I've got the HADES in my HEADS.

Prep School Admissions
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<p>Its funny to see how the acronym for the top BS's have evolved over the years. I've seen everything from HADES (the most widely-used) to AEDCMS (from 2006, I believe?) to HEADS (which to me, makes SO much more sense than HADES, as HEADS actually relates to academics and whatnot; whereas HADES just succeeds in sounding morbid). </p>

<p>I'm wondering, how did this happen? Was there sort of this general consensus that HADES be the acronym? Was there a poll? Did the gods of CC (uh, the dudes that made the forum) swoop down with their #2 pencils and declare HADES the official acronym? Was the acronym from another website or was it a CC-creation? Because honestly, the acronym is definitely much more important than we think. </p>

<p>To all the future applicants who happen to stumble upon CC, HADES acronym-ing would sway their decision of where to apply to GREATLY. If the general consensus was that HADES were the best of the best - why bother applying to schools like MX, Groton, Choate, Milton? Obviously, these schools must be on a completely different tier! I know HADES greatly impacted my decision. I wasn't even going to apply to Deerfield or SPS until I heard of HADES.</p>

<p>I remember this MX student who posted here a while ago. When he applied, be got accepted to both Andover and MX, but choose to attend MX. When CC users asked MX-Guy why he choose MX over the all-amazing Andover, MX-Guy replied that in the school he came from, MX was considered just as prestigious as Andover. MX-Guy said that coming to CC, he was really surprised by the whole "HADES" thing. That really makes me wonder - outside of CC in real Prep school, is HADES a common consensus? And more importantly, are HADES truly the best schools? </p>

<p>The point is, I don't think the HADES acronym is fair. Especially to great schools like MX, Groton, Choate ect. who may not get the best applicant pool because of the views of a College Prep Admission thread called CC.</p>

2

<p>When we lived in Boston they referred to it as MASHEDR (Milton, Andover, SPS, Hotchkiss, Exeter, Deerfield, Roxbury Latin).</p>

<p>Good post... Even look at rankings, certain non HADES schools are far ahead. </p>

<p>


Well CC prep is a small percent, outside of CC prep other schools are just as highly regarded.</p>

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<p>Well CC prep is a small percent, outside of CC prep other schools are just as highly regarded.</p>

<p>But that's exactly my point - CC is the biggest INTERNET Prep school site, and for people who have no other source of Prep school Info (especially Internationals), this is where they are getting all their info to base their decisions on. </p>

<p>:D</p>

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<p>Not really... One hundred, maybe two hundred people on the prep school forum, WAY more applicants than that.</p>

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<p>Just because 100-200 people <i>post</i> on CC, doesn't mean that there aren't others who've read the boards. </p>

<p>Most every bs-applicant will run across CC. Think about it, all it takes is to google "Prep School Admissions" and CC pops up. Its research that every serious bs-applicant will and should pursue.</p>

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<p>Are there any Prep rankings that aren't generated in Asia by Professional College Advisers?
I have seen one WSJ Prep ranking which was ludicrous.
One of the reasons my son went to Northwestern is that there was a ranking out which showed the top ten schools where the students were the happiest. I'd love to see that for Prep Schools.</p>

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<p>What about these:</p>

<p>ashed
deash
heads
sadhe
shade</p>

<p>The HADES thing is just ridiculous. Last year, everyone said AESDH.....to say that these are the five "best" schools is just not logical. And, I am a parent of a student who attends one of them.</p>

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<p>I agree with cheesy...
When I first started investigating preps, I read these boards but never posted. From here, I had in my mind which schools were the best but when I actually visited the schools and starting speaking with people outside of this environment, I learned that there are MANY great schools out there. I was also suprised at the reputation Middlesex had outside of these boards - meaning with universities. Of course everyone has heard of Exeter but it was not a good fit for me...too large, impersonal. People coming on this site to simply inform themselves need to know that there are many great schools out there that are only mentioned in passing on this site.</p>

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<p>HADES is silly on many levels. I've cringed every time I've read the acronym because HADES is hell in Greek mythology, as well as the god of the underworld. It's like saying you want to go to hell.</p>

<p>If you must have an acronym, try TMCS -- The Most Competitive Schools. Then, people can fill in whichever they consider the most competitive schools to be.</p>

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<p>Groton ought to be in the HADES. In my opinion Groton is probably better than Hotchkiss and SPS.</p>

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<p>I agree. Make it GASHED.</p>

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<p>Haha!</p>

<p>or maybe</p>

<p>SHAGED</p>

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<p>St Grottlesex.</p>

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<p>benevolent, you'd get a spelling correction on SHAGED and you don't want to double that G. </p>

<p>Only 20% of the people applying to GASHED are admitted and most get gashed.</p>

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<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
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/554261-prep-school-ivy-league-head-gmcs.html?highlight=HADES%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/554261-prep-school-ivy-league-head-gmcs.html?highlight=HADES&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/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", <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/626240-elite-heads-schools.html?highlight=HADES%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/626240-elite-heads-schools.html?highlight=HADES&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Hammer5 and Burbparent, I'm in total agreement with you. There's nothing wrong with wanting to go to these schools in and of their own right, but understand how the term HADES came about, and that its irrelevant. I'd hate to see many of you base important decisions, or have it affect newcomers trying to learn about BS on CC. Lately I've noticed comments like, "I only want to go to HADES", or "too bad Milton, Groton, Choate" aren't as desirable as the HADES schools, and this is really a case of misinformation. </p>

<p>Please everyone, just do your research. Learn about the programs that you are most interested in. If you like horses, consider Thacher; if sailing, then Hotchkiss and St. George; for a competitive math team, take a look at Exeter, Roxbury Latin, Choate and Taft. If large community is important, then likely Andover, Exeter, Choate and Lawrenceville will excite you; smaller community, then Groton, St. Pauls, Deerfield Milton, NMH; if all boys, think about Old Avon, all girls, maybe Miss Porters; perhpaps in the South? Then Asheville. And if you are in NYC or the Boston area, then you have a host of highly reputable day schools to consider. I promise you that all of these schools have a broad enough curriculum to challenge the brightest of you. So consider other things as well --- like ECs and interests where you can really excel and make yourself stand out a bit, and go with the school where you feel most at home, and that also wants you.</p>

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<p>HADES is a little restrictive. When I was on CC applying, it was AESDCH (and my friend wanted to put L). So, I suppose it changes a lot. And I think that all lists of the top tier schools should include Milton, Groton, Choate, Andover, Exeter, DA, SPS, Hotchkiss, L'ville.</p>

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<p>I don't know if anyone already said this, but Hades is the god of the Underworld in mythology. Weird, huh?</p>

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<p>Burb Parent below did... maybe that jogged your memory.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Groton ought to be in the HADES. In my opinion Groton is probably better than Hotchkiss and SPS.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>How the hell would you know, SPS kills groton in almost every category. So I'm not sure what you're basing that on. And even categories don't mean anything, different people have different opinions. So I really don't know what you're basing that on, have you attended hotchkiss or SPS? Maybe you'd have a different opinion if you were off the waitlist.</p>

<p>The acronyms will change every year, and there will always be people who THINK they know how good a school is. When really they know absolutely nothing. It may very will still be HADES next yr...or it may be GADES or AESDCH...does it matter?</p>

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<p>I think the acronym should be ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. So then everyone can fill in whatever schoolt hey please =]</p>