DFW HOYA
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
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Post by DFW HOYA on Aug 23, 2019 19:10:28 GMT -5
The days of the feeder schools are over, as colleges are now on a mission to diversify the demographic in every which way. There are still feeder schools in terms of applications, but the days of 20 guys showing up from Chaminade are long since passed. Admissions is much art as science, and Georgetown has been remarkably successful in positioning itself as an applications priority in what are called "independent" schools, formerly known as prep schools. Georgetown won't win the kid from Andover who wants to study geospatial science, but is well suited as an admissions options for a lot of others. Hard science applicants are always going to be an uphill climb. Even with Regents Hall, Georgetown is not going to be a draw for a segment of STEM students. It reminds me of a wisecrack from a former Dean of the College many years ago, who is said to have remarked that the only two things the College of Arts and Sciences was lacking was....the arts and the sciences.
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Bigs"R"Us
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
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Post by Bigs"R"Us on Aug 23, 2019 21:33:18 GMT -5
There were about a dozen kids from Choate from my class alone. Regis in NYC and Holy Child in Rye still get multiple kids into GU. I had some Exeter and Andover kids in my dorm freshman year. Kids that wanted to go to Harvard and Yale, but didn’t get in. Smart as hell and very successful today.
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nbhoya
Bulldog (over 250 posts)
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Post by nbhoya on Aug 24, 2019 14:00:37 GMT -5
The days of the feeder schools are over, as colleges are now on a mission to diversify the demographic in every which way. The New England prep feeder is alive and well
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Bigs"R"Us
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
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Post by Bigs"R"Us on Aug 24, 2019 14:29:24 GMT -5
The NYC elite private schools are finding it harder to get multiple kids into an elite college these days.
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Post by CountAardvark on Sept 2, 2019 4:45:38 GMT -5
Huge Hoyas Hoops fan, have been following this forum for years, but just recently joined. I live in Maine and my daughter is about to complete her sophomore year in high school. She is in the top 10% of her class, and is the class president. She’s in the National Honor Society, Student Council, Key Ckub, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and a bunch of other groups. Realistically, she’s probably in 10 extra curricular activities. I fulfilled a lifelong dream in October when I stood in McDonough Gym for the first time. I’ve been to a bunch of New England colleges, as well as Princeton, Penn State, and most notably Syracuse, where I proudly donned my Georgetown attire despite the heckling I knew I’d endure. Georgetown was easily the most special campus I’ve ever been on. Everything about that day was magical. Long story short, my daughter fell in love at Georgetown. Everything about Georgetown was all she’s ever thought of when the discussion of college has come up. So my question is this, and I’m a realist...does she stand a prayer’s chance of ever getting in to a place like Georgetown or is it simply a pipe dream? She’s a wonderfully special kid, but I also understand the odds are stacked against her. Any guidance and brutal honesty from any and all would be greatly appreciated. I'm a current junior in the SFS, class of '21 -- if you or your daughter have any questions about life at Georgetown I'd be happy to answer through PM.
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 2, 2019 16:18:34 GMT -5
The days of the feeder schools are over, as colleges are now on a mission to diversify the demographic in every which way. The New England prep feeder is alive and well I'm interested in this topic that I actually do make a point of picking up a copy of the graduation book each year and perusing the names of graduates - mainly the SFS and my graduate program, but also at least a glance through the other schools - to look at the listed schools of prior attendance. I don't have any specific insight into the patterns at Georgetown, beyond what Charlie Deacon tells the AAP toward the start of each interview cycle, since it's now been a decade since I was in his employ. What I've gleaned from the graduation books seems to track with my suppositions, though, the main ones being (in slightly oversimplified form): 1. The various New England prep schools remain well-represented, in part because they have seen their pipelines into the Ivies winnow down. We have made a point over the years of staying on good terms with the counselors and administrators at Choate, Exeter, Andover, St. Paul's, Loomis, Hopkins, etc., and a big part of the return on that investment is those counselors raising Georgetown as a prime option. It's also important to note that the kids coming out of those schools are no longer as near-uniformly the scions of the WASP elite as they once were. Indeed, the applicants most coveted by universities are those who add demographic diversity while also coming from a highly rigorous academic background, with all that entails. This includes, by the way, athletes - elite universities absolutely use their athletics programs as a way of boosting their demographic diversity, and elite private schools do as well. 2. The real dropoff has been in the continuing decline of parochial school representation in the Northeast and Rust Belt. A significant number of those schools and their communities have fallen on hard times, but even those that haven't find themselves in a demographic bust, relative to the boom in the Sun Belt and out west. The elite Catholic schools - Regis and other Jesuit schools, Delbarton, the Convent of the Sacred Heart, etc. - continue to do just fine, but as Georgetown's applicant pool has become self-selectedly Catholic, the competition from public and non-Catholic private schools has increased exponentially. Moreover, socio-economically, the families that form the basis of parochial schools in the U.S. are often in that upper-ish middle class tier that is most challenged by the current system of high tuition coupled with expansive financial aid. Where the 1% can afford sticker price, and those in the lower stratum of the middle class on down get pretty generous aid, the families in the middle get squeezed in a way that leads them to look elsewhere. 3. The range of schools represented continues to grow broader. This reflects, to me, a growth in the importance of class rank (or its closest available equivalent - many private schools have stopped providing rank) as a variable in admissions. There is a logic that holds most quantitative variables like standardized test scores, AP & IB, etc. to be inherently biased toward those with greater wealth and privilege, so while they do tell you something an applicant and his or her ability to do Georgetown-level work, they aren't necessarily great proxies for merit, much less desert (in the philosophical meaning of the word). Class rank, on the other hand, inherently contextualizes you within your surroundings. While that may not work well for a promising underprivileged student surrounded by wealthy classmates, it does help those who rise to the top of their school communities, which are often every bit as socioeconomically segregated as their broader communities. Long story short: these days, elite universities are now relatively more likely to take the valedictorian and salutatorian of an utterly unremarkable public school - in the belief that those kids have a preponderance of that all-important quality of grit - than the 10th or 11th ranked student from a highly regarded public school... or even many private schools. The thinking used to be that being 1 out of 68 at a more prestigious, academically stringent school was automatically better than being 1 out of 365 where the bottom 300 had no plans to go to college regardless. That thinking has been evolving of late, though of course in any given situation the devil is in the details.
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Bigs"R"Us
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
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Post by Bigs"R"Us on Sept 2, 2019 16:56:12 GMT -5
You can tell a lot about the university today by the way it represents itself through social media.
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RusskyHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
In Soviet Russia, Hoya Blue Bleeds You!
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Post by RusskyHoya on Sept 2, 2019 17:55:06 GMT -5
You can tell a lot about the university today by the way it represents itself through social media. I would certainly agree with that statement...while recognizing that, of course, how one interprets the University's representations of itself is very much in the eye of the beholder. For the purposes of this conversation, and the broader athletics conversation going on here on the TalkBoard and on HoyaSaxa.com more broadly, it is worth being explicit: there are very few schools in this country... or any country... that would include "What constitutes an authentic life?" in a * promotional video for prospective athletes.* If you want a summation of how Georgetown differs from most other places, this right here is it, in 5 minutes and 35 seconds:
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