Harvard Crimson Feeder Schools Exist

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody said Andover only had 4 Harvard admits last year when it’s been usually over 10.

FWIW, my kids are at a feeder school high on this list and we had less than half the usual apply to Harvard last year both cycles and this year REA. Apps to Yale, Princeton, Stanford and brown all up during same periods.

Except Andover’s Harvard matriculation numbers are steady with past years. 12 kids went.

okay. I thought someone said 4. anyway, my kids at another feeder

People have been throwing inaccurate crap around on this thread about Andover. No idea why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. If ever Harvard wanted to practice what it preaches, it might think about drawing on the talent of the other 99.97% of high schools out there.

The most hypocritical institution in the world.

https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/why-harvard/diversity-and-access

They didn’t even admit women until the late 70s. Hypocrites is right.

[Anonymous]

Harvard-Westlake had 14 go to Harvard last year. That's 5 percent of their graduating class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TL/DR: Feeder schools exist, but the only one in the DMV is Thomas Jefferson.

[My 2 cents: the claim that it’s cause and not effect is delusional. You can tell yourself that Andover et al have somehow combed through and selected the very brightest kids in America, but that’s just silly. Only someone very deep in the Ivy League/New England bubble would even try to argue that. The kids at those schools are bright, but they don’t even scratch the surface of the talent that’s out there.]

https://interactives.thecrimson.com/2024/news/feeders

No one is arguing that Andover et al have somehow combed through and selected the very brightest kids in America. If that was true every Andover et al kid would be admitted to all the Ivies. It is reasonable to assume that a school that selects some of the smartest highschoolers throughout the country would therefore send a disproportionate amount of these kids to top schools. That's more due to the selection effect than anything else.

It's not a coincidence that the schools which send the most are highschools that collect the best, most motivated students from a wide geographic area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard-Westlake had 14 go to Harvard last year. That's 5 percent of their graduating class.

That's extremely low considering how many children of celebrities go there.

[Anonymous]

The vast majority of Harvard admits at HW are the children of legacies and, in some cases, very rich people. The children of celebrities are a small fraction of the number of kids who matriculate at Harvard (over 50 in the past five years).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The vast majority of Harvard admits at HW are the children of legacies and, in some cases, very rich people. The children of celebrities are a small fraction of the number of kids who matriculate at Harvard (over 50 in the past five years).

So it's not the HW name, but the legacy/z list status

[Anonymous]

Do all Z list kids have to take a gap year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. If ever Harvard wanted to practice what it preaches, it might think about drawing on the talent of the other 99.97% of high schools out there.

The most hypocritical institution in the world.

https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/why-harvard/diversity-and-access

Each year 1200 high schools send students to Harvard, moron.

When half the best students in a whole county go to the county magnet or top private, then yeah, several of them will get into Harvard.

What would or should a college discriminate against top students who seek out a rigorous high school?

TJ does that to middle school kids that seek out more challenging middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. If ever Harvard wanted to practice what it preaches, it might think about drawing on the talent of the other 99.97% of high schools out there.

The most hypocritical institution in the world.

https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/why-harvard/diversity-and-access

They didn’t even admit women until the late 70s. Hypocrites is right.

Uh,yes it did. It was called Radcliffe, remember?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard-Westlake had 14 go to Harvard last year. That's 5 percent of their graduating class.

That's extremely low considering how many children of celebrities go there.

Class is only 400

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. If ever Harvard wanted to practice what it preaches, it might think about drawing on the talent of the other 99.97% of high schools out there.

The most hypocritical institution in the world.

https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/why-harvard/diversity-and-access

They didn’t even admit women until the late 70s. Hypocrites is right.

Uh,yes it did. It was called Radcliffe, remember?

But why were the women educated at a separate institution rather than learn alongside the men? Don’t be obtuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to Andover.

Yes, kids there are very smart. No, of course they aren’t the only smart kids out there.

However, Andover is extremely rigorous. It’s basically a junior college. The preparation for college is therefore excellent.

Of course, there are also legacies and such, but don’t discount the importance of excellent preparation.

Andover selects students the same way as harvard. it is not a surprise that they send a lot of students there.

Wealthy legacies.
Top athletes in country club sports with decent academics.
Extremely intelligent students with no other hooks.

Combine that with the long history and relationship between the two as well as the geographic preference and it's not a surprise.

Yes, Andover provides great preparation for college but it's not really much better than the prep at any of the Big 3 in the DC area.

Look at the course of study at Andover and tell me any school in this area can touch it:

https://d2e3a5v56wj8r4.cloudfront.net/files/CourseOfStudy.pdf

Andover also has a renowned American Art museum and archeology museum. Students can study at those museums and do extensive research projects there.

Sorry — there’s just no comparison.

How does having an expensive art collection provide any meaningful advantage in preparing kids for college?

Can you point me to the part where they prepare students for college better than Sidwell/Georgetown Day/National Cathedral?

A lot top private schools offer curriculum that tries to mimic or takes inspiration from Andover. They focus on reading/writing skills way more than public schools and until relatively recently didn't really focus that much on STEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s with all of the Ivy bashing recently?

New RWNJ talking point released?

After the abolishment of affirmative action, there is no long any quid in the quid pro quo to leave the elite institutions alone for their elitist practices.
No one really complained about legacy until they got rid of affirmative action, it was always a problem but as long as they gave preferences to preferred racial groups.
No one really complained about donors or athletes or donors until they got rid of racial preferences.
Racial preferences acting as a moral shield from criticism for things like legacy, donors preferences, athletic preferences, etc.

But Harvard still has legacy

Yes, but it is no longer protected by the moral shield of affirmative action.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your odds aren't any better at these schools if you're not a faculty kid, legacy, athlete, or URM. Only exception might by in-state publics like Boston Latin and Lexington, but even then, you're competing against a lot of faculty/legacy kids. Just look at when GDS had crazy Harvard stats last year, but it turned out most were legacy. I know very smart folks who went to Andover and they ended up at schools like Barnard, Dartmouth, Bates, BC, etc. that they applied ED. The competition is fierce because 75% of the kids would have no trouble with Ivy academics and everyone is applying to the same colleges.

Dartmouth is now a letdown?

Didn’t mean it as a letdown, just showing it’s not easy to get HYPS and people go to a wide range of schools - actually quite a few end up at UMass Amherst every year at Andover nowadays.

7 out of a class of 300.

14 went to Yale
12 went to Harvard
9 went to Princeton

11.6% of the class to those 3 schools alone.

But sure — Andover’s college matriculation is weak these days.

Andover hasn’t sent everyone to the Ivy League in probably 40 years. But I challenge you to show me any high school that has stronger matriculation.

https://www.andover.edu/files/Profile20222023.pdf

If you're talking about just Harvard, Boston Latin does better.

If you're talking about just Princeton, then Princteon HS and Lawrenceville do better and Lawrenceville is probably competitive with Andover at HYPSM.

I don't have good visibility on Yale but I would bet Andover is the a top 3 feeder school to Yale.

If you want to include places like Stanford and MIT, then Andover slips.

But yeah, you're right, across HYPSM, Andover is probably the strongest but it's still like 10-20 of their class and a lot of that is boosted by legacy admissions and similar considerations.
And the difference between Andover and a place like TJ (before the change in admissions) is not huge.