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</p>
<p>Sigh . . . . there really is a world outside Cate and Thacher. To this day, I’m not sure which horsey school it was that I missed out on. Once I forgot the name, it stayed forgotten. </p>
<p>In Northern California then - and probably still today - boarding school was the exception, rather than the norm. There were plenty of really good day schools. I was actually quite lucky my parents let me go.</p>
<p>Ok zuzuspetal I stand corrected. Took a closer look at those profiles. Some of them were “out of this world” while others are not so special - it’s partly presentation really.</p>
<p>I also used to write real estate ads for exclusive listings in CT. I could take an average house (though still way overpriced) and make it sound over the top. That hill in the back would be called “rolling lawns”. The wierd art in the yard? “Sculpture gardens”. I avoided words like “fabulous” and "sumptuous"and leaned towards words like “beckons” , “understated” and “granduer reminiscent of another era”. The ones I wrote up always got a lot of appointments. Were they better? No, just better presented. </p>
<p>Let me try my hand with a fictitious kid: Jason, another recently admitted student, has spent many years pursuing his passion for science; specifically oceanography. Over the past few summers, he has been able to take his interest to the next level through his work at the Happyville beach. There, he has shared his passion with the local children teaching them about currents, erosion and water pollution. Jason is also considered a be an expert on bluefish, a regional fish that has seen vast declines in population in recent years."</p>
<p>Okay, Jason sounds like a stand up guy, the kind you might like to have on campus. He is smart, generous with his time, and focused on a particular interest.
However, what I have really described, is a kid who spends his summers lifeguarding and fishing. The “expert” part could come from a one time quote from a newspaper reporter who happened to ask the fisherman on the dock why the blues aren’t running. </p>
<p>A turn of phrase could make all the difference.</p>
<p>zp</p>
<p>I actually think ERB’s are easier then SSATs & I go to a private school and no admission officers came to talk to us about boarding school. I find out through the internet, somebody was going to summer school @ exeter.</p>
<p>I dread the erb’s, do you take the whole thing? I think the isee is easier than the ssat though</p>
<p>What’s ERB?</p>
<p>My story:
I grew up in a one of the poorest countries in the world, and my parents grew up in one of the most quickly developing countries in the world. I’ll give you a big hint: Recent terrorist activity has been assocciated with this country. My father was born the year my country recieved independence from Britain, so he was alive during all the civil wars. In fact in the generations before his, his village moved off the coast further inland to avoid the slave trade. His father had 3(?) wives and he has many many half siblings. He had to start elementary school over again when he was 11 cuz he and his siblings had to start going to school in another town. He was the oldest so he was responsible for everyone. I don’t even know when he first saw a typwriter. He tells me about a time in college when he only had enough money to buy a bowl of gari (which is kind of like grits, except just the grits and water) a day. He never made B all throught college. My father now has 2 masters, a Phd and is a certified physcian. He worked SO hard to become what he is today and he inspires me 
BUT we are not filthy rich cuz were missionaries and my parents do not currently practice medicine.</p>
<p>Sorry if that comes across very snobish, I like to talk about my dad This is also really off topic, sorry</p>
<p>Hoping411 - Thank you for sharing. All of these stories put things for my family (including the pending decision letters) a bit more in perspective.</p>
<p>
Well, to us east coasters, Cate and Thacher is an outside world. 
Sorry for juming to conclusions. I’ve never heard of another boarding school other than Thacher with a horse program. As for people from Northern CA, you may be right that there are many great day schools in the area, but I have the impression that more CA students (there are many) attending NE boarding schools are from the northern part of CA.</p>
<p>
That must be a tacky question to BusterDad. ;)</p>
<p>Heh. I may be biased, but I think Andover is the best school for my daughter, on a number of grounds of any of the possibilities. I could expound some on these reasons, if people want. I would rate Exeter the same, but it is further away from us and she wants to be close to home.</p>
<p>Now all the Andover bigots will jump on an alumnus who isn’t being sufficiently loyal, but I’ve always held Exeter in the same category as Andover, even when I was a student at Andover. And in investigating schools with/for my daughter, I saw nothing to change that opinion. </p>
<p>But Go Blue!, in any case :-).</p>
<p>If she happens to get into both Andover and Exeter, it will be her choice as far as I’m concerned, to be made after revisits. But as she has as strong desire to be near home I know what she’ll pick in that case, I believe ;-).</p>
<p>Buster Dad, do you think it is easier for your children to gain admission at Andover since you are an alumnus? By the way GO BIG BLUE =D</p>
<p>It is clearly much harder than in my day to get into either Andover or Exeter this year; prep schools were out of fashion in my era. Thankfully, she’s also a much better student with better grades than I was. I may have had a clearer “hook” than she does on the surface, but there are other things about her in the application that are very impressive, in a very atypical way.</p>
<p>It means:
o her application gets a more careful read. From all accounts, this can’t hurt, particularly when there is such a sea of applications at the moment. Not being admitted just because the primary reader(s) are tired of reading is a crap shoot that they try to avoid with legacies. They really don’t want to tell an alum “oops, we goofed”.
o there is higher confidence that the kid (and their parents) know what they are getting into, and therefore higher confidence attending will work out for both Andover and the kid.
o if everything else is about equal between two candidates, and they are having to pick only one of a given “type” for the “mix” of students they are looking for, it will likely help.</p>
<p>But I certainly expect Andover and Exeter will always admit clearly stronger candidates that are not children of alumnus; the finger on the scale is only slight. I wouldn’t want it any other way… If you have really large amounts of money in play (and there are only usually a few such kids in any given class), I expect it might be more than I describe. But we’re not in that class…</p>
<p>I guess…we can start a thread for “personal stories” after M10.</p>
<p>bump!</p>
<p>Go, Hoping411!! I think I know where you come from…
and zuzu’s petals, please make my stats look that great lol
perhaps you can say I can play gamelan (in this case, YES I can.) and karawitan.
And I can speak Javanese lol C:</p>
<p>And swear in Indonesian and still no one will understand :)</p>
<p>^ lol
thanks Monochrome and dodgersmom, glad i could help
u can pm me if u reallly want to know monochorme :)</p>