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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't think most of us here are "in the know"  :lol:

Harvard, Stanford, and Yale have global name recognition. Beyond that, the lay prestige varies considerably by region in the US and country abroad.[/quote]

Lay prestige is a contradiction in terms.

"Prestige" means where do the parents of kids at Dalton and Harvard-Westlake and Groton want their kids to go. It's not Duke and Cornell, and it's not Chicago or JHU. To be honest, it's not MIT or Caltech....[/quote]

We have two kids at elite east coast boarding schools, and you don’t seem to understand where these kids want to go. MIT and Duke are highly desirable, and very difficult to get into. Georgetown, Cornell, and Chicago are not the first choice for most, but they’re known to accept a lot of kids from the two schools so they’re good options that are attainable for many. JHU and Caltech are seen as more niche, with low overall interest in Caltech.[/quote]

I have a kid at one of the schools I named. Duke is not "highly desirable," and MIT, while very difficult to get into indeed, is far less coveted than Harvard or Stanford, which cater to very hooked kids. Brown and Penn are often the next choice for those shut out of the HYPS. etc.[/quote]

I think anecdotes like this are very useful for students and families who are about to go through the college application process. There are a handful of private schools - mostly in NYC - that have very close relationships with Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. A suburban valedictorian has no chance at HYPS when they are competing against students from Dalton, Collegiate, Riverdale, and a handful of other schools in NYC. Then add first gen and athletes and that's pretty much it for HYPS. Those four schools increasingly operate as a country club for the children of mostly Wall Street types, plus a little charity (first gen), and some entertainment on the side (athletes). I think everyone has to ask first, why bother applying, and second, do you really want to spend four years in that kind of environment? It can be very isolating for students who don't come from one of the dozen or so private schools that regularly send students to HYPS.  [/quote]

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