<p>Now I don't want to get into any fight. I have no relationship with all three schools, but I want to know why Hotchkiss made it to HEADS but others did not. There must be reasons I am not aware of. Just looking at the basic stats, I cant figure it out. Hotchkiss was founded about 100 years later than EADS. Its ivy matriculation is around 20% as Lawrenceville and Choate, and their acceptance rates are about the same too. What made Hotchkiss so special?</p>
<p>It was catchy shortcut name developed by a few students in fall 2008 to refer to the “top tier” schools, but not meant to exclude Choate, Lawrenceville, and others as well (ie Milton, Groton) – here’s an excerpt that explains more from an earlier post:</p>
<p>Origin of HADES </p>
<hr>
<p>Me thinks there is a bit of selective revisionism going on. “Hades” has not been evolving for years, nor was it formulated by educators or boarding school review, nor is it universally accepted by the BS community. The term “HADES” was first proposed by a student in a thread only last August, entitled “HEAD GCMS”, in a discussion among a VERY FEW students who were looking for an acronym that would describe what they students felt were the “ivy league” of the prep schools, and included Hotchkiss, Exeter, Andover, Deerfield, Groton, Choate, Milton and St. Pauls. At first, their acronym was HEAD GCM
The Prep School Ivy League - HEAD GMCS.</p>
<p>Another suggested HADES, and because it was short and clever (perhaps with its double entendre of selling one’s soul to the devil), it caught on, but it was originally intended to include a host of other schools. Even then, many expressed that the whole thing was ridiculous. See also December 2008 thread entitled “The Elite Heads Schools”, The elite HEADS schools</p>
<p>oops…link to original discussion of Hades didn’t post above, so here it is: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/626240-elite-heads-schools.html?highlight=The+Elite+Heads+Schools[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/626240-elite-heads-schools.html?highlight=The+Elite+Heads+Schools</a></p>
<p>ok…wouldn’t LEADS sound better? I guess it’s because Lawrenceville is not a NE school?</p>
<p>Because I don’t live near NE, the only BS’s that usual bring a note of recognition around here are Andover and Exeter. The rest are know, to varying degrees, only by folks who have spent time in NE or in selective colleges around the US of A. After spending about a year studying BS’s and visiting almost all of the top 10 or so BS’s with my son, all without much knowledge of any of these schools prior to our visits, it is my humble opinion, for what it is worth, that Andover and Exeter are in one group, based on size, years of existence, endowment, and general name recognition, and the other 8 or so are in another group. Such a divide doesn’t make one group better or worse. It is just putting the apples in one batch and the oranges in another. The rest of the dividing is pretty much hair splitting and, at times, a bit silly to me. In the end, any child having the chance to attend a GMC HAD LES school should be thrilled.</p>
<p>Yes, that makes perfect sense. However, now that the acronym has been created, when many people use HADES they literally mean one of those 5 schools. To me, Groton isn’t in it at least there’s a reason (it’s small) and Milton was hurt by its boarding/day student ratio, but Hotchkiss got the publicity over the others for no reason I know of.</p>
<p>The reason is simple: The person who coined the acronym goes to or went to Hotchkiss. </p>
<p>If people want a shorthand, it should be TMCS for The Most Competitive Schools. That way, there won’t be endless debate over which schools should be on the list. Define an acceptance rate, and any boarding school with a rate at or below is a TMCS. It works for Barrons.</p>
<p>I think the acronym should be abolished here since it was created here. If that can’t be done, I would not look to exclude one of the schools from a made up acronym, I would look to include more…or just have a list of top 10 or 20 who all are deserving of the attention of future potential students. It’s difficult enough for people who come to this board to figure out the whole boarding school process, fit, prestige, qualifications, chances, matriculation stats, athletics. I know it was confusing for us and we had very little time to figure it out. Limiting an acronym to 4 or 5 schools does everyone a disservice.</p>
<p>Several friends have asked about our selection process. We narrowed by choosing:</p>
<p>co-ed
over 400 students
significantly more boarding than not
appropriate SSAT range based on a pre-test and added one slightly below ideal range
