<p>just now starting to think about Prep schools for my daughter.......How would you rate Choate, Taft, Hotchkiss and Loomis ?</p>
<p>By academics:
Hotchkiss, Taft, Choate, Loomis. </p>
<p>Sent from my MB860 using CC App</p>
<p>Choate, Hotchkiss, Taft, Loomis.</p>
<p>Taft loomis hotchkiss choate</p>
<p>They’re all in the same caste of schools. Rating them is silly [however, this is something I didn’t fully realize until halfway through my sophomore year, even after hearing it time and time again]. The truth is, once you get to a certain caliber of school, all these petty details that people use to try and order the schools up neatly into a “Top 20” list or some other nonsense is useless. They all have pros, cons, and most importantly differences. It’s these differences that make school A better for a particular student than school B, but school B perfect for another student. You can achieve the same type of success at any of the better schools [the ones discussed on here the most]. </p>
<p>My advice: find a variety of schools that interest you. Large, small, science/math-focused, humanities-focused, sporty, artsy, etc. Pick some that are easier to get into and some that are hard to get into, but only if you’re dead set on going. If you only want to go to a “better” school and have a good fallback, more power to you. </p>
<p>Only YOU [well, your child] know what school is “best.” These rankings are pointless and ultimately harmful.</p>
<p>Izzy BB makes some very true points–but sometimes it is very difficult to get past the names. If however you are looking at all schools of a similar ilk–focus not on the academic differences, because they will all stretch your D academically. My advice is to assess very closely if the school is more closeknit and “supportive” or more sink or swim. It makes a huge difference and one needs to be very honest about which one is more appropriate for a given kid (including how far away/comfortable parents are; which year applying, etc). For us, we have never gotten over how hands off the school was for our D, who is doing fine despite the sink or swim, but as a parent, I know she’d be better off if some adults were closely following her progress, offering some mentoring, and otherwise engaging her. They all say they are involved, but really talk to some parents and students about the role of adults at the school.</p>
<p>good advice from Erlanger; esp 14 year olds still need some shepherding and someone who takes an active interest in them, not just an advisor who meets with them once to twice a year (once at the beginning and once 2/3 thru to plan for next year’s academics).</p>
<p>You can tell by the varied responses you received initially that it is a very difficult and subjective task to rank the top schools. Identify which criteria are most important to your family then choose schools to visit based on how they fit your personal priorities. Good luck!</p>
<p>I hope you don’t mind my piggy-back question… What schools are known for strong math, science and engineering? I’m looking for a solid education for a future engineer type. He’s particularly intrigued at the moment with marine engineering type stuff. He’ll be going into 7th grade this fall.</p>
<p>Rating them is perfectly logical. You can rate schools, as jaharrison1620, seeks, on factors like math, science and engineering. Engineering? Marine engineering? For high school?</p>
<p>Well, why not? You can rate them in terms of athletics, music and dance. Or dormitory life. Or the dating scene or number of volumes in the library or best-dressed head of school. And in doing so, you’d hopefully have a description included explaining why you rate those various attributes highly or poorly, as the case may be. Ratings of 4-stars and 3-stars, for instance, would be useless without explanations for those ratings.</p>
<p>The first couple of responses RANKED the schools against each other when the OP asked for ratings. And that’s absolutely ridiculous, especially without any comment as to what those rankings were based on (sure, one did say “academics”) and why they came to their conclusions.</p>
<p>I think the best way to get answers is to ask people to speak to one specific school at a time. Lots of people can speak authoritatively about any one of those schools. When you try to gather information on four schools at once, you’re bound to get responses that are no more than 25% authoritative.</p>
<p>@charter,</p>
<p>Your question is like asking, what is better: a vacation in Paris or a vacation in St.Tropez. It depends on whether you enjoy city or beach.</p>
<p>All the schools you list are EXCELLENT. What matters is “fit” for your child. Schools have distinctly different characters. Visit the schools; speak with the students and staff; and ask yourself if you feel like your kid would fit in there.</p>
<p>Don’t stress yourself obsessing over niggling, minute differences in the schools stats. All the top schools are VERY DIFFICULT to get admitted to.</p>
<p>What traits are you looking for? There are really no generic “one size fits all” criterian. Math might be stronger at one school, and science at another - but all within a tiny variation.</p>
