<p>If you didn’t want to be academically challenged, * how did you get in?*</p>
<p>@stargirl3 I’m sorry about what I said, I did not mean it the way you interpreted it, I simply wanted to know. It did not affect my decision and I do enjoy being challenged. I chose Andover not just because I fell in love with it but because It felt right (also their financial aid was a big green flag).</p>
<p>I’m not sure how I misinterpreted the following quote:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you don’t want lots of homework, you’re in for a surprise. Congratulations on your admission and decision to attend Andover, and I wish you the best. </p>
<p>The NYC prep environment can be very very intense. “Less homework” for Enthusiasm might mean 4 hours instead of his usual 6. Any 13-year-old who is beating himself up for getting an 89 the month his father died is not likely to be a slacker, but I can see why he (unintentionally perhaps) hit a nerve. Enthusiasm good luck to you. You did very well this round - give yourself permission to focus on what you really love for a few years - obviously you can test well etc. so the best thing you can do to prep for colleges is just continue to develop your own personal interests at Andover. No one school on your list is going to sway Harvard one way or another - they all place students at Ivies. Your results are going to depend on what you contribute to your new school’s community between now and senior year and some random facts that are unknowable now (the underwater tuba player wild card). For what it’s worth (not much imho) some recent stats- Collegiate sent 41% of its grads to Ivies and Andover sent 33% (from collegenode.com). </p>
<p>@Enthusiasm I am truly sorry for your loss:( @chemmchimney I have never thought of/referred to @Enthusiasm as a quote unquote slacker. My point was always that there is no point in attending boarding school if one does not wish to be challenged. The amount of homework given should not be the reason why he chooses a school over another-- there are more factors at play: whether you feel comfortable there, whether you’re challenged there, etc.</p>
<p>As a side, I have nieces in middle school on Long Island, NY and they actually offer AP courses in their public middle school. Hard to believe, but they do.Clearly Enthusiasm had some pretty good stats as he/she had some amazing acceptances.</p>
<p>AP? As in advanced placement you get for college credit? Skeptical. </p>
<p>@mrnephew I doubt dowzerw would lie about this.
@dowzerw I’m not questioning the BSes’ decision to accept Enthusiasm-- evidently, he is a strong candidate. However, it seems as if he has the wrong priorities and has been judging schools based upon their college matriculation and “amount of homework”. (I am merely expressing concern for his priorities-- with the best of intentions, I assure you-- as I know I’m not in any place to judge.)</p>
<p>I’m not saying s/he would lie. I’m saying that middle schools with seventh and eighth graders taking any AP course is an extremely rare phenomenon, and not nearly enough of them take it so as the schools offer it there. </p>
<p>Collegeboard on FAQ’s:</p>
<p>Can courses offered in middle school be labeled AP?</p>
<p>The AP designation may only be applied to courses offered at or above the 9th grade level which have received authorization through the annual AP Course Audit process. The AP label cannot be affixed to courses and transcripts prior to 9th grade. </p>
<p>Just in the homework issue: a lot of the prep schools assign lots of homework but not a ton (I’ve heard typical answers of 2-4 hours per night). However, the homework you are assigned is going to be more in-depth and more interesting (reading and annotating, tough problems, etc), not a worksheet or four-week project you can finish in a weekend. It’s not going to be something you can breeze through, so know that any prep school that says it assigns 3 hours of homework per night actually does. And the actual point of a prep school is to prepare kids for college and to give them a great foundational education and that brings with it skills like reading, time management, workload management, organization, etc.</p>
<p>Like at Lawrenceville: 3 hours of study hall at Cleve, and the guide said they use most of it and don’t even finish sometimes. </p>