Hi all, I am a student who received offers from both Choate Rosemary Hall and The Lawrenceville school. Coming from a junior boarding school and having already completed a ninth grade year. I wanted to get some ideas on the big decision that I will make in the near future. Personally, I am an athlete who has interest in XC running and Basketball. In the classroom, I am more of a “Humanities person” although I also enjoy STEM. I got tenth grade for L’ville and ninth for Choate which means I will repeat a year. I am happy to hear different opinions.
What do you want to do? Would you rather have three more years of high school or four? Do you prefer one school over the other? Can you connect with L’ville students who came in for tenth grade and see how that was for them?
This decision is entirely up to you, and you can’t go wrong with either.
Hi, I have been reaching out to L’ville students who also did 9 to 10, they said they have adjusted fine. I definitely prefer 3 years of high school over four but also is leaning towards Choate a bit.
I’m a Choate repeat, and you won’t be able to tell a difference in how people treat you, if that means anything? There are lots of repeats here. Highly recommend Choate, but I’m veery biased. 
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Those schools are more similar than different (they were our choices also), so unless you have a special connection to a coach so something I would decide based on the academics. This board is usually in favor of repeating, and if you were young for the grade and coming from public school I would say definitely repeat. But you already have 3 years of JBS under your belt and should be well prepared academically and emotionally. How old are you? I do think there is opportunity cost lost, as well as financial with extra $60-70K spent before you even get to college. But if your parents don’t mind or you get a lot of aid it probably does not matter. I still think unless you are a recruitable athlete and you need the extra year to develop, odds are you would be a lot happier in college as a 19yo than still in high school.
Understood, I just turned 15 in February. I am recruited by the basketball coach at Choate but not Lawrenceville. I care lots about sports but more about academics.
got you! Thank you for the information, I have a lot of friends at Choate who also told me the same thing.
My son went to Lville and graduated in 2018, so I quite familiar with the culture. The town of Lawrenceville is on the outskirts of Princeton, and about 80% of the students board. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Harkness method, which is widely used at Lville.
The athletics are top notch. My son started in 9th grade, and now his closest friends from his house are those who transferred in during 10th grade. The house system really makes the new transfers feel welcome and part of the community.
I do have my gripes about Lville, especially how the college counseling works. In the end, I think my son’s college matriculation would have been the same if he had simply stayed in the local public school. But he did grow a lot, and he was well prepared to handle rigorous college academics.
He also was accepted to Choate, but turned it down, mainly due to location. But honestly both schools are quite similar.
Thank you for the info. My family in CT, so Choate is definitely the more convenient school. With that said, I think its not really about the difference in the schools themselves, since like you said, both are great options. I think the real difference for me would be 10th grade at L’ville and 9th grade at Choate. I mean I do not want to repeat but isn’t sure if I can handle all the academic work if I don’t.
I’m currently a freshman at Lawrenceville.
Integrating into Lawrenceville as a new sophomore, from what I’ve heard (some of my really close friends are new sophs), is actually quite easy, and it is due to the house system. In your sophomore year, every student is assigned to a house, which becomes a really close, tight knit community, and I feel like with the house system you already have a group of people that you know you can count on. The academics are very rigorous even in freshman year, and I’ve heard sophomore year is far more difficult, so take that as you will. Overall, however, I would recommend coming here.
I’m also a student at Lville. Both schools are top notch. Would you be a boarder at both schools? The academics honestly aren’t that hard at Lville. Repeating a year comes with advantages and disadvantages. I know revisit days are canceled, but I would make your decision with 3 things in mind:
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Which school do you simply like more (how comfortable were you during your tour, which campus did you think was better, which school you think offers you more opportunities).
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Do you want to repeat a year? It has its advantages and disadvantages, repeating a year is perfectly fine and will not hinder your social life and college admissions.
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Which school is best suited for you? If you were recruited for basketball by Choate, then that is an advantage for Choate. Base your decision based on what areas you excel in (eg. humanities, art, STEM, etc). Choate is better for STEM than Lawrenceville. (Despite being top 10 in basically all overall prep school rankings, Lville is the 27th best NJ school for STEM). Lawrenceville is very strong for the humanities, so if you are a writer, definitely come to Lville.
