My children attend a “prep” school and I must say that I feel that my African American daughter may have faired better on her admission decisions (that we have received thus far) if she attended our local failing public school. Prep school students are sometimes hindered by the fact that there are so many high achieving achieving students within their particular class. While she is an exceptional student with a high GPA and great test scores, she happens to be just one of an extremely competitive class, which has already gotten her deferred to a school that many though would be a safety. I truly feel that in the current college application “climate” that nothing is certain and there really is no such thing as a safety, especially with students who have high stats being deferred from state schools and the sort.