<p>This is something that I struggle with on a daily basis and I am in desperate need of commentary from all you thoughtful participants.</p>
<p>We all obsess about the name schools. Ninety percent of what shows up on these discussions pertains to HADES and Choate and Milton and Groton. That is all fine and well. </p>
<p>But what about the compatibility between the student and the school? Are these handful of schools the best for all students, or are we best advised to open our minds to other possibilities? Is $45,000 spent at Kent on the right student a much better buy than the same amount spent on the wrong student at Exeter? Is an average student better off around comparable peers than drowning in a sea of overachievers? Are we all too intoxicated with the vapors of prestige and cachet? Are we misleading many of the youngsters who post and read here?</p>
<p>Ehh, Andover is a HADES and it just happens to be perfect for me. That and they offer a huge amount of FA, and that’s the only reason I was able to go. I know that not everyone who reads the boards here is in the same financial situation, but financial aid at the HADES schools was and is a big attribute - and, as I said, Andover just happens to be PERFECT for me.</p>
<p>Tom, that may be true, but Andover is perfect for you not just because of the FA. You are also high-achieving and ambitious (as I know from prior posts.) So for you it is perfect for many reasons. I am more concerned about those youngsters who may be better suited for schools that get very little exposure here. We conduct a rather one dimensional discussion here.</p>
<p>Oh - I get it now. And thanks for the flattery, by the way!</p>
<p>You’re right. I think there’s a reason, though, behind the fact that not a lot of other schools get brought up here. I know that months before I even started the application process I was excitedly searching the internet and dedicating much of my thought to schools. While there are plenty of really bright kids outside of HADES + Milton + Groton + Middlesex, etc., I think the ones who tend to post here are the ones who had the drive, desire and excitement to jump head first into the process. CC just happens to attract the posters who probably would be best in HADES.</p>
<p>That’s not to say, though, that the people who read rather than post are the ones who have dedicated a huge amount of time to analyzing every part of the admissions process, so I definitely understand what you’re talking about. I’m just not sure that there are actually that many who come to CC looking to learn about too many schools other than the HADES. I mean, you see the occasional thread or two, but they immediately sink down the page because no one has heard of the school.</p>
<p>I think the reason that CC is so prestige-focused lies in the fact that, yes, the schools are so well known.</p>
<p>Well FIT is something we discuss quite a bit on this forum and I think it’s very appropriate. And we do have contributing members who are parents, students, and alum of other schools than the 5 you mention.</p>
<p>Most of it doesn’t seem to sink in - for example, TomTheCat mentions FA. There is plenty of FA at other schools sometimes with higher acceptance rates. So it doesn’t seem like a logical conclusion that FA applicants should concentrate on the 5 above mentioned schools. Their chances elsewhere might be higher. I can mention my daughter’s school and it’s FA a hundred times and it doesn’t seem to change the perception among the students on this forum that A/E/StP/D = best $$.</p>
<p>Another drawback to a focus on just 4 or 5 schools, is it makes the forum less rich than it could be. It’s called the “Prep-School Admissions Forum”, but I think after people surf over to this site they realize it’s a Andover/Exeter forum and they move on and don’t post. Maybe we lack a critical mass of posters from other schools.</p>
<p>I guess what I mean to suggest is that there are many youngsters who will have better opportunities to develop at institutions other than those that occupy our attention here. And in fact, these youngsters represent the majority of our intelligent and well adjusted youth. My concern is that the discussion is not inclusive of them and that the tenor of the discussion may mislead them. But Tom, if you are correct, my point may be irrelevant, because perhaps such youngsters do not even visit cc in great numbers.</p>
<p>Grejuni, for people like me who need over 80% of tuition paid through financial aid, most smaller and lesser-known schools just don’t make the cut - they physically can’t, especially now with the recession. Few other schools’ FA initiatives give an average FA gift of 80% of tuition. But the HADES do.</p>
<p>And we can lament all we want over the lack of posters who write about lesser known schools, but in the end, their threads just die anyway because CC simply lacks the critical mass, as was said above, of posters who are at all interested in any below-first-tier schools. It’s a simple fact that it’s highly unlikely any discussion of Putney School will last when there is so much more interest in first tier schools.</p>
