Sevenoaks and Ivy League?

[bayesian]

Usually the UK schools that send a meaningful portion to US ivy schools are the top schools in (West/Central) London such as St Pauls, Westminster, and to a lesser extent KCS, or boarding schools having a large proportion of overseas students such as Brighton and Cheltenham. That is, such schools are both academically strong and have an international-minded (and deep pocketed) demographics.

Why are so many Sevenoaks students going to Ivy? I understand it is a good school in a wealthy area, but does it have a large international population? My impression is it is similar to Brighton and CLC, but its Ivy leaver number is very high and even close to that of St Pauls.
www.sevenoaksschool.org/academic/beyond-sevenoaks/university-destinations/

Gosh a good international school outside of London. Is that even possible??

So for 2024, 4 Yale, 1 Pton, 3 Penn, 1 Brown, 1 Harvard, 2 Cornell. That list seems to be only behind StPauls and Westminster.

I don't know anything about UK private schools - I'm in the US. But my children went to three different New England prep schools and I think what happens is the school has a college counsellor/s who encourages kids to apply to ivy league colleges in the US and who has built up a relationship with the admissions offices of those schools so there is a feeder element to it. Other private prep schools are encouraging their pupils to apply to other universities.

The schools my children went to would each have had colleges that they had relationships with/traditionally took kids from etc. My dd2's school had a way higher acceptance rate to Harvard than other comparable schools. My son's had similar with a non-ivy but very competitive school.

The relationships change a bit too over time. You can see it in the college acceptance notes every year (we still get the magazines!) - one or two people go to a good college and then the next year it rises etc.

@bayesian , Sevenoaks is a global leading IB school, some of the cohort is international and very wealthy. It's a great school for all rounders and IB is tough, the mix of the cohort gives the pupils global aspirations.

Sevenoaks def has an international elite going there for sure attracted by the high scores, not sure where the idea it didn't came from?

Sevenoaks is exclusively IB (no A Levels) so more likely to attract pupils who want to go to uni abroad.

I think Sevenoaks sends more to Ivy Leagues (in terms of numbers) than St P or W (also because it has a larger cohort).

Many reasons:

• It's one of the few boarding schools in the UK with an exclusively IB sixth form. IB is highly regarded in the US, more so than in the UK. Also, parents pick IB vs A levels because they are interested in US universities.
• The average IB score at Sevenoaks is one of the highest in the world (especially considering a large 200+ year group) which helps the students get into some of the best universities anywhere
• Virtuous cycle of lots of previous students getting in, so a recognisable name amongst alumni/staff at US Ivy Leagues
• A lot of time spent in the school on extra-curricular activities all the way till sixth form so the students have a strong CV (this is where the big difference with St P and W lie I feel). Thanks to Saturday school, the school has plenty of extra time to dedicate to these activities in-school.

@Serventip Does it have a large overseas (Chinese) body? Is it largely an "international" school ?

Of the 250 students at sixth form, I would say slightly more than half would be boarders (according to the website) and a lot of those will be from China/HK. It has a very modern, international feel but also very diverse with no visible majority of a nationality.

So it is a school catered to wealthy Asians

I wouldn't call it a school catered to wealthy Asians, around half the student body is still local or from London. I think they have kids from 50 nationalities, not just Asia. So I wouldn't make that conclusion.

OP, have you looked at the website? On the news page it has a photo of the upper 6th cohort.

Sevenoaks has a significant international contingent who will look to the US for tertiary education.

They also attract a large number of wealthy London/SE parents who realise their children have a greater chance of acceptance at an Ivy League than at Oxbridge. These families will opt for eg Brown over Bristol.

Exactly this, the world is glolablised now its quite normal for all these elite schools who have students who can pay to go to US universities

Well I just used google for 2 minutes and the headmaster “has a BA Honours cum laude in Comparative Religion and Philosophy from Harvard University, and his subsequent MSt from Oxford University focused on ethical philosophy.
Jesse was a three-time national champion rower at Harvard and Oxford”.

One of the world’s best IB schools (large cohort, top grades), the site said 11 got 45 points - coupled with a Harvard headmaster, clearly Ivy League is a specialism for this school. Not sure what it has to do with international or Asian parents.
The IB is harder and more rigorous than A levels, pretty much everyone acknowledges that internationally except for guess who, UK unis.
My DD wanted to do it but we chickened out in the end - why do extra work if the unis here do not even give you credit for it. Seems like a lot of stuff is heading that way in the UK.

Also true that Ivy League look favourably on extra curriculars which are largely discounted by UK universities.

I imagine too that IF they look at social background when assessing potential students they are able to discount social background in connection with overseas students.

Would be interested to hear whether Harvard applications from UK have plummeted this year.

This

According to this guy (it seems right):

• 42.70 North London Collegiate School
• 42.10 King’s College School Wimbledon
• 41.50 G&L
• 40.10 Royal High School Bath
• 39.10 Sevenoaks School
• 39.00 Ecole Jeannine Manuel
• 38.60 Cheltenham Ladies’ College

NLCS, KCS, G&L, CLC have some going ivy, but not many compared to Sevenoaks, even I assume all these families have the financial resources and awareness of Ivy schools

But you are not comparing like to like. NLCS has around 70 students doing IB, Kings has less than 50 I believe. They both offer IB and A levels whereas Sevenoaks has 250+ students just doing the IB. In this large cohort, it's natural to have a larger number of Ivy applications compared to a handful of Ivy applications at the other schools you have listed.

IB results are hard to compare, because so few schools in the UK do IB only, and lots will only have their strongest students doing IB. Closest comparison might be somewhere like Tonbridge Grammar (girls only superselective grammar), which is IB only, average points 36.9. But that's not really a straight comparison either, as it's state not indy.

‘Our North American offers have been impressive, with 37 students deciding to take up a university place in the US or Canada. A significant number were offered scholarships, with one student selected for the prestigious Morehead-Cain scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In this competitive landscape, students have taken places at several top US’

The also had success in securing a Morehead Cain scholarship for one of their pupils.This is usually given to 2 or 3 UK students each year.
It’s merit based so not means tested and covers everything from fees, housing, books , health insurance, internships and much more.
The program almost seems to good to be true.

My DD is considering applying but realistically coming from a state school her chances are low.

I went to state school and ended up with a full ride at an Ivy. your daughter should absolutely apply! they do holistic admissions so would take into account the fact she is not at a private school. best of luck :)

I would be interested to know specifically about STEM subjects, after the Tylenol fiasco and general Kennedy approach. I know they have more money in general but the research for climate change and public health has been hugely limited under Trump and I don't know how attractive that would be for the younger generation.

NLCS offers both the IB and A-levels. Roughly 20% of students take the IB each year (a low two-digit number), which is significantly fewer than at Sevenoaks.