^^ That is the same explanation that qualified students that are not URM are getting for rejections, when they needed FA.
@sunnyschool that is my point. URM students are treated the same as other students in the admission process.
I highly doubt most AOs will give truly honest answers to those who don’t get accepted. It could open a can of worms. What’s the upside for the admissions office in doing so? Bottomline, it’s like the movie He’s Not That Into You. They are giving FA to somebody, just somebody else.
Well I don’t think we have stats broken down on percent of each subgroup Accepted/Rejected, do we?
So we won’t really know.
Consistent communication is good, but only tells us so much.
PS.Where does he attend, if you don’t mind sharing? The same applies, “Love the school that loves you <3” and sounds like he does, so all is good! 
I’m not claiming there is a benefit. I am claiming anecdotes about whether your kid got in are almost entirely useless to answering the OP’s question.
As doschicos points out there are feeder programs for URMs who likely need FA, likewise there are feeder JBSs and feeder private day schools for FP students. These feeder groups may give a false sense of what ADCOMS are looking for for those families NOT in these feeder groups.
Therefore because so many low income URMs come from these feeder programs, it looks like all URMs have an edge. Because so many FP kids from feeder private day schools and JBSs get in, it makes it look like all FP kids have an advantage which they do not.
Plus legacies have an edge and I bet an outsized portion of them are full pay.
I prefer not to state where he attend school. There are only a few African American males in each class and I want him to remain anonymous and keep some semblance of privacy. We are happy with where he is and embraced “love the school that loves you”. I still fell the need to help set the expectations for other URM parents so they do not believe everything they read on this site.
I have no way of knowing if the AO was honest. Her response, however, cemented for me that my child received no special treatment and had to bring the same qualifications as every other student applicant.
@sunnyschool I’m trying to better understand this:
Are you suggesting that because of worries about how high-performing kids will adjust to being in the bottom half or quarter of their classes, boarding schools will intentionally admit a good percentage of students whose test scores are below average to minimize their performance expectations?
I think Geographical diversity can be an important factor, also.
@AppleNotFar , I would say that when a student with lower academic stats is admitted, the AO is probably mindful of whether that student has some other attribute which will help him/her keep his self-esteem if/when he/she is in the lower part of the class academically. These schools chew up high achievers every year because they are no longer at the top of the class so admitting kids who will weather that (without starving, cutting, or otherwise hurting themselves ) is pretty important. I seriously doubt that lower performers are admitted to make other kids feel good!
@AppleNotFar What she said ^^ @gardenstategal
@gardenstategal no, I didn’t mean to say that what I thought @sunnyschool was suggesting was that kids with lower stats might be admitted to make other students feel better, but rather it seems to me that she is suggesting that kids with lower stats are admitted because they themselves would be less likely to be disappointed with performing in the bottom part of the class by virtue of having lower expectations because of their lower stats.
My own guess on this is closer to what I think you are hinting at: that schools admit the kids with the best stats possible (from the various buckets they are drawing from–athletes, legacies, diversity students etc), but from among those kids they look for those who are likely to adjust the best to no longer being at the top of their class. I would think that identifying this “adaptability” trait would not result in a negligible compromise in stats.
All buckets of applicants that are a purposeful component of all admissions decisions and class make ups have a somewhat lower bar: athletes, legacies, siblings. Why does no one dispute the fact these applicants have more flexibility in their stats but somehow it is impossible that that same flexibility is applied to Hispanic, black and Native American applicants? The fact is that ANY applicant who offers something that these schools want will be held to a lower set of standards if necessary to justify admittance. Not because they are unqualified but because they school has determined that what they lack in certain components of their application they bring something to the table that offsets their deficit. In fact MOST applicants have deficits. A significant number of academic super stars don’t have much else that they bring to the table. Star athletes that can still do the work are considered compelling because they have a minimum set of stats yet their effort and work as an athlete demonstrate their passion, work ethic and dedication. A URM applicant with straight A’s and lower SSAts who plays soccer may be a very attractive applicant. Is it fair that they get in over a straight A Asian student with a score of 99% who plays soccer ? Maybe , maybe not. Depends on one’s perspective. Does it help URM applicants simply to be a URM? Of course. It is a guarantee? Of course not? Remember that within any bucket of applicants there are further refinements like athletics, geography and gender. So if there are more black applicants from the northeast, those students are probably at a disadvantage to black applicants from other parts of the country. Just like every other bucket of applicants will be.
