My son got accepted by Exeter, Deerfield, Hotchkiss, Choate, Lawrenceville, and a few others for 9th grade. We are considering the listed 5 schools. We know each schools have their own characters and strengths. But it is hard to come up strong reasons to decide which one to go. Of course, we have already signed up the revisit for a few schools to learn more. But would like to listen to those who have the experience, what would be your opinions and why? Appreciate all feedbacks.
As you know, your son has gotten into many great schools. No one can really help you with this decision because no one is going to have first hand experience with all these schools. Hopefully, things will become clearer through revisits. All things being equal, chose the school closest to home.
Make sure you sign up for the Exeter revisit. For me, it was a lot different than the tour and gave me a much greater look at the culture of PEA.
Do you have an idea of where your son wants to go? Consult him for advice.
If those are the schools that your son is most interested in attending make sure that you acted those revisit days because at the end of the day,it will end being his gut instinct and how he likes the feel of the school that matters the most
Congratulations. That is a pretty impressive list.
I would suggest as others have that you attend revisits.
My son was in the same situation a couple of years ago. You can’t go wrong with any of these schools. All have completely different charms.
Make your son quantify each of the features deemed to be important into a spreadsheet. Here is a list of what my son included: course breadth, sports, facilities, gut feel, forms, tuition, distance to home, sat classes and a few others. Then ask him to assign points for each of these factors. Then tally up the points.
Reducing this decision to a series of numbers is sometimes easier for teens to understand.
Best of luck
Like others have said before revisit days.Also try retalking to ppl you know from the schools. Reconsider your sons strengths and what types of schools appeal to his current interests and what he wants to explore in high school. Congratulations to him! That’s an impressive list of schools.