<p>I would be careful about any generalizations posted on this forum. Davida1's comment about students at Andover and Exeter being intellectually immature is really ignorant and lacking in thought. Unless he has personally met every graduate of these schools, I don't see how he can comment on this. My D was accepted into both small and large schools, including Groton, Deerfield, A & E. She ultimately chose Andover, for its larger size, breadth of advanced courses and languages, diversity and warmth of the staff. All the schools being discussed here are great schools. In the end, it all comes down to fit and personal preference, and a student will get out of a school what he/she puts into it.</p>
<p>afan, I absolutely disagree, respectfuly</p>
<p>Groton has the 2nd highest % of admits to ivies...
not quite sure how that is a poor matric. list?</p>
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What if you have finished 2 years of AP Latin in 10th grade? Then what? The larger places have enough students like this to keep rolling out college courses, the smaller ones cannot do this.
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</p>
<p>haha, you have obviously not attended one of the smaller schools. they don't care if they don't have enough students for a class. if there's interest whatsoever, there will be a class. tutorial one on one classes are not uncommon at these small boarding schools. </p>
<p>from my experience, even if they don't have enough teachers, they will go out of their way to hire one over the summer to teach that tutorial course.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Groton has the 2nd highest % of admits to ivies...
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<p>What school has the first? SPS?</p>
<p>What school has the highest SAT scores?</p>
<p>groton, those stats are old,there matric numbers are at about 25% as are most other schools on the high end. They are all between 24-28%. Those stats had SPS 40% that is more like high 20,s</p>
<p>Thankyou ACEROCKOLA, you too hit it on the head.</p>
<p>going to boarding school is an amazing experience for a lot of kids. i loved it and got an excellent education. find one you can be happy at because you do have to live there for four formative years. if you enjoy yourself, college just becomes the icing on the cake.</p>
<p>I am rather bothered by this whole topic actually. It is almost like asking which is the best restaurant in New York. What is the best education is as hard to answer as what is the best dinner.</p>
<p>The questions any applicant applicant has to answer to choose the "Best" prep school for that person are (feel free to add to this list)...</p>
<p>What do I want to do with my life? (i.e. what are my goals) </p>
<p>What do I need to do to improve myself cognitively, socially, artistically, atheletically, etc. to achieve these things in my life?</p>
<p>What schools have the resources (programs, facilities, etc) that will help me get to those things?</p>
<p>What type of trade-off am I willing to make between my different goals? (We all have only 24 hours in a day to work on a priority list)</p>
<p>How important is the "fun" I have along the way? (This is another way to make sure you look at what your priorities are. Remember, the destination is important but you spend most of your life on the journey.)</p>
<p>Once an applicant knows these things about his or herself, the choices become so much simpler.</p>
<p>There is no one best choice for all applicants. And even if you think you are a "one dimensional" person (math whiz/jock/artist), you will find that the more you look at yourself, the broader your interests become, especially if you are getting a good education to start with.</p>
<p>So put aside all those meaningless stats like HYP admissions, average SAT scores, # of AP classes offered, etc. and look at what you want out of your life.</p>
<p>I think Mark Twain said there are lies, **** lies (self censored), and statistics.</p>
<p>prepparent.</p>
<p>Disagree with what?</p>
<p>Ace,</p>
<p>I respectfully disagree, because that is not what the science, math and language instructors told us when we were looking. It is also not what the course catalogues say. Several of the top smaller schools were quite clear that they offered what they offered, and suggested that students who exhausted the available courses in one area look to other departments, rather than going into further depth in the same field. Fine advice for some people, but not for everyone.</p>
<p>i just completed four years at a smaller prep school, and i'm just relaying my experience there.i have a friend in an ap level language tutorial. two years ago, there were three other students in his class; they all graduated. So last year, he had a one on one tutorial ap language class. For math, they would take you to whatever level you could achieve. This year there were kids who had already completed bc calc, advanced calc, and differential equations, and were put in a three person tutorial class where they designed their own curriculum. I am pretty sure that other small ne prep schools accomodate their students as well as mine did.</p>
<p>there really is no disagreeing or agreeing here... the school for a fact accomodated these students to the highest level and created courses for them if there was not a current course to suit them. with the endowment sizes these schools have, the size of the school really does not affect the depth of the curriculum. </p>
<p>afan, what schools did you look at? I can assure you that at least st pauls and deerfield go out of their way to accomodate students course selections to the highest level.</p>
<p>For example, Groton is an archetypical outstanding small boarding school. Its academic level is as high as you will find anywhere. Outstanding students enter and outstanding graduates leave. Huge endowment and excellent faculty. Unbelieveable resources, and a superb education all around. </p>
<p>At Groton there is No physics beyond AP C, No Bio beyond AP, no Chem beyond AP. No Latin beyond Latin 5, No Greek beyond Greek 3. Most importantly NO PROMISE to provide higher level courses. They do promise to accomodate for math, but that was the only department that would commit to this.</p>
<p>At the larger schools, there will typically be multiple sections of math for the first year post BC calc, with several choices for what to study after multivariable and linear algebra. For those who finish these in 11th grade, or earlier, then they start thinking about custom tutorials.</p>
<p>SPS was quite up front that "We are not Exeter or Andover" when describing its science offerings. By almost any other measure, they were outstanding, but they immediately agreed that they could not compete with the larger schools in what they offer for science.</p>
<p>afan, it would appear that a larger school would be appropriate for you. I wish you all the luck!</p>
<p>Middlesex will accomadate any level of study you may want to pursue.</p>
<p>prep,</p>
<p>thanks, but I am bit too old....</p>
<p>Course selection and depth has to do more with the school rather than its size. </p>
<p>I'll say it again: I went to a small ne prep school which offered multiple courses after bc calc and tutorials for if a student completed those. It offered research opportunites in chemistry for after the ap course, an advanced biology course for after ap bio. Also, no matter what level language you were in, and no matter how many students were in your level, they would offer the course if you were interested.</p>
<p>Maybe Groton isn't for your son/daughter because it doesn't provide enough depth in its course selection. However, it isn't because it is a small school. It is because that is just how Groton itself is.</p>
<p>Prep,</p>
<p>Not according to the Middlesex catalogue. No physics beyond AP C, No Bio beyond AP, no Chem beyond AP. No Greek beyond Greek 3. No math beyond multivariable calc.</p>
<p>I don't want to be put in a position of criticizing the smaller schools. As I said earlier, they are great for the right kids. But they simply cannot offer the same range and depth of courses. They are in exactly the same situation of top liberal arts colleges vs universities. The LAC's are wonderful for many people, but they cannot offer the same selection of upper level courses because there are not enough people to take or to teach them.</p>
<p>Ace,</p>
<p>I agree that the smaller schools can be better than larger for individuals. But they simply do not offer the same course selection. even when available, a tutorial is not really a substitute for a standard lab course. If you want to take real analysis, you want a regular course in real analysis, taught by someone who teaches it regularly, and that consistently prepares students for the next level when they get to college. Small schools just cannot do this. It is easy to verify this by looking at catalogues and talking to teachers.</p>
<p>afan, if you have kids you'll be set. Suffice it to say, if we are not talking about A and Ae or SPS, people don't seem to be happy. When we begin to talk about the small schools they seem to get dogged. You'd think the small schools would be hurting for applications, that's the furthest from the truth. I think we can all agree to disagree on size and leave it at that. Sometimes, including me we tend to shoot arrows at each other, which can then become a right /wrong issue and I would think we offer more than that on these prep thrads. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I am not shooting arrows at smaller schools. They are great. Just keeping facts straight.</p>