Prep for Prep: Measures of Success

• This year, 4,066 students competed for 222 spots in the program, an acceptance rate of 6%.

• At least 75% of a contingent (annually admitted cohort of students) typically completes the 14-month Preparatory Component.

• Overall, 40% of Prep for Prep college graduates have earned their degrees from Ivy League universities, while 84% have graduated from colleges characterized as “most selective” by US News & World Report.

• This year, 852 Prep students are enrolled in over 50 independent day and boarding schools in New York City and the northeast, such as Andover (21), Brearley (37), Collegiate (38), Dalton (34), Exeter (25), Horace Mann (54), and Nightingale-Bamford (29).

• 628 Prep alumni/ae currently attend such leading colleges and universities as Brown (27), Columbia (30), Dartmouth (18), Harvard (32), Penn (36), Princeton (22), Wesleyan (58), and Yale (23).

• This summer, a total of 212 job/internship opportunities were made available to Prep students through our Summer Jobs Bank and Career Paths Plus!  Industries represented include finance, law, communications, entertainment & media, healthcare, education, arts & culture, sports, fashion, and architecture.  The collaborations were clearly successful—evaluations revealed that 62% of our high school interns’ employers felt them to be among the best summer interns with whom they had ever worked, and another 29% felt that our students were better than average. 

• Beyond college, Prep alumni/ae continue to achieve at the highest levels.  As of April 2003, 69% of Prep’s college graduates out of school ten years or more had earned or were pursuing advanced degrees.  Among those students who had been out of school five years or more, the percentage was 50%. 

• Among the 951 college graduates as of April 2003, Prep counted over 750 employed alumni/ae and 115 more full-time graduate students.  Education was the leading industry in which Prep alumni/ae were employed (20%), followed by finance (16%), business (13%), law (9%), and health care (7%).  Our graduate student population was comprised largely of law students (about 40); PhD and EdD candidates (25); medical students (20); and MBA candidates (15).  Columbia, Harvard, and Penn were the most frequently attended graduate schools. 

• Over the last five years, Prep’s college graduates have contributed at an average rate of 62% toward our Annual Alumni/ae Giving Campaign.  By comparison, the National Association of Independent Schools cited the national average of independent school alumni/ae giving in 2002-03 at just 19%.