This is an old news article now, but I imagine the principle still holds that if you're an unhooked boarding school kid, your outcomes may not be the same as the legacy and ultra rich kids who are your classmates.

https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/golden1.htm



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For Groton Grads, Academics
Aren't Only Keys to Ivy Schools

A Look at Who Got in Where Shows
Preferences Go Beyond Racial Ones
By DANIEL GOLDEN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
April 25, 2003

GROTON, Mass. -- Of the 79 members of the class of 1998 at the Groton School, 34 were admitted to Ivy League universities.

Not Henry Park. He was ranked 14th in his class at Groton, one of the nation's premier boarding schools, and scored a stellar 1560 out of 1600 on his SAT college-admission test. But he was spurned by four Ivies -- Harvard, Yale, Brown and Columbia universities -- as well as Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[Henry Park]
Most of the students in Mr. Park's class who were accepted by those universities had less impressive academic credentials than his. What they had instead were certain characteristics such as money, connections, or minority status that helped them vault over him to the universities of their choice.

"I was naive," says Mr. Park's mother, Suki Park. "I thought college admissions had something to do with academics." She and her husband, middle-class Korean immigrants from New Jersey, scrimped to send their son to Groton because of its notable college-placement record.

In the coming months, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on a landmark challenge to affirmative action by white applicants who had been rejected from the University of Michigan. The decision will likely have sweeping ramifications for the role of race in admissions to public and private schools. But a look at the fate of Groton's class of '98 shows that minority status is just one of several factors that can trump academic merit in college admissions. Indeed, students who are white and privileged regularly benefit from affirmative action of another kind.

Some of Mr. Park's lower-performing classmates who were picked by top universities were minorities. But several were affluent white children of alumni, known as "legacy" students. The parents of others were either current or prospective financial donors or celebrities. A few were strong rowers, a sport offered predominantly at uppercrust schools and elite colleges.

Unlike these students, Mr. Park couldn't rely on any "hook," as college admissions officers call the criteria for preferential treatment. He did not qualify for affirmative action, which colleges generally limit to underrepresented minorities such as blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans. His parents, who attended college in Korea, say they couldn't afford to donate to a university. Without a hook, applicants to elite universities must, at a minimum, have exemplary scores and grades. These universities also take into account more subjective factors, such as artistic talent and leadership ability. Every year, they reject many valedictorians and students with perfect SAT scores.

"When the decisions came out, and all these other people started getting in, I was a little upset," Mr. Park says. "I feel I have to hold myself to a higher standard."

Anonymous wrote:International kids who do a year or two at a US boarding school are much more likely to be admitted to a US college than international kids applying from overseas. In addition to the obvious wealth, it signals a commitment to the American college experience and an ability to function far from home, in English, in an American cultural environment.

My kid sees this at Cornell.
Wonder if this path changes now though given current admin policies?

As the parent of a BS kid in the current admission cycle - Not really.

Anonymous wrote:Admissions staff see $$$.

+1 This. Lots of boarding school kids at my Ivy. They were definitely a mixed bag of lazy pot smoking rich kids, with a few who were legit smart.

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…

Who is "they"?

This is all conspiracy theory with no evidence and you do a disservice by posting it.

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.

Your private college counselor or the one at your HS?

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.

Again, please present some links to support this claim at a need blind college. I do not recall of one instance of a former adcom book or blog that supports that claim.

Get off this site and talk to former AO and private college consultants.

At some selective T20 private colleges, yes $$$ helps a lot and there are lots of ways to signal $$$.

Everything is not a conspiracy; but if you are in this process now, talk to professionals IRL and not just on here.

Ask these kinds of detailed questions (if it’s part of your kid’s candidacy).

We did and learned a lot - primarily bc coming from private HS, kid engaged in a privileged sport, lots of indicators of wealth that we were worried about. Positioning & signaling are real strategies.

Here’s one small example: in parent profession - let’s say you are the CEO and founder (or other senior officer) of a company thats not a household name that’s been bought by a top tier private equity firm (let’s say Blackstone or KKR to make it easy). When you list your company’s name in the common app after your title, you also say “a KKR portfolio company”….

There’s many more opps in an application to do this type of signaling.

Other examples: ECs and how you list them. At certain schools ECs that indicate wealth are not a turnoff and may be advantageous depending on your profile. At other schools they may be, so you’d have to consider tone, revise EC order, etc.

Each part of application can be reviewed for positioning.

I must repeat: Please present some evidence to support this claim at a need blind college.

I know plenty about this process and despite your demand I “get off this site” (wtf dude) I know you can not provide any hard evidence for it.

**SOME** Private college consultants will tell you anything to make you think they know secrets. They don’t, because there are no secrets.

Need blind colleges are need blind for admission. End period. Please do not misinform people who might make bad choices in applying on the hope it will help their DC’s admission.

Listened to a fascinating podcast today (The Game: episode 14/red flags to avoid).

Interestingly he said do not fill in SSN on common app to selective/T25 colleges if you don’t need financial aid. Similarly don’t fill in FAFSA if you don’t need aid. Doing so gives signals to AO that you may need aid, and that could disadvantage you (he said there’s a difference btw “what colleges say and how they use the info”).

Conversely, he also talked about not giving up too much information about parents’ professions (if it shows too much $$$ privilege without enough corresponding benefit) or related issues with kids (mostly Indian or south Asian) not being strategic with major choice and picking same major as parents’ profession (which can show overt parental influence and not enough child agency/uniqueness).

All in all very interesting.

This was where I first learned about this podcast, though apparently it's all over Reddit.
Btw, lots of good stuff in this long thread. Worth a read.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please define Group of 8. We are in application mode as we speak.

We think there might be few other schools that get that result as well. Because they are small, well endowed, and excellent. If the graduating class has only 60-70 kids, your kid’s odds go up everywhere. They work hard, but also enjoy high school.

We are applying for aid, so our odds of acceptance are not high, but my kid really wants a crack at it. He is the last kid in a big family at home. It has gotten too quiet with old parents. We love him so much. Don’t blame him wanting the big bustling of home life that his older siblings enjoyed. He plans to recreate it in his own way at a BS

In terms of aid: I know Andover and Exeter at least are need blind. I’m not sure about others. They graduate roughly 300 kids per year and have the results I cited above.

Group of 8 (or Eight Schools Association) is like the Ivy League of boarding schools:

Andover
Exeter
St Paul’s
NMH
Lawrenceville
Hotchkiss
Deerfield
Choate

It’s not to say there aren’t other boarding schools that are great, but these are usually considered the strongest.

Good luck!!

This is correct-ish except replace NMH with Loomis (I work for TSAO). NMH is a great school, however, with the nicest boarding kids in NE.

Wouldn't you put Milton, St Alban's, Sidwell, and a couple of other small Massachussetts boarding school ahead of Loomis. Heck I might even put that school in Hawaii that Obama went to up against Loomis.