<p>While this is certainly a common practice in the admission world, I don't think this case specifically applies to Middlesex School. Middlesex is not Tufts University while E/A is Harvard. Middlesex is more like... Dartmouth. It's definitely up there, and should be included among the "Ivies" of the boarding schools if there is such a thing. </p>
<p>My twins who were waitlisted at MX and now at Exeter and Hotchkiss had made it clear that Middlesex was their first choice(their older sister was at Middlesex at the time). So I don't think the school was too much worried about the yield. </p>
<p>Having said that, I may be a little biased, because my first child is an alumni of the school. But my other children(who I love just as much!) are at fellow top tier schools, and from my personal experience as a parent, I do not think it's any sub-par to any other boarding schools. My husband and I have been nothing but happy with our daughter's experience at Middlesex. It's a tightly knit community where intimate relations are fostered between every teacher and every classmate and everyone can contribute. It's also located on a beautiful setting, and the scenes of the Circle where everyone comes out to toss a frisbee, grill, and sit on benches was just gorgeous. </p>
<p>People should realize that, at schools such as Groton and Middlesex, it's an entirely different experience from big schools like Exeter. My son is extremely happy with the wealth of diverse opportunities and extensive resources at Exeter that comes with its large student body, and he probably could never have encountered that at Middlesex. On the other hand, Middlesex provides a more intimate and coherent environment where it allows their students to receive personal attention and leadership positions.</p>
<p>While I certainly appreciate your enthusiasm for MX, prepschoolmom, I would not equate it to Dartmouth in an analogy where E/A is supposedly equal to Harvard/Yale. </p>
<p>I would, however, absolutely equate MX to Tufts, which is still amongst the most highly selective universities, but not an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>I imagine you're from the Massachusetts area. </p>
<p>Middlesex has less name recognition outside of New England, unless you're from a family "in the know" about prep schools. </p>
<p>HADES, or HEADS, or whatever it is people are calling them these days, are much more internationally known.</p>
<p>GemmaV: How do you avoid being waitlisted/rejected at a "lower tier" school, because the admissions committee is not certain you will accept their offer?</p>
<p>I got wait listed at bloody Taft of all places ! I found that rather insulting actually. But then again perhaps it was my fault for saying that I preferred Hotchkiss during the interview.</p>
<p>"Middlesex has less name recognition outside of New England...
HADES, or HEADS, or whatever it is people are calling them these days, are much more internationally known." </p>
<p>O.K. Wow. </p>
<p>Totally random that I stumbled into this thread, but I'm gonna have to strongly disagree with this quote above. As an international student myself, I'm gonna say that every Korean I know would give anything to just attend Middlesex. Basically, Middlesex's reputation regarding its historical close tie to Harvard University just kills them all. Yeah, it's kind of stupid and ignorant in some ways, but prestige and college name recognition are what the internationals all mostly care about, and Middlesex is famous for shooing their kids into Harvard and other Ivies in Korean community. I'm not a student there or anything, so I don't know how that schools perceived to like a normal American, but I do come from an international place where everyone applies to those private schools, and all my friends were freaking over this when I was the applying age. It's all Exeter or Middlesex. (And I'm speaking about only Koreans)</p>
<p>@hellomacy
"but prestige and college name recognition are what the internationals all mostly care about"
i know you included the word 'most' but that's still extremely shallow and untrue. prestige is a cool thing, but it should by no means be your deciding factor!! maybe the prestigious schools are where you start your research and slowly branch off, and some people actually really love these schools, not only for their name but their academics/athletics/arts/personality in general. prestige should be a TIPPER; maybe when deciding between two schools that are extremely similar. it's not like where you say, "oh, gee, exeter's more famous than groton even though i've done no research whatsoever on both schools, so i guess i'll go to exeter! yay!"</p>
<p>"historical close tie to Harvard University just kills them all"? uh, you shouldn't really solely judge schools based on college matriculation, although this can be a big factor..</p>
<p>honestly, exeter is alot more famous than middlesex. i'm not comparing their facilities/quality of life or education, but it's quite obviously that exeter's more famous, in my opinion. when i first arrived on the BS scene (cliche, i know), exeter and andover were the first schools i heard about. middlesex came later on, somewhere close to groton and choate.</p>
<p>yeah. i hope i don't come off as snippish or anything, but middlesex being as famous as exeter isn't true, i don't think. IMHO, only, though.</p>
<p>me? no, i'm asian-canadian.
