<p>Guys, please be reasonable. The majority of Andover’s graduating class (85% or more) are students who have been with the school for 3 to 4 years. It’s certainly not entirely the school’s credit (the school tries to select the more mature and adaptable kids to join their community in the first place) but these kids joined the school at the impressionable age of 14 or 15, have lived away from home, juggled between rigorous academics, sports requirements, extracurricular activities, pressues from peers and families, taken pain to find their own ways to swim ahead in such a big pond full of big fish, and dealt with all other teenage issues at the same time. You tell me the fact that they attended Phillips instead of the public school or even a local day school has not at least partially contributed to their “matrurity, poise and intelligence”?</p>
<p>In response to the Race/Ethnicity prompt my kids indicated “Other: Power Elite”. I suspect it helped.</p>
<p>Just to be clear . . . despite claims to the contrary there is NO valid link between boutique mustards and admissions to prestigious colleges . . although, to echo POIH’s logic . . .</p>
<p>IF the households contain Dijon-flavored mustards </p>
<p>AND the children do not attend private Boarding schools </p>
<p>BUT the students are accepted into HYPed colleges </p>
<p>AND the parents were alums </p>
<p>THEN it proves your family’s seasoning is why the kids went to HYPed colleges.</p>
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</p>
<p>Put the above student–I mean mustard-- in a nifty bottle and then apply—</p>
<p>
[quote]
Our preferred strategy is often to create a branding strategy based on exclusivity. When a product is sold in a limited distribution basis, available in select stores, and usually at a higher price than similar products, consumers tend to attach a higher perceived value to these items.</p>
<p>There are numerous examples of exclusivity that can be used as a template when considering the proper strategy to utilize for a new consumer product launch. Retailers that sell high-end limited distribution products are very profitable and enjoy exceedingly high profiles. Bloomingdales, Tourneau, Neiman Marcus, Harvery Nichols, Harrod’s, and Ralph Lauren are just a few of the stores that appeal to the “carriage trade”. These stores seek goods of high quality, that can be priced at a premium, and that are not available from competitive outlets. This creates a loyal customer for the types of merchandise that can only be found in these doors.</p>
<p>Automobiles, jewelry, ready-to-wear, cosmetics, watches and home d</p>
<p>Just make sure your college “cuts the mustard.”</p>
<p>If during the interview they ask what type of mustard you have in your refrigerator, make sure you answer gourmet and not gourmett.</p>
<p>Better yet, bring the mustard to the interview and put it on the interviewer’s table.</p>
<p>Friends, I am in shock. I am stunned. I don’t know where to turn. Please, make sure you’re sitting down. I have some distressing news to relay.</p>
<p>It seems that Forbes Magazine does not recognize Grey Poupon as one of the Eight Great Mustards.</p>
<p>[Eight</a> Great Mustards - Forbes.com](<a href=“http://members.forbes.com/fyi/2007/0618/105a.html]Eight”>http://members.forbes.com/fyi/2007/0618/105a.html)</p>
<p>I am a broken husk of humanity today. The horror! The shame!</p>
<p>OK–but what is its US News and Daily Report ranking?</p>
<p>Did you notice, though, what mustard was number 7? “Silver Spring Beer 'n Brats - the Official Mustard of Lambeau Field”! I need to take this over to one of the threads in the Cafe…</p>
<p>SlitaheyTove - well, that just proves that rankings by Forbes are meaningless! Of course, I always suspected this - but now there is definitive proof.</p>
<p>I think it’s entirely appropriate to suggest that the education at, say, Andover, was “better” than the education my kids received at their fine-but-not-New-Trier-level public high school, and I am perplexed why we’re supposed to pretend it’s not so.</p>
<p>As with anything, life is full of tradeoffs. It goes without saying that most people can’t afford elite boarding schools of the $40K/year variety, and for those who can, they simply don’t want to send their children away – that the increase in the quality of the education simply isn’t worth not having their children around and the idea of sending the kids to boarding school is just of no interest. As with everything, each family gets to make that own decision. I think it’s disingenuous to suggest Andover wasn’t “better” - but “better” does not equal “and therefore worth it.” It wouldn’t have been worth it to me to send my kids away for prep boarding school.</p>
<p>Jokes aside, though I have no direct experience with the school, I do think a school like Harker helps their students get in the most selective colleges. As they have little prestige, largely no name recognition (to the east coast schools anyway), and no location advantage, the high ive matriculation rate does indicate that the school is doing something “right”. I <em>imagine</em> that something is clear focus and hard work in building students’ profiles based on each student’s strenghths. Now, you don’t have to go to Harker to have that of course if you, your school or your hired education consultant can do the same, but in any case isn’t what it means by “help” in college admission? To say that the same kid would achieve the same thing anywhere he/she is - in absolute terms - is correct, because you can build a same or not same but equally strong profile for the same kid anywhere, but in this context, the kids got into Harker and the parents paid tuition, and as a result the school helped (and especially to parents and students who are not so savvy in these things that’s treasure), which I think is a fair assessment.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I can say the same thing about the east coast boarding schools. They have the prestige, location advantage and the mythical “connections” with the elite colleges, yet their ivy matriculation rates are though higher not significantly so than a school like Harker, so I don’t think they help as much at least.</p>
