...HAVE THINGS CHANGED?

In the past, students who went to elite New England prep schools largely benefitted in the admissions process due to their schools' close ties with Harvard. Today, these traditional feeder schools continue to send their graduates to the College in hordes, leaving many to speculate...

Like the patches of ivy that scale Harvard's aged buildings, a small group of elite New England prep schools seem now, as always, to have an intimate relationship with the College.

Graduates of feeder schools such as Choate Rosemary Hall, Boston Latin, Groton, Milton Academy, Phillips Exeter and Phillips Academy in Andover have attended Harvard for centuries, and until recently they often made up a great majority of the College's student body.

Indeed, 30 or 40 years ago, admission from these prep schools could be secured with "little more than a handshake," says Choate alum Ted B. Ayers '50.

"Harvard was the only place I applied to, and nobody seemed too concerned," Ayers says. "It was a more casual and friendly atmosphere."

Like about 80 percent of his Choate classmates, Ayers says, he was a legacy. With that attribute, and the Choate diploma in his pocket, admission to Harvard was no sweat.

Many feeder school alumni from Ayers' time echo his remarks, recalling the ease with which they passed from their prep schools to Harvard.

"If you had fairly decent grades, it wasn't a problem," says John A. Seymour '50, adding that 78 out of 80 applicants from his Exeter class of 1946 enrolled at Harvard. "I really didn't consider going anywhere else."

But the admissions policies that Seymour and Ayers knew have undergone considerable reform in the past several decades.

In 1952, shortly after his appointment as dean of admissions and financial aid, William J. Bender set up an alumni network to help recruit students from across the country, putting new emphasis on geographic diversity at the College.

Since that time, admissions standards overall have tightened considerably and the proportion of private school students at the College has plunged to less than a third.

Harvard alumni who graduated several decades ago, noting the changes in the admissions process and the dramatic rise in applications in recent years, question whether they could have succeeded in today's more competitive climate.

"I would have had to work one heck of a lot harder than I did if I were to get in today," says Oliver Brazier '56, a graduate of Exeter.

Significant Numbers

Still, despite the increased competitiveness of today's admissions process, the traditional feeder schools continue to send students to Harvard in droves.

A brief look through the first-year facebok turns up these fairly sizeable numbers for the entering Class of 1994: 27 from Exeter, 14 from Boston Latin, 13 from Andover, 11 from Milton and nine from St. Paul's.

For the Class of 1993, the trend is much the same: 22 from Exeter, 22 from Andover, 15 from Boston Latin, 13 from St. Paul's and eight from Milton.

Many Harvard students who recently graduated from these prep schools say it's no coincidence that these numbers, though smaller than they were in the past, are still substantial. They say they were acutely aware of their school's long history of intimacy with Harvard when applying to colleges.

Valerie J. Anderson '93, a graduate of Boston Latin, says that, looking over the "distinguished graduates" in her school's auditorium always serves as a reminder of her school's close connection with Harvard. "You see the names of Leverett, Eliot, Lowell, Winthrop--they're all there," she says.

"That's the attitude that is spread around the school, that there's a long connection between St. Paul's and places like Harvard," says Brenda C. Couglin '93.

And some students say they are confident that these connections gave them a leg up in the admissions process.

Couglin, like many graduates from feeder schools who are at Harvard, says that students in her class perceived being interviewed on their high school campus by Harvard admissions officers--instead of regular Harvard alumni--as a distinct advantage. Sending a team of admissions officers to New England prep schools for a day or two of interviews is Harvard's normal procedure; Couglin was interviewed by Assistant Dean of the College John R. Marquand.

"To be interviewed by the people who are making the decisions is a great advantage," says a Harvard senior and a graduate of Milton Academy who was interviewed by Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons '67.

Tradition Ending

Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath Lewis '70-'73 says that although New England prep school students are not advantaged by on-campus interviews, that tradition is ending nonetheless. Beginning next fall, she says, prep school students will receive standard alumni interviews just like every other applicant.

"We're now at the point where we have enough alumni in the area so that they can invite the students up or go to campus," Lewis says, adding that the Admissions Office is both trying to cut costs and treat every applicant equally.

"I don't think it's an advantage at all. I just think it's different treatment," she says of the on-campus interviews. "We certainly don't want people to perceive that there is an advantage, because there isn't."

Besides the personal interviews, many attribute the longstanding success of prep school students in the admissions process to close personal relationships between college counselors at the schools and Harvard's admissions office.

Harvard admissions officers have themselves often been alumni of the elite prep schools and, in turn, many counselors at the schools are Harvard alums. In addition, admissions officers who have covered these schools for a number of years have come to know these counselors quite well, those involved in the admissions process say.

As a result, students from these schools say, having the counselors on their side is a big advantage, much more so than it would be at most other high schools.

"If you made a good impression on the basis of several interviews [with the counselor], there would definitely be a bias in your favor," says Janet S. McIntosh '91, an Andover alum.

"College guidance counselor input has much greater weight proportionately at a place like Milton," says the Harvard senior who asked not to be identified. "They understand each other."

Even Tougher?

Despite the potential advantages of going to a feeder school, some prep school alums now at Harvard maintain that on the whole they didn't receive an edge in the admissions process. In fact, they say, due to the competitive nature of the prep schools, it might even have been tougher for them.

"You're competing with very highly qualified people who would have gotten in had they applied from an ordinary high school," McIntosh says.

While Ted Caplow '92 says that having Groton on his resume was definitely an eye opener, he says that made no difference when competing against his high school classmates.

"It obviously helps you in the application process to have gone to Groton, but everybody has that advantage," Caplow says.

Lewis flatly says that prep schools are no longer an advantage. "We recruit a diverse pool of applicants and the good candidates always appear to rise to the top," she says. "It isn't really linked to the schools."

Indeed, besides the fact that the numbers of prep school students at Harvard have declined, many public schools are rapidly catching up--and some have already caught up.

For example, magnet schools in New York City like Hunter College High School, with 10 students in the College's Class of 1993, Bronx Science High School, with eight, and Stuyvesant High School, with 15, have all joined the large feeder school list.

And Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57, a former dean of admissions himself, says that suburban high schools, not the older schools of New England, have become the true feeder schools these days.

"There has been a steady progression away from there being a defined set of feeder schools with a move towards a particular kind of school," Jewett says.

Citing the competitiveness of Ivy League schools these days, counselors at the traditional elite feeder schools say that the prep school advantage bears little resemblance to that of the past.

Carl Beewig, a college counselor at Andover, says that while his school enjoys a "good, close relationship with Harvard," he attributes whatever special treatment Andover students may receive to the fact that many are legacies.

Says Beewig, "We're still appreciated, but we're not in the same small circle of feeder schools as before."

Beong-Soo Kim contributed to the reporting of this story.