Roxbury Latin, Boston

Prep School Admissions
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<p>Question for any current student or parent at RL: If my son gets an interview at RL, what are his chances of getting accepted? Do they interview everyone that applies? I have read on these boards that acceptance rate is 15%, but just curious to know weather our chances are improved (substantially) or not, by getting offered an interview. If anyone knows of the interviewee to space ratio, that would be great. Seems like RL is shrouded in mystery when it comes to these things. Understandably so, great reputation!</p>

<p>Secondly, any current or prior students: please offer any interview tips/suggestions, remembrances, help...would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks
HOB</p>

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<p>You must interview to apply - at least that is how it was a few years ago - so , yes, they did interview everyone who applied.</p>

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<p>an RL parent here </p>

<p>Don’t have info about interview/acceptance ratio; my understanding is that they interview all who apply </p>

<p>DS did a practice interview beforehand to get used to that process . . . helped put him at ease for the real thing . . . hard to tell what they are looking for . . . our advice to our kid was to be yourself and let the chips fall where they may </p>

<p>they interviewed us parents, too </p>

<p>Kei</p>

<p>P.S. Good luck!!!</p>

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<p>They interview all applicants and they interview the applicants parents. During the interview they will give your son an aptitude test. Acceptance rate is about 10% regardless of what they say. For the right type of student (intellectually curious, inquisitive, exceedingly bright, willing to work hard) it is the best high school in the United States. Academically, it has no equal. The students are very happy there, with lots of happy smiling faces. Athletically they are known for great wrestling. About 20% of the graduating class goes to Harvard.</p>

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<p>For the right type of student PS 00 can be the best high school in the United States.</p>

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<p>Many of the parents have significant ties to Harvard.</p>

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<p>Well, I checked its matriculation lists. Its Ivy+SM rate was as high as 40% in 2008 and some years prior, so it’s not just Harvard. Impressive indeed, but it’s a small day school (50 graduates each year). You need to live in that area to attend the school, so that alone gets it right off from my list. It’s like one of those NYC day schools. Excellent school but what’s the point of “advertising” it on a national/international platform?</p>

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<p>If we lived near Boston, my son would absolutely apply to Roxbury. I wonder what boarding school is most like it- NOT in college matriculation (gah!) but in general philosophy and rigor.</p>

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<p>A quick look at the matriculation list suggests it resembles that of Collegiate in NYC. Certainly very impressive results.</p>

<p>As I mentioned in another thread, I’ve been doing some analysis of matriculation lists. I’ve started with NYC schools since that was a smaller group and more immediately relevant for us though I plan to move on to boarding schools. I’ll be putting my results out on a website, most likely starting sometime this weekend. After that, I’ll gradually add more and more schools as time permits.</p>

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<p>One thing about RL’s college matriculation is that its graudating class is rather small, so by 40% of the class going to Ivies+SM, we are talking about 20 students. To reach the same rate with a bigger class such as Exeter and Andover (300+ students) would be harder. Don’t get me wrong. RL is amazing, but just don’t think it is much better than - say Andover’s 30%+.</p>

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<p>Hi, this is my first post on CC, so I hope it’s okay to ask this on this thread. </p>

<p>I live in a large city in the notheast (not New England), and we’re only looking at one boarding school for our son (a local one that I guess is pretty “mid-tier” by CC standards), along with a few day schools. When I see comments like this, I’ll be honest, I just roll my eyes:</p>

<p>“(RL) is the best high school in the United States. Academically, it has no equal.”</p>

<p>Really? <em>Anywhere??</em> How was that measured exactly? And even if you could put a ranking on the absolute “best” high schools in the US, I’d sure like to know the criteria you used. I have no doubt that RL is a fine school; one of the best, no doubt. But hyperbole like this just makes me skeptical of the information I’ve learned here on CC in general.</p>

<p>Which brings me to my main reason for posting. Clearly, for a lot of folks here, boarding schools are the only thing they’re considering for their kids, with the Exeters, Andovers, etc., being the Holy Grail. Is there a forum you would recommend for folks to get information about regional day schools? </p>

<p>My son is in 8th grade at a PK-8, small independent school, and we’re looking for the right fit for him, preferably Quaker or Quaker-like (i.e. progressive, socially-oriented, but with high academic standards), for high school. He’s academically talented (98th percentile on the SSAT with no prep), but also interested in the arts and sports. </p>

<p>I’m really looking for a forum that will help me compare the minutae of the schools we’re looking at the same way folks here compare boarding schools. I haven’t found anywhere that fits that bill, but I’m guessing, if it exists, somebody here can point me in that direction.</p>

<p>Thanks for your help!</p>

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<p>I’ve never found much about regional day schools. SOmetimes local papers have comment boards that might have some information.
I would tend to agree with LucieTheLakie in regard to RL. It’s a fine school, but the whole concept of ranking high schools leaves me cold.<br>
RL does (or at least did) give an aptitude test during the interview. I recall being a bit miffed that they refused to share the results with us.
As with most schools, I would say - just let your son be himself. If he is a good fit, they will probably know it. ANd remember that you are interviewing them as well.</p>

