<p>Emma Willard!</p>
<p>i think it's pretty unfitting to say that andover lacks school spirit. my sister enjoyed attending football games and soccer matches donned in her bluest clothes and andover cap. i've seen pictures of her classmates painted blue for such occasions, and countless other costumes.</p>
<p>as for the comment about exeter alums enjoying their experience more than andover alums, i would again have to say that is all a matter of opinion. my sister's classmate from yale, who attended exeter, jokes about how the students were too busy studying to have any fun. so, again, it all depends on your source.</p>
<p>Alumni giving rate is very telling on how satisfied students were with their school experience. It could be a matter of opinion, but Exeter and Deerfield lead the ne prep schools by a good amount with over 50% alumni giving. I don't think any school even comes close to these two.</p>
<p>Andover, while a great school, I find hard to believe fosters a true community spirit like its peers do. No sit down dinners to get to know the rest of your schoolmates, no class dress, less traditions. Andover is a school that has sacrificed tradition that are prevalent among ne preps to foster school spirit/community in exchange for more liberty. It is becoming more like a generic private school now rather than a generic ne prep. That is a bad situation for some, but a welcoming change for others; ANdover is a very progressive school. Choate, I believe, is very much the same.</p>
<p>Ace. Where do you get the info on alumni giving?</p>
<p>"Best Prep Schools"</p>
<p>Are the schools that are members / overlap between these two groups: </p>
<p>1) The Ten School Admissions Organization: <a href="http://www.tenschools.org/members/%5B/url%5D">http://www.tenschools.org/members/</a>
and
2) Prep 9 : <a href="http://www.prepforprep.org/prepforprep/prep9.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.prepforprep.org/prepforprep/prep9.asp</a></p>
<p>Which are the following 7 schools:</p>
<p>- Choate Rosemary Hall
- Deerfield Academy
- The Hotchkiss School
- The Lawrenceville School
- Phillips Andover Academy
- Phillips Exeter Academy
+
- St. Paul's School <a href="TSAO%20member%20but%20not%20in%20Prep%209">i</a>*</p>
<p>The above 7 schools are widely recognized as the nation's elite / most prestigious / "best" prep schools: a.k.a. "Little Ivies"</p>
<p>STOP worrying about the best prep school and start thinking about the best prep school for you! Prestige isn't everything. People from no-name schools in the ghetto can get in Harvard..it's what you make out of high school not what school you go to. Although I'm fully aware everything I'm saying is going in one ear and out the other. Go on worrying about your poor, complex lives.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Ace. Where do you get the info on alumni giving?
[/quote]
I've spoken with alumni coordinators. Exeter's and Deerfield's both boast the highest alumni giving rate by a wide margin.</p>
<p>well, one has to take into account that most alum donations come from wealthy legacies. that is why st. paul's school is so well endowed - because it has quite a few legacies. thus, i don't believe that you can judge the quality of a school by its donations.</p>
<p>also, sit down dinners and class dress don't necessarily foster school spirit. it just maintains the WASPish feeling of boarding schools, in my opinion. i'd rather not be penalized for wearing jeans to class or skipping out on dinner in order to spend more time working on homework. and i think it's hard to say that andover lacks tradition. being one of the oldest boarding schools in the united states, i think it still maintains old traditions, but makes them more acceptable in modern day education. i mean, if andover had not "sacrificed tradition," then it would remain an all-boys school. it's just being progressive.</p>
<p>Just as i suspected...through one ear and out the other...</p>
<p>Let them think what they want. Stop trying to change people. It's so annoying.</p>
<p>Nobody is discussing which school is the"best" and which ones have the best college matriculation rate. such things, i agree, should be minimal in a search for your high school. we are discussing alumni donation rates, which show how satisfied alumni are with their experience.</p>
<p>eklektist: endowments do not show much, i agree. but alumni giving rate is a very telling number. even a small 50 dollar donation counts in the rate, it is not dependent on how much alumni give. thus, wealthy legacies aren't a factor. for example, I also know the everyone in the graduating deerfield and exeter class signed up for a 100% giving rate over the next few years. It shows how much they care about their school, and how they acknowledge those years were an important part of their life. sit down dinners foster a community by sitting down with students they might not have met before, they get to know and interact with people of different backgrounds. it forces students to look outside their current cliques, making new, different friends and really fostering an inclusive bond and community spirit.</p>
<p>I am a really big believer in sit down meals. Not only do they teach etiquette and manners for the future(how to act and make conversation at formal meals is truly an important and underrated skill to possess), you also have the opportunity to know your teachers as people. I can't tell you how many students and friends I have met that I never would have known without meeting them at sit down meals. Also, with the waiting system most prep schools have, they teach responsibility and duty as well.</p>
<p>Jon K...what's wrong with telling people that they shouldn't obsess over prestige. I think ur snobby attitude and prejudiced remarks are "annoying"</p>
<p>GDF why reduce yourself to a personal attack?</p>
<p>because the way he acts, which you probably haven;t witnessed, are out of line. I'm fed up with it.</p>
<p>Not a justification and against the rules of the forum. Unflattering to you.</p>
<p>alrighttttty then. im guessing u dont visit the high school forum tehehe</p>
<p>You try to provoke me. It's so obvious.</p>
<p>You're so annoying. Just leave this forum. Go back to HS Life.</p>
<p>No. I want to help the nice middle schoolers.</p>
<p>Aww... how thoughtful.</p>
<p>I'm quite a thoughtful person. No, really I am though. It depends on the person I'm associating with.</p>