<p>I am applying this year to Andover, Exeter and Deerfield, but i also want at least 1 good backup school incase i dont so as well as i'd hoped. There are loads of good "second tier" schools out there, but i need a school that has a good cycling program for girls, and is not religious.
The only school I've found so far that seems to be okay is Kimball Union Academy but it's a lot lower than i would like to be. Also questioning Brentwood College, but I'm unsure whether or not it really has cycling as a varsity sport.</p>
<p>Does anyone know any other schools that seem right? or know anything about Brentwood college?</p>
<p>i live not too far away from brentwood college and i’ve heard nothing but great things about it… their rugby program is amazing and they have a really cool whitewater kayaking program too. their FA is pretty weak, though, especially if you’re not a Canadian.</p>
<p>on their website, they don’t seem to have anything about cycling, so…</p>
<p>There are really hundreds of terrific schools. I would definitely not just add one “safety” to your list, as the schools you mention are very difficult to get in to, and there are so many more schools that are very good. I would pick several schools not on the “top school” list that seem to fit you well. Do research to find the places that feel right to you and apply to them as well.</p>
<p>There has been discussion about making a hidden gems message board. If they do, these would be my recommendations for terrific schools that have better admissions odds than the schools you mentioned: </p>
<p>Berkshire School- Beautiful campus, terrific math and science department, great outdoors program and overall an up and coming school. disclaimer: S is going here in the fall Oh, and the maple syrup is delicious, too!</p>
<p>Loomis Chaffee- I thought the school was warm and welcoming, and has terrific academics.</p>
<p>Pomfret: My D loved this school. Beautiful campus, engaging people. </p>
<p>Tabor Academy- I was very impressed by the classes on the revisit day and the warm feeling on campus, and the view can not be beat. </p>
<p>Westminster School- Amazing campus, wonderful people. I think their matriculation is very good.</p>
<p>Oops. I forgot to talk about the cycling. I really don’t know about cycling, except to say that Berkshire does have a mountain biking program. Hope that helps.</p>
<p>I’ve stopped giving advice because I got sick of students naming schools that are less “famous” second tier. There are a lot of miserable students who chose schools based on name recognition and status rather than fit.</p>
<p>My suggestion - don’t choose a “second tier” school as a safety. Choose schools you’d love to attend regardless of how many people genuflect over the name.</p>
<p>As you probably know, it’s difficult to find US boarding schools with cycling as a varsity sport. Here is the list from boardingschoolreview [Search</a> Boarding Schools](<a href=“Boarding School Search Results”>Boarding School Search Results) I don’t know if cycling is a varsity sport at these schools, or just a club if there is interest.
I tried doing a guided search on boardingschools, but cycling wasn’t even an option.</p>
<p>There are many great schools that are not among the acronym schools frequently discussed here. The school I know well and can discuss with real insight is Blair Academy. It offers a beautiful campus, strong academics and college matriculation, and a close community with 80% boarding and almost all faculty living on campus. There is an affiliation with the Presbyterian church, but discussions are more on ethical issues and basic Judeo-Christian values. S, who spent 4 happy years there, is not religious and never found anything objectionable about religion at Blair. He used to attend a K-12 Episcopal day school, and found Blair to be far less religious. When S was there, they had a student-organized cycling club that had weekend outings. Some members of the crew team also cycled to the boathouse.</p>
<p>My suggestion is that you consider more than one back-up school, as hockeymom also suggested. You have time to research and visit schools, so be certain you love your back-ups. You may get wait listed or rejected if you don’t show enthusiasm and don’t appear to be a good fit. Stats alone won’t get you in.</p>
<p>This year, Loomis Chaffee received more than 1700 applications for less than 200 spots. IDK what their anticipated yield is, but even some of the “hidden gems” we’re referring to (I think Brooks may have been another this year, but I don’t know the stats) are HIGHLY competitive. If you look at this year’s reported admissions on CC, you can see how random acceptances/WL (even rejects) are; it pays to expand your search MUCH wider than the usual suspects and to apply to a variety of schools, at long as they have some thing or things to offer that make them appealing enough to you to feel pretty sure that you’d attend given the opportunity.</p>
<p>Good point. These days there is no such thing as a safety as evidence by all the students who cast a wide net and were waitlisted. Overall, there are more students applying in total than spots available. And it’s getting tougher each year as local school options tank.</p>
<p>Couldn’t agree more - apply to a school because you love something about what they do - think you can contribute - that way you’ll be able to have a good conversation with the admissions department. </p>
<p>After 2 rounds of applying to day schools, and 2 rounds of applying to boarding schools, I am pretty sure that the admissions officers know when you mean it and when you don’t - the results of where my kids were admitted and where they weren’t ran absolutely along the lines of where we were enthusiastic about what the school was doing, and, equally important, where my kids felt they could make a contribution to the school. (As Parlabane put it so well, there is “what can I do for you” as well as “what can you do for me”. )</p>
<p>I also think that if you think of a school as “not top tier”, that is going to come out in the way you present yourself, and thus in the way the admissions officer perceives you. Just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>NMH- amazing campus, accepts around 39% this year…
Loomis-not a safety school, acceptance rate in the low 20’s this year due to a record amount of applicants</p>
<p>@ yankeefan, You are right that Loomis is not a typical “safety” school. I was thinking more of places that someone who believes they are competitive at a Deerfield or Exeter might want to look at for great education that isn’t typically talked about here regularly… </p>
<p>You should find schools that fit your interests apply to the ones you can truly see yourself being happy at, and hopefully at least a few of those schools will love you back.</p>
<p>Don’t assume that because that a school is affiliated with the Episcopal church, that it is particularly religious, at least in terms of conforming to one particular relgion or creed. There was a good thread about this a while back, and, really, I’m hard pressed to see much difference between PEA and, say, SPS, in terms of religion requirements; chapel (SPS) and assembly (PEA) are not all that different and most schools require that you take some religion courses (an essential part of any education in the humanities, in my opinion). You’ll eliminate some great schools from your list if you focus to much on religion.</p>
<p>That said, check out Holderness, an Epsicopal school which has a cycling program. But it’s a much better idea to look these schools up yourself, first on Boarding School Review–looking for schools that have activities/programs that interest you–and then investigating school websites. No boarding school is an absolute safety, so you need to pick schools that are right for you, not just fallbacks. And only you can determine that.</p>
<p>The list of excellent BS extends far beyond the “acronym” BS’s, just as the list of excellent universities extends far beyond just the Ivys. With the challenging admit rates that all well-regarded BS’s have nowadays, you need to rethink what “safety” means.</p>
<p>Here is a ranking of BS by their rate of their graduates’ matriculation into top universities:</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions, I definetly need somewhere with good FA, i’m from the UK and i will need some FA, but not full. </p>
<p>Most of the schools mentioned only have cycling as a recreational sport, but i want to be doing it at the top levels. it is in fact one of the reasons i want to attend BS is for cycling, there are no clubs near enough for me to attend at home.</p>
Oh, and the maple syrup is delicious, too!</p>