<p>It does not matter what lists school makes. The most important is what student did at any school. Some schools are known to colleges even if they did not make any lists. Some of these prep schools have very limited number of AP classes because of simple reason: their “regular” classes are more challenging and prepare kids better for college than other schools’ AP classes (very well known fact from my D’s experience - graduating from college this year). Some rankings are based on number on AP classes. In addition, at D’s HS kids were not allowed to take AP’s before Junior year and no more than 3 AP classes per year. How about statistics that only one kid in senior class had GPA = 4.0uw? Does that included in ranking? Does it mean that the rest of graduates were below par or it means that HS grades harshly? If school is on a list, congrats, it fully deserved it. If it is not, it does not mean much, reputation is still there somehow.</p>
<p>Benley–if you are saying that top privates have superior college counseling and placement services to what is gererally available in publics, I agree with you 100%.</p>
<p>I agree with pizzagirl that a top flight private provides a top flight “education” but at a cost in money and time and experiences with the student’s family that a parent may not be willing to pay (even if able). </p>
<p>However, I view education as the training and honing of intellect. It does not make one more intelligent, just better educated.</p>
<p>I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on whether the private boarding experience provides for greater maturity or poise. By the way, Phillips Academy has days students. In your opinion, are the day students less mature and/or poised?</p>
<p>Do you have any idea how much the folded laundry service costs per week?</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I agree that schools like Andover provide one of the best educations available. Can’t see how anyone would argue with that. I agree with many things you wrote.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with this:</p>
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</p>
<p>We made no decisions as to where our kids went to high school and most of the people I know in my neck of the woods also did not make such a decision. The only option was the local public school. Not only don’t we have private day schools, but the vast majority cannot afford private K-12 education. It is what it is. It involved no decision making in terms of choosing a high school. </p>
<p>Last night, I attended a college admissions information session at a high school in my region (not our HS) as I gave one of the presentations. I first attended one of the other presentations. One of the speakers was an admissions officer from a university. Even SHE mentioned to this public school (in VT) audience, “when you went to high school, you didn’t get to choose, but now with college, you get to pick.”</p>
<p>Benley#433, that was another good and well-balanced post and I agree with what you say except:</p>
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</p>
<p>I think you are not giving enough credit to the admissions offices. Most of the top east coast schools like HYP have regional admissions officers whose job it is to gather detailed information about schools in their region. I am willing to wager all the mustard in my refrigerator that Harker school is very well known to the admissions officers serving that region. They probably have pretty detailed information about which courses are challenging at that school, what the grades on a transcript mean, how to interpret the letters of recommendation from the counselor and the teacher, and what extracurricular activities are particularly important at Harker. They may even have access to data on Harker admits from prior years and how they performed once they got to college. And a seasoned adcom will have access to this type of information on most of the “good” high schools- public or private- from the region.</p>
<p>So while your generic elitist snob with a park-facing property on the Upper East Side may not have heard of Harker, the admissions committees have.</p>
<p>
Day students in boarding schools are very much integrated in the community in terms of extracurricular activities on evernings and weekends and other school events geared for boarders. Many of them even just hang out in school during weekends. Some graduates who used to be day students did say socially they fell boarders are more adjusted and ready for college than they were. That said, day students have advantages. At this age, to have the good of both worlds may be a more moderate/better approach. Then that’s not everyone’s choice.</p>
<p>Yes, it is very expensive.</p>
<p>
I understand that, but this is business with lots of competitions. The spots in these colleges are limited. The ivy success of Harker is IMO “not proportional” to its prestige/name recognition. Besides, if you just want to add another way Harker is helping its students get into ivies, I am not against it at all.</p>
<p>vicariousparent…I agree that the adcoms at selective colleges who are assigned to regions, will have heard of Harker and the like, and be quite familiar with such schools.</p>
<p>However, they don’t know our high school. :D</p>