<p>Can anyone tell me a bit more about The Governors Academy? I can't find much about it, and the school's website isn't as helpful as I'd like. I'm only applying to schools in the Boston area, and I'm not the biggest fan of Milton and Groton. </p>
<p>Other schools I'm applying to at this point;
Exeter
Andover
Middlesex</p>
<p>Also, if you have any other suggestions let me know.</p>
<p>Recommendations: Brooks, Berkshire, Choate, St. Paul’s, St. Mark’s, Taft</p>
<p>You really can’t go wrong at any of the ones above or the ones you listed. Check out Brooks, and Berkshire if you want to add a couple schools that have lower average SSAT scores and higher acceptance rates but still provide a good education.</p>
<p>Also check out Concord Academy.</p>
<p>@futuredartgirl,
I am an eighth grader who does not attend GDA, but I have been looking at schools for a while so I’ll tell you what I know about Governor’s.</p>
<p>Academically it isn’t as good as top tier schools. According to matriculationstats.org it only sends 4% of its grads of too Ivy League schools.[Boarding</a> School Stats : Matriculation Stats](<a href=“http://matriculationstats.org/boarding-school-stats]Boarding”>http://matriculationstats.org/boarding-school-stats)</p>
<p>Now while I know getting into an Ivy League school isn’t what we should solely judge a prep school on, if the number of grads going to an Ivy League school is the same number as the number from my local public high school, it probably isn’t worth it. (That’s just my opinion, so don’t freak out people)</p>
<p>I’ve heard that GDA is more of a sports school than an arts school, though I don’t think it does as well as some other ISL schools. It’s small, near the beach, and has an average SSAT score of 79% for those admitted.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Okay - that just drives me crazy. Really. (and no - I’m not freaking out.)</p>
<p>When looking at schools ask yourself - what do I want from a school and what is the goal? People look at “stats” and use those as a litmus test but don’t take into account that if a BS sends 25% of their students to IVY’s for instance, that 75% don’t go and that said student might fall in the latter category. That many of the 25% may be legacies, or have connections other students don’t have. And I suspect a lot of other top rated schools are offended by using IVY as a litmus test. What it may indicate is that a significant number of students going to “X” school are already on the IVY track. And many students who are not on IVY track are just as smart but want other colleges for other reasons. Believe it or not - a lot of world leaders and innovators graduate from schools that are not IVY.</p>
<p>So let’s look at Governors which my daughter considered as an option after recommendations from some friends at HADES schools. </p>
<ol>
<li> It’s small.</li>
<li> Students live in dorms limited to about 12 people per location.</li>
<li> Everyone has a single (unless they want a roommate).</li>
<li> The library is as large as most other BS and relatively new.</li>
<li> The music auditorium and the art building are state of the art (the art teacher was showing off the new building constructed to house the kiln for the ceramics class).</li>
<li>A student recently matriculated to MIT (hence the academics are fine if that’s where you want to go).</li>
<li> They have active programs for students wanting to spend time in international locations.</li>
<li> They were the most “hands on” in terms of outreach after our daughter applied. Personalized materials, phone calls to follow up, etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>They’re the underdog. And it doesn’t help that a lot of people who have “never” been there, have lots of opinions about what it is and what it is not. I’m an Exeter grad and Exeter knew it was on my daughter’s list. Trust me, if it weren’t a good school they would have vigorously steered me away. Instead, I found out that some faculty kids go to Governor’s and some Governor faculty have sent their kids to Exeter.</p>
<p>So here’s my advice. Governors is completely different from Exeter, which is different from Andover, which is nothing like Middlesex (or Taft or Choate, or Peddie, etc.) Some schools are nurturing. Others are intense and high pressure. Some protect their own. Others are sink or swim.</p>
<p>Stop looking at stats and put together a list of your “wants” and “must haves”. Narrow down based on that. You can get to any college from any of the BS’s talked about here. It’s more a factor of your goals and performance at school, than the school itself.</p>
<p>And given how competitive the climate has become, applying to a range of schools will enhance your odds of getting in somewhere.</p>
<p>My husband is a Med School Adcom, and I interview for MIT and Exeter. We both liked Governors and really liked the staff. My daughter ultimately chose a different school for a variety of reasons, but said she would have been happy there if she’d gone.</p>
<p>Fit is more important that “prestige.” If you can - visit the schools and take a campus tour. It’s a lot different to interact with the school, than to determine fit solely on a viewbook and a discussion board which attracts only a tiny subset of the BS population.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Exie–Beautifully put. I could not have said it better myself.</p>
<p>Thanks so much, that really helps! That sounds like just the place I need to check out. What I want for my application list is a few schools that are very different but all academically rigorous so by the time march rolls around (if I’m -accepted, that is. Fingers crossed!) I will know what I definitely want in a school.</p>
