Some School Stats

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>WARNING: VERY LONG!!! But potentially useful, if I didn't screw it up.</p>

<p>I've never been to boarding school, and my figures may be REALLY off, but I used the statistics from BoardingSchoolReview.com on 10 of the schools I want to apply to, and used them on a "ranking system" I created. I just want to see what people think, and if it is at all correct (in terms of the rank on prestige, if the numbers are correct, etc.).
None of the rankings were my OPINION, but strictly who had better statistics.</p>

<p>EDIT: I have removed the statistics I used, because it makes the post a million years long. Now the rankings are the only things posted, and just imagine what the scores would be if you could see the school's statistics. If you really want them, though I know you don't, I can post them. So for now it's just the rankings I got.</p>

<p>BASIC INFO</p>

<p>Choate Rosemary Hall
Dana Hall School
Deerfield Academy
The Hotchkiss School
Loomis Chaffee School
Milton Academy
Northfield Mount Hermon School
Phillips Academy Andover
Phillips Exeter Academy
St. Paul’s School</p>

<p>FINANCIAL AID RANKING:
(Highest % of students with aid, highest average grant)
1. Phillips Exeter Academy
2. Phillips Academy Andover
3. Northfield Mount Hermon School
4. Deerfield Academy
5. St. Paul’s School
6. The Hotchkiss School
7. Loomis Chaffee School
8. Choate Rosemary Hall
9. Milton Academy
10. Dana Hall School</p>

<p>RANKING BASED ON ACCEPTANCE RATES AND ENDOWMENTS
TOP-TIER SCHOOLS:
1. Phillips Academy Andover
(combination low acceptance and large endowment)
2. Phillips Exeter Academy
(largest endowment)
3. Deerfield Academy
(lowest acceptance)
MID-TIER SCHOOLS:
4. St. Pauls
(combination mid-to-low acceptance and large endowment)
5. The Hotchkiss School
(large endowment)
6. Choate Rosemary Hall
(large endowment)
7. Milton Academy
(low acceptance rates)
BOTTOM-TIER SCHOOLS:
8. Loomis Chaffee School
(mid-range acceptance, small endowment)
9. Northfield Mount Hermon School
(high acceptance, small endowment)
10. Dana Hall School
(VERY high acceptance, small endowment)</p>

<p>TOP-LEVEL TEST SCHOOLS:
1. Phillips Exeter Academy
(highest SAT)
2. Phillips Academy Andover
(highest SSAT)
3. The Hotchkiss School
(combination high SAT and SSAT)
MID-LEVEL TEST SCHOOLS:
4. Deerfield Academy
(mid-high SSAT and high SAT)
5. St. Paul’s School
(mid-low SSAT and high SAT)
6. Choate Rosemary Hall
(high SAT and SSAT N/A)
7. Loomis Chaffee School
(mid-low SSAT and mid-high SAT)
BOTTOM-LEVEL TEST SCHOOLS:
8. Milton Academy
(high SSAT and very low SAT)
9. Northfield Mount Hermon School
(mid-high SAT and SSAT N/A)
10. Dana Hall School
(low SAT and low SSAT)</p>

<p>FINAL SCORING</p>

<p>Choate Rosemary Hall
Financial Aid: #8
Ranking: #6
Test: #6
Average: 6.7</p>

<p>Dana Hall School
Financial Aid: #10
Ranking: #10
Test: #10
Average: 10</p>

<p>Deerfield Academy
Financial Aid: #4
Ranking: #3
Test: #4
Average: 3.7</p>

<p>The Hotchkiss School
Financial Aid: #6
Ranking: #5
Test: #3
Average: 4.7</p>

<p>Loomis Chaffee School
Financial Aid: #7
Ranking: #8
Test: #7
Average: 7.3</p>

<p>Milton Academy
Financial Aid: #9
Ranking: #7
Test: #8
Average: 8</p>

<p>Northfield Mount Hermon School
Financial Aid: #3
Ranking: #9
Test: #9
Average: 7</p>

<p>Phillips Academy Andover
Financial Aid: #2
Ranking: #1
Test: #2
Average: 1.7</p>

<p>Phillips Exeter Academy
Financial Aid: #1
Ranking: #2
Test: #1
Average: 1.3</p>

<p>St. Paul’s School
Financial Aid: #5
Ranking: #4
Test: #5
Average: 4.7</p>

<p>FINAL RANKING:
1. Phillips Exeter Academy (1.3)
2. Phillips Academy Andover (1.7)
3. Deerfield Academy (3.7)
4. TIE- The Hotchkiss School (4.7)
5. TIE- St. Paul’s School (4.7)
6. Choate Rosemary Hall (6.7)
7. Northfield Mount Hermon School (7)
8. Loomis Chaffee School (7.3)
9. Milton Academy (8)
10. Dana Hall School (10)</p>

