<p>@SevenDad–I totally agree with you on the kids posting inane questions about schools they supposedly love! How can they not even know what the dress code is? Are they incapable of downloading the student handbook from the school website? </p>
<p>I’m all for a new section for non-brand-name schools!</p>
<p>And to think not long ago there was a long thread on CC debating about whether boarding schools were ‘in long-term decline’…</p>
<p>I know many FP families left ‘holding the bag’ this year - mostly full of waitlists…</p>
<p>I also know of many bright, excessively hard working Asian students who really don’t get a fair shake - their numbers are increasing and US boarding schools are trying to maintain a balance (which I respect, but makes it so much harder for those Asian students).</p>
<p>I am in agreement that the publicity (movies, television) and the public school cuts has had a significant impact on increasing the interest levels in bs (and private day schools).</p>
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<p>This is so great to see! Even though this influx of applicants has possibly hurt my son’s acceptance/WL ratio - I am thrilled to see parents in the US reaching and stretching to do the best for their children’s education.</p>
<p>I do worry about the perceived Asian student matter expressed in #23 above. I think this is probably a reality with more and more domestic Asian-Americans and international Asian students vying for the 20% or so of the class.</p>
<p>In this regard, anyone have stats on whether it is harder for girls to get in over boys for the same reason, sheer number of exceptionally qualified girls all competing for girl slots with less number of boys applying for male spots?</p>
<p>@NYMom#- I totally agree- we participated in a chat forum at my daughter’s accepted school and there were kids there asking questions that could have been answered by perusing the website- let alone a campus visit. How can anyone apply to schools thet know so little about just because its an acronym school???</p>
<p>Wait until you drop your child off at boarding school and you hear parents asking questions regarding school policies, supervision, etc. I thought to myself, “So if you don’t like the answers you get are you going to to pack up that dorm room you just helped set up and take them home??” I was surprised that the questions weren’t asked months prior. </p>
<p>On the topic at hand, more talk on the local news tonight about public school cutbacks. I don’t see it getting better any time soon either. With limited new job creation and continued soft real estate values (I think around me they are continuing to fall) state and local revenue isn’t going to improve in the near future.</p>
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<p>If only public schools ran on the consumer model! In our state, funding is not based on enrollment alone. Kids could leave our school in droves and it wouldn’t effect the budget at all. And generally, the kids who leave are “low needs” kids who don’t cost the district nearly the average per pupil expenditure. So it’s no skin off their nose when the top performing kids leave except that their test scores go down a bit. Public school teachers’ get a raise every year whether they perform or not. It’s about as far away from the consumer model as it gets. And when enough motivated kids leave, the general reaction is to blame those kids’ leaving for the poor results. What do they call it, a “brain drain”? Nobody in our district seems to care that 4 of their top 10 students left for private school this fall. They don’t look at it as a problem, just a personal choice on the part of the family.</p>
<p>FA Considerations:</p>
<p>I think the new direction for FA parents will be to perform a more detailed analysis of the likelihood of becoming a grant recipient. It’s interesting that many parents, regardless of tuition payment categories, will slice/dice SSAT scores, and even go as far as comparing Parent Essays to gauge the likelihood of admissions. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with this (if you have that kind of time), the consideration of the FA issue is typically driven by one overly simplistic formula: largest endowments = greater FA opportunities. It may take a bit more comprehensive analysis going forward to gain an understanding of where the dollars lie. </p>
<p>Consider the following:</p>
<p>Endowment per Student: Please stop assuming the largest endowment will automatically yield the greatest FA opportunity. Instead, compare the Endowment per Student ratios for your favorite schools. In doing so, you may note, for example, that Woodberry Forest, THINK Global and the School at Church Farm EPS’ actually exceed some of the most highly coveted schools mentioned on CC* (I’m not necessarily recommending these schools but you get the point). This is a very important metric but often overlooked in the BS world. A comparison of the number of students supported by the endowment may help guage the the abilities of schools to support the financial needs of its applicants requesting FA awards. It also allows for a very valuable comparison for different sized BS.</p>
