<p>My child was accepted to Groton, Middlesex and Brooks. We are completely new to the boarding world and would love any advice on culture/fit, reputations, what are they most important aspects to focus on? We are most interested in her going somewhere she will be happy vs. most prestigous school, but do care about the schools reputations and culture.</p>
<p>Any input would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Attend revisit days, and trust your daughter’s own sense of where she feels most comfortable. And for totally random feedback, all other things being equal if I had that choice to make—I’d choose Middlesex.</p>
<p>I’d choose Groton.</p>
<p>Revisit.</p>
<p>Know kids who have gone to all 3 I’d easily choose Middlesex. But definitely do re-visit days, the choice will become obvious to you and your daughter. Congratulations on the admits!</p>
<p>I sent you a pm</p>
<p>Why Groton, Periwinkle?</p>
<p>Thanks very much for the responses. From your comments, it appears that it depends on the child and their individual personality/fit at this point.</p>
<p>Kind Regards,
HankVicetrain</p>
<p>Hi HankViceTrain,
These are all great schools - congrats to your child! Brooks has a reputation of being extremely athletically oriented. If your child is athletic, Brooks is the right option. Otherwise, the arts are no where near as strong at Brooks.
Groton is what I would call a pressure cooker. The academics are very good but it is an extremely stressful environment. In addition, boarding for ninth graders is tough as the rooms are like stalls with no privacy.
Middlesex is a happy medium for the most part. It is very strong academically, but also has very good athletics. </p>
<p>If it was my child, I would choose Middlesex. However, make sure to revisit because revisit days can alter opinions very much.</p>
<p>As other’s have suggested revisit days would be the best way to go about this!
Brooks does have pretty intense athletics, I rowed against them the past two years and have lost, though granted my school’s crew team is pretty horrendous…
Groton and Middlesex both have intense academics. Expect lots of work.</p>
<p>I would chose Middlesex too :)</p>
<p>(admittedly I am a senior there, but I personally feel that it strikes a good balance between athletics, academics, and social life etc.)</p>
<p>Funny how opinions can vary so wildly.
I attended a different prep school recently,but its a small world and I competed against all three of these on women’s sports teams. The smaller schools need to essentially chose a sport to excel in because admissions need to balance academics, arts, athletics, in building its class. When you only take 80-100 kids per class you can’t build up a football program and a lax program and a soccer program. They have to choose. That’s why Brooks will have a great soccer team and go 0-8 at football.
My opinion is the opposite of Brookies. MX far and away places the most importance on athletics. Brooks the least. MX has a recent reputation as being a grind academically in an effort to compete with Groton. Groton kids seemed much happier to me. Could be all that old money results in fewer worries 
Revisits are about done now. Hope you took advantage of them and asked the questions important to you. Don’t forget to look ‘behind the curtain’ and see how the kids who aren’t on the panels are interacting.</p>