Harvard Crimson Feeder Schools Exist

[Anonymous]

Andover recruits athletes now so much more than even 15 years ago. Esp sports like squash

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:None of DC's "big 3" are on that list hahahahha. Imagine paying over $60K per child for privates that feed into nothing.

that’s not actually true. They’re not in the top 21, but if you look at the Crimson infographic of feeder schools, you’ll see:

Whitman
NCS
Sidwell
GDS

There could be more, but looking at the word cloud is extremely difficult.

Wanted to add that I saw Holton, Maret, Richard Montgomery, Blair, and St Andrew’s Episcopal too.

And Churchill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Andover recruits athletes now so much more than even 15 years ago. Esp sports like squash

Why are people on this thread so bent on tearing this school down? So weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Andover recruits athletes now so much more than even 15 years ago. Esp sports like squash

The fact that any school recruits for squash is just absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Andover recruits athletes now so much more than even 15 years ago. Esp sports like squash

When I was there (2001-2005), we had plenty of recruited athletes. It’s nothing new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Andover recruits athletes now so much more than even 15 years ago. Esp sports like squash

The fact that any school recruits for squash is just absurd.

Well, Ivy League schools don’t give out athletic scholarships, so it’s a little irrelevant to this conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Andover recruits athletes now so much more than even 15 years ago. Esp sports like squash

The fact that any school recruits for squash is just absurd.

Well, Ivy League schools don’t give out athletic scholarships, so it’s a little irrelevant to this conversation.

Neither does Division 3. They still recruit for athletes.

[Anonymous]

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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.

That's just because of the DEI and anti-semitism.
I expect both of those things to go away in the next couple of years.

you expect anti-semitism to go away in the next couple of years?

Of the type we've seen recently? Yes.

[Anonymous]

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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

It's not the Andover name, it's the Z list and legacy status.

In some cases yes, but in many cases no.

Andover is an extraordinary school that has a long history of preparing kids really well for college. That goes a long way with admissions officers.

Yes a long history of preparing legacy kids and Z list kids for college

[Anonymous]

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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.

I went to Andover. We were able to use the Addison American Art Gallery and Peabody Museum on a regular basis to enhance the curriculum. It allowed us to do deeper research and hands-on analysis of art, history, etc. Some of us were even able to help curate exhibits.

It’s all part of what enables students at Andover to do rigorous work that goes well beyond a typical high school. It’s the rigor of that work that prepares kids well for college.

I would also say that when you say many private schools mimic or take inspiration from Andover, you’re kind of conceding the leadership role that Andover (and Exeter) play in prep schools.

Yes, it's as old as the frikking country. It has a good formula and people emulate it. But there is nothing magical about the bricks and mortar there. Their alumni are difficult to replicate. Their ability to draw wealth and talent is difficult to replicate. Their relationship with ivy is difficult to replicate. Their program is not that difficult to replicate.

[Anonymous]

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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.

In a typical year, Andover sends roughly 60-65 kids to the Ivy League.

By saying that only 10-20 kids go to HYPSM, it shows me you didn’t even read my post carefully. I included the HYP numbers, which was 35 kids.

In the class whose profile I posted, the numbers are:

Brown: 10
Columbia: 8
Cornell: 6
Dartmouth: 3
Harvard: 12
Penn: 7
Princeton: 3
Yale: 12

Total: 60

MIT: 7
Stanford: 11

Total: 18

Total Ivy + MIT and Stanford: 78, or 26% of the class

And what did you think the rate for IVY+ was at TJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

In a typical year, Andover sends roughly 60-65 kids to the Ivy League.

By saying that only 10-20 kids go to HYPSM, it shows me you didn’t even read my post carefully. I included the HYP numbers, which was 35 kids.

In the class whose profile I posted, the numbers are:

Brown: 10
Columbia: 8
Cornell: 6
Dartmouth: 3
Harvard: 12
Penn: 7
Princeton: 3
Yale: 12

Total: 60

MIT: 7
Stanford: 11

Total: 18

Total Ivy + MIT and Stanford: 78, or 26% of the class

If you eliminated legacy/dean list preferences that number would drop by half or more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Andover recruits athletes now so much more than even 15 years ago. Esp sports like squash

The fact that any school recruits for squash is just absurd.

Are you saying that it doesn't happen (because it absolutely does) or that it's ridiculous that harvard recruits students because they play squash?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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

It's not the Andover name, it's the Z list and legacy status.

In some cases yes, but in many cases no.

Andover is an extraordinary school that has a long history of preparing kids really well for college. That goes a long way with admissions officers.

Yes a long history of preparing legacy kids and Z list kids for college

Half the kids are on need based financial aid.

You can try to make these schools out to be all legacy and celebrity kids, but it won’t make it true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

I went to Andover. We were able to use the Addison American Art Gallery and Peabody Museum on a regular basis to enhance the curriculum. It allowed us to do deeper research and hands-on analysis of art, history, etc. Some of us were even able to help curate exhibits.

It’s all part of what enables students at Andover to do rigorous work that goes well beyond a typical high school. It’s the rigor of that work that prepares kids well for college.

I would also say that when you say many private schools mimic or take inspiration from Andover, you’re kind of conceding the leadership role that Andover (and Exeter) play in prep schools.

Yes, it's as old as the frikking country. It has a good formula and people emulate it. But there is nothing magical about the bricks and mortar there. Their alumni are difficult to replicate. Their ability to draw wealth and talent is difficult to replicate. Their relationship with ivy is difficult to replicate. Their program is not that difficult to replicate.

So show me the course of study at schools in the DMV and prove that they have the same program.