Parents of current students and recent grads are strongly discouraging us from joining Lawrenceville. It seems the college placements were bad this year (2018). On their website, they have very cleverly combined last three years’ placements and are not showing this year’s placements. Also, I found Lawrenceville weak in STEM - no decent Robotics program / Science Olympiad etc. In addition, there is no support for students for AP courses.
We were however very impressed with Peddie. Their Open House was excellently organized. They seem to be strong in STEM and also have AP courses.
Any feedback will be appreciated. Status: Day scholar in central NJ & applying for Freshman Year.
My son graduated from Lawrenceville in 2018, so I know a lot about the school. The college placements this past year were actually pretty good. Parents don’t receive an exact breakdown, but I know at least two dozen kids who ended up in Ivy+ schools. However the college placement numbers are incredibly misleading. Not just for Lville, but for every prep school. Reason is that the placements are skewed by kids with major hooks (big donors, athletes, URMs, legacy, etc). There are a few students who were top of class (Cum Laude) but were disappointed on acceptance day. These students all happened to be ORMs. So the level of competition is indeed tough.
The STEM programming at Lville is indeed pretty horrible. My son asked for permission to use some of the equipment for his own projects, and was flatly denied. No mechanism in place to encourage science competitions, olympiads, robotics, etc. So if you have a STEM kid, they will have to find mentors/lab space elsewhere. Lville has a program called Hutchins Scholars which pairs up students to nearby labs. But only about 8-10 students per year are selected – the selection process is opaque. The previous headmaster (Liz Duffy) was a former mol bio professor at Princeton, so she had some solid connections. But the new headmaster has no such influence.
In fact I found the new headmaster to be conflict avoidant. For example Lville has an online directory of all students, parents, teachers etc called Veracross. Well anyone with a Veracross account can lookup the phone number and email address for all school members. But guess who has their Veracross profile empty?? No one other than Steve Murray the headmaster. His email address and phone numbers are blanked out. Why??? Who knows? But probably because he doesn’t want to hear from parents or other members of the community. Pathetic.
Regarding AP exams: There are a handful of classes that prepare students to sit the AP exam: Stats, Computer Science, Env Science etc. For the other classes (languages, history, etc) students end up taking the AP exams anyway but they have to learn everything not taught in class on their own. So this puts the kids at a disadvantage when applying to schools that require AP scores (ie UK colleges). The 500 level classes at Lville are all college level anyway, and most colleges understand that. But having the AP credit would have been nice.
My son didn’t apply to Peddie, but I’ve heard good things about it. I imagine it is very similar to Lville. But don’t ever choose a boarding school based on college placement. Instead find a place where you child will thrive, and graduate at the top of the class.
As an FYI, this is not unlike most top boarding schools. Many have eschewed AP courses for pedagogical reasons - they can design rigorous classes better than the CB.
Again, not unlike many schools. Focusing on one particular year probably does not give an accurate picture anyway. But I am sure that a prospective student/parent can ask for last year’s stats.
It is unclear if the OP is a student or a parent. Regardless, s/he should visit prospective schools and make his/her own determination if any particular school is the right fit. Not every school is right for everybody. And that’s OK. But use advice from others as simply another data point.
In your visits, try to assess which one feels more comfortable to you. Look at the classes offered, how they are taught, how kids interact with each other, what ECS there are and what the expectations are around involvement . You should also explore how day students are integrated into the community. These are both excellent schools, and they have different vibes. You should choose the one where you will thrive.
I currently attend Peddie as a sophomore. I am also a day student and volunteered at the open house as well, so maybe I saw your family. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to PM me! Good luck with applications!
Thanks everyone for the feedback. I especially appreciate @sgopal2 for the detailed response on STEM at L’ville. This will make my decision a no-brainer, if my child secures admission at both schools. The only thing lacking in Peddie is Squash, which is the only sport my child plays. But we have to, like in life, make choices in admissions!
I’m very familiar with the squash program at Lawrenceville. The squash program has taken a big hit over the past few years. Up until recently Lawrenceville had dedicated boys and girls squash coaches. About 2 years ago, due to some bickering between the athletic director and the squash program, there was a temporary halt.
The current athletic director clearly has an anti-squash bias. Many of the parents got quite upset and complained to the headmaster during the rebellion. The headmaster backed the athletic director and ignored the wishes of the parents/students. So now the squash program at Lville is pretty pathetic, and its had a negative effect on recruiting. Lawrenceville has varsity, JV and club level squash. The courts are wonderful: 10 beautiful international sized squash courts. But the reality is that most of the courts are off limits to students (except for practices, matches and authorized lessons). The courts are locked otherwise. The school used to allow outside members of the community to pay for membership. I used to pay for a yearly membership and was allowed to use the courts. But they don’t allow this any longer.