appropriate extra-curriculars with a shot of his actually being able to play </p>
<p>Your list could be very different.</p>
<p>We stepped out of that list (size) to see Groton because of its excellent reputation and S immediately felt that it was too small for him, so we knew our size range was right. We skipped SPS only because it was too far to drive with any sort of regularity and I want to see him occasionally. </p>
<p>We visited them all and for each school we all had lists of pros and cons in our minds…some spoken, some unspoken. Like… wow, I hope he gets into school A because it would be the shortest drive and we could come attend all the home games. Or, boy I hope if he gets into school B that he doesn’t get into school A because school B has a better X program and it will be harder to decide to drive further when the two schools are equal in so many other ways. </p>
<p>It would be great if there was a selector tool that would help students narrow choices to get to the ones that are the best fit FOR THEM. When one finds the best fit, and that school admits, and it is affordable, and everyone smiles that is when that school becomes THE BEST SCHOOL IN THE WHOLE WORLD. </p>
<p>When that happens, acronyms fall away and so do all the random postings about which lax team is better etc. It becomes quite meaningless, especially when you consider that the Team A is awesome this year but may have their best players leave early because amazing opportunities have been made available…so the team rebuilds. Team B grabs a couple awesome PGs for next season. The stats shift. Should we really discourage a kid from applying based on one season’s record for a sport? That’s like picking a mutual fund based on its last 6 months of performance. </p>
<p>Please folks, look for a good fit and ignore the rest of this acronym stuff. Life’s too short.</p>
<p>Burb Parent…</p>
<p>I like it! TMCS!!! Now I’m sure there will be an argument by which standards and cutoff to use…it’s always something!</p>
<p>I found this: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Advanced Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</p>
<p>This tool should apply to BS selection as well. Very comprehensive. As for TMCS, I think that has to be conducted by a prestigious institution (e.g. Barrons).</p>
<p>Boarding School Rankings Based On College Matriculations </p>
<p>Tier One: St. Paul’s, Andover, Deerfield, Groton, Milton & Hotchkiss & United World College Tier Two: (listed alphabetically) Cate, Choate, Cranbrook Schools, Lawrenceville, Middlesex, Phillips Exeter, St. Andrew’s, St. Georges & Thacher. Surprisingly, Exeter finished fifthteenth and barely made Tier Two.</p>
<p>Endowment per student reflects the financial aspect more accurately.
1 Phillips Academy (Exeter) NH 0.79<br>
2 Groton School MA 0.68
3 Hotchkiss School CT 0.64
4 St. Paul’s School NH 0.63
5 Phillips Academy (Andover) MA 0.57 </p>
<p>Lower admit rate, higher endowment per student, higher SAT and SSAT scores, larger endowment.</p>
<p>There’s lots of numbers around and pros and cons but in the end all are great at so many things and should be included in “the list” of potential schools and then weed through them based on what you are looking for and if you are already at a bs then enjoy your school and know that there are students at the others schools having similiar experiences as you. Really, rivalry should exist when there is a competition in sports or debate, math…or at least don’t be mean spirited about it, of course your school is the best and who is to base it exclusively on lists 
But since we are interested in lists and stuff just play nice!</p>
<p>NoDrama obviously wants L’ville on the list and with Firecracker, wants H off, go figure.</p>
<p>:) well if it were LEADS I’d probably question why not Hotchkiss. The thing is I know this ranking thing is a game (some may say it’s a silly game), but if we play the game we’d better make it fair and reasonable (as much as humanly possible). I can see why some of the schools stand out (mostly a combination of prestige, selectivity and college matriculation) and why some excellent schools didn’t make to the acronmy (e.g. small size). I am curious how Hotchkiss got selected over the other two, which are similar in size, selectivity, prestige, college matriculation, etc. After all this discussion, I think probably Burb Parent pointed out a most likely reason: the acronmy maker is a Hotchkiss lover. ;)</p>
<p>Seriously speaking, once you get into your BS…I don’t think anyone cares anymore. Unless they secretly are self-consious about the level of their school in relation to the other tops. If not, then everyone in the top 6-10 schools is going to try and make an arguement as to why they should be in SHADE</p>
