Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust did an Aspen Ideas Festival speech last week on how to raise a child to get into Harvard. Faust's top tip for raising a Harvard man or woman: “Make your children interesting!” She pretty much dismissed the grinds and helicopter parents who focus on fighting for every little honor or EC title to build up high school resumes. There are lots of very smart, studious, obedient children out there. Instead, she encouraged parents to help their children develop a holistic sense of self and build a passion for something meaningful. As a side benefit, you might actually end up with a interesting child, regardless of whether they go to Harvard or not!

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-to-get-into-harvard/373726/

And if you succeed in raising an interesting child, as opposed to the cookie cutter kids the competitive parents churn out, he probably won't want to go to Harvard.

The best thing a DMV parent can do to rear an interesting child is to get them out of the DMV bubble. Trips to the National Parks, other regions of the country, travel abroad will all increase awareness of how different the rest of the world is.

Why is it that Harvard is no longer the top choice among students in the DMV? It seems that every Stanford or Princeton student I know turned down Harvard. I don’t know a single student who turned down Stanford or Princeton for Harvard. It seems that Stanford and Princeton are now in a class by themselves among DMV students. I know it’s splitting hairs because all of the top 5 schools are terrific, but the emergence of Stanford and Princeton as the “top of the top” is a bit surprising.

Anonymous wrote:Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust did an Aspen Ideas Festival speech last week on how to raise a child to get into Harvard. Faust's top tip for raising a Harvard man or woman: “Make your children interesting!” She pretty much dismissed the grinds and helicopter parents who focus on fighting for every little honor or EC title to build up high school resumes. There are lots of very smart, studious, obedient children out there. Instead, she encouraged parents to help their children develop a holistic sense of self and build a passion for something meaningful. As a side benefit, you might actually end up with a interesting child, regardless of whether they go to Harvard or not!

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-to-get-into-harvard/373726/

And if you succeed in raising an interesting child, as opposed to the cookie cutter kids the competitive parents churn out, he probably won't want to go to Harvard.

Did you mean to say 'Which DC area private school HAS the highest acceptances to Harvard?' OR 'Which DC area private schools have the highest acceptance to Harvard?

Anonymous wrote:Definitely holton if you look at acceptance v class size rate.

I was curious about the boldness of this assertion and went back and looked at the list someone posted of this year's Holton matriculations (it's a few pages back on the main Independent Schools thread list). I counted 7 kids at Ivies/Stanford out of a class of about 85, which is less than 10% and pretty consistent with the past results from the matriculationstats.org. STA had at least 20% go Ivy/Stanford this year, and seems to always have 20% or more. Holton also had three National Merit Semifinalists this year, less than half of what STA had, so that's another metric (and the only one that is publicly available).

I agree it is harder for girls to get into college than boys right now, and agree also that great kids can get in from anywhere. But just because someone loves Holton (which sounds like a great school) it does not mean you throw all the numbers out the window.

Anonymous wrote:Not really. That chart has an odd definition of the Ivies.

I am not sure what you mean. The chart measures matriculations to various collections of top schools – one of which is the eight Ivy League schools. Another seems to arguably be the top five schools, or the top five most selective schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT. Still other metrics draw from collections used by other publications such as U.S. News & World Report. So whether you want the top schools, or just the Ivy League school matriculations, the chart has both.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely holton if you look at acceptance v class size rate.

I hope Olton teaches better statistical analysis than this poster seems to be showing.

Oi, I'm a cockney. Typo.

Anonymous wrote:Definitely holton if you look at acceptance v class size rate.

I hope Olton teaches better statistical analysis than this poster seems to be showing.

I view this thread as a litmus test of which parents want to brag the most.

I can't believe everyone who fell for this obvious debate starter. If you want to know this info, call Harvard. Nice try.

Definitely holton if you look at acceptance v class size rate.

It really depends on the year and how many legacies there are in each given private school...how many urms, how many recruits, etc. There's no magic pill or magic school.

I would guess GDS has the highest acceptance rate. The students are truly amazing and many of the parents have degrees from Harvard and/or Harvard Law.

Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust did an Aspen Ideas Festival speech last week on how to raise a child to get into Harvard. Faust's top tip for raising a Harvard man or woman: “Make your children interesting!” She pretty much dismissed the grinds and helicopter parents who focus on fighting for every little honor or EC title to build up high school resumes. There are lots of very smart, studious, obedient children out there. Instead, she encouraged parents to help their children develop a holistic sense of self and build a passion for something meaningful. As a side benefit, you might actually end up with a interesting child, regardless of whether they go to Harvard or not!

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-to-get-into-harvard/373726/

Not really. That chart has an odd definition of the Ivies.