Students' Hard Work Earns Acceptances at Top Colleges

The head of NMH’s college counseling office calls 2009 “a banner year for NMH.” As college decisions pour in, the returns suggest that uncertain times haven’t dampened the success of our students. Peter Jenkins, director of college counseling, reports 20 acceptances to Ivy League schools—five each to Brown and Penn; four to Cornell; two each to Harvard, Columbia, and Dartmouth; and one to Princeton. (“The last time we had two students admitted to Harvard was 2002,” he notes.)

The bigger picture includes more than 88 acceptances (out of 393 applications) to US News and World Report’s top 50 colleges and universities. These include seven acceptances to Boston College; five to Trinity; four each to Bowdoin and Tufts; and three each to Georgetown, Bates, Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, Oberlin, and Northwestern. Students also have heard good news from Duke, Middlebury, Wesleyan, NYU, Swarthmore, Colby, Bates, and Vassar.

In the early decision and early action rounds, our students fared equally well, earning a 65 percent acceptance rate. More than 70 percent of students in the class of 2009 have now gained admission to either their first or second choice school and many gained admission to both, Jenkins reports.

Other students have found a place on wait-lists at very selective schools, and with Harvard recently announcing that it likely will accept 200 more students for its incoming class, more offers may be forthcoming. “We are very proud of our seniors and postgraduates,” Jenkins adds.