is boarding school HS a hook for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question. Who in their right mind sends their middle or high schooler to boarding school? A parent who prefers to mostly not participate in their kids formative years?

Serious response. DD went in 9th grade due to her brothers ASD and needs. He sucked all the energy out of the house. She deserves a formative childhood/teen experience that is not dominated by him.

She is happy and thriving at BS. We speak/text multiple times a day. I know more about her classes, friends, and sports than my friends do about their kids.

Your “serious question” and comment about a parent not wanting to participate in their kids formative years is just judgmental. Boarding school might not be right for your family but that doesn’t give you permission to say that parents who do feel it is right are wrong.

My dad went to Andover because his parents were moving after 10th grade. He needed a really good quality school to occupy his mind and his schooling was going to get broken up anyway. My grandparents were preppie-adjacent and it seemed like a good opportunity. He went to school with a lot of people who became famous (he did not).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question. Who in their right mind sends their middle or high schooler to boarding school? A parent who prefers to mostly not participate in their kids formative years?

Serious response. DD went in 9th grade due to her brothers ASD and needs. He sucked all the energy out of the house. She deserves a formative childhood/teen experience that is not dominated by him.

She is happy and thriving at BS. We speak/text multiple times a day. I know more about her classes, friends, and sports than my friends do about their kids.

Your “serious question” and comment about a parent not wanting to participate in their kids formative years is just judgmental. Boarding school might not be right for your family but that doesn’t give you permission to say that parents who do feel it is right are wrong.

This is great! Glad you can give her the opportunity.

[Anonymous]

So what about families that are consistent donors over 30 years and continuing? Are those families recognised by the development office? We can get personal letters from the development office, but does anyone know how that might factor into admissions?

And no these donations are not 7 or 8 figures.

Also, do colleges piece together extended family members that have also attended the school? So, not just the parent, but aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I mean, we get personal letters from the development office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes of course, it signals full pay.

Why would it need to "signal" anything?

Need aware schools get all the finance info and the small number of need blind/meet full need schools don't consider.

Yes but full pay is more complicated than that. They are looking for other signals.
Schools are looking for potential donors/ speakers/ networkers or ppl who will employ graduates. We are seeing how hard it is for grads to get jobs…

Our college counselor said it was important for both parents to have updated LinkedIn with clear senior leadership/executive titles conveyed in job titles in common app.

The signaling is very important for AO (many of who do look at LinkedIn after 1st pass). The $$$ privilege may not hurt at all at certain private colleges and can actually help.

Please name which schools look at these factors. Or is this the rumor mill?

It’s pretty easy to figure out if you parse through data….

Vanderbilt; Rice; Cornell; Dartmouth; WashU

Look at the % of admitted students in the top 1% of HHI (or better top 0.5% of HHI if they break it down that far). Vanderbilt; Dartmouth & WashU make sense.

But isn’t this thread about advantages for boarding school students? Some boarding schools are feeders. Not shocking news.

Again you are saying "look at these numbers" without any direct evidence or even a logic chain.

At best this is a "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy.

There is no evidence need blind schools make admissions decisions based on economics.

Wow. That Reddit link makes a crazy case for his income/wealth subtly impact admissions decisions.

“I also think that if there was any doubt beforehand, this further magnifies the questionable priorities that many of these institutions have. I was just at Yales admitted students days and I was surprised how it felt like one in every three or four people I met went to one of the big NE boarding schools...”

Sigh... no one doubts the stats show wealthy students are over-represented at elite schools. It's because they have every advantage and make better candidates independent of their ability to pay tuition. They are a self-selecting sample.

The question is will an admissions officer at a need blind college admit one student over another because of the "signal" that they will be full pay.

The answer remains "No".

The signal isn't that they may be full pay, it's that they may be a donor. Top NYC and LA privates get the same treatment for the same reason

So this is a different claim than the one made in the thread above.

But it is also technically false since donor and potential donor admissions come through the development office.

lol
That’s a ton of naïveté.

lol
That's another BS claim with no evidence that implies you have special knowledge and the conspiracy is in full effect but you have cracked the code because you are special. You're a college admissions flat earther.

Provide some evidence or we can debate who is more naïve.

(ps it's you)

I didn’t make the donor claim, but I’m not sure what’s controversial here?

Donors are given special status and one can assume potential donors (8 figures not 7) would also be given that status? Or celebrities, senior corporate leaders, or politicians?

The thing that I think is wrong in this thread is that it’s not $$$ that matters to certain private colleges but it’s $$$$$. So if you are a random biglaw partner, the school does not care. If you are the head of a giant global company, or a celebrity, they care. For all those other reasons listed in other places here.

And at boarding schools, I’d imagine it’s a lot of Wall Street, hedge fund, billionaire $$$. That counts and matters at certain private schools (prob not T5). A lawyer does not matter. Even if you make $2-3 million a year.

Hope that makes sense?

No, it does not make sense, because that is not how it works.

Donor admissions come through the development office. Admissions officers at need blind schools do not consider an applicant's ability to pay when making admissions decisions. There is no "signal", there is no code, there are no application secrets.

It **IS** that simple.

Donor applicants:
At some schools like Northwestern, yes. You are correct, no sep process/app secrets.

At Penn and Dartmouth, absolutely not. I know first hand - there is someone who guides you through your initial campus tour from the Dev office and you notify them of the date and time of submitted admissions. It’s a parallel process. For Penn, you have to be in the top 1% of donations.
Dartmouth is based on dollar amount and duration of commitment.

