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It seems to me that if a boy attends a good K-8 school such as Meadowbrook, it is less likely to go to RL after that. I would imagine that it is hard for him to leave a good learning environment before he finishes 8th grade...
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is it because the school does not want you to leave? Do you mean if my son attends Meadowbrook, he will have less chance to be admitted into Roxbury latin at grade 7?
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<p>Meadowbrook sends its fair share of students to RL every year from 8th grade. Then again, I've known many 6th and 7th graders leaving Meadowbrook to attend middle-high schools such as Nobles, RL, and other junior boarding schools. Every year in 6th grade, a good proportion of their class will leave, and Meadowbrook welcomes a huge number of new 7th graders. If you are an amazing student, sure, Meadowbrook may want you to stay and continue shining on at their own school. But by no means will they stop you from achieving what you want! It's such a personal and intimate school that teachers will do ANYTHING to help you from writing recommendations and personally calling the headmasters at other schools many many times on behalf of you. </p>
<p>As a middle school, Meadowbrook has a very prestigious reputation among prep schools, and it's fairly easy to transfer out and get accepted at good schools whenver you want. It's been my impression from talking to admission officers and teachers(around Boston area) that they generally look positively on Meadowbrook.. like think the school provides this intense, rigorous academic curriculum which prepares their students to excel at high schools.</p>
<p>I would agree with inquiring mind in terms of what school a child attends before middle/high school. Placement stats are not a very reliable indicator - and there different schools may use different methods in assembling them as well. I would not be surprised if few boys from Shady Hill went to RL because the cultures are very different, but that doesn't mean that a boy from Shady Hill is at a disadvantage. I also wouldn't focus so much on RL - it's a great school, but definitely not for every boy. There are a lot of boys I know of that have the various qualities needed at RL (and this includes some who got in and some who went and then left), who aren't interested in going there.
That being said, there is some difficulty at many schools whose typical ending and starting years don't quite match up. Many private lower day schools in the Boston area see girls leave in 5th grade because several girls schools start at 6th. Rivers and Lexington Christian start in 6th as well. Meadowbrook only fairly recently added 7th and 8th as well, so their connections with upper schools is probably somewhat in flux. </p>
<p>In terms of math - Inquiring mind - we certainly looked at lots of things when considering high schools. However, for our child it wasn't actually just a single year skip. Our child took calculus as a freshman (AP AB), is in multivariant calc this year, and will have two years of university math by graduation. At BUA , there are others at and even above this level, which means that not only are the academic needs met, but there are like-minded students and a culture that serves my child well.
Our child also does not focus exclusively on math, is actually quite a good writer and works very hard in English and history, crafting essays on difficult topics and is active in several other areas as well.</p>
<p>Poss791, thanks for your comment! Looks like you are very familiar with Meadowbrook.
RL is a great school. Does anyone know the school transportation policy? Is there a bus picking up students in boston area?</p>
<p>The kids I know of that turned down or left RL simply found it not a good fit in terms of style/culture for the most part. Some decided they didn't want to go to a single sex school. Some weren't interested in the fairly strong sports requirements. Some wanted a less traditional atmosphere. One, who I don't know much about, left because the school was trying to force him away from one set of interests and into another area. (Don't ask for details - I don't have permission to share them and therefore won't.)</p>
<p>There are kids who leave or choose not to go to every school. While there are certainly kids who don't want to be at RL, I don't believe this number is particularly higher than other schools. RL's yield is around 90% each year, and looking through old yearbooks that mention the kids who left before graduation, it appears that the attrition rate is around 7%. I don't know anything about what the average attrition rates are at other schools, but I doubt 7% is that much higher than other places.</p>
<p>Tots33, I certainly did not intend to suggest that RL has either a low yield or a high attrition rate. I certainly do not have sufficient data to make such a claim, nor was I speaking to that point. If I had to make a guess - and it would be merely a guess, I would imagine that RL has a fairly high yield and a fairly typical attrition rate.
Rather, since another poster wanted to know why some boys had either left or chosen another school, I posted such information as I had. It's not much. I have some limited knowledge of perhaps six to ten boys, all of whom applied to RL within the last few years.
