<p>^^No, you got it wrong. It seems to me that POIH is just trying to validate her daughter’s school, a young day school with high ivy matriculation stats but fewer famous alum that didn’t make its way to the Fortune 20 prep schools list.</p>
<p>Benley–go back to POIH post #367. In external links at the bottom, you will find a link to NAIS (National Assoc. Independent Schools). Go looks at the stats. </p>
<p>It lists 524,806 total day school and 36,873 total boarding. Go to the US census stats. I saw that for the 2004 census, there were 16.8 million students in US high schools. </p>
<p>Assuming equal distribution over all grades, each grade has 4.2 million students. 12 grades gives you 50 million students in schools and approx 550,000 at privates. So, approx. 1%.</p>
<p>The division between day and boarding POIH gave doesn’t seem to square up.</p>
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All this time I thought POIH was a gentleman. Man, I’m completely messed up. But then again, I went to public school.</p>
<p>This is why I can’t quite wean myself off CC. It’s just too entertaining! I feel like I inhabit a slightly different universe than the prep school - private school supremacy group. I’m a native Californian, and boarding school wasn’t even on my radar. I didn’t even know what a Preppie was until I got to college (more mature? Um no, I don’t think so…). The only kid I know from here who got sent to an elite East Coast boarding school rebelled after 2 years and came back to California.</p>
<p>Because we live in an affluent area we have lots of good choices for hs, both public and private. Back in 4th grade when my d’s best friend was talking about private hs my d said, “My dad went to Localhigh, and I’m going to Localhigh.” That made things so simple - no SSAT’s no shadowing, no applications, no rejections, no extra stress. When my s was ready for hs I said, “The car is going to Localhigh, so you’re going to Localhigh.” Actually, because Localhigh is fairly large (!,500 or so students) it offered all sorts of choices that the privates within reasonable driving distance didn’t - not just a wider choice of friends (and not all friends have to be leaders or even college-bound to have something to offer) but more choice of activities and classes. </p>
<p>For people like POIH whose daughter got a great private-school education - terrific! It’s just one path, however. My kids did just fine in college admissions and have an extra $120,000 in their pockets as a result of not going to private hs. As my mother used to say, that’ll buy a lot of enrichment…</p>
<p>I looked at the list on POIH’s wiki post of the private prep schools that have admission rates of 30% or less. I then went to my S’s school (on the list) and went back to his grad year (2007) and found the announcement. 25 NM semifialists, 23 commended. A later release said 22 finalists and I recall him mentioning to me that those 3 who didn’t get finalist were guys who didn’t bother to turn in the required papers. </p>
<p>That means 48 of the students in the 2007 class were in the top 3% or less on a national standardized test. Those 48 were out of a total class of 87. Not 187 or 287. 87. </p>
<p>Phillips Academy had 21 semifinalists for the class of 2008 (the oldest one I could find) and an average size class at Phillips is 250-ish, right?</p>
<p>While my S’s Ivy admission rate is much lower than Phillips, the competition level isn’t. Geographic location, profile of alums do make a difference in IVY admissions.</p>
<p>But, I believe that the private school experience does not necessarily make the student more intelligent, mature or poised. But, it may mean that he is better educated.</p>
<p>POIH, this is purely “technical”. By reading the stats posted on NAIS website, in 2009-2010, among the total of NAIS and non-NAIS schools private day vs boarding enrollement is 86% vs 14%. Assuming 1% of all students go to private schools, then 0.86% of them are from private day schools and 0.14% from boading schools (did I do it right?). How did you come up with 0.5% vs 0.4%?</p>
<p>The skids of the admission process were greased for my average (at best) kids . Their less than impressive applications were buoyed by:</p>
<p>Parent(s) Occupation(s): Magnate / Socialite</p>
<p>07DAD, Phillips Academy’s graduating class is usually larger than 250. It’s more like somewhere between 280-320. The PSAT test apparently is not hurting their chances of getting into ivies, but does it indicate their intelligence, maturity or poise? Well maybe or maybe not?</p>
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<p>I don’t need validation. Just to clarify that I’m a dad and DD is a sophomore at MIT but still here is the latest news about her HS, which just became the only school in nation to have two intel finalists.</p>
<p>[Harker</a> News [online] | Harker is Only School in Nation With Two Intel Finalists](<a href=“http://news.harker.org/blog/2011/01/26/harker-is-only-school-in-nation-with-two-intel-finalists/]Harker”>http://news.harker.org/blog/2011/01/26/harker-is-only-school-in-nation-with-two-intel-finalists/)</p>
<p>For those interested in MT:
[Harker</a> News [online] | S.F. and S.J. Productions of “The Nutcracker” Feature Harker Dancers](<a href=“http://news.harker.org/blog/2010/12/21/sf-and-sj-productions-of-the-nutcracker-feature-harker-dancers/]Harker”>http://news.harker.org/blog/2010/12/21/sf-and-sj-productions-of-the-nutcracker-feature-harker-dancers/)</p>
<p>For 07DAD: DD batch had 53 NMSF, 42 Commended out of total of 167.
