Reply to Most Prestigious Private HS In US Suffers Elite College Matriculation Decline, Parents/Admins Reeling

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You’re underestimating the network you get from boarding school even if you don’t go to an Ivy. I went to Milton as a day student and I would 100% send my kid to a boarding school as a day student even if they ended up at BU or Tulane. My brother got his job at a hedge fund during the Great Recession in past because of a prep school connection.[/quote]

Very true. A seriously outsized percentage of those 400-1200 kids at each of the top 25 or so boarding schools are very well connected. The concentration of wealth and influence is noteworthy. If, in addition to seeking an outstanding education, you would like your child to enter adulthood with friends in high places, you will do far better at Exeter or Deerfield than you will at Penn or Harvard. [/quote]

Exeter and Deerfield now are at 50%+ of students on significant financial aid.  Not sure if the connections are the same as they may have been even 5 or 10 years ago...but perhaps the other 50% are all billionaires (vs. just mostly full pay kids of doctors or lawyers without much in the way of connections).[/quote]

Deerfield is currently at 39% and Exeter at 45% of students receiving aid. Interestingly, that is the group with children who are professionals. These schools are very well endowed and offer aid to families in the professional class. It is not unusual to earn $500k and receive substantial aid. And there are a few seriously high potential kids of very modest means mixed in as well. But fewer than one would imagine. The other 55-61% of attendees? Serious wealth/status, for the most part. The selection process to attend these and peer schools is intense. 8-15% acceptance rates. Very few high schools provide a similar milieu.

More importantly? They don’t have to “find their people”. Living together in a small, tight community during such formative years binds this small group in ways that last. The friendships are durable, born of a shared experience. That they are also useful down the road is a secondary benefit, not the main goal. But yes, that benefit is real.

To the point of the original post starting this thread, many grads will attend T10 or 20 schools. Many won’t, just like any other school. But they will all be well prepared upon arrival, and the network of people they now know well is spread across several prestigious universities and SLACs. This class of schools still retain impressive college matriculation, even if it has begun to reflect the modern reality that most institutions will only accept a small group from each feeder.  [/quote]

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