Lawrenceville v. Exeter

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>I'm new to this board and the admissions process...</p>

<p>Here's my issue. I'm STILLLLL deciding between schools. I got into a bunch of schools, but I've narrowed my list to two: Lawrenceville and Exeter. They're a weird pair, I know, but I like both for different reasons.</p>

<p>Exeter is obviously more prestigious, blah blah blah, and has more resources. </p>

<p>But for some reason, I really loved Lawrenceville when I visited. Something clicked.</p>

<p>I know most people on this board will just say to go with my gut, but I'm curious what people think about both schools, especially Lawrenceville, since there are fewer comments about it on here.</p>

<p>And before anyone says it, I know the date for accepting offers has long passed, but I applied outside the traditional process because of family circumstances. I have until the end of the month, basically, to respond.</p>

<p>So if anyone has any comments that might help with my decision, I'd really appreciate it.</p>

<p>Thanks!
Nora</p>

2

<p>Why don't you go over your thoughts and concerns, pros and cons, interests and goals and priorities and share with us how they fit. That might be more useful because then we could engage you on a more individualized basis, perhaps point out misconceptions you might have, allay fears, emphasize or call out facts that might be relevant to you...and so on and so forth. I doubt a general rehash of what's on Peterson's is going to help you as much as a specific, personalized discussion. But we can't tailor comments to you until you tell us some things about yourself. And, hopefully, through the process of writing out your thoughts about these schools you'll get a better grasp of the things that are most important to you. Does that sound like a plan to you?</p>

3

<p>Lawrenceville is known as a top tier school and either one of them can provide a great education. There's such a little difference between these schools, because they're all elite and great, but the little things are what count. I fell in love with Choate because of a gut feeling, and actually, I do think you need to rely on this. But it's like falling in love with someone; you may think they're right for you, but you don't know if it will last. Look at L'ville's assets and courses and try to pick out some you'd be excited to take. If you went to revisits, compare the reactions of students at both schools. A lot of times people will choose a school based on how well they think they'll fit in there, and the student quality is a factor.</p>

<p>If you do decide on L'ville, and your parents still don't want you to go, tell them that you applied there and that if they really didn't want you to go to any school but Exeter, that they should have told you to just apply there (to Exeter). But now you have two great choices ahead of you, so it should be your decision.</p>

<p>If something "clicks" then that's a good sign. But weigh your options, and most likely they'll come out in your favor, and if they do point to Lawrenceville, then the end result is that you'll feel more confident attending next year now that you've also looked at the objective results as well as the subjective.</p>

4

<p>The only reasons you gave for liking Exeter is that it is more prestigious and has more resources than Lawrenceville.<br>
Above you state that you love Lawrenceville and it clicked with you.<br>
I think you already have your answer.</p>

<p>This will become your home away from home. You should love it, and it should click with you. I think people do best in an environment in which they are most comfortable. Both are great schools but not great schools for everyone. Congratulations on having such wonderful choices with an extended deadline!</p>

5

<p>As an Exonian (posting from my mother's CC account) who was drawn to Exeter due to its reputation for academic excellence, I can say without a doubt:</p>

<p>Go to Lawrenceville.</p>

<p>As I enter my third and senior year at Exeter, I suppose I'm in a "good" position. I get great grades, have close friends, extracurriculars, everything one is "supposed" to get out of a school like Exeter. But my time here has been the most consistently miserable period of my life. The cattiness, the competitiveness, the collective neuroses of this campus are unbearable and inescapable: the majority of people here would either kill to get into a good college or have given up altogether and despise anyone who shows passion or initiative in any direction. The "prestige" of Exeter has attracted many for whom "prestige" is the be all and end all of education. And, to be entirely honest, I was far more challenged at my old (private) school than I ever was at Exeter.</p>

<p>Granted, many people have far more positive experiences than I do here.
And many - I would venture to say around half - have far, far worse.</p>

<p>I wish now that I had listened to my "happy" gut feeling when I visited Hotchkiss, and my significantly less happy feeling touring Exeter.</p>

6

<p>L'ville. Just do it.</p>

7

<p>um yeah i basically was accepted at andover, l'ville,and hotchkiss, waitlisted at exeter. andover and exeter were basically the first schools i eliminated, even though they were the only schools i had visited at the time. one of the things that helped me make this decision was what my interviewer had to say about the atmosphere at exeter. and i had always perferred a small school to a larger one, so my decision was pretty much made.</p>

<p>if i were you i'd choose lawrenceville. i almost did.</p>

8

<p>Lawrenceville is absolutely a top tier BS on par with Exeter, Andover, Choate, St. Paul's and Deerfield.</p>

<p>If your gut tells you L-ville, that's where you should go.</p>

9

<p>in other words, hopeful u r going to hotchkiss? :)</p>

10

<p>The posts on this board are just OPINIONS, and you should decide where you really want to go by yourself. Don't let other people tell you where you should go. YOU are the person who should decide, with or without your parents.</p>