Why do you insist on believing that students in these buckets are not equally qualified as other students and bring the same qualifications? If one sibling is admitted why must the next sibiling be admitted with lower standards. Can’t they both be equally qualified? Are all athletes just dumb jocks? Why are you insisting that their standards are lower? Do you think there are no athletes who are just as highly qualified as others students? Are legacies really admitted because of lower standards? These students are not admitted because the standards are lower for them. They are just as qualified as other students. I refuse to believe that any of these schools are admitting anyone who can not be successful. There are enough applicants that are applying to these schools that they do not have to lower the standard to accept anyone.
@roethlisburger said, “I’m not claiming there is a benefit. I am claiming anecdotes about whether your kid got in are almost entirely useless to answering the OP’s question.”
The only way to answer the OP’s question is by anecdotes unless the AO from the schools decide to provide concrete evidence. No one here knows. The anecdotes share what we have witnessed from experience.
No one said all athletes are dumb jocks or that all siblings and legacies are less qualified.However there are instances where people are admitted with lower stats. Otherwise the schools would be admitting all 98-99th percentile candidates all the time. They look for more than just perfect stats. They look at the other things that they can bring to the table. They know that elite level athletes scores and grades can sometimes suffer because they are training 20+ hours/week and traveling. They know that the poor kid does have the money for an SSAT tutor. They know that the oldest sibling of a single parent household probably has to watch their siblings each night after school and may not have time for a ton of EC’s. Or what ever. These children all bring a type of diversity to the table that is valued even without a perfect stat. I know because my child fills a couple of those buckets and doesn’t have perfect grades or perfect SSAT’s. These kids are all so much more than a scores. They look for leaders, positive people, independence,kindness, all those soft skills. People who they want on their campus. Will they take someone who can’t be successful? Of course not, but grades and SSAT’s are NOT the only measure of success! Otherwise, there would be no need for essays, interviews, Recs, etc. they would just rank according to scores and take them from the top. So yes, sometimes standards are lowered. Even at A/E.
Distilled from all these posts. It looks like you have an edge if you are URM versus ORM, come from a feeder school or feeder program, FP or full FA, recruited athlete,are legacy or have a sibling, contribute geodiversity or some other form of diversity that the school wants or needs. But none of these alone will necessarily get you in. And “nice” no helicopter parents and top grades and SSAT are a starting baseline.
There was one school where we were basically told they didn’t like high stat kids because they were sometimes snobby to kids that were struggling academically. The school is known to be very sports focused and not a school you usually hear about on this board, but one that is respected and has excellent college matriculation. AO was basically telling us that son’s stats were too high. It was also the only school that outright asked where else DS applied. I think they don’t want to be a safety school. We weren’t viewing it that way as we “cast a wide net” due to needing FA. But, it was not a surprise when that rejection letter came.
@sunnyschool I took the liberty of editing your post quoted below. I replaced “athlete” with “minority”
Sounds pretty stupid, doesn’t it? Athletes are typically some of the academically highest performing members of high schools and colleges all over the country. The dedication and hard work necessary to excel in a sport translates very well to academics. Demeaning athletes by calling them inferior students is as ignorant and incorrect as saying the same thing about minorities.
My son is a dual sport recruited athlete with a very, very high 90’s SSAT with almost no prep and straight A’s since forever. Sorry you see him as a dumb jock. He may be operating on you someday.
that’s exactly what @sunnyschool did.