Everyone know the Big 3 all have acceptance rate of 1% and yields of 1000%

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I can see why private school admissions offices would want to be less like college admissions, not more. Especially when we're talking about applicants who are kids.

It might help to temper admissions expectations for transplants, especially ones from smaller communities. Where I am from, the high schools located there that are analogous to SJC, any of the parochial schools, and some of our local secular independents don’t really have an “admissions process.” As long as your kid as no behavioral issues and you can pay, you’re in. After all, the admissions director is probably your neighbor, so having everyone find out so and so’s kid got rejected wouldn’t fly. You get my drift.

It was not immediately obvious to me until later in the admissions process that it was any different from what I described above.

Yeah, I can see why private school admissions offices would want to be less like college admissions, not more. Especially when we're talking about applicants who are kids.

It seems like the DC-area schools don’t do this. Other schools—including a lot of the NE boarding schools—publish acceptance rates, but I haven’t seen stats like average SSAT scores.

Anonymous wrote:A top line number would also not be helpful- most schools have several entry years with varying acceptance rates and testing requirements for entry.

This is the main reason. It's not like college where there's one general entry point and the transfer process tends to be separate. At a K-12, you may have large entry years, small entry years, grades when 1-2 students get in due to attrition, etc. Taking all those scenarios and combining them isn't informative – and splitting them apart isn't either because demand in certain grades can vary so much. You don't want someone not applying because it seems hopeless AND you don't want someone thinking 4th grade (or whatever) is a sure thing when it isn't.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you care op? It has zero to do with where your own kids will go. Worry about them.

+1. This is the kind of measure that dumb people would use for "exclusivity", and then institutions would promptly start gaming. See the way Harvard advertises itself to no-hopers, so they can increase their number of rejections.

It's also worthless for practical purposes because with a private school, what you want to know is how many people were rejected at specific grades, with specific individual criteria. St Somethingorother accepting most kindergartners doesn't mean they'll accept most fourth graders, let alone my troublemaker.

You’re being obtuse. It would be very helpful to know acceptance rates.

Anonymous wrote:Why do you care op? It has zero to do with where your own kids will go. Worry about them.

+1. This is the kind of measure that dumb people would use for "exclusivity", and then institutions would promptly start gaming. See the way Harvard advertises itself to no-hopers, so they can increase their number of rejections.

It's also worthless for practical purposes because with a private school, what you want to know is how many people were rejected at specific grades, with specific individual criteria. St Somethingorother accepting most kindergartners doesn't mean they'll accept most fourth graders, let alone my troublemaker.

Why do you care op? It has zero to do with where your own kids will go. Worry about them.

No-- but its also not a secret. They do share them at parent forums (how many applied, how many admitted, by grade etc.

It's just not published on the website or anything.

You can guess how many they accept based on how much the grade is growing compared to the previous grade, but even that is only a guess because you don't know their expected yield. And they definitely don't post how many applications they get per grade or even total.

A top line number would also not be helpful- most schools have several entry years with varying acceptance rates and testing requirements for entry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no.

Why?

NP: It is of zero benefit for them to do so. They want as many applications as possible.

Anonymous wrote:no.

Why?

no.

Or average SSAT score?