Deerfield Academy [Deerfield, MA]

Prep School Admissions
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<p>Further clarifying TheGreenMachine’s post…</p>

<p>American Studies is known to be very involved and time consuming, but also very rewarding. Honors US History is more like a traditional history class but places more emphasis on “primary source documents” (personal accounts, historical documents etc. etc.) than regular US History. </p>

<p>As for English classes, most don’t differ from each other in any major way. The exception to this is American Spaces, which has the “unofficial reputation” of being the most challenging. It also differs slightly in content as well, as it places an emphasis on art and art history and the cultural context of the various texts being read.</p>

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<p>Studies is fantastic, but a ton of outside reading. Another great course is Cambridge Studies, which culminates in a two week trip to Cambridge.</p>

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<p>Cambridge is a senior English class, though. But, yes, definately a great course taught by the same teacher that teaches American Spaces (for juniors).</p>

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<p>Looks like Deerfield ranking has taken a nose dive. Now the Top 5 HADES look like ALEGS. Deerfiled is ranked below Lawrenceville, Groton, Milton, and Nobles. Hotchkiss and Choate are not even in the Top 20 list. Has the school management or something changed at Deerfield?</p>

<p>[America’s</a> Best Prep Schools - Forbes.com](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/29/best-prep-schools-2010-opinions-private-education_land.html]America’s”>America's Best Prep Schools)</p>

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<p>Pulsar, I think I’m going to answer your question with one of your posts about this Forbes ranking:</p>

<p>"Here is a quote from one of the Forbes readers:
Quote:
Posted by morganhil | 05/01/10 05:57 PM EDT
This list is sheer nonsense, a classic example of the dying gasps of eastern establishment elitism. Other private schools which have higher SAT average scores and higher AP scores (such as Harker School in San Jose, CA) are not even mentioned. In addition, choosing Ivy plus MIT/Stanford as the top ten colleges/universities in the US ignores actual rankings of college selectivity, omitting non-Eastern schools such as CalTech, Ponoma, Claremont McKenna, and Washington and Lee, which have lower admit rates than some of the Ivies listed. In addition, highly selective eastern liberal arts colleges which are just as selective as the Ivies–Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Middlebury, and Bowdoin, were also excluded. This is sloppy, misleading, lazy jorunalism, folks. Don’t fall for it! "</p>

<p>Plus, have you realized how many nyc prep schools there are on the list? another quote by Rebelangel:</p>

<p>“Money can’t buy you love, but it clearly can buy you an Ivy admission. Taking nothing away from the few genuinely qualified NYC/Boston day school graduates, or the excellent teaching that takes place at those Schools, the bulk of these students enjoy a level of legacy connection and financial gifting that skews the Ivy-admission results, they are at the rich-folk epicenters of American life. Sure, there are the few token scholarship kids to help the rich and well networked feel better about themselves. But, mostly it’s the same greasy wheel being greased again. It’s a way of life, a fact of life.”</p>

<p>Even though I’m going to DA next year and I’ll try to be a little more objective than Forbes here: Deerfield, Choate and Hotchkiss definitely should be on the top 10.</p>

<p>End with ExiMITalum’s quote:
“BS’s turn a lot of “rich” legacy kids down. Otherwise the majority of students would be legacies given how many alum there are.” Most of the NYC prep schools on that list probably don’t do that.</p>

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<p>Exo, I was hoping to find if there are real changes, as you know like headmasters/popular teachers leaving (attrition) and other factors like drop in matriculating student quality etc. I want to find out if there are any such reasons for this ranking drop from current students as they would be in the know to these changes.</p>

<p>Forbes posted their ranking methodology. Do you see anything wrong with it? Why should you or someone else believe Exie and others as opposed to Forbes? Do you think Exie and others have more inside knowledge about these schools than Forbes?</p>

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<p>Pulsar, consider primary vs secondary sources. People like Exie are on the “front line”, which I do believe, verses Forbes report is based on material given to them for their report.</p>

<p>Working in the college system, there is truly information that we as faculty know first hand verses what our paper work says, including our annual report.</p>

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<p>Pulsar, it’s just a matter of what one values. Forbes creates rankings based on things that not everyone considers the most important. Half of the ranking is based on how many kids end up going to ten colleges. Personally, that’s not something that I consider important enough to merit 50% of the weight. </p>

<p>Because there are so few things about something as dynamic as one’s education that can be quantified, people tend to look to lists like Forbes or USNWR (for colleges) to find out what the “good” schools are. The fact is that it’s not as simple as crunching some numbers. Individuals are, well - individual! </p>

<p>The lists are of no value to my family because we’re not looking for a “pipeline” to a particular college. My kids just want to learn, so they look for the schools were they feel like they will have the most opportunities to learn as much as they can in the kind of environment that they find most stimulating. The factors that Forbes et al use for their ratings have very little to do with what my family sees as priorities. This does not make me, or Exie, or anyone else who poopoos these lists have more authority. It just means that they are not meaningful to us because there is nothing there that we can really USE when it comes to “sizing up” a school for our children.</p>

