, which are common at all these schools. It plays a role, but the unhooked are doing fine as well.

i can't really explain it either with respect to Spence. The results are out of this world. I understand some of it is $$. But the broad based number of excellent schools across almost the entire student body says that it has to be something.

So far, Spence has 60 kids posted on Instagram which is probably their 99% or entire of the total senior population. the IVY+ Stanford+ MIT rate is 47%.. this is insane as i would think Spence is not as academically intense as Brearley or HM...

As a Spence alum, I can vouch that it is very academically intense. Like, unpleasantly if it's not in your nature to study all the time on top of your other commitments. College and law school was easy after it.

[Anonymous]

There is sort of blood omertà among certain parents at these TT schools that they are indeed always everything they were promised to be and that anyone who feels different is just jealous. It’s weird and immature, and it means admin is never held accountable for anything other than getting rich kids into HYP, which isn’t a metric of anything other than getting rich kids into HYP. How do they once there, do they do well once they graduate? No one knows, because you aren’t allowed to ask. I didn’t quite believe there adults who believed in HYP the way kids believe in Santa Claus, but then my kid went to a TT. There are.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The Trevor hater is back to derail all conversations that mention it. Please go away.

It is on par with some of the other schools mentioned. Many very successful families choose these schools for a variety of reasons. And top kids at these schools do just as well as kids at TT schools. And often have a happier four years of HS doing so.

Not that I primarily focus on HS.

The top 10% of Trevor is not doing just as well as HM or Dalton.

are the trevor kids less intelligent, driven, motivated? or is it the teaching? or is it all about the parents $$, hooks etc?

I have no connection to Trevor but it seems like many of the kids are getting into good colleges. Maybe not HYP, but I see a lot of Cornell, Penn, Rice and others. If my kid could end up at Penn and have a relatively happy four years of high school I would be pretty happy. I would hate to have my kid's last 4 years at home be consumed by stress and anxiety. The Trevor results seem about on par with Grace and Sacred Heart so I'm not sure why there is so much hate.

There isn’t “hate.” There is pushback at claims that the top of Trevor has TT results. It’s untrue, and unfair to families looking for advice here. They shouldn’t spend 1mm for an inferior product. I hope Trevor is paying shills here, I wouldn’t do it for free.

I don’t get this. Is a kid going to Penn or Dartmouth from Trevor somehow inferior to a kid going to the same school from Dalton? I’m not going to argue that it’s worth the price because I’m not sure any of these schools are, but it certainly seems like you can have good college outcomes from Trevor.

Please, please don’t send a kid to Trevor for a decent shot at Penn or Dartmouth. Even their top 10% faces an uphill climb. Go to Dalton if you want those outcomes.

[Anonymous]

On Trevor - we considered them for K but I didn’t like that they didn’t do standardized testing until the middle school. I like seeing test results - they help me assess how well (or poorly) the school and teachers are doing.

We were clearly not a “Trevor family” but from what I can see, top Trevor kids seem to be doing quite well with college applications.

[Anonymous]

My friends who have Math or STEM oriented daughters are not happy at Brearley. They don’t push those girls or seek out outside opportunities for them.

Anonymous wrote:I agree Spence outcomes are excellent. I am impressed they actually send students to MIT (I know it’s only 1 girl per year but Brearley hasn’t sent anyone over past 5 years).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Trevor hater is back to derail all conversations that mention it. Please go away.

It is on par with some of the other schools mentioned. Many very successful families choose these schools for a variety of reasons. And top kids at these schools do just as well as kids at TT schools. And often have a happier four years of HS doing so.

Not that I primarily focus on HS.

The top 10% of Trevor is not doing just as well as HM or Dalton.

are the trevor kids less intelligent, driven, motivated? or is it the teaching? or is it all about the parents $$, hooks etc?

I have no connection to Trevor but it seems like many of the kids are getting into good colleges. Maybe not HYP, but I see a lot of Cornell, Penn, Rice and others. If my kid could end up at Penn and have a relatively happy four years of high school I would be pretty happy. I would hate to have my kid's last 4 years at home be consumed by stress and anxiety. The Trevor results seem about on par with Grace and Sacred Heart so I'm not sure why there is so much hate.

There isn’t “hate.” There is pushback at claims that the top of Trevor has TT results. It’s untrue, and unfair to families looking for advice here. They shouldn’t spend 1mm for an inferior product. I hope Trevor is paying shills here, I wouldn’t do it for free.

I don’t get this. Is a kid going to Penn or Dartmouth from Trevor somehow inferior to a kid going to the same school from Dalton? I’m not going to argue that it’s worth the price because I’m not sure any of these schools are, but it certainly seems like you can have good college outcomes from Trevor.

Please, please don’t send a kid to Trevor for a decent shot at Penn or Dartmouth. Even their top 10% faces an uphill climb. Go to Dalton if you want those outcomes.