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<p>We looked at RL last summer while doing our homework on schools to apply this fall. RL was never my son’s consideration because it is too small. So I visited there myself, talked to an admission officer and came to the same conclusion. The courses offered there are very classic, not broad/modern enough for us comparing to some other schools, for example, they offer no Chinese and very limited computer courses. Saw a school picture there, out of ~2-300 students/faculties/staff, only 3 females.</p>

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<p>LucieTheLakie said: "When I see comments like this, I’ll be honest, I just roll my eyes:
“(RL) is the best high school in the United States. Academically, it has no equal.”</p>

<p>hmmmm . . . yes silly to use superlatives like that . . . after a while one learns not to ever take those rankings too seriously . . . RL is small . … single sex . . . fairly limited class selection . . . about 1/3 of students on financial aid . . . excellent and increasingly diverse college acceptances . . . highest average SATs in the country</p>

<p>Of course there is no one “best school” in the country . . . but it’d be hard to top it, is what the comment means . . saying it is “fine” is OK, too, but . . it’s hard to argue that it isn’t a bit more special than that.</p>

<p>Kei</p>

<p>P.S. I’ll keep my eyes out for forums you are looking for.</p>

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<p>Thanks, Kei! (And by “fine” in my original post, I meant, “of high quality,” which clearly RL is.)</p>

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<p>LtL-</p>

<p>Haven’t found a good forum like CC for day schools, but there is a brute force work around.</p>

<p>First, you can use a source like this to get a listing of schools in a particular area:
[Private</a> School Review - Profiles of USA Private Schools](<a href=“http://www.privateschoolreview.com/]Private”>http://www.privateschoolreview.com/)</p>

<p>The use an internet or blog searching tool to find blogs that have as topics particular schools or more generalized questions about schools in one’s area. For example, here’s one located in Texas:
[What</a> Is a Good Private or Charter School - Mamapedia™](<a href=“http://www.mamapedia.com/article/what-is-a-good-private-or-charter-school]What”>http://www.mamapedia.com/article/what-is-a-good-private-or-charter-school)</p>

<p>Kei</p>

<p>P.S. About those “best” ratings . . . in my family we joke about “game show” knowledge, answers to the kind of silly reductionist questions you find on game shows.</p>

<p>If there were a game show centered around CC, you can bet there’d be categories like “for $1000, what is the best mid-sized public mechanical engineering school in the northeast”, or “aside from Caltech and MIT, what other schools - if any - are equivalent to the Ivies”, or . . . in this case . . . “for $5,000 AND the game, what is the best high school in the US?”</p>

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<p>Thanks for everyones help. Its been a long year!</p>

<p>We finally completed everything and finshed with the school visit and interview.
We were pleasantly surprised by the school. Everyone was so friendly. Every teacher or student we saw in the hallways smiled and said hello to us, as we visited. They seemed like good kids and it seemed they were happy and proud to be there. The interviewer we had was a veteran of the school and a very nice and helpful person. Our sons interview and our parent interview were excellent. </p>

<p>My son took the OLSAT and said it was pretty straight forward.</p>

<p>Now we are nervous and will be waiting by the mailbox for an indication!</p>

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<p>Thanks for the information, Kei, and apologies for the late reply. Is that Private School Review website able to provide more subjective information from alumni, parents, etc., or is it mostly statistics-driven? </p>

<p>And I love your “Jeopardy” questions. I went to an Ivy League school with a lot of insecure folks who were constantly quizzing their classmates what they got on their SATs. Just, NO! ;-)</p>

<p>DS has been accepted at all the schools he applied to, but now we’re waiting out the FA decisions. The BS offered us zero aid; hoping the DSs can offer more. Sadly, at this point, the decision may come down to which, if any, school we can actually afford.</p>

<p>And good luck to your son, HoB!</p>

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<p>And I love your “Jeopardy” questions. I went to an Ivy League school with a lot of insecure folks who were constantly quizzing their classmates what they got on their SATs. Just, NO! :wink:</p>

<p>Yes, that was the first week of life of college at the unspecified HYP school that I attended. Where are you from? What HS did you attend? Do you know so-and-so who went there? What were your SAT scores? After a week when we all figured out that we had much more interesting things to talk about with each other, the subject of SAT scores never came up again.</p>

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<p>Admission to RL varies depending on whether your S is applying for 7th or 9th grade. Assuming you are talking about 9th grade, the year my S applied (and did not get admitted) they only accepted about 6-7 boys. I forget home many applied, but think it was in the range of about 70-80. All applicants are interviewed, well at least they used to all be interviewed, so an interview does not mean you made the first cut. I would have loved to have seen my S at RL, but he is currently attending what I am sure is thought of as a much lessor school and very happy. We are very happy, S is challenged and enjoys the community. Do not be dismayed if your S does not get in, there are many, many fine schools in the Boston area.</p>