<p>Hello! We are moving to Boston (from overseas) in about 7 months. Our daughter who is now in 8th grade has always attended private schools and we are hoping that she will be able to do the same going forward in HS. We probably won't get to visit the schools which we are interested in, we will have to rely on our online research along with the information packages the schools will be sending.</p>
<p>We are searching for a good fit for our daughter who is very well rounded, very sociable and very active in performing arts. She has attended private schools in a number of countries around the world and speaks a few languages (English is her mother tongue) She is academically strong, curious and mature for her age. She isn't very strong in sports but participates in lots of clubs. She's always been on partial financial aid and we will be seeking similar support at her next school. She has never studied in the US before and she is very excited! We are hoping that this will be our last move for a while and that our daughter will continue on to college in the US, like her older sister is currently doing.</p>
<p>We have been looking at Winsor, BB&N, Commonwealth, Middlesex School, Milton Academy, Concord Academy, Noble & Greenough School, Philipps Exeter Academy, and Dana Hall. Her school should be strong in academics and offer a strong performing arts program (strings orchestra and jazz band). She will be a day student but we are comfortable with a school that has a boarding population as well. Where we will live will depend on the school we choose so in other words, we are flexible.</p>
<p>Could you kindly rank these schools according to their academics, matriculation, performing arts, diversity and kindly share your personal experiences and comments? We appreciate the time you are taking to do this, thank you very much!</p>
<p>Just as an example the distance from Exeter to Milton is 1 hr 10 min by car. Depending on where you choose to live this daily commute can be tough.</p>
<p>All are strong in academics and all are strong in performing arts. You are better served asking the question again based upon which schools admit your DD. Until then this is all presumptuous.</p>
<p>If you are considering Exeter which is in New Hampshire then you should look at Groton and Lawrence Academy which are in groton MA. Much of this will depend on where in greater Boston you live. It is a pretty wide area and if you live on one part (south) then it wouldn’t be doable to get to the north or Exeter in NH. It is a pretty big area geographically. There are lots of excellent schools in the area. You need to get an idea of where you will be before you know which schools are possibilities.</p>
<p>We’ve visited some of the schools on your list, so just a couple of comments. If you’re looking for orchestra or jazz band, you won’t find it at Dana Hall. While they do offer music lessons, the closest thing they have to any sort of performing group is some sort of jam session. OTOH, we happened to visit Nobles during their “M block”, which is a music block they have during the school day, where every student participates in some sort of musical activity. We saw an orchestra practicing, choral groups, percussion classes. And while we haven’t visited Concord, I’ve heard they have a strong music program. If you’re daughter is passionate about music, you might also want to look at Walnut Hill. Seems like you’re also missing Philips Andover. </p>
<p>Just a bit more on music: Concord is strong in music. Schools VERY close to Boston (including Milton and Concord, definitely not including Exeter) often have kids that go to the NEC (New England Conservatory) prep program on Saturdays, as well as doing music at school (lessons, chamber music, amazing orchestras, theory all available). Can also do BYSO and BYPO ( Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra-- meets Sundays-- and Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra-- meets Saturday afternoons). Just FYI-- Walnut Hill excellent in music, as suggested above, and buses kids to and from NEC on Saturdays-- but is less strong academically than the other school you’re considering.</p>
<p>As momymous has noted, if you’re going to be north of the city I’d add Philips Andover. Also Brooks.</p>
<p>Walnut Hill is very pre-professional and requires an audition, so unless your daughter is very serious about the arts it probably won’t be a great match.</p>
<p>@momonymous, the link is great, thank you. @Daykidmom, this is great, my daughter loves her music.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your comments, Andover was on my list, I just forgot to put it here. And for where we will live, we are flexible. We have been to Boston and stayed for 10 days last summer. It is a lovely city, we stayed in Natick and saw that commuting to Boston was a problem. In this case we’d be looking for a place around the school as our business is flexible. We do have another daughter who is a freshman at a fantastic college in Boston, she would continue to live at her dorm and we’d like to give her some space. We never thought we’d be moving there, so when the job offer came, we were very surprised and happy. Our daughters are also very excited. Thank you for your comments, this is all a bit overwhelming, we’ve just gone through all the college applications last year, we feel like this is all very similar, all too soon! </p>
<p>I recommend that you look into Commonwealth! I’m currently a freshman at the school and have loved it so far! We have a very qualified orchestra teacher, as well as a very qualified jazz band teacher. The academics here are phenomenal and the teachers here are overqualified for being high school teachers–most of them have PHDs and taught at the college level before hand. We have math classes that go into theoretical calculus and abstract algebra and such. We have a great arts program too, ranging from photography to ceramics, printmaking, drawing and painting and more! Commonwealth’s close knit community is what makes it especially unique–there are only 37 students in my grade, and we are all friends and get along really well. Please DM me if you have any other questions, I’d be happy to answer them!</p>
