<p>From the experience of people on this board, is there any pattern, usually, in the number of admitted students from the same source school, from year to year? in other words, if a selective school admits a relatively large number of kids from the same school on a given year, is there more chance of continuing the trend with the following year’s admissions, or, on the contrary, limiting the number of admitted students from the ‘source’ school?</p>
<p>This is a good question, but no way to answer for sure. I do know that certain schools took many kids from my children’s feeder school one year, and then none the next year. I think it depends upon the desirability of the candidates applying</p>
<p>I think it also depends on the schools in question. I know that, year after year, one prep school in particular takes a number of kids from the middle school my children attended, while the returns from other prep schools will ebb and flow over the years…it really does depend.</p>
<p>Last year Choate saw a very strong number of girl students academically, so they had to accept more girls and therefore many boys’ dorms were flipped. There was over a 2:1 ratio for girls-boys in the day student area. However, this year, 38 more boys were accepted, so they’re expecting the girl-boy ratio to even out in the next few years. So, if one year they accept an extraordinary number of either boys or girls, the next year they’ll probably try not to repeat that, or they’ll flip it.</p>
<p>Feeder schools usually send the same amount of students to one school each year, I believe. Obviously, if there are more qualfied students applying from one school, it’s going to be harder to get in, but it also makes it extremely beneficial if there are waitlists because the two schools are connected. On the other hand, schools try to maintain diversity by accepting kids from all areas of the country and not just one area. They don’t want 3/4 of their school to be from New England feeders.</p>
<p>I think there are lots of factors at work in this equation.</p>
<p>When a school gets applications from students from X middle school and they already have students from X middle school, the performance of the current students may have some bearing (positive or negative) on the current applicants. If X middle school’s students are doing well at the boarding school, obviously there is a halo affect. If the current students are problem children, I would imagine they may give more scrutiny to the credentials and recommendations of the new applicants, as obviously the current students didn’t live up to the expectations of their letters of recommendation and grades.</p>
<p>I would imagine that you might see lots of kids from a particular middle school go where they know some students as well, so you may have a herd mentality at work independent of what admissions does.</p>
<p>If your child’s school tends to place a lot of kids at a school where your child wants to apply, you might want to ask around at your school (the teachers can tell you informally) as to the credentials of the kids who were admitted in the past and see how your child stacks up. You might also ask the boarding school how the current students from your child’s middle school are doing. You might get a better feel for how your child will fit as a result.</p>
<p>For example, my school is considered a feeder school. Each year almost every single student who applies to boarding school applies to Deerfield, mainly because our school has such a strong connection with DA. Our headmaster went there, so he has great connections with them. However, sometimes people don’t get in who apply, but those who are qualified usually do, whereas some people who are equally qualified don’t. This is just from my experience. Our school is very savvy about the BS process, so they hold seminars and information sessions. They try to make it easy. We usually have a BS trip every year but not a lot of people applied this year so they didn’t have one.</p>
<p>What is the name of your school? Our school had 2 applicants to exeter and andover and 2 admits to both.The school fought the small exodus tooth and nail.Ironically several of the staff had worked at PA.Several teachers who encouraged the boys to stay put ended the year headed to grad schools like Harvard-Kennedy and columbia. very interesting.</p>
<p>I really appreciate everyone’s input. It is very interesting how it plays out - nice to think that admissions decisions, while not an exact science, still do follow a pattern.</p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t really want to disclose the name of my school publicly.</p>
<p>But it’s a big feeder school and many of the people here can afford boarding school, so many of them go. Many of their parents are alumni and their brothers and sisters also go to boarding school if they wish. Another option is staying home. Each year about 10-20 people apply but this year only 4 are going. Next year 3 will be going to boarding school so out of our whole class, that equals 7.</p>