So what lists/Rankings do you use? Anyone who is paying out 66K plus a year and is not concerned with rankings, I call BS! That being said, I do believe fit is most important. I admit rankings are significant to me. I saw so many ranking lists during this process, from niche to the one I posted earlier. Here is another Gem Most Elite Boarding Schools in the US. I laughed at a few, as many of you did, but many made sense with 20 or so schools always showing up.
I agree with @CateCAParent It is a place to start. I like niche because of the reviews. I also spoke with parents from a lot of the schools. Letās keep it civil no need to bite my head off. I am just making a point. Letās be honest If rankings and prestige didnāt matter, then GLADCHEMMS wouldnāt be an acronym!
Certainly no intention to bite your head off, only to critique the list.
Our family used no rankings or lists. We limited our boarding school candidates to a certain geographic area since we wanted our kids to be day students. Luckily for us there are about 10 boarding schools within half an hour of where I live.
Thereās nothing wrong with looking at NIche etc, I certainly did for the college search. I guess I had a strong reaction to the boarding school list b/c I found it actually misleading. Some things are debatable ā which campus is prettier, which has better academics etc. But a couple of the schools listed are orders of magnitude lower than others on the list (and not on the list) by EVERY possible measure one considers when considering boarding school (academics, sports, facilities, college placement, endowment per student, opportunities for travel, etc).
We did look at lists. We knew nothing at all about boarding schools. But then we went to websites and looked to see if the program with her EC looked good among many other things. For people who donāt know where to start or about this board they are a starting point. A hidden gem list would have been helpful to stumble upon though too.
You know what would be really useful, I think, is a spreadsheet with all the various aspects of all the schools so you could easily compare, across the metrics that are important to you. That would allow the āhidden gemsā for your family to potentially emerge.
I like Niche (wouldnāt use it for rankings) because it lets you get the flavor of a place, understanding that people who write reviews individually are not reliable, but if you see an overall trend that probably is.
And if there is a rankings list, Iād like to know what goes into determining the ranking. Selectivity? Endowment size? Average SAT score? what else?
It is pretty easy to figure out which schools are the most prestigious if you just look at their rate of admissions. That right there sorts schools into tiers. But then the hard work begins of figuring out what kind of school will be the best fit for your child.
Iāll be completely honest, I didnāt know anything about BS coming into this. We already have a top LPS, so rankings didnāt matter to me, but my parents cared. They didnāt matter to me because I knew BS in general was a better fit than LPS. However, when choosing a school, we ruled out Tabor first due to the reputation for the lack of academic rigor. We thought Iād fit in well at the other 3, but took out MB for location only. We thought MB or Hill were the best fits so we ultimately chose Hill.
I agree with you 100% That is why I posted it because it was interesting and informative, informative in that there is no rhyme or reason for the rankings. I donāt want other kids to be misled, but do their research and find a school that fits their needs, even if not a GLADCHEMMS. I am in New England, and so many get so hung up on that list (Sorry, it gets frustrating; Iām sick hearing about it ). My kid is going to Taft, and I know for a fact their acceptance rate is lower than many of those schools. I digress.
My point to all of this is for kids/parents applying next year to see this. It is sad to watch the waitlist thread and see how desperate kids are to get into one of those schools when there are so many great choices they didnāt even consider that are just as good, if not better. I think your idea about a spread sheet is perfect, and will help future parents. That is the message I am trying to send, so there are not so many unhappy kids next year. That is why Iām taking time to get this point across.
@lilyesh -
I have read many of your threads. You are an immpressive young women! you are bright and articulate and have empathy and compasion for your fellow students, a rarity of someone your age ( you remind me of my daughter) The Hill School should be grateful to have you! Best of luck next year and Congrats on your success!
Actually, Iāve been meaning to make a post like this that includes a big list of good non-GLADCHEMMS schools and a lot of advice on wear to start applying to boarding schools. Iām planning on making it an editable wiki so after I put down all of my base info other people can add their advice too!
Niche does no verification of reviews. There are kids that review other schools negatively just for fun. (This is one of the problems of most review based sites, not just Niche.)