& anyways, there are a ton of koreans on this site, like krnboiixd. she's not even applying to middlesex, but exeter, andover, choate, SPS, and deerfield. :P (haha, yes, i'm reading off her chances thread)</p>
<p>it'd be incredibly shallow to base your boarding school solely on prestige/name, though.. regardless of race.</p>
<p>I was simply replying to GemmaV's post being like Middlesex isn't famous to international students. Because I'm an international, and Middlesex just happens to be VERY FAMOUS among us from my country!! And I proceeded to simply state WHY. I don't know anything about other foreign places, but I know that South Korea is a top feeder to all the NEw England prep schools. It's always where the biggest percentage of intls at your school come from.</p>
<p>I agree with you that prestige should not entirely determine one's desire to attend schools. I've just begun to learn that applying to colleges nowdays and being a senior and all. I just wanted to say that, in Korea, Middlesex is associated with a lot of prestige just as much as Exeter. </p>
<p>I never said Middlesex is MORE famous than Exeter, and I honestly have no idea where you got that notion. I don't go to either of those schools, so I'm not like trying to PR for them. But I do hear a lot about their reputations as a third person, and I'm just simply sharing a prevalent perspective from oversea! </p>
<p>There is just this rumor that a large proportion of Middlesex students end up at Harvard, a lot of Middlesex faculties are Harvard graduates, Middlesex college counselor was a Harvard admissino officer for over a decade, and apparently those two schools "share" a land, blah blah blah. just little things that associate those two together. </p>
<p>It's not completely off base. It's like Lawrenceville is very close to Princeton! You know the junior boarding school, Eaglebrook? Well, they're very close to Deerfield, being in the same town and all, and a lot of those boys end up at Deerfield. I saw in another thread that RL is closely tied to Harvard, too. Middlesex headmaster was a graduate of RL... How do I know these things? Because koreans are crazy over this stuff. </p>
<p>And about that girl krnbolixd, she's just one person, man!! Why are you suddenly name dropping? she's just one kid you just happened to see an online forum out of like what thousands of applicants each year! Hahahahaha.</p>
<p>"it'd be incredibly shallow to base your boarding school solely on prestige/name, though.. regardless of race."</p>
<p>..Not really. Actually not at all..If you can go to a school because you love the ballet program I can go to a school because I love the connections I'd be making for my future.</p>
<p>I can argue going to one school over another because you didn't like your interviewer or tour guide is "shallow". But how can you know if somethings shallow if you don't know the thought process behind it. That's like looking down a well not seeing any water so assuming its empty.</p>
<p>@ hellomacy:
Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like I was yelling, that just happens sometimes.. D: (haha, the double exclamation mark was a fault on my behalf)
I also didn't take in perspective from South Koreans. Perhaps Middlesex IS really famous there? In Canada, it's mostly HEADS, but overseas that, I guess, could change alot. :)</p>
<p>Dive Alive, it says you are from Vancouver....
I used to live there, you know.
Well, technically in Victoria.
And i DID hear about other schools besides HEADS.
(I miss Canada!!!)</p>
<p>Seriously?
Because (i don't say which city i live, that's getting too specific, i don't live in vancouver, just close by) the students here are clueless; they think boarding schools are like military schools, and the teachers (the well-informed ones only!) only know Exeter/Andover, if that.. But then again, I don't live in one of the more affluent areas of town, so maybe that's why there's generally low recognition here. & I'm the only one in my school even thinking of applying, and that's still extremely rare (i don't have any real-life peers that are thinking of applying to boarding school either).</p>
<p>
[quote]
How's middlesex? Good school? Bad School? It's quite a small school.. about 270 something. However, about 1,000 apply (WHOA).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Middlesex is a great school. End of discussion.
It's always had a bit of party reputation, but after they got the new freak headmaster, it changed dramatically and now competes with Exeter and Andover. Like prepschoolmom said, it's "up there."</p>
<p>"GemmaV: How do you avoid being waitlisted/rejected at a "lower tier" school, because the admissions committee is not certain you will accept their offer?"</p>
<p>It's not necessarily something you can avoid; it's a numbers game we all play. </p>
<p>But, if you say you preferred Hotchkiss over Taft TO THE TAFT INTERVIEWER (as someone posted in this thread), there's a big red flag if I ever heard of one. </p>
<p>Sometimes it's not even because of something specific a candidate said in the interview...sometimes it's just a feeling an admission officer (or the admission committee) gets. Experienced admission officers are familiar with all of their peer schools (i.e. competitors) and can sometimes just "sense" from an application file that the student might be leaning elsewhere. </p>
<p>I'm sure those of you who have visited various schools have gotten "gut feelings" about each school? Whether one felt more right to you than another? You might have felt more comfortable walking around one campus, or talking to one tour guide, or speaking with one admission officer, more than the others you visited? Does this sound at all familiar?</p>
<p>Admission officers get gut feelings, too. And, sometimes, they can just tell. But the "waitlist" decision is their safety net. Let's say Academy A <em>think</em> you might be leaning towards one of their peer/competitor schools, let's call that School S. And then, either you don't ultimately get into School S, or maybe you do and you don't actually want to go there. Then you're still on Academy A's waitlist. And then, if you contact Academy A and say, "hey all along Academy A was my top choice", maybe Academy A will have a space after April 10th and admit you off the waitlist. But in the meantime, it protects Academy A's yield...probably the most important admission statistic when considering schools, more important than their # of applicants, acceptance rate, etc.</p>
<p>wow guys, quite a discussion/debate here.
k, from a fellow korean perspective who actually lived here all his life in an int'l school, south koreans will go ANYWHERE if accepted. they are pretty grateful, cz most of them are those who attend public schools. they will go to anywhere- avon old farms, cranbook, nmh, wherever.</p>
<p>Hahaha nice post freshie....only problem is is I doubt everyone can afford everywhere. Those endowments help alooooot of people and improve the life of families aloooot. Especially for the mom who straining herself to keep her child in top private schools and its getting to the point where the stree is just unhealthy. Getting into boarding school with lots of financial just make people so much happier lol</p>