Elementary School Decision - Pike, Sage & Milton Academy

My 5 year old got accepted at Sage, Pike and Milton Academy (also, wait listed into BB&S). Pike works best for us logistically, but Milton having K - 12 is definitely a plus (Pike is through 8). If proximity was not an issue, how do I choose from these three? Academic rigor is important, so is well rounded personality development. Can anyone advise?

My daughter is a middle-schooler at Milton. She started there in 6th grade which is a big entry point. Some of the kids have been there since kindergarten and were so thrilled to see new faces. All that to say, some kids feel tired of the same location year after year after year and even though in practice the k-12 model seems great — maybe it doesn’t always work out? With that being said, we LOVE Milton Academy and would stay as long as we could!!!

I would seriously consider Milton given how difficult admission is at the later entry points. Your daughter can always apply out for high school but if you and she are happy there, there is no need to move.

Being familiar with the Boston area, my first thought was that those 3 schools are quite far from each other, especially with rush hour morning traffic. I am trying to imagine where you live that you would consider those options for your 5 year old. My concern is that you live somewhere in the middle of those schools, which is far from all of them.

Looking back at my kids’ elementary school years, I would say that being relatively close to the school would be extremely important for me. Not just for daily driving the child to school, but I think that distance makes it harder to become part of the community. Think about whether you’ll want to drive your child to a play date that is far from your home after school or on a weekend, and whether any parents will want to bring their child to your house for a play date if you live pretty far away. Or if you will want to bring your kid back to school for an evening or weekend school activity. Or if you’ll want your child to join an evening or weekend activity outside of school (whether it be sports, Scouts, a book club, or whatever) that school friends are participating in, if it means a long drive from your house.

I also think that kids can change a lot between K and 8th grade. Some of the things about my kids in 8th grade I could have predicted when they were in K, but others, I was very surprised by. Sometimes you just don’t know how it will turn out. Even if you pick Milton, your child may not feel Milton is the right fit for high school for whatever reason. So I’m not sure I would pick it in K for that reason alone, especially if you don’t live close by.

Thank you all for your responses!

@Mairlodi, we live in North Andover and Pike is about 15 mins drive. If we do decide for Milton Academy we would be relocating to Milton or nearby area (which does increase my commute to work). We are wondering if opting for Milton (over Pike) is worth the relocation & longer commute.
Btw, we have ruled out Sage (for various reasons), and considering he is wait-listed in BB&N, the choice is b/w Pike and Milton.

Ignoring commute for a moment…I’d personally choose Milton, hands down. At a minimum, it would be a great K-8 and set your child up well for getting into a different HS. If your child is happy staying through 12th grade…even better.

Having personally lived north of N Andover and commuted 6-7 days a week to Boston…I can understand that you’d clearly need to move closer for it to work for so many years. So long as such a move didn’t impact the rest of the family negatively, I’d personally relocate. But that’s just my opinion, FWIW.

We lived in North Andover for ten years before moving to AZ. I sure wished we still lived there when our son was applying to boarding schools with Brooks in our backyard. I don’t have any opinion about Pike vs. Milton, but the comments about NA made me nostalgic for that beautiful place.

Carry on.

If the only plus to Milton is that it goes up to 12 and the only con for Pike is that it only goes up to 8, and you’d have to move and move further away from work to make Milton work, I personally wouldn’t move for a kindergartner. I think there are so many things that can change between K and 8th grade, and I think moving (assuming you’d be selling and buying a home and the costs associated with that) is a huge thing to do. I’d do a lot for the best interests of my kids, but I don’t think I would move farther away from work unless I felt that Milton was obviously a much better choice for my child right now and in the next few years than Pike.

Pike and Milton are located far enough from each other that there probably are not many parents who have compared both these options directly, so I’m not sure many people can help you there.

One question is where, if your child attended Pike, they would be most likely to attend secondary school. Here’s the matriculation list:
https://www.pikeschool.org/academics/upper-schools/secondary-school-placement

My guess is that a lot of Pike kids attend Brooks or PA as day students or end up at the LPS. Many of the other schools on the list are boarding schools. You might want to consider how would you feel about your child boarding in a few years and whether Brooks or PA might be right for your child.

The advantage to Milton is that if the school turned out to be a good fit your child could stay. If not they could apply out. An advantage to Pike is the ability to stay where you are. A plus to the latter I don’t think anyone has mentioned is the possibility your child could hold onto some existing local friendships. That would be a bit harder starting a new school, although not impossible. In either case I’d recommending signing your child up for a town sports league or other activity to help them get to know their in-town peers.

One other thing I just thought of-Pike has a ninth grade, so if your child is young for the grade or socially immature that could be an advantage. He or she could do a 9-9 year (9th grade at Pike, then another 9th grade year at the next school.) Most public schools won’t allow this but it’s common at prep schools.

The class enrollment seems to stay fairly consistent at all three schools with modest increases at key entry points. Milton Academy is unique compared to other private K-12 schools in the Boston area in that over 100 new students (with a total student body currently representing 27 states and 28 countries-I just checked) are admitted in 9th grade. A student which began attending Milton in elementary would have the best of both worlds: the opportunity to develop friendships in a small community and then a substantial infusion of new classmates at the start of high school. So between that and the overall access she would have to a wide variety of offerings beyond academics (arts, athletics, clubs, etc.), I second Ironmom1’s post.

RE: the commute, I believe Milton has a pick-up point in Boston proper.

One of my kids goes to a school that people drive from far and wide to attend. It’s brutal on the kids. A commute is a serious consideration.

That said, Milton is certainly the most prestigious of the schools you listed. Is that what’s giving you pause or is it the lure of a k-12 and “being done?”

My 8th grader is absolutely in love with her friends but she is ready to go someplace else for highschool. I think it may be more likely that kids won’t want to continue in the same school for the whole k-12 experience.

@dogsmama1997, agree on the commute for kids. We definitely plan to relocate close to Milton if we decide for Milton.

It’s actually both - Milton being most prestigious of these schools and having K-12 (he can always opt out into another high school later if he wants to, but having a safety net of being able to continue in Milton is a plus). Also, having been through several of the admission events including parent discussions, we get a feeling that Milton puts more emphasis and resources on an all-around development compared to Pike (Pike academically seems to be great though).

On the K-12 issue, there are some illuminating thoughts in this thread based on a similar question I had: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/2129285-straight-thru-k-12-schools-versus-separate-lower-elementary-schools-and-a-different-high-school.html#latest

I wasn’t impressed with the Milton elementary curriculum. The curriculum they use isn’t very strong, and there’s definitely no academic rigor that I could tell: they still use TERC math, and a current family said that there are carpools to Russian Math after school. The samples of writing hanging on the walls at the open house weren’t impressive at all. I asked if the students ever use the facilities of the high school, and was told that one grade goes to the science lab as a field trip once a year. The elementary school is right next to the art museum, and I asked if they ever go there to look at the exhibits as part of art class, and the admissions director stared at me like I was asking what grade they start memorizing ancient Greece.

I know several families who send their kids there and LOVE it, and I think it’s a lovely school community, but I think the primary reason to send your child there is if you have money to burn, and want a leg up on high school admissions.