<p>ALL the schools are strong academically. So what will make the difference will be those non-quantitative issues (the reality versus the viewbook). Is the school supportive of families? Is the environment compatible with your child’s personality? Is your child a number or an integral part of the campus life? I throw in the latter because it was readily apparent that at a local private school, my oldest and her classmates were a “source of revenue” so we were determined to find a different environment for my youngest.</p>
<p>I’m an Exeter grad and a Taft parent. Since Exeter is a “given” I’ll talk about the latter which is lesser known among a lot of parents. At Taft, the school environment is smaller and more intimate than Exeter even though the campus is huge. My D’s advisor is constantly in touch with her and with us as a family about academic and non academic issues. She may be the “rule” or she may be the “anomoly”. But I don’t think so because the school’s grade reports includes running commentary on everything from what D is eating to her friendships on campus, her dorm life, and quotes from staff about her extra curricular participation. Teachers are always available for extra help or tutoring on the weekends. In a sense, she’s well taken care of and thriving. You can choose your own advisor if the assigned person isn’t a match.</p>
<p>Taft is known as a “Hockey” school, and yet the math and robotics students do well in competitions. Photography, Theater, Dance and Music are huge there (often with artists in residence). College counseling is active starting at 10th grade.</p>
<p>Campus visits are a good way to start honing down the list on subjective criteria if you can afford it. When my daughter got whisked away by Freshman who upon seeing her name tag with graduation year said “You’re going to be one of us next year” we knew she’d found her home.</p>
<p>I’d just add to Exie’s post the classic line “love the school(s) that love you.” In retrospect–after going through the process last year, it was clear even from the interview process (and followup soon thereafter) which schools were really interested, and then there was a silent period, and then a final push with the actual acceptances. Not all acceptances are equal…this came as a total surprise to us.</p>
<p>@PelicanDad, what do you mean by, “Not all acceptances are equal…”</p>
<p>Isn’t an acceptance an acceptance? You mean there was differing amount of FA awarded, making you think one school wanted you more than others? Please advise. thanks,
RB</p>
<p>Since the schools are all pretty even academically, as a parent (and an LC grad) I’d choose the school where I wanted to visit. That would be Hotchkiss or Loomis. H if I am driving in because Lakeville is a bit out of the way and that part of the world is spectacularly gorgeous. Loomis if I had to fly in because it’s close to BDL, and a lovely campus.</p>
<p>Of course, I should really see which one fits my child better.</p>
<p>RGBG: DC received acceptances that included significant “merit” awards. Similar awards for athletic prowess (regardless of financial need) seem to exist as incentives at several other schools, as well.</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification (additional info) PD,</p>
<p>To PelicanDad’s point about not all acceptances being the same…and to the mythical concept of “fit” – there’s this insight into college admissions that probably has some currency in terms of college prep school admissions:</p>
<p>[Head</a> Count - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/don-quixote-college-choice-and-the-myth-of-fit/28781]Head”>Head Count: Don Quixote, College Choice, and the Myth of Fit)</p>
<p>As the one woman from Kenyon’s admission office is quoted as saying, “Fit happens” and maybe your idea of what’s a good fit for your 8th grader isn’t such a good benchmark to go by…and sometimes, the admissions people, who understand how students at their school develop and grow, have a better sense of what might turn out to be a good fit over the long haul. In other words, some acceptances are surprisingly better than others. I think many parents “get” this on the far side of March 10…but it would save a lot of heartache and misery and shock if more parents understood this on the application side of March 10.</p>
<p>love it, “fit happens.” Yeh, I’m still waiting for the fit to get less baggier at DS’s school. I keep hoping, the admissions counselors got it right; I truly wanna believe. </p>
<p>In a different model, 20th century Winnicott, pediatrician and analyst asserts, that you just need a “good enough” fit, and if you have good enough, everything will turn out right.</p>
<p>In our case, that’s what I am feeling right now; his BS is a good enough fit, it may not have been the best fit, but sure maybe those AO’s really do know more about what they offer and the skills a student brings who can make best use of what the school can provide, and who can most benefit, than I do.</p>
<p>What is a “best fit”? Like a soul mate or something? It’s a school that needs to meet the needs of a whole community, often times people coming from different background and all over the world. It’s a stretch to even expect a “best fit” isn’t it?</p>