2010 class had 50.
[Harker</a> News [online] | 50 Seniors Named Nat’l Merit Semifinalists](<a href=“http://news.harker.org/blog/2009/09/16/class-of-10-boasts-astonishing-50-national-merit-semifinalists/]Harker”>http://news.harker.org/blog/2009/09/16/class-of-10-boasts-astonishing-50-national-merit-semifinalists/)</p>
<p>Off the FAQ at Phillips Academy:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Benley-- can Phillips claim the credit for maturity or poise when many, many of the graduates have less than 3 years at the school. If I read correctly, there is a 41%matriculation rate to Ivies. Heck, nealy 100% of those 145 students could be second, third or fourth year admits. </p>
<p>A strong argument can be made for “packaging” of already proven academic and maturity champs at what is essentially a “finishing school.” A school like Harker gets many kids at young ages when there is a stronger argument that it has influence on maturity and poise by the time of graduation.</p>
<p>POIH–I think those kind of numbers speaks volumes for the rigor of Harker. Schools that have over 50% in the top 3% of a national standardized test provide a pool of students that exceeds most very selective colleges. I can see why you question the lack of recognition!</p>
<p>07DAD: I believe private/prep schools are lumped into an entirely different category for National Merit purposes. No idea what the cutoffs are.</p>
<p>Anyway I highly doubt too many of those people care one bit about National Merit. National merit is for the masses. Not the elite.</p>
<p>I am amazed at the continuing arguments here. What’s there to argue about? Prep school students get top notch education and it is probably worth the money if you can spare it.</p>
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<p>That’s very nice, POIH. 57% of the class!</p>
<p>60% of D1’s senior class is NMSF or commended. It’s a public entry-by-test magnet. Mostly not Jewish, a range of vacuums per household, and no idea about how many have Grey Poupon.</p>
<p>07DAD:
</p>
<p>Thanks for understanding.</p>
<p>Re Andover’s number of semifinalists: Massachusetts and the New England Boarding Schools category typically have the highest cutoff score in the nation, due to the concentration of boarding and day private/prep schools and excellent public schools. So a private school in most other states of the union could achieve a higher percentage of NMSFs more easily.</p>
<p>But what I really want to know is, when did people start calling it “Phillips Acdemy”? Despite the fact that “Phillips” is part of their name, they’ve always been called Exeter and Andover where I come from.</p>
<p>anothercrazymom, your unfortunate S may be doomed to a “lesser Ivy” like mine. Soon you too may be slinking around town in disguise. I’d look into conversion: it may not be too late.</p>
<p>Regarding mustard, it is time to put this to rest. Moutarde de Meaux is the mustard. Grey Poupon is a version manufactured for the masses</p>
<p>SlitheyTove:
</p>
<p>Can you provide a link to the school profile? I would be interesting in knowing such a school.</p>
<p>This is an urgent request:</p>
<p>Can someone please explain what it means if I have a central vacuum in my house? Does every receptacle in every room count as a separate vacuum cleaner?</p>
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</p>
<p>I thought cutoff for commended is same for all states and that is why it might be better indicator of strength of student population.</p>
<p>Does every receptacle in every room count as a separate vacuum cleaner?</p>
<p>Yes it does.
;)</p>
<p>I thought cutoff for commended is same for all states and that is why it might be better indicator of strength of student population.</p>
<p>It varies by state & from year to year.</p>
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<p>No doubt this is important.</p>
<p>And I think this is what people have been trying to point out to POIH. If you select for the kids who test well, by having a test for admissions and not admitting kids who score below a certain point, then you’re going to get a high percentage of kids who test well–much higher than a school that has to admit everybody. So how can the school take credit (the ‘nuture’) for the testing success, if they only admit the kids who are successful at testing (the ‘nature’).</p>
<p>And we know that elite colleges select for kids who test well. So again, how much is due to the school, and how much is due to the type of kid selected for?</p>
<p>Furthermore, families who send these kids to these kinds of school tend to value matriculation to elite colleges. They’ll have a higher proportion of top-notch kids applying to these schools. And many of these families will be more knowledgeable about the whole college admissions game and more pushy about making sure their kids do the ‘right’ thing.</p>
<p>So in this situation, it becomes hard to separate out the ‘nuture’ from the ‘nature’. </p>
<p>But vicariousparent is right–there is no doubt that schools like the one alluded to by the OP do provide an excellent education.</p>