There are a few other schools - but I won’t out them here. The way to find them: look for schools with the highest # of private school kids. Not many in T25 but a few stand out. I think some were mentioned earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what about families that are consistent donors over 30 years and continuing? Are those families recognised by the development office? We can get personal letters from the development office, but does anyone know how that might factor into admissions?

And no these donations are not 7 or 8 figures.

Also, do colleges piece together extended family members that have also attended the school? So, not just the parent, but aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

Depends on the school.
Most don’t consider extended relatives anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes of course, it signals full pay.

Why would it need to "signal" anything?

Need aware schools get all the finance info and the small number of need blind/meet full need schools don't consider.

Yes but full pay is more complicated than that. They are looking for other signals.
Schools are looking for potential donors/ speakers/ networkers or ppl who will employ graduates. We are seeing how hard it is for grads to get jobs…

Our college counselor said it was important for both parents to have updated LinkedIn with clear senior leadership/executive titles conveyed in job titles in common app.

The signaling is very important for AO (many of who do look at LinkedIn after 1st pass). The $$$ privilege may not hurt at all at certain private colleges and can actually help.

Please name which schools look at these factors. Or is this the rumor mill?

It’s pretty easy to figure out if you parse through data….

Vanderbilt; Rice; Cornell; Dartmouth; WashU

Look at the % of admitted students in the top 1% of HHI (or better top 0.5% of HHI if they break it down that far). Vanderbilt; Dartmouth & WashU make sense.

But isn’t this thread about advantages for boarding school students? Some boarding schools are feeders. Not shocking news.

Again you are saying "look at these numbers" without any direct evidence or even a logic chain.

At best this is a "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy.

There is no evidence need blind schools make admissions decisions based on economics.

Wow. That Reddit link makes a crazy case for his income/wealth subtly impact admissions decisions.

“I also think that if there was any doubt beforehand, this further magnifies the questionable priorities that many of these institutions have. I was just at Yales admitted students days and I was surprised how it felt like one in every three or four people I met went to one of the big NE boarding schools...”

Sigh... no one doubts the stats show wealthy students are over-represented at elite schools. It's because they have every advantage and make better candidates independent of their ability to pay tuition. They are a self-selecting sample.

The question is will an admissions officer at a need blind college admit one student over another because of the "signal" that they will be full pay.

The answer remains "No".

They are not always better candidates though. Just wealthier. Maybe more expansive and robust/niche activities.

I’ve noticed that “wealthy unhooked applicants” from our private HS do better than the average middle class/upper middle class unhooked applicants….(obv with grades/scores/race in mind and adjusted as much as one can for these exercises).

Same here.
But it’s really wealthy (and parents with somewhat high profile careers etc).

[Anonymous]

Just saw this: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9kdpqWJZbw/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just saw this: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9kdpqWJZbw/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

lol the hidden comment is fabulous

[Anonymous]

Don’t boarding schools base admissions quotas or whatever, at least in part, on where the student’s HOME residence is? Like, Andover student whose family home is in rural Louisiana is counted as from rural Louisiana, not ONLY from Andover?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just saw this: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9kdpqWJZbw/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

How stupid. Colleges cap the amount of Magnet School/Public High school students they take, but they smile at taking 10+ kids from the same private boarding schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t boarding schools base admissions quotas or whatever, at least in part, on where the student’s HOME residence is? Like, Andover student whose family home is in rural Louisiana is counted as from rural Louisiana, not ONLY from Andover?

I think this is true. We are the family who commented earlier, applying this year. Apparently, our state is desirable as it is low population. And grades are good and sport is niche. AOs were very enthusiastic. Woe be the kid from Manhattan… In all seriosusness, I think it has more to do with the kid than the state, but it is definitely one factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what about families that are consistent donors over 30 years and continuing? Are those families recognised by the development office? We can get personal letters from the development office, but does anyone know how that might factor into admissions?

And no these donations are not 7 or 8 figures.

Also, do colleges piece together extended family members that have also attended the school? So, not just the parent, but aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

Depends on the school.
Most don’t consider extended relatives anymore.

Bulls@&t If some like Brian Roberts calls Penn and says their niece needs a spot, they will fall over themselves to make it happen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes of course, it signals full pay.

Why would it need to "signal" anything?

Need aware schools get all the finance info and the small number of need blind/meet full need schools don't consider.

Yes but full pay is more complicated than that. They are looking for other signals.
Schools are looking for potential donors/ speakers/ networkers or ppl who will employ graduates. We are seeing how hard it is for grads to get jobs…

Our college counselor said it was important for both parents to have updated LinkedIn with clear senior leadership/executive titles conveyed in job titles in common app.

The signaling is very important for AO (many of who do look at LinkedIn after 1st pass). The $$$ privilege may not hurt at all at certain private colleges and can actually help.

Harvard has an endowment of about $100BB, same for Yale & Princeton. The endowment income alone can fund the schools into perpetuity. The AO's are impressed by Michael Bloomberg money, but when they see a HHI of about $1M with mediocre stats, they think, "all the advantages in the world and still couldn't hack it."

So your answer is: without Bloomberg money, boarding school alone is only going to impress schools not worth going to.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know about a hook for college, but it’s a hook for a lifetime if therapy. At least two of my close friends and several cousins attended boarding HS are messed up. These kids are so young, and need day to day emotional support.