Every school loses students - and a certain percentage, of course, are for reasons unconnected with how well a student is suited to the school.</p>
<p>I appreciate comments from you both, nemom and tots33. Thanks!</p>
<p>I did some search on attrition rates, and found this to be relevant: California</a> boarding school? It's not an oxymoron - Los Angeles Times. Quotes from the article: "But boarding schools are not for everyone. Nationally, the attrition rate  or number of students who do not re-enroll  for boarding students in 2007 was 9.6% compared with 7.7% for day students. The rate in the West was 15.76% for boarding students and 6.76% for day students". So apparently the number from RL falls into the average range for day schools. Considering RL's yield is unusually high (some may decided to enroll w/o careful deliberation in terms of potential fit?), it is a a positive sign that its attrition is only average for day schools.</p>
<p>Interestingly, St. Albans School in DC advertises itself as having the lowest attrition rate: St</a>. Albans School: Washington, D.C., private, all-boys school for grades 4-12, on grounds of National Cathedral<em>-</em>Admission / Why St. Albans; "The student attrition rate at St. Albans is less than 4%, resulting in a highly-stable student population, particularly for Washington, DC. (The national independent-school attrition rate is approximately 10%.)". RL does better than average as well according to this data (I assume that both boarding and day schools are included in the national average).</p>
<p>It is very helpful to know why some kids leave a particular school. Personally I think sports requirement at ISL is a very good thing. To me playing sports is like putting deposits into a kid's health bank, and he can enjoy the devidents from this investment of time and energy in the future. </p>
<p>It seems particularly attractive that a boy can enroll RL or BH for 2 years starting at 7th grade and to figure out if the fit is there. If not, applying for a different high school seems to be somewhat manageable, as most of the people on this board are doing or have done.</p>
<p>I happen to know quite a number of Roxbury Latin students. They are not âweakâ in social skills; in fact they are quite the opposite. </p>
<p>The school has strong ties with The Winsor School, and from my experience, Winsor girls associate with RL boys. </p>
<p>From what Iâve encountered, most of the students are legacies. I know several students who not just have two parents who attended Yale or Harvard, but both sets of grandparents, as well as uncles, aunts, cousins, siblings.</p>
<p>Their college placement is very impressive, with a large percentage of students admitted to Harvard College. Although Boston Latin School has the most admits to Harvard College, only its Top 15% gain admissions to the most selective colleges in the country. At Roxbury Latin, however, that is not the case as the entire class gains admission to Top 20 universities.</p>
<p>My son attended Roxbury Latin and I wanted to add a few things:
âBecause of itâs stellar endowment, RL is need-blind and tuition is MUCH lower than other highly selective independent or boarding schools (<$20,000/yr.). Many of the students receive financial aid. RL is devoted to socioeconomic diversity. Students come from public, parochial, and independent schools
âRL is not about acceleration in math or other subjects, although it can be done. The focus seems to be on creating students who are strong in all the areas of classical education. The curriculum is somewhat rigid, but it is proven, and the faculty is excellent (I saw figures once that showed that the average faculty salary at RL exceeded $80K, which was MUCH higher than other independent schools).
âRL does have a very strong relationship with Harvard but largely because students who attend Harvard from RL are very well-prepared. The students who get accepted to Harvard are also accepted by other Ivy Leagues. If ten boys from a class of 50 attend Harvard, probably 12-14 got accepted, but some chose to go elsewhere. The acceptance rate has very little to do with students being legacies.
âRL stresses character and I believe they use this as a primary criteria for admissions. They also have high academic expectations, like (and need) athletes, and also select individuals with unique talents (musicians for example).
âRL expects high levels of participation from boys across academics, athletics, and extracurriculars. The typical RL student is very well-rounded.</p>
<p>Comments
1 - I agree; more kids who are not upper SES than other schools
2 - true; somewhat fewer academic choices since itâs a smaller school
3 - agree to a point; Iâd add that RLâs past as a Harvard feeder school still helps for Harvard admittance; itâs not just that the kids are well-prepared; the relationship also helps
4 - character does count; anecdotally a kid in my childâs 6th grade class who did better on entrance exams, better athlete, etc. but with attitude issues did not get accepted; who knows what the real story was, but it seemed that he was not invited due to character issues
5 - yes to high expectations, although I understand a few kids are on IPE (Individual PE) programs</p>
From 2005 to 2009, there were 22 applicants to RL from Meadowbrook, and 8 were accepted. 6 enrolled. I do not know if that was 8th grade only or if younger applicants were included.</p>
<p>BTW, Meadowbrook has done a fantastic job building up its middle school in a hurry. The faculty recruitment has been superb and while there may be tighter relationships between other, older K-8 schools and prep admissions offices, we found the guidance to be very good and the support from teachers and administration to be beyond very good. Our own D got 3 good acceptances, and is likely to settle in where she will indeed be most happy.</p>
<p>Our son was fortunate to have to choose between both. In the end, he chose RL because he wanted a small school. The âvisit daysâ post-admission were critical. Our son got a very good sense for each schoolâs culture and was able to formulate a gut opinion very quickly.</p>
<p>@puckmom,
I didnât get a great impression of Nobles. It doesnât have too much FA available. (not sure if thatâs a concern for you) Roxbury Latin is different than Nobles though. RL is VERY selective. My friend who is one of the smartest kids I know now applied in seventh grade and was waitlisted. This year two of my friends are applying for ninth. I have known so many kids be either rejected or waitlisted at RL. Nobles isnât as selective. Academically, RL is about the best you can get. They offer courses up to Latin 6, and they have independent tutorials. So, if you had to choose between RL, Nobles, and Belmont, Iâd go with RL because I believe it is the strongest academically and (at least from people I talked to) the nicest one. Sigh, if I could only commute to West Roxbury every day.</p>
<p>Thank you, ifax, for the information. It does sound like RL is a very special place and I am sure that my son would be very happy there. If RL is not an option on March 10th, do you have an opinion in comparing Nobles to Belmont Hill?</p>
<p>According to the schoolâs website, âIn the 2010-11 school year, Nobles will award over $3 million in financial assistance to qualified families.â Yeah, not much financial aid (please note sarcasm).</p>
<p>1- DS was able to skip ahead at RL in math; took some doing to convince the faculty but it was done. Individual and small class (~5) tutorials in math/physics have also been arranged in recent years.</p>
<p>2- Because itâs need blind and is a day school RL does a better job than most at educating boys from different social classes. 38% of the students get financial aid, and the average aid is around 15k per year. My perception compared to Nobles: less of a rich kidsâ school.</p>
<p>3- RLâs full tuition is ~ 20k per year, about 10k less than the market rate.</p>