Also, Lawrenceville has announced it will substantially upgrade the historic Lavino Field House
sdtkd03, thank you for that info. Yes, I am going to be a border at both of these schools. I am more of a humanities person like I mentioned before, but I enjoyed a Choate a bit more from what I felt and what I remember from the tour. I do not want to repeat a year but have many friends go to Choate since I am more familiar with the CT area and have pretty much never been to NJ before.
I don’t know, on the one hand, I feel like I enjoyed Choate’s campus more (maybe its because I’m more familiar with the school) but I also want to enter as a sophomore, not a freshman.
Lawrenceville’s humanities program and Harkeness method are two things that I really like about the school.
Choate to me seems like a more free and less formal school (No dress code, no Saturday classes e.t.c) which is something I definitely prefer.
Like you said, there are advantages and disadvantages.
Being close to home does have it advantages: laundry run, meetup for quick dinner/lunch, watching sporting events, etc. In the course of a typical year, my son would come home on the weekends rarely – perhaps only once per term. This had to do mainly with the saturday classes.
But saving 1 year of tuition can be substantial. Are you getting financial aid? If not, an extra $65K will go along way, especially towards college expenses. Otherwise ask your parents to give you half that money, and sock it away in an investment vehicle – now is a nice time to buy because of the market crash. Don’t touch it for the next 20 years and you’ll have a substantial sum of money.
@KevinYitx Hi there, congratulations on having two “can’t go wrong” options. I normally advocate taking the 4 year option, if financially feasible, even if that means repeating 9th grade. However, since you are coming from JBS and know what BS is all about, I think you’ll obviously adapt immediately to your environs and think the 3 year route would be fine. Was your JBS rigorous? If so, then that makes the 3 year route even more viable. If not, then there is perhaps some advantage to the 4 year route.
Athletically, is there an advantage to repeating 9th? If not, then L’Ville is a great option.
All the best, and stay safe!
It sounds like you would strongly prefer not to do 9th grade 2 times. It sounds like you are kind of ambivalent about the 2 schools but would probably give choate the nod, all other things being equal. Based on that, I would choose the 3 year option.
And if you are reading this and not really liking this advice, you may have your answer too!
@mumof2boyz, I think repeating 9th has it’s advantages and disadvantages. I would love to stay in CT at Choate while having another year to develop as an athlete but is also tempted by the idea of not having to repeat and being in the same year with some of my younger friends at my current school.
I’m getting recruited by the basketball coach at Choate and I haven’t heard from Lawrenceville. With that said, I definitely value academics more than athletics.
Happy to hear different opinions and thoughts!
If you’re interested in the Humanities, Lawrenceville has really cool research opportunities for both history (Heely Scholar Program) and English (Merrill Scholar Program). Overall, I’m sure academics will be pretty much of equal level in both schools. I can see why it would be a bit awkward to repeat, I certainly wouldn’t be thrilled with 5 years of high school. Keep in mind that repeating a year does not look bad for colleges, if anything they think the student is more prepared (this applies for boarding schools, not for repeating a year due to bad grades).
When you’re at the “virtual revisit” days, ask questions and see what you like/dislike about each school.
Write a list of pros and cons for each school, rate how big the pro/con is from a scale of -3 to 3, and decide based on that. Remember, you really can’t go wrong with either school!
Hi - I found this discussion interesting - i am deciding between Lawrenceville and Deerfield and Choate. I think i have narrowed it down to between Lawrenceville and Deerfield. I would enter 10th grade in both. if anyone has any views on Lawrenceville v Deerfield would love to hear that!
I have a few questions on lawrenceville as we atre trying to narrow down our decision , Can someone provide me insight or point me to an existing thread on lawrenceville?
1 Among the choices you had why did you pick lawrenceville ? and if you were to do it all over again would you still pick lawrenceville
2 How strong is the STEM program at Lawrenceville ? I have seen mixed feedback
3 Any Insight into the college counselling program and process at Lawrenceville