<p>According to this chart from the May/June issue of the Yale alumni magazine, Yale is down to just 44% of entering classes (2007-2010) coming from private schools. Still seems high to me.</p>
<p>Interesting. Given that only about 10% of the nation’s HS graduates come out of private schools, it certainly does appear that private school graduates are still heavily “overrepresented” in Yale’s entering class. (Of course, that’s Yale’s prerogative).</p>
<p>And most of those counted as attending “private” schools are in Catholic schools, which I suspect are not overrepresented at Yale. Private nonsectarian schools–the kind that comprise Yale’s top feeders–produce only about 1.2% of the nation’s HS grads.</p>
<p>Vance Packard, in The Status Seekers, mentioned that the crossover to a majority of public school graduates in Princeton’s frosh class happened in the late 1950s. However, at that time, the elite private schools were more for the inherited-SES elite, not the academically elite (the inherited-SES elite was content with gentleman’s C grades in college, while the top public school graduates were the actual academic elite at HYP).</p>
<p>Presumably, over the years, it has become socially less acceptable to cruise through college purely on inherited SES in the absence of personal academic merit, so the elite private schools now emphasize academic preparation much more, so that their graduates could make legitimate claims of being academically elite (and thus retaining a large share of the frosh classes at super-selective schools).</p>
<p>It’s a completely meaningless statistic unless you know what % of the APPLICANTS come from private schools. I see this on CC time and time again and it drives me crazy. Knowing what % of XX are Y is meaningless unless you know what % of the applicant pool was Y. Do private school students represent 5% of the Yale applicant pool? Gosh, then they sure are overrepresented. 20%? 40%? 60%? If 60%, then they aren’t overrepresented at all. </p>
<p>And lumping together the neighborhood Catholic school with an elite day or boarding school is nonsensical.</p>
<p>As ucbalumnus pointed out, some private schools are more academically rigorous than other schools. And it does seem that colleges recognize that by enrolling more of their gradudates.</p>
<p>Again, totally meaningless unless you know what % of H,Y, and P’s applicant pools were public vs private. And then you calculate the index (% of H admittees who came from X school background over % of H applicant pools who came from X school background) and compare the index. I swear, for all the people on here who want so badly to become management consultants, no management consultant worth a penny would ever try to draw any conclusions from horizontals without having the baseline horizontal!</p>
<p>OK, I get your point Pizzagirl. But I find it hard to imagine that 10% of the nation’s HS graduates from private schools consist of 43% of Y or P’s applicant pool. It may be true that Ivy League colleges are more popular in private schools but in this day and age with the financial aid programs these colleges have more and more public students and their families may realize that it could be the “best deal” out there for them too. Take Andover and Exeter, the two big boarding high schools in the east coast, usually there are around 100 out of 300+ seniors applying to H or Y or P (with a lot of ‘overlaps’ obviously), so it’s not like everyone in the private schools are applying to HYP. And many many private schools are a lot smaller and we can reasonably expect them to be not more “ivy crazy” than the east coast elite boarding schools… but that’s just my speculation. The bottom line is that we don’t have the data. I get that.</p>
<p>I think saying “favoring” kids from private schools is not accurate. Many selective colleges go out of their way to have an admitted class with a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, favoring the lower income public school candidate over the equally qualified higher SES private school candidate. I expect the skewed distribution relates more to a skewed distribution of applicants, with graduates from top private high schools being far more likely to be highly qualified candidates who apply to selective private colleges than graduates from lower income public high schools.</p>
<p>There are numerous reasons why there is such a skewed distribution of applicants – cost (and knowledge of degree of financial aid for lower income), encouragement by parents/mentors (or lack of), opportunities (for example, number of advanced classes), quality of instruction, steps to appear more qualified on paper (taking SAT multiple times, tutors, GCs, …), etc.</p>
<p>You find it hard to imagine that private school kids are 4x more like to apply to elite schools like Yale than public school kids? Doesn’t surprise me at all. (I have no idea whether or not this is true, I’m just saying it wouldn’t surprise me.)</p>
<p>Private school kids are more likely to have better resources than public school kids in general. They are more likely to come from wealthier families, allowing them to have benefits such as tutoring etc. Private school kids are more likely to have educated kids compared to public school kids. There is a much smaller percentage of public school students applying to HYP than private schools, especially GLADCHEMS. At my public school, less than 1% of the seniors apply to HYP.</p>