<p>So Hotchkiss, Choate and Deerfield “feel in the ratings.” It means nothing to me and will not prevent my daughter from investigating these three schools (and many others) just as seriously as the ones on the list.</p>

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<p>I understand the “fit” argument. Don’t you think if I have say two “fit” schools, I would want to go to one with better matriculation? So these lists are somewhat useful. I don’t think there is never only ONE “fit” school for anyone.</p>

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<p>You’re correct in that there are often multiple schools that will fit. I can’t speak for others, but I really don’t look at matriculation lists. I fail to see what they tell me about the school itself. I suppose it means that maybe the BS and College are looking for the same type of kids. Maybe that is the kids with certain talents or connections or attitudes or whatever. But I have no way to know that MY kids have those things that both BS and college are looking for. (Think Venn Diagrams here…those kids accepted to the IVY schools represent the intersection of the BS and College sets.) Will the BS with “weaker” college stats hold my kid back? It’s unlikely. Actually, it may make it easier for them to stand out and gain leadership experience IF (and this is a big “if”) the student body is also weaker. But again, my kids are not leaving home to go away to school because it may help them get into a specific set of colleges. I believe that their BS experience will, however, help them have a fighting chance at whatever college they may decide to go for when the time comes; and that’s all that I want, for them to have a reasonable chance no matter where they decide they want to be. I mean, jeez! My son is just nearly 14 years old. He doesn’t even know what he might major in. How could he possibly know what college he wants to attend?</p>

<p>So, the short answer is no, I wouldn’t look to the matriculation list and pick the one with the “better” score. </p>

<p>I do think the correlation is VERY interesting though. But that’s all it is - a correlation.</p>

<p>…and this is frightfully off-topic. My apologies. We were supposed to be discussing Deerfield Academy. Carry on! :)</p>

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<p>Forbes lists the DA faculty: 42% Advanced Degrees. Apparently this fact was used in its “formula”? That’s a very silly number since I counted close to 80% on the DA website. I know I love DA (and many other fantastic schools!) but come on, this “ranking” follows an incredibly simple/misinformed methodology. I’m not going to get too involved in this (meaningless?) debate but 42%…come on Forbes.</p>

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<p>To put to rest the talk of Forbes’ DA ranking, (I know little about BS rankings in general so bear with me,) I’m going to cite this comment written by a DA kid.</p>

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<p>All of the schools listed are from my impression top tier, as well as some that aren’t on the list.</p>

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<p>TheGreenMachine, Do you know why this year’s placement is not great? If you are constantly recruiting better students based on admit rate and have a great faculty, you should see an improvement in placement year to year. What went wrong?</p>

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<p>Pulsar, that strikes me as a somewhat naive approach to the idea of college matriculation and schools in general. Conditions and variables change each year so naturally they wouldn’t improve on a consistent slope every year. This isn’t a math equation, as both Deerfield (as any school) and the college matriculation are run by humans, and so room is to be left for fluke and human error/judgment. Further, it’s hard to describe this year’s placement as “not great” as it is still top twenty in the country…</p>

<p>But the answer is no, I know very little about the college matriculation process, etc.</p>

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<p>pulsar, I’m interested in what you refer to when you say that placement isn’t great this year. Seniors did not have to commit to schools until May 1. That was two days ago, not to mention students waiting for wait lists etc. etc. Placement for this year is hardly finalized and it certainly hasn’t been publicized yet (to the best of my knowledge).</p>

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<p>I was referring to this from the Deerfield student article:</p>

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<p>Interesting. I’ll have to respectfully disagree with them and I’ll leave it at that.</p>

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<p>He was referring to last year I believe, “this” referring to the year used. I believe the class of 2010’s matriculations are outstanding. A full list of the colleges to be attended will be provided by the last Scroll of the year, but I’ll try to find better numbers for you later.</p>

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<p>i got my placement test for math today… I am in Precalculus right now, and they sent me the one for precalc, algebra 2, and geometry… am i supposed to take all three or just the one for precalc? thx!</p>

<p>oh if someoen took the placement test for spanish already, can they tell me how it is?
if i’m in spanish 2 at a public school this year, what level should i expect? thx!</p>

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<p>You just take the math placement test for whatever math is appropriate.</p>

<p>i don’t know about the spanish one, but the French one I remember being decently hard.</p>

<p>I’m a sophomore girl at DA, if anyone has any questions I’d be happy to help.</p>

<p>Also, following dress code isn’t hard. Skirts with cardigans, dresses with sleeves, cords with cute tops and cardiagns, etc. J. Crew is probably the most common brand. Forever 21 is a good cheaper alternative with some cute skirts and stuff. Dresses with short sleeves are awesome for fall and spring…so make sure you have some cute ones!</p>