<p>Woops, got cut off there (see post above). Here’s some of their the data:Ivy acceptance for “top 16 select prep” with high SAT, 66%, medium SAT 39%, low SAT 19% “other prep” 45%, 27%, 27%. Breakdown was similar but a few points higher for “selective college acceptance”. </p>
<p>For “selective public schools” Ivy acceptances were below “other prep” and similar to “national pool”. </p>
<p>The authors concluded that “public school students who were similar to prep school students in terms of their family backgrounds and SAT scores were accepted to less selective colleges and planned to attend less prestigious colleges.”</p>
<p>That is admittedly very old data, but I was thinking about it when my colleague (with a very accomplished son) was told by our local public HS counselor (he is one of 500+ students she counsels for college) NOT to apply early action to any schools “a bad idea”. Almost all counselors recommend trying early action because it is non-binding and many top schools use it heavily, nothing is lost. Unfortunately, they took her advice.</p>