<p>Tom,
The problem is that you are wrong about the way that FA works. We have had lots of personal experiences on this forum with people who got high levels of FA even from low endowment schools. The right FIT for the school is what helped the aid application.</p>
<p>If you keep posting that a certain 5 schools are the only ones with generous FA, plenty of kids will be missing out! By the way, St Andrew’s has an average grant of 33K. My daughter was offered substantial aid at 3 schools, none of which are listed in you acronym.</p>
<p>Fit is very important. When Adcoms review applications, they are looking at how well the applicant will fit into the program. It should be obvious that they are not just looking for the highest SSAT and GPA, although that is important. A wise applicant would give fit serious consideration.</p>
<p>OK, so there are exceptions. But that doesn’t change the fact that the HADES in general offer more aid and more for the money you do pay.</p>
<p>I’d hate for people to miss out too and in no way am I pretending that the HADES are the only schools that should be talked about here. I’m just saying that there remain legitimate and substantial reasons why they are the ones that are most talked about.</p>
<p>My ds best two financial offers came from non-HADES schools, Miss Porters and Western Reserve. She received offers, with FA, from Lawrenceville, Choate and SPS, but the amounts are all less (not to say that they are not exceedingly generous also for us, but just less than Miss Porters and Western Reserve). </p>
<p>I believe the motivating factor in choosing a school should be how it fits the students goals, academic strengths & weaknesses, opportunities for future growth, what the student can contribute to the school, whether it feels like a comfortable environment for the student and affordability. On cc I see so much “I must go to HorAorDorEorS or I will die”. I rarely see people state why these schools are the best for them. For some students these schools will be a good fit, for others, they are working on a fairy tale image of what these schools are like. A lot of students will never know if other schools would be as good or a better fit because they limit their search to a few schools with high name recognition. Some of these folks end up not going to any boarding school because of this shortsighted thinking. </p>
<p>Before the decisions came out we thought we had identified the perfect school for my daughter, Mercersburg, a rarely talked about school on this board. It felt like a great fit for her. We were disappointed and surprised when she was not accepted, but it forced us to look really hard at what she wanted out of the boarding school experience. As my d was agonizing over her decision her dad suggested she look at not what the schools offered, but what could she contribute to the school. Because the only way she is going to be truly happy is if she is willing and able to give something during this experience. We kept reminding her that no place is going to make her happy. But the attitudes of the students and faculty and ultimately her attitude will help ensure she has a positive experience. </p>
<p>My suggestion is to look at the schools holistically, just as most of the admissions committees strive to look at the students beyond just grades or SSAT scores.</p>
<p>Excellent emdee! That is so very thoughtful! People here obsess about name and not sufficiently about compatibility. I hope things work out for your daughter. Sometimes the process of working it out is painful, but that makes it worth it.</p>
<p>And Tom, since you are international, different rules apply. Is Andover the only school that provides aid for internationals??? With all due respect, you are not the best person to pontificate about FA for domestics!</p>
<p>You’re right - I’m not. The other schools offer FA for international applicants too, but out of a separate pool. The same applies for Andover. Despite the fact that even the international FA funds at the HADES schools are generally a lot less generous than those for domestic applicants, international FA at lesser-known schools are nearly nonexistent. That’s a bit of a generalization, but for most smaller schools, it’s all too true.</p>
<p>We are also international and we received excellent FA offers from schools sometimes mentioned here but are not in the HADES list. I also know many students both interantional and national that have received excellent FA offers from schools rarely, if ever, mentioned here. Even schools with smaller endowments offer FA and someone has to get, why not you…? I agree that the forum would be even more interesting if it offered discussion about none HADES schools and offered some of the great aspects of schools not mentioned here. Not everyone is meant to attend a HADES school and I know many successful people who attended otherwise…</p>