<p>Really what I’m looking for is not a school with prestige. I’m looking for a school where I will be appropriately challenged, well-prepared for college, achieve some intellectual growth, and be happy throughout my time there. The big-name schools are on my list because of the classes they offer, not because they’re considered one of the most prestigious.</p>
<p>@Exie,
Sorry if I came off as being one of those people who is obsessed with “prestige” and college matriculation. I’m not. But boarding school is supposed to open doors for you, make every path you could ever want available. And suppose you want to go down the Ivy League path. At Governor’s, it might be slightly harder to do that. That’s all I’m saying. And I mean no offense to Governor’s, I looked at it for a while. I decided not to apply b/c I didn’t really like their music department.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I know you meant well, kiddo. But that’s a myth. A big big myth. Boarding schools love to allow that “image” to perpetuate itself because it drives the application rates up and hence gives the school an image of more “prestige.”</p>
<p>Please know that my experience is now 35+ years old. It’s easy to go by “stats” but they don’t tell you the whole story.</p>
<p>Please PLEASE stop judging schools by a perceived agenda. They don’t operate to help you get into IVY’s no matter how many other wanna-be applicants insist they do. But the top schools like to breed a certain “image.” And if you tell an Adcom that’s your agenda you’ll fall to the bottom of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>Pick the school that sees you - the whole you - and wants to help you reach YOUR goal. But will also help you see that IVY may or may NOT be a good fit for you given the hundreds of other options.</p>
<p>Smart kids will get into the right college. It’s not the “school” a college considers - its the “student”. If HADES was as you state - then larger percentages would be going to IVY and IVY’s wouldn’t be looking anywhere else.</p>
<p>But students from lesser known schools who have good prep work and score well (and have interesting hobbies and personalities) will do just as well or BETTER than one considered a “feeder.” The smaller schools are more hands on - and if not a lot of students go to IVY - one need to look at where they do go. Like I said - MOST of the world’s leaders and corporate innovators didn’t go to IVY’s.</p>
<p>So tell me - if you spend 3-4 years at a HADES BS (or other) and don’t get into a single IVY - will you have felt like you wasted your time and money?</p>
<p>if so - don’t apply. BS is about experience - not college matriculation goals. Adcoms at college can spot those posers a mile away. And trust me - we love the “underdogs” so we can say we helped mold them (rather than the ones coming in pre-packaged).</p>
<p>Addendum - My significant other asks me to extend kudos to Ifax108. His visit produced the same observation - the music program there was weaker than the school our D ultimately chose. She’s a major flute geek, so we’re right there with you!</p>
<p>@Exie,
To answer your question, no I would not feel as if I wasted my time at boarding school if I don’t wind up going to any Ivy League school. My life has more meaning to it than getting into a certain college. Let’s say that I wind up at MIT for college (Doubt it, math’s my worst subject) I would not feel as if I did poorly in high school. Let’s say that I decide to become a professional singer. (Again, I don’t know if this could ever happen) Maybe Yale might not be the best college for me. But I’m only 14, I don’t need to think to start worrying too much about college, I’m already doing that about high school!</p>
<p>My question stemmed simply from your assertion that it wasn’t “worth it” to go to BS if the chances of going to an IVY weren’t any better than from your own school. I would gather my daughter’s chances of going to an IVY were better if she stayed home in her lousy (but nationally ranked) public school. She’d have been an straight A student/valedictorian.</p>
<p>But since BS is about so much more, she feels (and I agree) that she made the right decision. It’s about risk and reward. Not everyone thinks the “reward” is a prized college.</p>
<p>@Exie. I’m not ashamed to say that one of the reasons that I decided to go to a top boarding school, along with wanting more rigor and a change of scenery, was to get into a top college. </p>
<p>What high school you go to actually does matter. Even if 25% of the people that go to an ivy/top LACs each year from my school are legacies/recruits, the amount of people who get in is still ten to twenty times what it was at my old school. I don’t have straight A’s and I definitely wasn’t going to be valedictorian. Boarding school will help ease those shortcomings on my application. An 89 from my boarding school is a lot more impressive than an 89 from public school, even if the people in public school work harder to get that grade. </p>
<p>Of the kids who go to ivies and other top schools from boarding schools, can you really say that all of them would have gone to those same schools if they went to another high school?</p>
<p>Also, wanting to go to an ivy does not necessarily signify a desire for prestige. It signals a desire to be surrounded by equally smart, driven people, the people who are going to be changing the world, and a yearning to take advantage of the opportunities that only a top college can offer. </p>
