My daughter (current 8th grader at an independent day school) is applying to about five boarding schools in the mid-Atlantic region. My research indicates that the acceptance rate for these schools varies from about 15%-35%. Each school has a class of approximately 100 kids entering in 9th grade. I don’t know what their yields are (although I would love to!), but let’s assume that they need to admit between 150-200 kids to fill their classes of 100 (50%-66% yield). Ok, so a school with a 25% acceptance rate and a 50% yield rate would need 800 applicants.
We have been in the process of scheduling in-person interviews. Some of the schools have a calendar where you can just sign up. Nearly all of the slots are available, even on popular days where kids are off school or on weekends. I have always received my first choice of interview slots.
Putting together the math and the real world experience of scheduling interviews, especially where you can see weeks and weeks of available interviews on the calendar during October and November. I just find it really hard to believe that these schools are interviewing ~800 kids. I know that some people interview virtually, and some interviews may take place at school fairs. But, still…
This causes me to question the acceptance rates I find online. Are the statistics manipulated to have us think it is more difficult to get in than it actually is? What counts as an “applicant”? If someone submits an inquiry form but doesn’t do anything with it, is that an applicant? Any insights would be greatly appreciated.
Keep in mind that most schools have multiple admissions officers available to do interviews. So you could see 10 am is available but 4 out of the 5 admissions staff have interviews already booked at that time. There is still a spot available for you at that time, but others are also there. We have been to 2 interviews in CT and 2 in MA already this fall and in all cases there have been multiple students/families in the waiting room at the same time.
It is part of the process of trying to figure out which schools are realistic for my kid and which are not. If a 20% acceptance rate is actually a 40% acceptance rate, that changes the calculus.
Of course, there is more than one slot per day/time. At our first interview, there were two other kids there at the same time as my daughter. But, let’s go back to the numbers. There are about 60 interview days during the fall season. Most schools started the third week of September and run through the third week of November, break for Thanksgiving, and then have another 10 or so days of interviews available in December before the holidays. Back to our hypothetical school that has 100 spots to fill, a 50% yield (i.e. will admit 200), and a 25% acceptance rate, they need to interview 800 kids in 60 days (or even 700 kids if we say 100 kids do virtual). That’s more than 10 kids per day. Like I said, the numbers and the real-world experience of interviewing and scheduling interviews just don’t add up for me.
The schools are generally honest. What you can’t know is the selectivity within each bucket. A school may have a 5% acceptance rate for students from China. It may have an 75% acceptance rate for full pay boarders and a 20% acceptance rate for boarders needing more than 50% FA.
The school may have more female applicants than male and may be striving for a 50/50 mix.
In the end, the single statistic presented by the school is unlikely to apply to you. In a process like this, there’s comfort in knowing. Which you can’t. And it’s easy to think that because the schools are holding the cards, they’ve also messed with the deck.
My guess is that despite your worry, you will probably be fine. Schools really want to enroll kids who will thrive there, and at some, you’ll probably both feel it and at others, maybe not.
If they say it’s a 20% acceptance rate, then it’s not a 40% acceptance rate.
What’s unknown in every single number that you made up, is where your hypothetical kid fits on the hypothetical admissions rate at the hypothetical school. If the kid likes the school, apply. If not, don’t. But unless the kid is obviously unqualified, there is nothing to be gained by analyzing past incomplete data.
A 20% acceptance rate is a 20% acceptance rate. Nobody here knows how your applicant will fall in terms of any attributes a particular school is looking for.
It is always best to apply to a broad range of schools in terms of selectivity if the student definitely wants a boarding school.
In our experience, outside of the most selective schools which are hard for almost everyone to get into - the toughest admissions across schools are for international students (especially those from countries with a large number of applicants) and those who need substantial FA.
Also, IMO, acceptance rate at a hidden gem school may be based on a meaningfully different applicant pool than the acceptance rate at a GLADCHEMMS school. So the acceptance rate may appear only slightly less selective, but for a competitive applicant at the hidden gem school, it’s actually not nearly as selective.
This is very helpful perspective. I was looking at as a homogenous acceptance rate, and you correctly point out the nuance. Do you have any sense of the proportion of international applicants vs. U.S. applicants at schools like Hill, Lawrenceville, Peddie, St. Andrew’s (DE)? Maybe my estimate that most kids are interviewing in-person is wrong and that’s how they get to 800 applicants but still have lots of interview slots available.