<p>Strategic Goals: It’s important to understand the upcoming strategic goals of the school as this may place constraints on endowment dollars. Highly ambitious projects may further contain the Operating Budget and force the school and Board to make some tough choices when deciding the allocated FA percentages (bear in mind most capital expenditures have a separate budget so the impact on FA may be negligible).</p>
<p>Gifts to the School: As some financial sectors begin to rebound, be aware of announcements of large charitable annuity trusts and other gifts to the school. Some gifts have percentages that are specifically earmarked for FA purposes and you’d certainly want to note this. Others may flow directly into the Endowment Fund but the income generated may be used to strengthen FA, staff compensation, admin expenses, etc.</p>
<p>Financial Aid as a Percentage of Operating Budget: The most common FA metrics used are the percentage of students receiving FA and the average FA award. Although useful, it may also help to understand each school’s percentage of FA relative to total Operating dollars. One school spends 20% and the other 30%. When applied to the total budget, you may be able to estimate how much is available, when further applied to the % receiving FA.</p>
<p>The Annual Fund: So those contributions do matter after all! More than just a cheerleading, vote with your dollars exercise, an Annual Fund may range 5% - 10% of Operating Budget in a good year. This fund is used to provide resources throughout the school where the need is greatest.</p>
<p>Merit Scholarships: The conventional wisdom around here is that the most desired schools do not offer merit scholarships. Please do your own research. I know of two BS that are VERY frequently mentioned on CC that haves outstanding merit scholarship packages and I’m also familiar some opportunities at less familiar schools as well. </p>
<p>Educate Your Kids: The summer is the perfect opportunity to teach your students about the importance of these variables and how they may play key roles in the dollars available to them in March. Get out the whiteboards and markers. Once they’ve thoroughly digested the concepts, they may have a few remaining questions for their AOs for comparative purposes. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when your DC asks if the school’s year-over-year reduction in the percentage of dollars allocated to FA represents a slight shift away from its strategic commitment to diversify its student body (just kidding but you catch my drift). And once your DC is done helping the AO up off the floor, they will realize that they there are well on their way to defining a new trend. </p>
<p>*source: boarding school review.com</p>
<p>I don’t mean to intrude on this thread, but I just wanted to comment about how your saying many of the questions people ask are silly - they should have just read the website, or whatever. In my opinion, I think its great that people are asking questions. Thats what this website is all about. Sure, you can probably find out about PEA’s dress code on their website, but hearing about it from an actual student is so much more helpful. Any question is better than none at all. Just because people are asking questions doesn’t mean they haven’t researched the schools in depth. </p>
<p>Also, it was my general feeling that lower tier boarding schools (the un-acronym included) are respected just as much as the HADES or which ever. The HADES may seem a little exciting and special, mainly because of their low admission rates and just the name “HADES”, but I’ve never seen any negative comments about other schools (apart from a few, which is to be expected). The reason there are so many threads about them is probably because of the fact that they are so competitive and well known. Also, Andover and Exeter are huge schools (1000+ students) so it’s not surprising that there are many commenting on this website about them. Overall, I think saying that un-acronym schools are given a worse rep is untrue. This might just be me, though…
anyway, sorry to intrude! carry on.</p>
<p>According to the formula, the next Andover or Exeter kid that walks into my office will not get the Summer internship because of the schools tier level is under par with Brooks.</p>
<p>@neato: Your public school district would care if people were allowed to “port” their share of the operating budget to a private school. After all, it would give the public schools the chance to downsize. Of course nothing happens until we reach a crisis, but public schools seem to deliver a very poor product relative to the financial inputs they’re given. Nothing really new in what I’m saying, it just feels good to say it!!! :)</p>
<p>Sent you a PM, btw.</p>
