<p>Earlier this afternoon my admissions letter from SAS arrived at my house (early, I’m aware - we don’t live too far away.). In the letter, it stated that applicants were admitted from a candidate pool of over 500 for 75 spots. They do over accept as all schools do, but I can’t imagine too many more than 75. If you do the math and say 100 candidates are admitted, that’s a 20% acceptance rate for 500 candidates applying for 75 spots. That’s not including the additional applicants after 500, which would very likely cause the acceptance rate to decrease even more. Compare this to the acceptance rate posted on boardingschoolreview.com that says 26%. That is outdated for sure, and I know Boarding School Review doesn’t always have totally accurate info, but the rate has certainly gone down in recent years. Those stats are comparable to some of the top New England prep schools.</p>
<p>Don’t mean to upset or worry anyone, as I know this is a nervous time - but I felt like passing on this information because it might be useful for people in this admissions cycle or for future cycles.</p>
<p>@twinsmama Good point, they would accept more than 75, but I can’t imagine too many more. The letter also said that 1-5 people are taken off the wait list each year, so they do accept more than 75, but I’m not sure how many more. The fact that so few people make it off the wait list each year leads me to believe that they maybe accept close to 100, but not more than that.</p>
<p>Admit rate won’t be set until WL movement is over. Assuming with a yield rate (adjusted after WL move) of 60%, then for 75 spots, 125 need to be admitted. 125/500=25%. If they achieve a higher yield rate then yes admit rate will decrease. Has the letter mentioned that they have received significantly more applications this year?</p>
<p>@Benley Admit rate won’t be set until wait list movement is over, but the letter I got said that 1-5 students get moved off the wait list each year, which would change these numbers only slightly. They could admit 125 with a yield rate of say 60% like you said, but those numbers (students accepted and yield rate) no one but the admissions office can know for sure. The letter this year did not state that they received more applications than usual, however, the one from last year did (I applied last year as well.)</p>
<p>I just checked the mail again since we also live very close to the school. We have not gotten anything. It will be in Monday’s mail. Fingers crossed.</p>
<p>I wonder whether the increase of applications is consistent across all demographic pools, or whether the increase is due primarily to more applicants from China. </p>
<p>As has been noted, they have 75 spots open…this does not mean they offer only 75 people admission. They do factor in yield. FYI, I think the class sizes at SAS are roughly:</p>
<p>Form III (9th grade): 60
Form IV (10th grade): 75
Form V (11th grade): 80
Form VI (11th grade): 80*</p>
<p>*Generally speaking, the school does not take new “one-year” seniors.</p>
<p>I believe the applicant pool has been over 500 the last two years, at least, an increase somewhat over the previous years. Last year may have peaked at around 530. Have no reason to think that more Chinese are involved; and know an informed source who heard that domestic interest in New England and Georgia plus points westward from there drove up numbers. The candidates needed can change quite a bit based on attrition and graduating class size, but mostly 75-85 range. Does all this really matter? I’d agree with Benley that the school is very happy with its applicant pool as it is, getting the beds filled as it has. And as 7Dad has written, the school loves families with admissible siblings; around 10-12% of the current families may have sibs attending. The sense of community feeling is enhanced by this. I’ve also noticed that the siblings, younger as well as older, often have outstanding achievements to their credit, and sometimes the families range from bigger donors to true development titans. I pass along this sense of things not because these details are gospel or insider info, but to help flesh out the picture that prospective families might be seeking. Very few schools in the country are like this one, sending kids to top colleges (<a href=“http://matriculationstats.org/boarding-school-stats[/url]”>http://matriculationstats.org/boarding-school-stats</a>) and yet so small, community/ethos oriented, and “southern inflected” (or “indie” as another applicant poster once wrote). </p>
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