<p>By the way, not everything on this board is true. Use your own judgement.</p>

11

<p>Pick the school you liked more when visiting. Both Lawrenceville and Exeter are extraordinary schools that would provide you with a top-notch education.</p>

<p>Years ago, I was in a similar situation, having been accepted to Lawrenceville and 2 other top schools (in the AESDCH group). I choose Lawrenceville because I felt like I really clicked with the students (and I loved the house system), and I've never once regretted it. No single boarding school is the right choice for everyone - you really should follow your gut feeling in deciding which is right for you.</p>

<p>I'm curious, what resources do you believe that Exeter will provide you with that Lawrenceville can't?</p>

12

<p>yes! i'm entering hotchkiss as a prep in the fall.</p>

13

<p>When you get to the top tier of boarding schools, the difference in prestige isn't important. It's not going to affect your chances of getting in to that dream college. Go with whichever school you want to spend the next four years of your life at.</p>

14

<p>Make a list of the positives/negatives that you associate with Exeter and Lawrenceville. If your heart is telling you Lawrenceville, follow it. Either way you will be getting a great education.</p>

15

<p>Both exeter and lawrenceville seem to have strong ties to princeton in terms of matric, if that is important to you. They are both excellent schools. what a wonderful choice to have!</p>

16

<p>It's true that they both have strong ties to Pinceton, but Lawrenceville's good matric there is in large part because many of the Princeton faculty send their kids there since it's close by.</p>

17

<p>About that Lawrenceville-Princeton faculty connection....</p>

<p>...or any Ivy faculty-Boarding School connection for that matter...</p>

<p>Are faculty salaries at Ivies able to support a BS education for one or more children?</p>

<p>Do that many faculty members have kids in top boarding schools? Now I'm sure that many of them -- who have kids -- have kids bright enough to get into boarding schools, but then you have to have kids who are also bright enough to get into the Ivy...even as a faculty member's child, which isn't exactly a cakewalk.</p>

<p>So, here's the weeding out process:</p>

<p>1) Take faculty members who have kids in one particular grade (say, HS Class of '07) and that pool is, I would think, somewhat limited;</p>

<p>2) Reduce that further to the faculty members who have financial resources to pay for a top boarding school;</p>

<p>3) Reduce that further to those who feel that a boarding school education, whether as a day or boarding student, is superior to the other local options;</p>

<p>4) And then -- assuming that all those kids are bright enough to get into the top BS -- reduce that to the kids who've attended said BS and meet whatever threshold standards apply to them for admission to the Ivy as children of faculty members;</p>

<p>5) And, finally, eliminate those students who choose to matriculate to other schools (because I would assume that there's some sort of tuition arrangement that makes it nearly as feasible for a student to attend another Ivy as it is to attend the one that their parent teaches at -- and, if so, I would think that quite a few would opt to spread their wings a little).</p>

<p>To think that year after year a school like Lawrenceville is sending off, say, a dozen kids to Princeton because those kids are faculty children seems like a high number to me. I don't have raw data, so I'm admittedly just working from my dataset labelled "The World As I Assume It To Be." But given that dataset -- that I will not make an effort to defend -- and applying it to the sieve that I use here -- which I feel somewhat confident about -- I don't see the matric numbers being skewed to any great degree.</p>

<p>Consider this to be in the form of a question/request for mo' better information and not as a rebuttal to liv&learn. I just don't get it...and would like to understand more about this dynamic we (and that includes me) keep referring to. Is it fact, highly plausible, or a CC myth that we've bought into and has credibility because we've repeated it so often?</p>

18

<p>I don't have numbers & no time right now to answer in length.<br>
You probably know that faculty children are given an entry break at colleges. In some cases, that break is greater than the one given to legacies because of close relationships within a college. You will probably hate this book because they are not very kind to Notre Dame. You might want to read Chapter 6 "A Break for Faculty Brats" in THE PRICE OF ADMISSION. If you really want to get excited, read Chapter 4 "Enduring Legacies: Notre Dame's Other Tradition." </p>

<p>I think this break makes faculty children desirable.</p>

19

<p>Based on what you said, I will be buying that book. And all copies of it. Today. I will also be hosting the world's largest marshmallow roast this weekend.</p>

<p>Seriously, I guess you're right that there's a premium value to admitting faculty children and I suppose that doesn't just extend to BS admission decisions (as I'm inclined to believe that many of these children are largely capable of getting accepted on merit alone) but it translates into aid being more available to those admits -- which does address a big hurdle that I see: how many faculty members can afford BS?</p>

20

<p>Great post, D'yer. And I'm sorry to the person who said they were a senior at Exeter - about your bad experience. I hope you have a better one in college! :)</p>