2

<p>I am a bit of a math buff so this might not be relevant... THIS IS GOOD FOR A ROUGH LOOK. The problem is you are assigning ordinal values... Cardinal values would be the most efficient. Why?-
Lets say I was racing a rock and Reggie Bush.
Lets look at the ordinal placing:
1. Reggie
2. Me
3. Rock</p>

<p>Lets look at the Cardinal:
1. Reggie: 40 seconds
2. Me: 60 Seconds
3. Rock: 10 hours</p>

<p>This can tell you if there is a near third... Some parents that value FA might not know that Andover's endowment is 200 million less than Exeters... 25% more FA at Exeter would be huge for some parents. They can assign their own value as long as they know the degree(Or severity) of difference between each schools ranking.</p>

<p>Plus, everyone values different things differently.</p>

<p>Another thing... I would grade on:
FA, Acceptance, Test scores, Extra curriculars, Tuition, Number of APs/Advanced courses offered,
Avg SAT Score/Hours in class in a year
This is a VERY GENERAL way of showing if the schools with longer years are actually providing extra education or simply playing catch up to make up for a lower quality of education</p>

<p>This could get very technical, if you want to discuss this further... PM me... But this is very good nonetheless. I would just try to factor in 6 things and only apply these 6 things to schools that are in the same "Mindset". Meaning an athletic school shouldn't be compared with a school that has minimal sports and maximum extra curriculars... </p>

<p>Another look, would be assigning a "Value" to each input. Meaning having one more sport option is equal to 3 points while another extra curricular is only worth 1 point. So a school with 50 sports is better than one with 100 extra curriculars.</p>

<p>You could make a Cardinal rating in each column and tell people to multiple a value in a catagory by 10, and that represents the catagory is of top importance(100% of the numbers value is reflected is personal assessment). If they multiple the next catagory by 9 when they add it to find totals it means that the value placed on this catagory is only 90% of the previous.</p>

<p>That would help alot more.</p>

3

<p>The only problem with this is that Boarding School is notorious for being wrong on their data -- sometimes the data is current, sometimes it is 3 years old (I know for certain that the admission rate for NMH is 3 years old).</p>

<p>ssat and sat scores are frequently wrong.</p>

<p>You would have to confirm the information with each individual school for an accurate ranking system.</p>

<p>another issue is that for most students, they value different things. if you don't need FA, that statistic is probably meaningless for you. If you want a school that has a great football team, the ssat score might mean a great deal less.</p>

<p>one way of ranking boarding schools that is frequently used is college matriculation -- I am not saying that the school that sends the most kids to Harvard is best, but for most kids (and parents) college placement is a factor.</p>

4

<p>Thank you both! I am not really mathematically gifted, and this list was just a way for me to see what schools were better in certain areas- the ones that matter to me, because making this list and looking up statistics and the schools in depth helped me decide on what schools to focus on (namely, Exeter, Andover, and Choate as reach/dream schools, and Deerfield, NMH, and Loomis as good schools to apply to) and I now the system was very subjective.
I was making it for myself and wanted to share it with others because maybe they were looking for the same kind of ranking- though it was really terrible and done in one afternoon. Maybe when I'm bored and waiting to see if I got in I'll make a much more in depth one.
Thanks for the ideas!</p>

5

<p>Saer - as others have told you the info on boarding school review is off. Loomis and NMH had lower admit rates this year. Deerfield is up there with Exeter and Choate for it's low admittance rates and should be considered a reach school. </p>

<p>How competetive of an enviroment do you want? Do you want a diverse "financial" student body? Does the size of the school matter? These are some of the things to think about as you look at the schools. </p>

<p>Have you taken the ssat? That will also give you a comparison to other kids who have taken the test.</p>

6

<p>I haven't taken the SSATs. I plan on taking them in October.
I know the info is off and this was very informal, I didn't do this as a "be-all-end-all" ranking system for these schools! I am in the very early stages as far as research and I did this for fun.
I want a large campus, 600+, and the more diverse the financial student body is the better for me, as I am poorer than poor. I have looked at this, and the schools on there are all at least 600 students, or very close to it, and have other bits and pieces of things I like. I'm not going to choose schools off this because of how informal and kind of dumb it was.</p>

7

<p>Unfortunately you cannot apply the same strategy to applying to boarding school as you would in applying to college. There is no reach, no safety, no middle ground. It's very subjective. Just pick the schools you like. Do your best job on your applications and interviews, and hope for the best. I received one word of advice that was very helpful when my child was applying. Don't apply to any schools you wouldn't go to. Don't waste your time, or theirs.</p>

