<li><p>Become number one in a big public school. Solid ECs.</p></li>
<li><p>National Merit Athlete</p></li>
<li><p>Geographic/racial/Diversity with a solid sponsor.solid stats</p></li>
<li><p>Legacy </p></li>
<li><p>Become top 5 student at top 10 BS with solid character.This is not the number one way, but if it doesn’t work out you have had the experience of a lifetime. </p></li>
</ol>
<p><strong>I choose door #5</strong></p>
<p>what is “top 10 BS with solid character” Boy’s school?</p>
<p>“top 5” is an exaggeration, francis. </p>
<p>oh and to answer the question, no i dont.</p>
<p>Top Five at a top 10 Boarding School? People in the Top 30 can get in, I believe. Or even 50. </p>
<p>I love Yale, but I wouldn’t mind going to a non-Ivy.</p>
<p>i like amherst and brown… as well as a host of foreign schools.</p>
<p>Nope. 
/<em>MIT FTW</em>/</p>
<p>no, but seriously, it’s a sports league…They arent the ONLY schools where you can find an excellent education.</p>
<p>I know it’s a sports league. It was founded because collleges wanted to have a league of football teams to compete with.</p>
<p>Naw–Oxbridge is the way to go. Oxbridge! Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!Oxbridge!
Sorry, no Ivy for me.
Unless my parents decide that I can’t go to England for college. Then I want to go to Harvard and be an investment banker and become filthily rich. Ah, the options of youth.</p>
<p>Haha prettyckitty. Can you apply to both these days? </p>
<p>As to an Ivy, if it’s the right fit for me, sure.</p>
<p>The only ivy that I would love to go to is Columbia. Other than that, I’m not too fond of ivies</p>
<p>Nah, you can only apple to one. I’m leaning toward Cambridge, at least for undergrad. <em>My best friend rolls her eyes and mutters 'Bloody anglophile.</em></p>
<p>Haha. Cambridge is supposed to be the better school, though if you said that around any Oxfordian/Oxfordite you would immediately be curb-stomped.</p>
<p>Really, do not go to a top boarding school if you want an ivy and are not a legacy or athlete. Your chances go way down. There is no question the super wealthy/connected kids are given favorable treatment by the BSs in terms of promoting them to colleges. The college care about who gave big to the BSs as it’s the perfect indicator of what they stand to get. Add in the competition and your local public school will probably mean a much better college if you cand get into AESD.</p>
<p>Depends where–at my public school where we send 12+ a year to Penn, it doesnt help. If you go to a worse public school where not many go to good schools, then yes, it might.</p>
<p>Pour moi, it’s door number five all the way. Of course, that’s impossible, and your school is not going to tell you if you’re top five or not, but still… I want to go to Yale for undergrad. And I can dream. :)</p>
<p>an ivy would be nice but i wouldn’t mind going to a really good non-ivy like duke or something.</p>
<p>It’s actually kind of too bad because I’m a legacy at an Ivy and don’t want to attend. Neither does my sister, though she doesn’t go to prep school and is applying to a different Ivy.</p>
<p>Wow, collegekid100, you seem to think that the only people who go to boarding school are snotty, elitist rich kids. Boarding schools spend as much of their resources trying to get less affluent kids into the colleges of their choice as they do wealthy ones. The reason that so many kids from prep schools get into the Ivy League is not because of the size of their wallets, it’s because of the <em>education</em> they’ve received. Remember? People go to prep school because they are <em>smart</em>? </p>
<p>At the school I attend, a little over 30% of the graduating class goes Ivy, and not all of them are rich athletes with ten-mile-long legacy lists. Check your baggage at the door.</p>
<p>sspixie17x, it’s commonly accepted among parents, students, and staff on this board and elsewhere that going to a prep school drastically decreases your chances for getting into a highly competitive college. it has nothing to do with an entire school being “snotty, elitist rich kids” - it has to do with a class of kids who are all highly capable of succeeding at an ivy/great college, yet there are so few spots available (harvard doesn’t want all 300 exeter seniors so that 1/4 of their incoming class is exonian – they’re all highly, highly capable). i dare say top prep grads as a whole are more capable than their public school counterparts who are accepted to an ivy for many reasons… they’re better at discussing and meeting deadlines and writing professional papers and balancing many responsibilities and living in dorms etc.</p>
<p>there are plenty of kids at these schools who are extraordinary… and don’t take that adjective lightly. they speak 10 languages, they’re tri-athletes, etc…(as well as their father being the president/a billionaire) this is why they got into prep school in the first place. they’re amazing. now, when you have 300 amazing kids fighting for, maybe 20, 40 spots, you need to pick out the best (of the best, of the best, of the best). so, not every students w/ a 3.9, 2350, great recs, well rounded, decent athlete and artist is going to get in. perhaps the 3.9, 2350, great recs, well rounded, decent athlete and artist with a billionaire dad or the one who is more than a decent athlete and more like a highly recruited football star.</p>
<p>but yes, many kids who aren’t super rich/super jocks get it… it happens! but the do need that extra “umph” on top of all the other stats.</p>