The Good, Bad and Ugly: Lessons Learned

Just to add a log to the campfire…Kiddo has been a tour guide for 3 years now. FYI…at many schools tour guides submit note cards on prospective students/families. Here are some helpful hints (in retrospect for you all):

  • Do not disrespect the school you are touring in front of the tour guide
  • If your high-priced consultant is with you from (insert expensive city here), do not let him/her/they brag about how much they ge paid to tour your kids around schools. FYI - the guy from Hong Kong gets $40K for consulting. Let’s make a deal!
  • Do not ask to take photos or videos with the tour guides, then post it on Tik Tok or Instagram!
  • Do not wear leggings with Ugg boots.
  • Do NOT make tour guides wait an hour for you to show up.
  • Do ask questions of the tour guides and show interest in the school
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What’s the time commitment like for tour guides?

At our school, all students had a job on campus. I can’t recall how many hours a week it was (something like 4 maybe), but tour guide was one such job because it could be scheduled.

Helping out with revisit days, etc. was a volunteer gig.

@Golfgr8
I remember when you gave this legging/ugg advice last year, and I shared then so I’ll share again: we hit a cold spell and we were FREEZING during tours last fall. I had to scrap my outfits and wear the warmest clothes I had in my suitcase for about half the week: leggings, and (fake) uggs – both of them Costco brand. HAHAHA! (spoiler: kid still got into her top choices).

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At our school, it can be as little as 2 hours per week but more during the peak of application season or when Revisits occur again next year. It’s fun and nota big time commitment.

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BTW…there are really great opportunities at Deerfield and other schools that are even more fun than tour guide. Examples include bee-keeping, helping out at the farm, volunteering at community language center, and working in alumni center. Hint: Try to find opportunities that involve food!

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What are some of the popular jobs for freshmen?

Like volunteer or paid jobs? Check with your school for fun opportunities in non-Covid times.

There are fun opportunities for volunteering. Some might be paid at certain schools. Check out the chance to work in the snack bar - coffee stand, life guarding, being a summer camp counselor at the school for one of the programs, etc.

We knew kids who had a summer job opportunity working as a waiter/helper for events - but they got cancelled due to COVID.

$15 minimum wage!

That depends on the school.

The rest are universal.

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The list can go on and on as well with many other additional points. The key thing is when in doubt, err on the safe side.

FYI from Nov 2019, I thought this was informative/interesting. Best Boarding Schools In The U.S.. Some GLADCHEMMS parents might not like where their precious schools ended up! My point is all the schools are excellent, even if not highly ranked on one of these subjective lists (TSAO, Niche, etc.). You have to find the right school and right fit for your child. For example, we live 8 miles from Choate and are also fortunate to be within 30 to 60 minutes’ driving distance to Hotchkiss, Kent, Loomis, and Taft.

We decided we were only applying to CT boarding schools to attend every game/school event. We thought the only schools that would be a great fit were Taft and Kent. My daughter didn’t want to apply to Choate, Loomis, or Hotchkiss. They were not a good fit for her, and she didn’t feel the vibe. In the end, Taft checked all the boxes for us, and we were delighted to be accepted. Having been on all the campuses, I was blown away by how nice Taft is. Taft’s facility is by far the best I have seen, in my opinion.

I also want to add, if you look at the Stats thread, there are so many different permutations on acceptance, rejections, and waitlist. Many kids are getting into GLADCHEMMS, but rejected or waitlisted from other schools. Each school has its secret formula in deciding the entering class’s makeup.

Very familiar with this game. As a former Hockey player myself and a graduate of Northeastern University. I have been around hockey most of my life. I have many friends whose kids got recruited by the "Top Prep Schools " and offered ridiculous FA packages even when there was no need. Have you applied to any CT prep schools like Avon, Fredrick Gunn, Taft, Loomis, Hotchkiss, Kent, and Pomfret, to name a few. All great Hockey schools, With many going D1. We can agree that the Prep schools have generous amounts FA for hockey players.

I am genuinely curious - what on earth is informative or interesting about it? It is a random list of boarding schools… Worse, it actually led a child posting on this board to think her mother would only allow her to apply to Exeter, Andover, and Putney because those are the “top three BS in the country”.

No one on this board (who’s been around the block or actually had kids in these schools) advocates paying any attention to rankings. And we definitely don’t advocate for paying attention to random ranking like this.

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Hum!

That’s my point if you read my thread. Subjective rankings mean nothing!

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I did read it. You said the list was informative and then talked about how great Taft is. So you posted it just to inform us of how stupid lists are?

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Agree, that list was useless.

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There are too many lists on the internet on subjective ranking and not that helpful. What is helpful is insider knowledge, for example someone who posted a Deerfield article yesterday about how the admission worked behind the scene at Deerfield showing how many people went on WL in the given year (800) vs how many people rejected (800) and how many subcategories there are.

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