8

<p>Thank you. That helps a lot. :)</p>

9

<p>I am currently attending BS as a day student. I showed this thread to my friends. All agreed that this does not mak any sense. Most of the schools in
the ranking are reasonable except Loomis Chaffee School, Northfield Mount Hermon School, and Dana Hall School.</p>

<p>We do not understand how those three schools are ranked at top ten.
Would anybody explain how
Northfield Mount Hermon School is ranked with
(mid-high SAT and SSAT N/A) profile and</p>

<p>Dana Hall School is ranked with
(low SAT and low SSAT) profile ?</p>

<p>NMH do not even disclose their SSAT score and I know that their acceptance rate was higher than 50% last year. I know one of my friend's
at NMH got 69 perecntil SSAT scsore.
They accepted application even after all other schools closed the admission process. That does not necessarily mean that NMH is not good. But cetainly it is not ranked at top ten by any means.</p>

10

<p>I chose ten schools that I was considering applying to. Also, Dana Hall was a "comparison school", to see how a non-prestigious school with a small endowment stacked up. If you had read some of my posts, you would have realised that this isn't a system of a careful formula and ALL boarding schools, ever, on there. I just randomly picked them and made up some kind of system.
Dana Hall is not very good, and I would never apply. It was just a comparison. NMH is a good school, and yes the stats are very low. There are many factors that I did not take into consideration, so go and make your own formula if you're so unsatisfied with my random, one-afternoon's worth of work. Yay.</p>

11

<p>but,
SSAT score is the most important thing.
i've heard about people with pretty low scores getting into top schools...
plus, they show the average ssat score,
so the average could be like 80,
but kids could have gotten in who got in the 50s...
just an example</p>

12

<p>SSAT scores may also be reported as median scores, half the students score above and have below the median. Our experience is that the better schools can take a risk on an uneven test taker if there is significant potential in strong areas.</p>

13

<p>That's a good point. Hmm... Hopefully I'm strong enough in other areas if I bomb the test, or if I do really well then it will make up for something more uneven.</p>

14

<p>italianboarder:
because I am picky, I will find a flaw in logic of your findings of flaws in logic ;):
Exeter's endowment is indeed around 200 million more than Andover's. However, that does not tell you what either of their FA budgets are, or which one is greater. Exeter and Andover are both need-blind (admitting without any consideration of financial need), and have both pledged to meet every student's demonstrated need. It is highly unlikely that even a significant number of students at Exeter are offered 25% more FA than Andover.
Other than that, good work.</p>

15

<p>hey. I am applying to six of the schools on the list:
Philips Andover
Philips Exeter
St.Pauls School
Hotchkiss School
Choate Rosemary Hall
Deerfield Academy</p>

<p>I took the SSAT and ended up getting a 91 (which is pretty low for my standards) and I know that Philips Andover's average scores are 93. My parents were really disappointed and wanted me to take another test. It is too late to send my 91 in... but was that the right choice?</p>

16

<p>I hope you calculated endowment per student not just pure endowment (which is useless) having a million dollars for a single kid is better than have 50 million for 20. For instance per student Hotchkiss has a large endowment than Andover. Furthermore on you "testing" section was a bit off. Hotchkiss has a higher SAT score than andover by 5 points and a lower ssat score by a single point so how did andover rank above it ? The Order for testing should be Exeter Hotchkiss and THEN Andover. And as for Endowments it should be Exeter Hotchkiss and THEN Andover (since it is per student not just pure endowment). Both of these thing skew your rankings immensely. Plus there are a few other important details that you left out perhaps you could give us some reasoning behind your methodology ?</p>

<p>For instance this section is so obviously wrong.</p>

<p>RANKING BASED ON ACCEPTANCE RATES AND ENDOWMENTS
TOP-TIER SCHOOLS: </p>

<p>Deerfield should obviously top this list because it has a very high endowment per student ratio (perhaps outstripping Andover but i have to check that) AND it has a lower acceptance rate than all of these schools so it should clearly be above E/A. Hotchkiss should also place higher than A because they have around the same acceptance rate 20% but Hotchkiss outstrips Andover when it comes to endowment per student.... </p>

<p>Your rankings seem highly skewed towards A/E and ill logical particularly when it comes to endowments etc. Plus when you group things together like acceptance rates and endowments it just confuses things why not separate each one into a different category and then weight them ? This is a very inaccurate ranking system. Personally I would stay away from ranking systems. These school are largerly equal: St. Pauls, Deerfield, Hotchkiss, Exeter, Lawrenceville, Andover, Milton, Groton, and Middlessex.</p>

<p>Look for fit not some arbitrary ranking system. Particularly when it does not work well at ALL !! I mean according to your rankings Loomis and NMH are better than Milton !! Now anyone who knows ANYTHING about boarding schools knows that is not true ! Basically this ranking system sucks.</p>