My guess is that the vast majority of foreign international applicants (as opposed to US students living abroad) interview virtually, with the exception of those attending junior boarding schools.
And I agree with earlier poster that there are multiple admissions officers interviewing so there’s more availability than demand. Schools schedule interviews from early September all the way to very close to application deadline in January. Some families plan to apply to these schools in advance but others are deciding late in the fall or even in January! So don’t read too much into availability of interview slots.
Admissions officers at some schools travel the world to generate interest in their schools and conduct interviews while there. Some schools have faculty etc in addition to admissions conduct interviews. There are too many variables and unknowns to make any conclusions.
Our son interviewed at two schools during a TSAO (Ten Schools Admission Organization) event that was held at a hotel in our area.
Given multiple interviewers, interviewing ten or more applicants a day is easily achievable.
Also note that many interviews are conducted by local alumni. Our son interviewed with a Choate alum at a local Starbucks near our home in AZ. He never set foot on campus until re-visit days and never saw the admissions office or met any of the admissions staff.
I think a lot of schools are doing more than 10 in a day, especially on weekends or days that public schools do not have school. We were at a school on Columbus/Indigenous People’s day and they mentioned they had over 30 interviews scheduled for that day. Also, this past weekend we went to an open house in the morning and they had interviews scheduled all afternoon, so I imagine they also had close to 30. Most schools will also interview through January, we went to a mid-January interview 2 years ago when my son was applying. Other posters also have good points about local alum interviews, international interviews, etc.
I don’t know the breakdown of domestic/international at those schools. I do know that at L’ville when DS was applying (years ago) that the day pool was more competitive than boarding. And that L’ville gets a lot of international applicants.
Many schools, particularly after having had no choice during covid, became much more open to zoom interviews, so don’t underestimate how many students will do that. Most international, and many who can’t afford the time or money to visit. And sometimes, when schools travel, they do interviews there.
800 applicants is not so many. Put another way, if 5 schools have 150 new students each and every student applies to all 5 schools, that’s 750 applications for each school. That’s insanely oversimplified, because there are different overlaps. Not everyone will be accepted everywhere, and not everyone will attend where accepted, but if they’ve all applied thoughtfully to 5-6 schools, they’ve all contributed to the applicant pool at each of those schools. In the end, you only need one!
There are some schools that require the admissions interview. There are some schools where the admissions interview is optional but strongly recommended. There are some schools where the admissions interview is optional. This conversation should also take this into account.
I think the smaller schools can be harder to predict? They might also need more well rounded kids who can play multiple sports/arts participation?
Example: A specialist soccer kid takes up one of 35 boys spots at St. Andrew’s. Similar thing going on at Groton. But they have three sports terms and a play to produce. Kid must bring more than soccer. The larger schools can take those specialists and not sweat it as much.
I think small schools screen especially carefully for character and kindness. The impact of not doing so would be really problematic to small numbers. So perhaps ask your references to stress/address this? And I would definitely be willing to try new co-curriculars. This becomes less critical as schools get larger. I’ve come to this opinion after several conversations with staff at various schools. Perhsps run your child through those filters when choosing how many to apply to.
As for interviews, we are overseas in a country that gets zero recruitment. We wake our son at an unholy hour on Saturday before rowing and ply him with tea for his zoom interviews. Not ideal, but I do think many interviews are held online.
Lville is among the top competitive schools in the country (both day and boarding). It is about 30% day. There is a large international population. As a school with about 820 students there are multiple admissions people on staff. At any given time there are multiple prospective families in the admissions office meeting with various people on the admissions team.
Every year tons of very qualified students apply to lville and the other top ranked schools only to be disappointed. Cast a wider net as it varies what each school is looking for at any given cycle.
Also many schools interview over the summer as well. Thousands of students are applying, many to the same schools. Good luck. Feel free to message me re lville.
It is harder than you think, especially if you need financial aid. I’m applying to private high schools right now, but my older brother went through this process last year and the year before. It’s way harder than it looks. For example, my brother was always in the top 2 of his class at a top-50 middle school in the country, and he had a lot of strong extracurriculars, like qualifying for USAJMO in 8th grade and attending Juilliard Pre-College. And guess what? He didn’t get into most of his top choices, and the one top choice school that accepted him didn’t offer enough aid for him to attend. It’s better to apply to a broad selection of schools, especially since acceptance rates are decreasing due to an increase in applicants.
My older brother is currently working for the admissions office in his current high school and from what he tells me the information that most schools put online are accurate.