<p>We pretty much stayed with our initial list - one fell off because it turned out not to be a boarding school at all - Hackley in NY. I was initially intrigued by the 5 day boarding concept (my D was not) and wanted to check it out. Turns out it is a lovely school, but just 25 students board - they take a couple of international students and a few students had parents move abroad while they were attending the school.</p>
<p>Neato: So sorry you missed Choate. It was one of our favorites - their admissions office tries really hard to make applicants feel welcome. Elizabeth Mitchell, their Visit Coordinator, is as gracious as they come. We stayed for the night in the Sally Hart Lodge which is on campus, and run by a couple whose children attended Choate. They were a terrific resource and just lovely people. The town of Wallingford is a few blocks away, and a perfect place for the students to get a little change of scenery. </p>
<p>I believe that Choate has comprable academic rigor to the commonly perceived “top two”, but a “delivery” with slightly less pressure. Don’t know yet where Choate is on my D’s list of preferences, nor do I know what her chances are of being admitted. But Choate is one school that I would feel perfectly comfortable sending her to. Just feels good to me all around.</p>
<p>Madaket brings up a point that I’ve been wanting to address since I joined the forum. </p>
<p>When I was of boarding school age back in the mid 80s (I went to a day school in the mid-atlantic region), Exeter and Andover were considered the ne plus ultra of BS. There was no “HADES” or “GLADCHEMMS” consideration set, only A/E and then everyone else.</p>
<p>Well, I guess I was also aware of Groton and St. Paul’s being a cut above back then, but my perception was that they were preppier, waspier, clubbier, and even more selective/elitist than A/E — so as not to even be an option for the average, non-connected family.</p>
<p>Choate too has always been well known as a cut above the rest, maybe given the legacy of JFK. People outside the states seem to know Choate and Deerfield in addition to A/E and SPS.</p>
<p>When I was BS age, I didn’t know that there were BS in America! I figured there were a few in Europe, but I had no clue we had them here. Of course, I grew up in the deep south where kids tend to stay close…close as in build a house next to their parents, (or put a trailer there. 
)</p>
<p>…so when I looked into it for my own kids, I didn’t know Exeter from Podunk Academy.</p>
<p>@Alexz825Mom
I went to berkshire. The school is great and def. academically challenging. I visited schools like Exeter and Governor’s and got into both but Berkshire is just your all around school. No one is all that stuffy and the people are cool normal all around kids, not super geeky and werid.</p>
<p>@rbgg: Interestingly enough, I knew the most about Choate back then since a relative did a summer program there. At the time, I had it lumped in with the non-A/E schools.</p>
<p>@neato: Do you know the Bunkel score for Podunk Academy?</p>
<p>Choate has been catching up very quickly in recent years. It used to have a reputation of “party school” with plenty of kids from NY rich and busy families and somewhat lack of academic rigor. The leadership of the school is ambitious and diligent. I’ve seen it “moving up” even in the past couple of years.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting this thread. Being new to this, and pretty star struck at first, it has helped me to understand how others have managed the process.</p>
<p>We eliminated the two larger schools on our list and stuck with the three that had fewer than 600 students. It wasn’t because our on-campus interviews were warm and fuzzy. In fact, at the school we most wanted to like, the tour guide clearly was dialing in it on a Friday afternoon. We followed up and reached out to a family whose son currently attends the school and is an alumnus of my son’s school. They graciously invited us to lunch and their son gave us the time it took to get to know the school.</p>
<p>Additionally, the larger schools we looked at had more open student policies, which weren’t as appealing to us. Specifically, my son eliminated one school based on the YouTube videos he found posted by students, a few of which depicted a group of boys repeatedly pranking one particular boy. After seeing those, my son wanted nothing more to do with the school.</p>
<p>Interesting, Choate’s archrival is DA, and it’s in the 8 school association which includes:
Choate, DA, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, NMH, PEA, PA and SPS. </p>
<p>You can tell a school by the company it keeps.</p>
<p>I agree with DAndrew, the matriculation data it published on last year’s class compares to the likes of A and E. The five year data on average was lower, so it looks like it is still “moving up” though its always been up there.</p>
<p>Personally, I didn’t cross of any schools but some schools just didn’t seem like a school that would fit me, but I applied anyway.
Choate: I don’t like how the campus is spread out and the students are very preppy and snobby (from what I saw), also Choate doesn’t seem to care about applicants as much as the other schools do.
Kent: I didn’t not like Kent I just didn’t feel any vibe while applying, this could have been because I was getting sick of visiting school or just because it just felt like another school to me.
Even though these schools didn’t catch my attention I still applied because I know wherever I go I will probably be happy… I mean 99% of the people are…</p>
<p>Speaking of those associations, how they formed them has always been a mystery to me. For example, how did they choose the 10 schools for the Ten School Association? Why these 10 not others? Is it always true that “You can tell a school by the company it keeps”?</p>
<p>I believe the associations were formed many years ago and began somewhat organically as the schools tended to overlap in admissions so adcoms traveled together etc. Nowadays, department members at the 8 schools do classroom visits and symposiums at each others institutions to discuss teaching philosophy, share ideas and bond socially. That’s about all I know.</p>
<p>choate - didnt even send a viewbook. this may seem small, but it seemed as though they were very impersonal.</p>
<p>groton - too small, that whole circle thing sorta creeped me out, and call me crazy but for some reason i didn’t get a good vibe because they didn’t show us ONE classroom.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t know why, but that really cracked me up. It just shows how different people are.</p>
<p>Ephant: That reminded me that my kids’ negative impression of SPS came partly because, for some weird reason, all the classrooms and other school facilities that the tour guide showed him were in basements–even my husband, who loved the school and was completely wowed by the buildings and grounds, said that the tour experience was vaguely grey and depressing.</p>
<p>There were enough other positives that my son still applied…just didn’t feel too disappointed when he was waitlisted.</p>
<p>albclemon: Those YouTube videos caught my attention as well. If you search just about any of the prep schools, you will come up with a few videos for each. Some are cute and benign others… Well, let’s just say that last Spring when I started to research schools, I actually sent an e-mail to the admissions office of one school giving them a “heads up”. The video was THAT bad. It disappeared about a week later.</p>
<p>@Madaket some of the loomis videos are a bit…special, as well.</p>
<p>also i recommended watching the green cup challenge videos for the schools you’re applying to. Its very interesting what you can get from them.</p>
<p>Some of the Loomis videos are funny. If you search flag film fest, you will find some videos; they have some pretty good ones and some not so good. But still, it’s all in good fun.</p>