<p>I was just wondering... Does a boarding school experience really lend itself to prestige and tiers... College is a much more common protocol whereas boarding school is still a very prestigious opportunity overall. Every single boarding school, prep boarding school, offers a top notch experience. </p>
<p>I like to think of it as can they offer financial aid or not. I truly believe schools which can really draw from a wide variety of people have a far superior population as opposed to those who cannot. Though in quality of education and prestige they may be the same...</p>
<p>What do you guys think tier one is, tier two, and a tier three? Just for kicks I want to see what you guys think... I'll consolidate everything, based on mode, in the end... We can see if it synchronizes with the idea that financial aid makes a school better. </p>
<p>I'll go</p>
<p>Tier one:
-Phillips Exeter Academy
-Phillips Academy Andover
-The Hotchkiss School
-Deerfield
-St. Pauls School
-Choate Rosemary Hall
-Cambridge School of Weston
-Milton Academy
-Lawrenceville
-Groton
-Middlesex </p>
<p>Tier two:
-Peddie
-St. Marks
-St. Georges
-More, will add later</p>
<p>Tier three:
-More, will add later </p>
<p>Keep adding and make your list. For me, this is a statistical experiment to see if financial aid generosity is in sync with our idea of tier.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: Some people will not like the fact that their school is in a non top tier. This is not measuring quality of education or prestige. This is measuring financial aid and to see if it is in sync with our idea of prestige. Also if you go to a school try on giving an honest tier as opposed to being partial.</p>
<p>do a search – this topic has been covered ad nauseum in the past few years.</p>
<p>Boarding schools can be ranked using various methods – but a forum where people just randomly put names in a tier is probably the worst method out there.</p>
<p>If you want to rank BS according to FA, decide your criteria – highest average grants, greatest percentage on FA, largest amount given per year, need-blind policy, guarantee to meet demonstrated need, cost of attendance, etc. Then rank schools according to that criteria.</p>
<p>For example, if you want to rank schools based on the greatest percentage on FA, the top five schools (with more than 70% on FA) would be:</p>
<p>The School at Church Farm
Cotter Schools
Girard College
Interlochen Arts Academy
New Mexico Military Institute</p>
<p>Which I am guessing comes as a surprise to many of you – who expected to see SPS, Andover and Exeter top the list.</p>
<p>You should also keep in mind that some schools have lower tuition and fees, so the amount they need to give in the form of FA is less than what needs to be given at Andover/Exeter in order to make the school more affordable. For example, The School at Church Farm (which you need to remember is the school with the greatest number of students on FA) has a yearly tuition for boarding students of $18,000. At that cost, many families who currently receive FA from the top schools wouldn’t even need it.</p>
<p>I think there was a slight disconnect, sorry for the confusion. I want to see what you all think top schools are and I then want to see if those are some of the higher aid granting schools…</p>
<p>Before I go into statistics I want a mode sample of around 25 people.</p>
<p>Then you need to clarify – you are looking for opinions on the top schools overall, or academically? Best at meeting students needs – or getting into an ivy?</p>
<p>You need to define “top school” in order to get appropriate input.</p>
<p>Concerning Cambridge School of Weston, of which I am an alumnus : when I attended the teachers were outstanding. Some pretty smart people went there too. Certainly enough people agree and send their kids there who could just as easily go to Exeter. </p>
<p>viola – lets take HADES as the gold standard Then you see which one of them awards most FA – that would be 35% – with 65% full pay. Are you satisfied conducting a survey of, at most, 35% of your population? Outside of a diversity full pay, there is not one family that is full pay that looks at a school and says " wow, I wonder what percent of scholarship they award to make this school great". Most people look at the school style(formal or loose), teachers, nurture level (dinners together, dinner catch as catch can) reputation, courses, athletics and friends/past students in your primary school. Then certain geographic factors come into play – Boston families send more kids to Andover/Exeter and NY and Greenwich and Darien families send more kids to Hotchkiss/Deerfield. After that you get school factors – primary school A traditionally sends more kids to Exeter than Andover while primary school B sends more kids to Deerfield than Hotchkiss. Its understood by all these families that as long as you have an 85 average and 79 and up score you will get into any of the tier 1 or 2 school. Just a matter of your preference/ your school head’s relationship with the school. Kids that either slack off or cant do better will go to tier 2/tier 3 schools. So from the schools that everyone has heard of – Tier 1 (and in this order)- HADES Groton Choate Lawrenceville Milton ; Tier 2-- Taft, St Marks, Kent, St Georges, St Andrew, VE ,Peddie Episcopal; Tier 3 --Westminster, Loomis, Pomfret, Suffield, NMH, Blair, Avon, But there is a school thats a perfect fit for every student, and the tiers shouldnt take away from the BS experience</p>
<p>I agree that tiers should not be a basis of decision. As a matter of fact I will likely be selecting Milton over all the HADES schools. </p>
<p>Lawrenceville (I did not apply but got to visit campus), Choate, and Milton are going to catch up to the HADES schools. They are growing rapidly, I want to see how the year plays for these schools.</p>