<p>Public school districts do care, they are operating under state and federal requirements, not to mention unfunded mandates, that make their job virtually impossible.</p>
<p>I really wasn’t planning on going there, but here goes: IMO the schools of today have far more tools / money than yesterday with less students per class than yesterday and yet the product of yesterday is far more better than today. Something else is missing and it’s not money. Wisconsin thinks it’s viagra.</p>
<p>What’s missing is competition. If you lose customers you should lose revenue. As it is, there’s a huge structural advantage for the PS in that taxpaying parents have to pay for the public school whether or not they send their kids there. Changing that and making money portable (ie allowing it follow the student) would introduce the necessary competition to flush out all the abysmal policy that has made the current system unworkable and undesirable. I’m not holding my breath though.</p>
<p>Our district spends, per capita, 50% more per student than surrounding districts while producing worse results. We lost another 1,000 students (including my daughter) since September as parents and students have been fleeing the sinking ship. It has caused the district to cut more costs, close more buildings, fire more teachers.</p>
<p>But it hasn’t caused them to do what they needed to do to be more competitive. The current district is now 75% smaller than it was when we moved here.</p>
<p>Vouchers won’t solve the problem because the amount of the vouchers being discussed is less than what many schools in other communities are getting per child.</p>
<p>Not sure what the answer is. Homeschool maybe, then have the students use community resources for EC’s.</p>
<p>Vouchers are the right answer, it’s just a question of execution. There is incredibly determined opposition to vouchers from those benefiting from the status quo, however, just as there has been opposition to charter schools. In NY, the usual suspects have repeatedly lobbied to cap the number of charter schools. The limits to competition need to be removed. Competition is the reason that products and services not provided by the public sector continue to improve in variety and value year after year.</p>
<p>Homeschool? It may be the answer for a small percentage but if it ever goes mainstream then we have a serious problem in our society.</p>
<p>A variety of competitors to the failing public schools are necessary to shoulder the burden and unique circumstances. Education isn’t a one size fits all as people on this site know. Demand has a way of creating supply. That’s how the market works. Take a look at the attached link as an example. I don’t know much about this group, but they are setting their sights high and plan to be in quite a number of cities with a high quality offering. [The</a> World School | Avenues - Private School in New York City](<a href=“http://www.avenues.org/world-school]The”>http://www.avenues.org/world-school)</p>
<p>This is from their brochure: TYLER TINGLEY AND ROBERT (“SKIP”) MATTOON Co-Heads of Avenues’ Chelsea campus are
Ty Tingley and Skip Mattoon. Ty will focus primarily on curriculum design, while Skip will
build and develop the faculty.
Prior to joining Avenues, Ty headed Phillips Exeter Academy for 12 years, during which time
he completed the largest capital campaign ($352 million) ever conducted by an independent
school</p>
<p>Two things…</p>
<p>I know there was a thread here a while back about the movie “Waiting for Superman” but if you watched it you know that for public schools…it is NOT about the money. The US spends more per student on public education than any other country and STILL ranks near the bottom. It’s not about the money…</p>
<p>Second, again…it’s not about the money…the largest endowments don’t always mean the best FA packages. Many schools with smaller endowments still give great FA packages. Maybe not to every student who qualifies, but they do give them, up to full packages, even with endowments a fraction of the size of the “big guys.” </p>
<p>Schools budget for a student for their time at the school, they were hit with increases for current students and money for new students was lowered over the last few years.<br>
As someone said (not sure if it is this topic or another) most operate on using a rolling 3-5 year average of their endowment and draw a percent of it - typically 3-5%. When the market dips the first year or two isn’t so bad as you have good years in that average still. Then, it’s the lower years in that average…less money available, and more need from current students.</p>
<p>Does any pattern stand out in the 2011 acceptance thread? I have the impression that it was a difficult year for girls. Were more students wait listed, or were there more students who received wait lists, but no acceptances? And, are there FA students accepted to multiple schools with FA, but fewer students needing FA accepted overall? (I hope that sentence makes sense to others.)</p>