<p>No Drama, the reason for Hotchkiss inclusion is rather simple – if you live in NY/Ct area and are paying full freight and have a kid that is a B/Bplus student with any semblance of athletics and you want to send them to BS, your choice is either Hotchkiss or Deerfield. If you are outside the box then you will consider St/ Paul’s. If your grandfather went to BS, you will look at Andover or Exeter. Most likely you will not choose it though, since all your friends kids (and your kids friends) will be either at DA or H. This is simplifying the issue quite a bit, but pretty much accurate.</p>
<p>wow … talk about stereotypes … That is just false. Hotchkiss is the most diverse school among the top boarding schools so that is obviously not true. There is no distinct “hotchkiss” person. </p>
<p>As for why Hotchkiss was included, well the answer is simple it is worthy. </p>
<p>Now i don’t like playing the numbers game but if I must I will. </p>
<p>It has a higher sat score than deerfield and Andover</p>
<p>A higher SSAT score than deerfield exeter and SPS. </p>
<p>A higher endowment per student than SPS, Andvoer and Deerfield </p>
<p>It has the best sports program overall (based on success in a variety of different sports)
-this is more true this year than any year in the past</p>
<p>It has the best debate team quite possibly in the country. </p>
<p>It has one of the best film programs in the country among prep schools. (the guys who runs the company that distributed Slumdog Millionaire is an alum, he also created ice age one and two, the guy who produced this years grammys is an alum, the guy who produced or directed I forget which Robots and I, Robot is an alum I could go on etc - point made). </p>
<p>And it has a large number of extremely significant alumni. </p>
<p>And going back just a few years it had a lower admit mate than Exeter no one said oh look Exeter had a bad year at admitting students this year lets kick them off HADES. </p>
<p>You seem to be very anti-Hotchkiss. I don’t know why perhaps you have an axe to grind or something but the fact of the matter is Hotchkiss, is a top school on par with Exeter, Andover, etc.</p>
<p>A school should be judged based on what its students make of its education afterwards. Ie their accomplishments. EVERYTHING else is secondary. Who cares if you went to occidental college or Georgia Tech or Georgetown after highschool if you are now the President of the United States ? Are you inferior to the Yale grad who is now some mid level lawer at a large firm ? Me thinks not. </p>
<p>It seems like there has been two or three people (almost all of whom are brand new posters who happen to have accounts made at the same tim which leads to believe it is one disgruntled person) have been attacking Hotchkiss consistently I suggest you just get over your disappointment or anger or whatever problem you have with Hotchkiss and move on. </p>
<p>Furthermore the HADES terminology was never made to exclude any schools (hence HADES GMC, HADES GMLC, and a number of different renderings. All it was meant to do was create an easy way for us to refer to schools that we admittedly felt were frequently mentioned on here and wanted a catchy phrase to refer to them. Before that the term AEDSH was used to refer to these schools. That has been on CC for ages and was NOT created by a Hotchkiss person all the Hotchkiss guy did was rearrange the letters to make it more meaningful - successfully I might add. We are well aware that all of these schools like groton etc that are not included are in fact equal. Also all of the HADES schools are extremely similar to each other They voluntarily grouped themselves together in the ten schools admission thing. HADES is just a trimmed version of that same list that has a ring to it.</p>
<p>Now as for what Hotchkiss people DO with their education once they leave let us compare one section of Hotchkiss alums (Business) to the equivalent section at Harvard University</p>
<p>HOTCHKISS: </p>
<p>Henry Luce Co-founder of Time Magazine Also founder of Sports Illustrated and Fortune Magazine)
Briton Hadden Co-founder of Time Magazine
James Alexander Linen III Publisher, Executive Committee, Time Magazine
Forrest Mars Jr. CEO of Mars, Incorporated, billionaire
John Mars Billionaire
Jonathan Bell Lovelace Founder, Chairman Emeritus, President, Pioneer, and CEO of The Capital Group Companies, pioneer in the mutual fund business; The capital group is one of the world’s largest investment management organizations with assets in excess 1.4 trillion under management.
