<p>Gosh almighty what is it with this obsession about SSAT stats all of a sudden? I’m scratching my head at the energy going into this. You’re overthinking this.</p>
<p>As for recruiting to lower the yield. Not really. Nice sound bite taken out of context. Schools don’t really have to recruit and whip parents into a frenzy - the lousy educational climate and the low college yields out of local schools does that for them. </p>
<p>Having said that - the point of casting a wide net is because the schools are trying to create a certain class culture/demographic. There is a feeling that there “might be a good one in the pile.” The schools want choices and if you saw the range of applicants you’d understand that so many have been prepping for the experience that they all start to look the same on paper. Last year I had ten students push a resume across the table with straight A’s, loaded with AP courses and the ubiquitous science activities. None were accepted. But a kid with few of those, but with some really interesting attributes, did get in. </p>
<p>So I think - IMHO - discussions like these are what make families crazy with desperation and a need to “figure” out the magic formula to getting in. So we analyze “scores” because its easy. The scores are high because so many of the applicants have them - thinking that’s the key and so now it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Only the schools won’t tell you they also took kids that didn’t fit those stats and not because of some misplaced sense of pity or largesse.</p>
<p>The real truth of it - be hooked, no someone (sorry but true) or be really interesting. Stand out in a good way. If it’s the latter, those scores become less of a factor.</p>
<p>In a sense - the schools are recruiting not to turn parents away - but because they are looking for something that might be buried in that haystack. And the only way to increase the odds of finding it is to increase the application pile in the process. Like looking for that one unique grain of rice in a 10 pound bag.</p>
<p>Which begs the question - then why not tell kids they don’t have a snowballs chance in hades of getting in? Because that “kid” might be the one they’re looking for and they won’t know what they’re looking for until they build the incoming class.</p>
<p>So if you’re a tuba playing Olympiad from Montana - and you’re the only one - you may win. If the year you apply they get 100 others with that resume, then the odds of acceptance, that year and three years forward, are lower.</p>