It seems like many kids in this year’s class are going to good schools. It’s basically impossible to get into Dalton for HS and many of the other TT seem like they could be miserable pressure cookers for some kids. You could say the same about the college results and many of the other 2T and 3T schools. They are really pretty good if you’re not completely set on HYP. It just shows how much money influences college admissions in this country. If you have the money to send your kid to private, curate interesting experiences for them and pay for test prep and college counseling then your kid will likely be fine wherever they go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The focus on Trevor is so funny, in part because it's really its own place...I know multiple kids who have gotten into "better" schools, with high ISEE scores, and didn't get into Trevor, and applicants with terrible ISEE scores and middling grades who did. I think they know who they are and know what kids they want, and maybe this is what drives this one poster crazy.

Trevor has yield management and rejects “better” applicants they know won’t select Trevor over their TT options. Trevor accepting students with “terrible” scores isn’t the endorsement you think it is.

Actually that was kind of my point. They know who is their target audience and who they see as actual community members. They don't chase students. So the vitriol against them is funny to me because I don't think they aspire to be anything more than what they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
My friends who have Math or STEM oriented daughters are not happy at Brearley. They don’t push those girls or seek out outside opportunities for them.

Anonymous wrote:I agree Spence outcomes are excellent. I am impressed they actually send students to MIT (I know it’s only 1 girl per year but Brearley hasn’t sent anyone over past 5 years).

Interesting, I thought about 1/4 of the class gets to enroll in advanced math which is supposed to be pretty strong? On science and tech I heard these complaints from friends as well (which is one of the reasons DD chose HM over Brearley).

[Anonymous]

My friends who are unhappy are the ones whose girls truly excel and at another school would be put into an actually accelerated model, one where you could get to linear algebra, win national math contests, etc. A quarter of any class at any of these schools (except maybe Hunter or Speyer) isn’t that kind of math student. They feel the program rewards the more averagely smart kid by holding back the truly talented ones. They complain that their daughters sail through the advanced math and are bored. Gifted kids work better in schools where they can take flight and the school holds those kids back. Not sure if it’s new phenom or a result of it’s equity emphasis — just don’t know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My friends who have Math or STEM oriented daughters are not happy at Brearley. They don’t push those girls or seek out outside opportunities for them.

Anonymous wrote:I agree Spence outcomes are excellent. I am impressed they actually send students to MIT (I know it’s only 1 girl per year but Brearley hasn’t sent anyone over past 5 years).

Interesting, I thought about 1/4 of the class gets to enroll in advanced math which is supposed to be pretty strong? On science and tech I heard these complaints from friends as well (which is one of the reasons DD chose HM over Brearley).

That's not actually true about no recent MIT, and that's kind of noise anyway when you do have grads studying STEM at comparable places like Harvard, CalTech etc. - who knows what choices they made, including ED etc.

My DD was in the advanced math class, but by high school the truly advanced students were off in another stratosphere. Maybe HM is doing even more.

But I do also agree it's the humanities and all around education that defines a school like Brearley, plus the culture of the school if it fits. I feel like strong STEM is less unique, including at the competitive public schools, but if that's the main criterion and one doesn't care about the other factors, then quite likely other places are doing more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friends who are unhappy are the ones whose girls truly excel and at another school would be put into an actually accelerated model, one where you could get to linear algebra, win national math contests, etc. A quarter of any class at any of these schools (except maybe Hunter or Speyer) isn’t that kind of math student. They feel the program rewards the more averagely smart kid by holding back the truly talented ones. They complain that their daughters sail through the advanced math and are bored. Gifted kids work better in schools where they can take flight and the school holds those kids back. Not sure if it’s new phenom or a result of it’s equity emphasis — just don’t know.

Not to dispute the other points, but afaik all the top schools have similar (on paper) advanced math sequences that get to linear algebra (e.g. see https://www.brearley.org/upper-school/class-xii-math-course-descriptions/). Only the top public schools offer something beyond that. Math competition/olympiad training is a whole other track and yeah, I am sure Brearley does not prioritize that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former Brearley parent. Year after year about 25% of class goes to HYPS. With those in particular, it is a lot of legacy, but plenty of normal legacies. Only about 1/3 maybe get into their early schools so most of what you see is not legacy. Plenty of fancy families but plenty of regular families

Other kid went to a different TT with great results as well but not quite the same.

Honestly, I can’t explain why colleges love Brearley so much. But I can say that these results are not reducible to hooks, which are common at all these schools. It plays a role, but the unhooked are doing fine as well.

i can't really explain it either with respect to Spence. The results are out of this world. I understand some of it is $$. But the broad based number of excellent schools across almost the entire student body says that it has to be something.

So far, Spence has 60 kids posted on Instagram which is probably their 99% or entire of the total senior population. the IVY+ Stanford+ MIT rate is 47%.. this is insane as i would think Spence is not as academically intense as Brearley or HM...

You would be wrong if you think it is not as academically intense as the other TT. These are hard-working girls in a competitive academic environment and they earn their college acceptances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree Spence outcomes are excellent. I am impressed they actually send students to MIT (I know it’s only 1 girl per year but Brearley hasn’t sent anyone over past 5 years).

Brearley has a girl going to MIT from this year's class and had one within the last 5 years as well (it's right there on the Brearley website). But you are correct that it is not every year. Not really a place many of those girls strive for.