Raymond J. McGuire Global co-head of Investment Banking, Citigroup Inc.
Don Durgin President of NBC Television
Harold Stanley Founder, Morgan Stanley
Henry Ford II President of Ford Motor Company
Edsel Ford President of Ford Motor Company, son of Henry Ford
William Clay Ford, Jr. CEO of Ford Motor Company
Benson Ford Ford Motor Company,
Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. President of the Chrysler Building (Son of Walter Chrysler)
Arthur Kittredge Watson Chairman of IBM, US Ambassador to France
John Thornton President and Co-COO of Goldman Sachs, Co-CEO Goldman Sachs International, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia, Partner of Goldman Sachs, Chairman of the Brookings Institution, Member of the Board of DirecTV, Ford Motors, Goldman Sachs, Intel, News Corporation[2]
John P. Thompson Member of the Dallas family who built the world’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven
Jere W. Thompson Member of the Dallas family who built the world’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven
William H.T. Bush Investment banker
Jonathan Bush Investment banker
Edwin F Blair Businessman
Fay Vincent CEO, Columbia Pictures Industries, Baseball Commissioner.[3]
Tom Werner Chairman of the Boston Red Sox and co-founder of Casey Werner, producers of “The Cosby Show”, “3rd Rock” and “That 70’s Show”
Peter Grauer President and CEO, Bloomberg L.P.; president
Stephen D. Greenberg Former Deputy Commissioner, Major League Baseball; co-founder and president, Classic Sports Network
Roy D. Chapin CEO of American Motors Corporation; US Secretary of Commerce
Charles H. Bell President and later CEO, General Mills
C.S. Harding Mott Philanthropist, General Motors Board of Directors
John Shedd Reed Chairman and CEO of the Santa Fe Railway, Philanthropist, ex-chairman of NMSC
Shelby Bonnie Co-Founder of CNET Networks Inc.; former President and CEO
Joseph Cullman Chairman of Phillip Morris
Frank A. Sprole Vice chairman, Bristol-Myers Corporation
Cristina Mariani-May Family proprietor of Banfi Vintners, America’s leading wine importer
Howard C. Bissell Chairman, Bissell Companies, Inc.
John Luke President and CEO, Westvaco Corporation
Mark P. Mays President and CEO, Clear Channel Communications
Randall T. Mays Chief Financial Officer, Clear Channel Communications
Thomas J. Litle IV Co-founder and Chairman of Litle & Co.
Jodie Watt McLean President and Chief Investment Officer at Edens and Avant.
George W. Mead II Chairman, Consolidated Papers, Inc.
Burton Tremaine Business leader; President, Wadsworth Atheneum
James G. Gidwitz Chairman and CEO, Continental Materials Corporation
Lansing Crane Chairman, Crane & Company
Felipe A. Custer Chairman and CEO, Corporation Custer-CPG S.A.
Katha Diddel-Warren President and Creative Director, Twin Panda Inc.
Thomas J. Edelman Chairman, Berenson & Company; President, Lenox Hill Neighborhood House
Susan F. Fortgang Fourth-generation owner and vice president of M. Fabrikant and Sons
Arthur Morris Collens President, Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance
Arthur Howe President, American Field Service
Robert Chapman Sprague Industrialist (Executive)
Richard Lyon Bowditch Steamship executive
William Elfers Venture capitalist
John Miller Musser Philanthropist
Bernice Chen President and CEO, Cheng Ming Ming Cosmetics Ltd.