<p>Hi everyone, does anyone know or hear about the Storm King school in New York? We like this small school because it’s small and it’s close to NY. I read the boardingschoolreview and found their student’ average SAT is very high 2050. However, they don’t require SSAT for admission, and I read somewhere a parent complaining about loose discipline, drug issue, bullying problem etc. Does anyone hear about this problem at Storm King too? </p>
<p>@tramtpm It is considered very bad form to hijack another person’s discussion, particularly when your question has absolutely nothing to do with the original post. Start a new discussion if you want answers to your question.</p>
<p>@GMTplus7 You’re not kidding… The more we look into it , the more we are daunted by the task. Our daughter has started writing the essays, which she is kind of enjoying (thankfully!) We will not be able to visit and interview in person, some schools offer it via Skype but some insist on personal visits. She will be taking SSAT in January, barely making the deadline. We are rushing everything. Getting the letter of recommendations will be so tough, as we will have been asking her teachers for so much extra work! Some schools demand such detailed input from them that we feel terrible asking them to do it for multiple schools. They are already swamped with school work and report cards. Feeling very stressed here…</p>
<p>@aqua13 Has your daughter taken the SSAT or a similar test in the past? If not, you may want to add some schools with higher admissions rates to your list just in case her scores don’t pan out as you expect or she has a bad day. Right now the only school on your list that isn’t uber-competitive is Dana Hall. Rivers in Weston, Lawrence Academy in Groton, Beaver Country Day in Brookline, St. Mark’s in Southborough, Tabor in Marion (far South of Boston), Thayer in Braintree, Southfield in Brookline, Governor’s in Byfield (North Shore) and Brooks in N. Andover all come to mind. They’re all different; for instance Southfield is the all-girl’s half of Dexter-Southfield and is known for being very traditional. Beaver Country Day, also day and in the same town, is coed, and is known for being artsy and innovative. Brooks, St. Mark’s and Governor’s are primarily boarding schools, Lawrence is 50-50 and Rivers and Thayer are day schools, despite the fact that all 6 are in the same school league, the ISL. Tabor, on the water, is known for its sailing and marine biology programs. They’re all great schools, with acceptance rates in the 20-50 percent range.</p>
<p>While you’d have to figure out how to do an interview on the fly, many of the above-listed schools take the SSAT Standard Application Online, (SAO), which means you and her teachers could fill out a single application for many schools. In my experience even schools that aren’t on the SAO sometimes steal essay prompts from the SAO, so you may find that even if your D’s been doing essays for the individual schools’ applications she’s already answered some of the SAO prompts.</p>
<p>The other thing you may want to investigate is public school systems in the Boston area. We’re lucky to have some top-notch public schools that would provide your D with an excellent education and that do very well in college admissions. Feel free to PM me for particulars.</p>
<p>Adding-I see that due to your low post count you may not yet be able to PM me…</p>
<p>@Sue22 makes a very good point. With that in mind, I’d also suggest you think about Brimmer & May. While not as strong in college matriculation as some of the schools on your initial list, the academics are strong enough to challenge most kids and the performing arts are a real strength. The school has a strong focus on global studies, which may appeal to your daughter, having lived in a number of different countries. The school has quite a large population of kids from other countries, so the student and parent bodies are filled with some really interesting people and the school is very adept at helping kids adjust when switching to a different school system (or even a different language). </p>
<p>Yes, B&M probably should have been on my list. However, be aware that the graduating class is small-37 kids for the most current, and some of the kids have been there since preschool, so it can feel even smaller. Brimmer is in Chestnut Hill, so if you decided to look at BCD you could do both in the same morning.</p>
<p>Great! Thank you! We had to take Dana Hall off our list as they confirmed that they do not give any financial aid to non-American students even though we will be legal residents, so be it. Our list is getting smaller and it is true that we need to add some safety schools to our list, so thank you very much for your recommendations.</p>
<p>We have a list of these amazing public schools in Greater Boston and we will choose our home address accordingly if none of the private schools work out. We are also trying to educate ourselves on the rules of enrolment for public schools. It seems like most public schools are accepting students according to the vicinity of your home, with a few exceptions, where an exam might be involved. There is so much to look into but we are all very excited :)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, many of the strongest school systems are in wealthy towns with high real estate prices, but if you get to the point where you need to compare towns there are plenty of posters here who can walk you through the search.</p>