Since Peddie doesn’t have squash, there are some other options in the area: private lessons with Good Nick, Princeton Junior Squash, and a new private club that opened up near Quakerbridge. So if your child is dedicated enough you can always find people to play with.
I agree with looking at Hun. Since you are willing to look at schools where you would do squash outside of school, I would also look at George in PA. They have some pretty interesting things going on in robotics/AI for kids who are into that. (I think they have van service from NJ - not positive though.)
There’ve been some negative comments about Lawrenceville… making the feedback so far feel a little lopsided in favor of Peddie.
if anyone came here looking for a definitive “which should I apply to” then don’t let this thread (or any like it) discourage you from visiting both.
We’ve had family & friends who were happy members of both communities.
They are both great schools with very different vibes, and different strengths.
In this area, people aren’t shy about criticizing flaws and expressing opinions, and a bad fit/experience had by some other kid won’t tell you much about your fit.
And since both are highly selective, you’ll probably want to visit and apply to both… then make choices after you can weigh acceptances and revisit experiences .
Sorry if I focused entirely on the negative aspects of Lawrenceville. My son enjoyed his time there and there are numerous positives that we loved about the school as well:
House culture: this was very strong, and a great way to make bonds. My son’s friends circle to this day still revolves around the other boys in his circle house. The housemasters and duty masters also made house living quite enjoyable.
Harkness: although a few other schools do this style of teaching, the roundtable method is really excellent at Lville. My son routinely tells me that he learned a lot more because he always felt the need to be prepared. And this has served him well during college, where he feels quite prepared to handle a rigorous courseload.
Campus: sprawling and beautiful. Location is great, approx 15 mins away from downtown Princeton. Easy access to NYC and Philly. Plenty of space for athletic facilities.
Classmates: by far, this is the greatest asset of an education at Lville. My son got to rub elbows with many well-heeled classmates from all over the world. I got to meet a lot of his friends parents: wealthy investment bankers, lawyers, CEOs, etc. He now has friends all over the world. And if he ever needs a favor, its easy to pickup the phone and call one of his former classmates. While it may not be that important now, I can imagine in 20 years where most of these kids will be.
Again, I agree with others. Definitely shop around and try to find a school that has the best fit. Don’t focus entirely on prestige.
I know kids who have loved every school mentioned here and kids who did not. Some had very negative experiences, in fact, to the point of transferring. Their reasons differed as much as they did as infividuals.
You need to see where you get in and then revisit, realizing that you will be spending the majority of your waking hours there for the next 4 years. Some of the details in this kind of scuttlebutt can be really helpful in figuring out which questions to ask and what to be alert to. There is nothing worse than getting somewhere only to find out that you didn’t know something every else did!
Our DS is a Lawrenceville Senior, has been a student all 4 years and is the first in our family to attend boarding school. He, along with an exceptionally large number of students received acceptances to Ivies. 12+ to Penn 7-8 to Harvard, same for Yale etc. I agree with the poster above that choosing a school solely based on where they place students is ridiculous. But our DS is going Ivy and we are not donors, nor is he an athlete - most of the students going to the Ivies from their class are NOT athletes.
He learned a ton at Lawrenceville in many disciplines and we are confident he is prepared to excel next year in college.
Re: College Placement lists…you realize, of course, that just because Boarding School X sent Y number of people to Selective College Z in a given year (or over a 3-year period…as noted above, the schools tend to all do this aggregation in public-facing materials), that this has ZERO bearing on whether your kid will be admitted to Selective College Z, right?
As others have noted above, you have no idea why kids were admitted to Selective College Z out of Boarding School X. In my reading of the most recent college admissions cycles, the number of slots actually available in ED rounds for non-hooked students is so very small, much smaller than the published rates will indicate. And RD rounds are truly a lottery given the number of applicants vs. number of spots available. This is all a long way of saying, the super-selectives are a longshot for the unhooked, “average excellent” kid.
FWIW, if your kid is a potential squash recruit, neither prep school may your best option…if your local public school is good enough, you might be better off sticking with that and using spare funds/time on training (doesn’t Princeton offer a great youth training program?) and traveling/competing on the circuit.
If you have any specific questions, please feel free to PM me! Good luck with applications!