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recognized in recent years a need for heightened prepa-
ration, including an entire year devoted to SSAT prepara-
tion to meet the demand for higher board scores.
So what are independent schools looking for in today’s
applicants? The answers bear strong similarities to those
college admission officers might offer. Pam Safford at
Deerfield, where application numbers have risen from
1,000 to about 2,000 over the last decade (for less than
200 spaces each year), explains that her admissions team
begins with the assumption that every accepted student
will demonstrate a potential for excellence in core areas,
including an innate love of learning, intellectual curios-
ity, and the desire to contribute
to a thriving community. Once
those ideals are met, admission
staff begin to consider campus
needs: What specialty will com-
plete the orchestra? Who will
lead the service clubs? Which
students will anchor Deerfield’s
athletic teams?
“We are also trying to popu-
late programs,” Safford says.
“We have a great privilege to
take on this challenge, but it’s
also an incredible burden. It
never feels like we are big
enough to fill our programs
with all the kids we need. This
means there are incredibly
interesting, bright humane
kids who love to learn and will
appreciate this community
who may not end up getting in.
It’s a killer because you meet
these kids and this is a very per-
sonal business. Most of these
families are in it for the right
reasons, and it can be an enor-
mous sacrifice emotionally and
financially. But their children are being compared with
other kids with the same hopes and dreams and ambi-
tions. At least 80 percent of the students applying are
eminently qualified.”
Independent school admission directors are the first
to acknowledge that not every school is for every appli-
cant. As a result, they help families focus on finding the
right fit – whether at their school or a competing institu-
tion. This is particularly notable for alumni with aspira-
tions of the next generation carrying on the family tradi-
tion at a particular school. Bohan personally reviews the
application of each student with a legacy connection to
St. Paul’s. He also admits that sometimes a student’s prior
connection to the School provides a greater knowledge
of the applicant and his or her family, allowing for a more
detailed picture of what the right fit means.
“While we certainly still value
alumni and family connections
to St. Paul’s,” Bohan says, “the
competitive nature of the pro-
cess has changed everything,
including the alumni admit rate,
which is now about 45 percent.
I reach out in most cases when
it doesn’t look like it will work
out. I hope that with each pas-
sing year the new reality of the
admission process becomes
more widely known.”
Andover’s Jim Ventre, a
28-year admissions veteran,
also reads the application of
every alumni child. “If there is
a challenge to their admission,
I personally reach out to those
families. But it’s my least fav-
orite thing to do, deliver bad
news to them.”
Andover, which has about a
52-percent admit rate for lega-
cies, according to Ventre, goes
as far as to identify through the
process alumni children who
are not the right match for Andover, transitioning those
applicants from, says Ventre, “Andover admission to
Andover educational consulting. I am regularly counsel-
ing alumni families about their school choice, so part of
what you will see is a higher admit rate for alumni, but
some have already been filtered and we help them find
the right place.”
Deerfield, says Safford, could fill its entire incoming
class with applicants who have a sibling or legacy con-
nection. Since 2010, Deerfield’s acceptance rate has
averaged 14.8 percent overall, with an average admis-
sion rate of 42 percent for legacies in that same span.
While the admit rate for these students is certainly
higher than that of applicants with no prior connection
to the school, it is “far from a slam dunk,” Safford adds.
The Deerfield admissions staff makes itself available
“We are a
medium-sized
school. There are
only so many spots,
only so many seats
in Chapel. When you
have 1,600 applicants,
you can fill 150 spots
pretty quickly.”
– Scott Bohan ’94
