<p>SPS' acceptance rate dipped down to just 19% for the 2006-2007 academic year. It was an unbelievable 16% for Deerfield.</p>
<p>Am I the only one who thinks these are INSANE?!</p>
<p>No, you're not. :)</p>
<p>There are many other very good schools to choose from. If you want to apply to deerfield and sps or any other school, make sure you have a variety of schools that you can live with if you get accepted.</p>
<p>I have to second prepparent. There are many great boarding schools out there that are worthy of consideration. Include the best known schools on your list if you think you have a chance. Remember that, in general, people do not apply to a school unless they believe they have a chance so you will be in a very competitive pool. Search a little further to find other matches, and you may be surprised and pleased with what you find.</p>
<p>It's just like competitive Ivy league (or equivalent) admissions.</p>
<p>Except that it isn't college- it's high school. And there are tons of wonderful schools. I assure you that once you are in a school- whether it be Exeter, Pomfret or Colorado Rocky Mountain School- that school will be your world and you will be SURE that there would have been no better place for you. My elitist son would not trade his experience at his boarding school-which is not one getting all the "play" on this board- for anything in the world. I should add that he was admitted to several highly selective schools and is a freshman at Penn. He has classmates at just about every one of the highly selective colleges, as well as classmates who found state universities or less acclaimed LACs a better fit for them.</p>
<p>Yup, getting into the top name schools statistically is tougher than ever. There is a fixed number of slots and an ever growing number of highly qualified applicants.</p>
<p>Same goes for HYPSM when you get to college.</p>
<p>However, the growing number of high quality candidates means that there are a lot of very bright, hard working students at many, many schools that you may never have heard of. And they (as well as the highly recognized school graduates) go onto HYPSM and many other terriffic universities. </p>
<p>And the graduates of HYPSM have a smaller and smaller percentage of top corporate CEO jobs than ever. That is because so many bright students are not going to HYPSM, nor are they going to the top name prep schools either.</p>
<p>Bottom line is that if you are a great student, you will get a great education at a lot of schools and if you apply that education well, the sky is the limit.</p>
<p>Look for a place that looks comfortable and you will enjoy your time and be productive. Don't worry about what other people might think of your school.</p>
<p>MOWC, funny how you mention Colorado Rocky Mountain School. My d's school's headmaster used to be their headmaster. I checked out their site while researching my d's school to get a feel for what his exerience has been.</p>
<p>MOWC, Burbparent, and goaliedad all give sage advice on this matter. What more can be said</p>
<p>Check out the following great schools with better chances of admission than the usual suspects discussed on this board---</p>
<p>Brooks School
Pomfret
Westminster
Taft
Governor's Academy
Proctor
Brewster
Holderness</p>
<p>Goaliedad- S actually applied to Colorado Rocky. We have land in the town and plan to retire there, believe it or not. The problem with the school for S was that it doesn't have an "official" team in his sport. I think it looks like an awesome school.</p>
<p>I don't know much about Colorado Rocky, but someone from my d middle school chose to attend their last year. MOAK, Taft would be a school that would fit under very difficult to gain admittance. In fact, GA, and Brooks have accept rates around 32%. IMO, I'm surprised that Pomfret is a high as it is. It seems like such a very good school to have 60 plus percent accept rate.</p>
<p>Regarding the Deerfield acceptance rate, I discussed that very point with a parent of a current Deerfield student (who has another child who already graduated from there and who's husband went there also). She said that Deerfield is trying to shrink the size of the student body a bit over the next few years so, if true, not only is number of applicants increasing but, in this case, number of spots is shrinking also.</p>
<p>I think that this topic is being discussed in a youth oriented prep school discussion says that there might be too much stress and anxiety being built up in this process. Very similar to the college application process. In fact I just noticed a piece in USA Today a bit critical of the stress level for the college applicants.</p>
<p>biffnar, I have also heard that SPS is doing the same. Paleo, any truth to this?</p>
<p>Yes, I believe SPS is trying to reduce the size of the class by a bit. This creates a certain amount of anxiety in the music department about the number or really talented singers/musicians the school has no room for. It is really a very tough call Admissions has to make when balancing the class and keeping their signature programmes going</p>
<p>Does having a sibling at a school, help your chances of being accepted?</p>
<p>Yes, having a sibling does help although it does not guarantee anything</p>
<p>Agree with the general idea behind Momofaknight's list. We focused
on some of these schools over others like Andover, Exeter and Groton,
even though my d's stats would have probably put her in the running
for acceptance to them. She is loving every minute of it and we have
no regrets about the choice. One potential hiccup, however, is that
some of the smaller ones don't offer as much financial aid as the more prominent
schools might. That was not an issue for us but it might be for
a number of applicants as costs approach $40K for boarders and $30K
for day students - hefty amounts, to be sure.</p>
<p>now that im in school i've been so busy. i've definitely had a lot less free time than in middle school. im stressed, but thankfully not to stressed.</p>
<p>these stats arent surprising at all. you dont know how many students across the nation are striving for the very very best...</p>