Harvard’s Feeder School Addiction

The next time you go to section, look around — at least one of your classmates is likely sporting an Andover sweater.

Surprising? Maybe not: A recent Crimson investigation revealed the gargantuan role a select number of high schools play in Harvard’s admissions processes — one in 11 undergraduates come from just 21 high schools. Most of these schools are overwhelmingly wealthy, helping America’s upper crust conjure a perfect, Harvard-worthy resume.

While these students are certainly qualified, they aren’t always more deserving than their less privileged peers — they were simply better prepared to craft a dazzling application. It’s time Harvard take off its rose-colored glasses, contend with the failure of its alphabet soup of programs aimed at recruiting from underrepresented backgrounds, and bust the prep school-to-Harvard pipeline.

Out of the 21 most represented schools, 12 are private, with yearly tuitions averaging $64,000. While many offer financial aid, on average, only about a third of their student bodies are eligible for it, making it hard to imagine the demographics of those who matriculate to Harvard are meaningfully different.

Four of these nine public schools are situated in some of their cities’ most affluent neighborhoods. Together, these four neighborhoods boast a median household income of almost $190,000 — over double the national figure.

Another four of the nine are competitive magnet schools with selective admissions processes, susceptible to gamification by expensive tutoring. Moreover, seven of these public schools spend more money per student than the national K-12 average, and four spend 1.5 to twice that figure.

With all this money in the picture, it’s no wonder so many students from top institutions are admitted to Harvard. Feeder school students inevitably have access to personalized college counseling, resume help, and crucial admissions advice. In many cases, smart students from underrepresented backgrounds aren’t less qualified than their peers at Andover — their applications may simply lack the same gloss.

The preponderance of wealthy students streaming from feeder schools only further impugns Harvard’s socioeconomic diversity efforts.

To the University’s credit, it does seem like it’s trying. Their two flagship programs — the Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program and Small Town Outreach Recruitment and Yield — both demonstrate Harvard’s ostensible commitment to recruit underrepresented applicants.

But with almost a tenth of Harvard undergraduates still hailing from .078 percent of the country’s high schools, it’s laughable to think Harvard’s work is over.

There are a few things Harvard can do.

First, instead of sending interviewers to Andover and Exeter, Harvard should send them to low-income schools, and focus on cultivating new relationships with different high schools to find hidden potential.

Once it finds these students, Harvard should invest in them, through the expansion of initiatives like the Rising Scholars Program and Expository Writing 10, an introductory writing course designed to bring less-prepared students up to speed.

Until Harvard puts in more effort to find diamonds in the rough, legions of feeder school resumes — hand-edited by highly-paid admissions counselors — will continue to fill our classes.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

Have a suggestion, question, or concern for The Crimson Editorial Board? Click here.