Page 25 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 2 Winter 2014

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In an article from the December 1999 issue of the Yale
Alumni Magazine, writer Geoffrey Kabaservice perceived
a lackluster effort of Yale’s admissions office to attract stu-
dents who didn’t fit the typical mold. “During the early
1950s, the College made little effort to reach beyond its
traditional constituencies to identify and recruit new tal-
ent, and Yale regained a reputation for non-intellectual
conformity,” Kabaservice wrote, noting a high proportion
of legacies admitted to Yale. “It didn’t matter whether
they were bright or dull, as Yale accepted virtually all
minimally qualified legacies and graduates of favored
schools. Whatever places remained were distributed
among intellectually outstanding applicants from less
favored backgrounds and social, ethnic, and racial groups
– a neat reversal of the priorities to which Yale had
officially committed itself.”
Just as the student bodies of colleges of the 1950s and
1960s (and even into the 70s and 80s) mirrored the insti-
tutions from which they admitted the most students, so
do today’s. St. Paul’s today boasts 545 students from 36
states and 25 countries. The student body at St. Paul’s
reflects a changing society, and college choices of the
most recent graduating forms show that. Statistics pro-
vided by Pratt and the SPS College Advising Office re-
veal that the 143 members of the Form of 1986 applied
to 83 different colleges and matriculated at 42. In
contrast, the 140 graduates of the Form of 2013 applied
to 190 different colleges and matriculated at 64. Over
the past four years, SPS graduates have matriculated
at 113 different colleges, and 25 percent of the most
recent graduating class are the lone representatives
of their form at the college at which they matriculated.
“For many families, the belief is that St. Paul’s is a
speedway into the most selective schools,” says Bow-
doin’s Whitney Soule. “What’s interesting to me is that
schools like St. Paul’s have rightly focused on becom-
ing more diverse, so it makes sense to me that the
college list for the graduating classes would become
more diverse as well.”
Pratt and the other SPS college advisers – Heather
Deardorff, Parker Chase, and Erin Ainor – are accus-
tomed to fielding questions about
why the School no longer sends
the majority of its graduates
to a smattering of the
most selective schools.
Director of College Advising
Tim Pratt and his colleagues
work hard to find the best
college fit for each student.
PHOTO: Karen Bobotas