<p>I think there’s a great deal that is not covered by websites. It can help to have someone advising you who knows the schools well as a placement advisor, i.e., an adult who is not an applicant’s parent. Your small private K-8 school is the first place to look for such an advisor, and at present they’re probably helping the 8th grade parents. In the spring, they’ll turn their attention to you, after the 8th grade families have been settled.</p>
<p>This board is not the place to look for the answer to, “Where will a straight a student from ___ school be happiest?” First, in the small schools, after two posts anyone from your school community will be able to identify you. Second, you’d get uninformed opinions from students who graduated from rival schools, looked at schools but didn’t like them for entirely idiosyncratic reasons, and want to tell you all about it. Third, many posters on this site want to talk about a few schools, and 8th graders aren’t the best source for admissions advice. (Nor are parents of other applicants.)</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound to me as if you have any reason to worry. Your small school’s advisors can likely give you a detailed list of schools at which their graduates have done well in the past. Other parents at your son’s school can help, as well, particularly parents of high school students.</p>