Gaylord Donnelley Chairman, RR Donnelley
Edgar Meyer Cullman CEO, General Cigar Holdings, Inc.
David Lincoln Luke III President, Westvaco</p>
<p>HARVARD:</p>
<p>Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (1835-1915) College 1856 President of Union Pacific Railroad [112]
Marcus Agius (born 1946) Business 1972 Chairman, Barclays PLC [113]
Steve Ballmer (born 1956) College 1977 President and CEO of Microsoft [114]
Lloyd Blankfein College 1975; Law 1978 CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs [115]
Michael Cohrs College 1979; Business 1981 Group Executive Committee of Deutsche Bank [116]
Doug Carlston College 1970; Law 1975 Co-founder of Brøderbund Software [117]
Howard L. Clark, Sr. Law former CEO (1960-1977) American Express [118]
Zoe Cruz (b. 1955) College 1977; Business 1982 Former Co-President of Morgan Stanley [119]
Victor Fung (born 1945) Ph.D. 1971 Chairman of Li & Fung group of companies [120]
Trip Hawkins (born 1953) College Founder of Electronic Arts and the 3DO Company [121]
Whipple V. N. Jones (1909-2001) College 1932, Business Founder of Aspen Highlands<br>
Richard Leslie Huber (born 1936) College 1958 Former CEO (1997-2000) of Aetna [122]
Jeff Kindler Law 1980 CEO of Pfizer [123]
John Loeb (1902-1996) College 1924 Financier [124]
Stanley Marcus (1905-2002) Business 1926 President and CEO, Neiman Marcus department stores [125]
Tony Mars (1976) Special Student 1999 entrepreneur [126]
Douglas McGregor (1906-1964) A.M. 1933; Ph.D. 1935 Management theorist [127]
James McNerney (born 1949) Business 1975 Chairman and CEO of Boeing [128]
George W. Merck (born 1894) College 1915 Industrialist; president of Merck & Co. [129]
Sumner Redstone (born 1923) College 1944; Law 1947 Chairman and CEO of Viacom [130]
Fred Reichheld (born 1952) College 1974; Business 1978 Author of bestselling business books [131]
David Rockefeller (born 1916) College 1936 Banker; Philanthropist; Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank [132]
Steve Schwarzman (born 1947) Business 1972 Billionaire, owner of Blackstone Group [133]
Jeffrey Skilling (born 1953) Business 1979 CEO of Enron; convicted of felonies related to Enron financial scandals [134]
Jan Stenbeck (1942-2002) Business President of MTG<br>
William H Sumner (1780-1861) College 1799 Developed East Boston [135]
Charlemagne Tower (1809-1889) Law 1830 Lawyer and Businessman. Towns in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and North Dakota are named after him. Also served on Harvard’s board of overseers. [136]
Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan (born 1938) Business 1964 Tamil Malaysian businessman and philanthropist<br>
Harry Elkins Widener (1885-1912) College 1907 Harvard’s Widener Library is named after him, died in the sinking of the Titanic [137]
Moses Znaimer (born 1942) A.M. Canadian media mogul</p>
<p>(Caveat: I realize the Harvard list is shorter but I just got that from wikipedia I presume that they are the most notable harvard people in business though)</p>
<p>Draw what conclusions you may from that. I think my point has been made.</p>
<p>Is it just me? This person is a little crazy - some kind of fanatic?</p>
<p>Its just you …</p>
<p>Let us remember that you are the one who found some acronym created of CC so incredibly important that you had to create 3 threads addressing the topic and comment consistently on them. </p>
<p>Good job mate ! I am gald you are using your time constructively!</p>
<p>You are pathetic, but hey congratulations, good news - Hotchkiss is the best school in the world!</p>