<p>^^Yes, but the size of the senior class in many public schools are much larger than that in a typical private school, so number wise it’s hard to say who is the “winner”… I realize I’m posting too much too quickly in this thread, but let me make my position clear on the topic of “favoring”. I basically agree with Classof2015HS in that I don’t believe HYP are “favoring” private schools. There are just more qualified applicants from private schools due to various reasons, sometimes making it even harder for the students from very competitive high schools (not limited to private schools in that sense) to get in the most selective colleges as colleges emphasize the diversity of student body.</p>
<p>It’s also important to remember that students in private schools are more likely to have parents passionate about education, and who find the state options inadequate. I’d be surprised if this attitude didn’t carry over when making choices about where to apply.</p>
<p>A lot of the private high schools (be they “elite” such has Harvard-Westlake and Andover or Catholic schools) have admissions programs that reach out to lower socio-economic family students (many of whom are minority kids). Some of the students who go from private high schools to “elite” colleges are this students.</p>
<p>Also don’t forget that the 44% statistic applies to the <em>entering</em> class, not the admitted class. Yale does not get 100% yield, so we don’t know how many of the 30% (or whatever the percentage is) who went elsewhere were from public schools. It is possible that the public school “rich” admittees are not as rich as the private school admittees, and if so, they might be the ones who go elsewhere based on $$.</p>
<p>First, Harvard-Westlake and Andover are in a tie. Both have 42 students attending. So, post #1 is inaccurate when it says that H-W has taken over the top spot from Andover. </p>
<p>Second, Hopkins is a private school in New Haven. My understanding is that many Yale faculty send their kids there. Since Yale, like most top schools, gives a definite “tip” to faculty-brats, this may explain why it does so well in terms of Yale admissions. </p>
<p>Finally, I agree with those who note that the top prep schools are more diverse than they used to be. Prep for Prep, A Better Chance, etc., kids are included in the private school totals.</p>
<p>“But I find it hard to imagine that 10% of the nation’s HS graduates from private schools consist of 43% of Y or P’s applicant pool. It may be true that Ivy League colleges are more popular in private schools but in this day and age with the financial aid programs these colleges have more and more public students and their families may realize that it could be the “best deal” out there for them too.”</p>
<p>Public school students in upper middle class areas, sure. Public school students in general? I think you’re kind of remaining blissfully ignorant of the many inner city public schools where getting a kid to any college is a big deal, schools in rural areas or states like ND or WY where Ivies / elites simply aren’t on the radar screen, and the many public schools in states with excellent state flagships where no smart kid is “suffering” or “settling.” I think your viewpoint reflects an upper middle class, East Coast centric view of public schools. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t find it hard to believe at all that private school students make up 40% of these applicant pools. By definition, sending your kid to private school means more involvement on the process than sending your kid to the local public. (And I sent my kids to local public, so no aspersions being cast.)</p>
<p>Time and again there have been posters on CC saying things like “My child’s [private] school is a feeder school for HYP”.</p>
<p>Our family went on one college tour where we met a college counselor at a exclusive private high school in the Southwest. She was spending her summer touring colleges from South Carolina to Maine so that she could “recommend appropriate colleges” for her students. On her list were most of the Ivy League schools. Her job also included developing working relationships with admissions staff at each school to help her students get admitted.</p>
<p>Meeting her was an eye-opening experience for me. Most public schools don’t have designated college counselors. The guidance counselors also have to administer tests, arrange for pregnant students to stay in school, and distribute community college information. They don’t have time to “develop relationships” with admissions officers at state universities, much less ones far away at Ivy League schools.</p>
<p>Students at exclusive private schools get a leg up in the admissions process. I don’t resent those students for it as long as they are humble and willing to acknowledge that they are privileged in that way. We all should acknowledge that we’re privileged in some way – whether it is secure finances, a stable family, a supportive church, good health, or just being born in the United States. My children haven’t been pushed to apply to HYP or even had a counselor to hold their hand during the college application process. However, they have been privileged to go to schools where people of very diverse economic circumstances genuinely care about each other and offer support whenever it’s needed. That is a privilege more precious than anything money can buy.</p>