Is there still hope??

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>I ended up not getting into the boarding school of my choice, so my dream of going to a great New England prep school is over… :frowning: I am now going to attend a small public school based around dual enrollment with a class of 50. In this program you take 3 APs and 4 dual enrollment courses at a time. About 10-15% of the class attend Ivies and 25-35% attend a top 25 school. I know this program is exceptional especially for a public school, but it’s just not what I wanted. If anyone was rejected by any of the elite schools such as HADES or anywhere elite please post below and tell me how you dealt with it. Does not getting into these schools mean not getting into an Ivy? Has anyone been rejected then gone to an Ivy anyway? Please someone give me inspiration of something that there is more than the prep school you went to.</p>

2

<p>Exeterdreamer, I am sorry that your dream of going to BS did not work out. However, if your primary reason for attending BS was for college matriculation you should know that the majority of matriculating students at most colleges come from public school. I have pulled the 2012 Harvard matriculating class stat for you. Link below:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/counselors/gc_newsletter_spring2012[/url]”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/counselors/gc_newsletter_spring2012&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Public school graduates…68%<br>
Private/parochial school graduates…32%</p>

<p>In general, there is so much more than the prep school you went to. I believe that if you pursue your passions and do your best at school and the activities you engage in success will follow. But who knows when that success will kick in or what it will look like…only time will tell. Going to BS does not guaranty Ivy admissions it only guarantees going to boarding school.</p>

3

<p>“Going to BS does not guarantee Ivy admissions it only guarantees going to boarding school.”</p>

<p>I wish more prospective BS applicants and parents understood this. It seems like some feel that going to an “elite” BS helps one get into an “elite” college…and again, your results may vary. According to the Andover (a school with which I have zero affiliation) site, while 14 kids in the class of 2011 ended up going to Yale, 10 ended up at USC and 9 to PSU. I doubt that any kid who could gain admittance to a school as selective as Andover would have trouble getting into one of the state schools out of his/her local public high school — especially if they are in-state.</p>

4

<p>Remember, the school doesn’t make you, you make the school.
Pick yourself up, and make use of your opportunities to make your dreams come true. Work hard and get yourself into the college of your choice. No, BS won’t get you into an IVY necessarily, nor will public school keep you from achieving your goals. You can feel sorry for yourself for a little while, then forget about it and get going.</p>

5

<p>Prep school admission is solely based on your performance in middle school (or your early high school ability, if you apply later on) while college admission is determined exclusively on your high school records. A lot of growth takes place between middle school and high school. Therefore it doesn’t follow that rejection to a boarding school will have any adverse effect (or any effect at all) upon one’s acceptance to university.</p>

<p>It seems that you are focused a little too much on name recognition of schools. A reason why you could have been denied at “HADES” schools is because you didn’t look at schools that were fits for your personality, while rather focusing on a select few high schools that are more selective than most of the colleges in this country. You also should consider the reasons that you want to attend an Ivy League school specifically in order to avoid being rejected from some colleges as well. They all provide their own unique experiences.</p>

<p>Personally, I also ended up not receiving any acceptance letters the first time I applied to boarding schools. I eventually decided that my public school did not provide me with the academic and social experience that I desired for high school so I applied a second time to prep schools with a focus on schools that were more appropriate for me. I will be a second year junior at a New England boarding school in the fall.</p>

6

<p>SevenDad: If by USC you meant the University of Southern California, it’s private, not public, and is our elite BS kid’s top choice. The program he’s interested in only accepts 50 kids a year, so the odds of acceptance are slimmer than HYPSM. :frowning: If you meant the University of South Carolina, sorry, my bad.</p>

7

<p>@VelveteenR: I stand corrected (there’s my East Coast myopia for you!). Thanks for the clarification. For some reason (maybe it’s the size and historical success of the football program?) I thought it was one of the UC schools.</p>

<p>But my point could be made with any number of schools on the list, which I got here:
[Phillips</a> Academy - College Matriculations & School Profile](<a href=“http://www.andover.edu/ACADEMICS/COLLEGECOUNSELING/Pages/SchoolProfileCollegeMatriculations.aspx]Phillips”>http://www.andover.edu/ACADEMICS/COLLEGECOUNSELING/Pages/SchoolProfileCollegeMatriculations.aspx)</p>

8

<p>Thank you so much for your replies, you have given me hope again. I realized the best way to think of it is that if I was not admitted to the most prestigious prep schools, it was for a reason. I would think that the school’s reason for not admitting me would be that I would not survive academically. I understand that high school is a long time for development and I think that by the time I apply for college a top 25 school should be in my reach.</p>