<p>It’s nice to imagine that name doesn’t matter, that all schools offer the same opportunities and culture. That’s just untrue. Certain colleges attract the brightest and the best. While those colleges are not limited to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, a middle of nowhere low-tier school isn’t going to do a lot to help your resume, or have as many programs to offer. Your chances of success are not dashed if you didn’t go to a top-flight university, but you’ll have to work harder to prove yourself.</p>
<p>People should stop attacking posters who mention that they care about getting into prestigious colleges. Wanting to succeed is not a bad thing, nor is looking at the facts and realizing that where you go to high school matters. </p>
<p>[How</a> Our Professional Elites Are Hired - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan](<a href=“How Our Professional Elites Are Hired - The Atlantic”>How Our Professional Elites Are Hired - The Atlantic)</p>
<p><a href=“Prep Schools, Cont'd - The Atlantic”>Prep Schools, Cont'd - The Atlantic;
<p>and just for fun</p>
<p>[Prep</a> Schools - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan](<a href=“Prep Schools - The Atlantic”>Prep Schools - The Atlantic)</p>
<p>Oh Abe you are in such trouble…but thanks for those links. Hilarious!</p>
<p>I probably am, but that’s what makes it fun. Should I change my name to Gordon Gekko? </p>
<p>Also, I would call those links frightening rather than hilarious.</p>
<p>Perhaps it would also bee a good idea for me to add that I think there is a difference between wanting to get into a good college and using that as a criteria to judge schools and having admission be your sole aim in life, which is not a good trait, a distinction that CC often fails to make when judging people. </p>
<p>For instance, I want to get into a good school, but that does not drive the vast, vast majority of my life. I do what I do because I enjoy it. While my activities will look nice on an application, that’s not why I’m part of them.</p>
<p>So, how bout some information about that ol’ Gocernor’s Academy, huh?</p>
<p>I’ll start off:
Governor’s Academy, formerly known as Governor Dummer after whom it was named, was and is the first boarding school in America in 1763. The school has many traditions such as:</p>
<p>Jumping the Wall
Special Olympics
The Guild
The Morse Flag Ceremony
Founders Day
Open House at Mansion House
Holiday Candlelight Service and Feast
( [The</a> Governor’s Academy: Traditions](<a href=“http://www.thegovernorsacademy.org/page.cfm?p=364]The”>http://www.thegovernorsacademy.org/page.cfm?p=364) ).</p>
<p>It is a small school of around 390 kids of whom many come from around the area and around the world.</p>
<p>Now its you turn! :D</p>
<p>Sam Phillips who started Phillips Academy went there.</p>
<p>abecedarian - you are not in trouble with me. Thats why I am on this board -to hear and consider differing points of view. I think some who hold particularly strong opinions, forget that others are just as entitiled to express a point of view.</p>
<p>@abecdearian,
Just read post #13. You make a good point. “Wanting to go to an ivy league school does not signify a desire for prestige, but a desire to be around equally smart, driven people, the people who are going to be changing the world and yearning to take advantage of everything a top college can offer” Thank you for saying that. Just b/c I want to go to a top BS doesn’t mean I’m obsessed with “prestige”, I want to get the best education I can get and have the best opportunities presented to me.</p>
<p>Abe,</p>
<p>I don’t disagree with this statement:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s why I went to MIT and why my D wanted to leave public school and go to BS. We were looking for a critical mass of like minded students. A place where there was a common language and talking about outcomes weren’t villified or treated as foreign.</p>
<p>However, where we differ is that some students take this idea to a whole new distorted level of pathology. They consider that if they - themselves - are “among” those elite - that it will open doors for them, forgetting that there are also negative stereotypes about BS that are also well earned. Which is why I’m very careful to caution:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If the myth were true, then matriculation would be much much higher to IVY’s than it is.</p></li>
<li><p>It DOES NOT always matter what high school you go to (unless you’re coming from an underperforming school with few or no resources). It matters who YOU are and what you do with what you’ve got. You can put a sows ear in a good school and it’s still not going to matriculate as a silk purse. </p></li>
<li><p>You run in to some of the same issues at BS that you run into at any school (adolescents running wild, promiscuity, drugs, immaturity).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So we are back to where we started - the right school is different for each person. There is no good or bad school. Some of the best “named” HADES have been rocked with suicides, faculty caught with child pornography, feuding alumni, drugs, expulsions, mayhem etc. Only, unlike public schools it’s not reported in the media and not easily traceable outside of the “network.”</p>
<p>No one here is dismissive of those who have aspirations - only when they think that going to BS is a magic bean that will sprout all sorts of magical, mystical possibilities that wouldn’t be there if they had stayed home.</p>
<p>The real answer is - it depends. And some of the best minds in the country didn’t go to an elite BS or college. In fact - MOST of the best minds did not.</p>
<p>So go for the education and the experience. Go to meet amazing people, avail yourself of the network, and give back as much as you take. Don’t go if the only reason for doing so is in the hopes of winning the elusive toy prize hidden inside the box.</p>