<p>Asking for a friend:</p>
<p>My daughter was fortunate enough to be accepted to both Choate and Loomis, I am very thankful for that.</p>
<p>We're are a lower-middle class family. We are also international so we're not too too familiar with the US college process.</p>
<p>But ideally our daughter wants to attend a top college, such as an Ivy, after high school. My question is, will Ivy adcoms look favorably upon one school or the other? Or will Choate and Loomis be regarded as being the same caliber? </p>
<p>Technically, it looks like Choate is a bit better on paper (higher endowment, better teacher:student ratio, high SAT scores), but is this different negligible when it comes to college admissions?</p>
<p>You have two fantastic choices - Choate and Loomis are both wonderful schools. But they are very different, and there are lots of attributes that you can compare.</p>
<p>I would suggest making a matrix, and compare different aspects of the schools side-by-side: number of students, number of day students versus boarders, ease of travel to/from the school, depth of course offerings in subjects that are most interesting to your child, etc.
There are many, many factors that you can compare, based on what matters most to your child and your family.</p>
<p>As far as college matriculation goes - my opinion is that an involved, motivated student at either school will have many, many great college choices. With schools like these as your choices, it will come down to āhow does the child take advantage of the fabulous opportunities available at the school,ā not āwhich school he/she attended.ā</p>
<p>If college is your primary concern, pick the school where your daughter is more likely to end up at the top of the class. If your daughter is capable of succeeding academically at both, pick Choate.</p>
<p>Is there anyway to predict where sheāll do better? Everyone else in the family has only gone to public schools. To us, the schools look very very similar.</p>
<p>There are several tangiblesāChoateās average SATsā being higher might imply that ON AVERAGE, Choate students are more academically competitive than Loomis. This means it will probably be a bit harder to get to the top quartile at Choate than at Loomis.</p>
<p>Both are fine schools though, and while Choate has a SLIGHTLY better reputation than Loomis, mountainhiker has summed up all Iām gonna say.</p>
<p>Will you be able to attend revisits? That can sometimes make a huge difference.</p>
<p>Is there a particular area that she is most interested in (Writing, History, Math, Science, etc)? If so, I would encourage you to dig deep and research the course offerings and faculty members in those key academic areas. Let the admissions offices know you are trying to make a decision, and ask for faculty contacts in the key academic areas. Make an appointment to meet with them during revisits, or to correspond with them if revisits are not possible. </p>
<p>Your high school career is about so much more than just academics, though. Is your daughter interested in a specific sport, or extra-curricular activity? Reach out to coaches, or the head of the Music department (both Choate and LC have fantastic orchestras). Does your daughter want to āspecializeā and ādig deepā in a specific area? Ask the schools what opportunities exist.</p>
<p>Take a look at the school leadership. Go on the website, and read anything/everything you can thatās been written by the school Head. Does the āvisionā of this person line up with your own familyās values?</p>
<p>And - in some ways, most telling of all - try to get a āfeelā for the students at the school. Read the student newspaper (if you canāt find it online, ask the admissions office for copies of multiple issues). Read the comments that graduating seniors made at commencement. This kind of information can give you a pretty good idea of the values and āschool cultureā that exist.</p>
<p>One other point (and both Choate and LC were on my childās āinitial listā of schools. Full disclosure - he decided not to apply to Choate, applied to LC and was accepted as a Loomis Scholar, but chose to attend Thacher):</p>
<p>Will the academic needs/interests of your child be met by the āstandard curriculum?ā If not, is the school willing to work with your child to make sure their needs are met? There were very different answers to this question by these two schools: Choate is a big school, with a lot of breadth/depth in their offerings, and their response was, in effect: āif we donāt offer it, you donāt need it.ā LCās response was much more āif you exhaust our offerings in an area, we will make sure you get what you need, even if it means we have to get you over to the University to take the classes you need.ā If this kind of issue is one you might have, be sure and ASK the schools; this information is over a year old, and may not be valid anymore.</p>
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<p>Thank you very much for the helpful response.</p>
<p>She was actually recruited as a varsity swimmer and will be competing for whichever school she eventually chooses.</p>
<p>She will also be attending the revisit days, which I understand will give her some additional crucial insight into the schools.</p>
<p>From her initial visit, she said that Loomis had more of a āfamilyā feel while Choate felt a little more āindustrial?ā As it stands, her parents seems to want to push her to attend the school that they think is better (Choate) but she is unsure and seems to want to lean towards Loomis for the aforementioned reason.</p>
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<p>They are BOTH absolutely fantastic schools. I am one that preaches āfitā much more than āprestige.ā Consider this: different plants thrive in different environments. If you plant a sun-loving plant like a sunflower in a cool and shady spot, it will never grow to itās full potential. And if you plant a shade-loving plant like a hosta in a sunny location, it will struggle, too. </p>
<p>As I said before - Choate and Loomis Chaffee are very different schools, with very different āvibesā and school cultures. She will be most successful at the school where she feels she āfitsā best. I would encourage the parents of this child to let the child make the decision after revisits.</p>
<p>This is a helpful post. Thank you. My daughter is deciding between Choate and Westover, where the āvibeā is deciding factor for her. She loves the conviviality of Westover, and didnāt sense as much of that from Choate. We arenāt able to make the Revisit days sadly. I think, for us(parents), the difference in academic offerings and college matriculation canāt be overlooked, even with the very apt plant metaphor.</p>
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<p>Hi i am a current junior at Loomis! I was accepted into both Deerfield and Loomis and was faced with a similar decision as your daughter. While Choate is slightly better on paper, in the eyes of a college whether your daughter goes to Choate or Loomis or even a public school will not matter. It is most important for your daughter to thrive at what ever school she chooses. At a school like Loomis, I have found that Iāve been able to assume great leadership positions and exceed in my academics due to the small, nurturing environment of the school. At a larger school, such as Choate, I think it would have been harder for me to get as many leadership positions, but I am sure that many others would disagree.</p>
<p>Choate girls swimmin is great (real good friends with the coach and by new england standings they do pretty well). They also have a great pool. Loomisās program is developing, so your daughter could be at the top of the team (possible captainship in the future???)</p>
<p>I also just wanted to mention that you should PM me and I can give you the emails of a few girls on the swim team if you have any questions!</p>