This article will lay out expectations for general admissions to elite colleges based on my experience of having gone to a private high school in the U.S. and gotten into seven of the eight Ivies: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, and University of Pennsylvania in addition to West Point, Stanford, Duke, and the University of Michigan. In case you’re curious which Ivy I did not get into, it was Brown. This otherwise blessed flurry of admissions occurred back in the day when my Smith-Corona electric typewriter had to do the job of churning out application after application in a slow, tortured, and methodical way. My fingers flew like the wind across the keyboard, and the Smith-Corona’s digital screen responded in kind. However, the sheer volume of applications made the process haltingly slow.
How did I get into all of these schools, you might ask? I excelled in academics taking the maximum number of AP’s, winning the Department of History Award, and placing at a state-level engineering contest for bridge building. In addition to academics, I excelled at extracurriculars. I was a state, regional, and national level swimmer competing at the highest levels. I also played the flute in the high school orchestra and precision marching band, even marching at Disney World my senior year. I ended up at Harvard.
Nowadays, I am an academic tutor at Crimson Education and research mentor at Indigo Research working with high school students of all backgrounds, aspirations, and aptitudes. The basic advice I give to my students before applying to schools is to excel in their studies as much as possible; get help where necessary; pick out publishing opportunities, science competitions, and other academic events wherever possible. Finally, I advise my students to go into an extracurricular activity that will feature their athletic, artistic, or other talents at the local, national, and international level if possible. Sports like swimming, lacrosse, field hockey, ice hockey, football, and soccer fit the bill. Extracurriculars like dance, orchestra, and theater not to mention paid work and volunteering that have an impact on family and community are also meaningful. In all of these ventures, students have the potential to excel and should immerse themselves in them until they are achieving the goals that they set out for themselves.
Entrance into schools like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and so forth prioritizes students who achieve state, national, or international level recognition for their achievements. Extracurriculars are a wonderful and fun place to start where students can build friendships and camaraderies that last a lifetime and lead to successes on and off the field. If a student can go to a secondary school where they can maximize their talents, like Philips Exeter, Philips Andover, Choate, Deerfield Academy, etc., which also have the academic rigor and resources to facilitate their academic and extracurricular successes, then it becomes an almost automatic process of at least applying to these schools to set oneself up for success in applying to the Ivies. Hence, the projected timeline for planning starts early, and as feeders to the Ivies, the right boarding schools will set up students for success in their college applications over their competitors at other schools.
Please see below for the connection between the top three boarding schools and the Ivies. At each of these private boarding schools, you will find the academics and extracurriculars you need and as described above to open the door to the Ivies. Please look for my next blog describing what academics and extracurriculars exist at the various private boarding schools and how to maximize your time there in order to get into your Ivy of choice. Good luck!
Please see below for the citation for the three sources here:
- Philips Exeter Academy: Between 2021-23, ten or more students matriculated into each of Boston University, Bowdoin, Brown, University of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, George Washington, Georgetown, Harvard, MIT, NYU, Northeastern, Penn, Princeton, Tufts, UC Berkeley, USC, Wesleyan, and Yale. Over 10 students were admitted into UC Berkeley, NYU, Northwestern, USC, and Stanford. 99% of graduates attend four-year institutions. (citation)
- Philips Academy Andover: The Class of 2023 enrolled at a diverse array of institutions, with the most attending the University of Chicago (21), Harvard (12), Yale (12), and Stanford (11). In addition, over the past three years (Classes of 2019-2022), 30+ students have matriculated into Harvard, the University of Chicago, and Yale. Over 20 students have enrolled at BU, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, MIT, NYU, Northeastern, Stanford, Tufts, and UVA.
- Choate: In the past five years, the greatest number of Choate grads have enrolled at NYU (54), University of Chicago (46), Yale (41), Columbia (40), Georgetown (31), Northeastern (30), Cornell (30), Brown (26), UPenn (25), University of St Andrews (24), Boston College (23), and Harvard (20).
Reference for the above citation:
"25 Best Boarding Schools in the US – 2024 Edition." College Transitions. July 11, 2024. https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/best-boarding-schools-in-the-united-st
