Alumni of schools like IPA, which are part of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), hold distinct advantages over students without the benefit of an independent school education.

A study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA looked at how graduates of independent schools fared in college as compared with public school graduates. They found that freshmen from an independent school background felt more prepared than their public school counterparts and experienced a more successful adjustment to the demands of college life.

Independent school graduates had greater confidence in themselves to succeed, and combined their academic and career goals with a desire to make a contribution to their community to a greater extent than the public school graduates in the study.