<p>Ok, we are finally reviewing the list and web sites in order to really look for interest in the school.<br>
So far, my son has put the following into catagories (his catagories, not mine):
probably: Deerfield Academy
maybe: St. Paul's
Seriously considering: Cushing Academy, Salisbury, Trinity Pawling, Old Avon Farms.<br>
The rest of the list will be reviewed again tonight.</p>
<p>A few years ago my daughter considered Choate because it offered Japanese. I don't know if they still do or not. The interest has moved in most schools to Chinese.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, it looked like Choate was phasing out Japanese. I think it was Choate. Or Taft.<br>
I'll have to look again. Thanks.
Yes, most schools have moved to Chinese and that's what he'll take if it's available and Japanese isn't. Although, many of the schools on his list don't have a wide variety of languages available (French, Spanish and Latin), so we're not sure if he'll stick with Latin or take French or Spanish if that ends up being his choice.</p>
<p>I clarified his rankings and, "seriously considering" in his ranking is above "probably."<br>
He added a Kimball-Union to the seriously considering list and I had pretty much written them off - based on feedback here and info from their web site.<br>
He put Holderness as a probably. Both of those I would have put as no's. So far no no's from him, he did say Cantebury's site he didn't think had enough info on it for him to decide. </p>
<p>So, we've ordered view books from them all...he's reviewing Proctor, NMH, Millbrook, Suffield tonight. I'm guessing we'll have veiw books from them all! Hopefully reviewing them will narrow it down. </p>
<p>I don't know exactly what his criteria is, but he was surprised that the admissions pages didn't mention test scores at all - he wondered if the schools other than DA, and St Pauls (although they don't mention actual scores either, but he knows their standards) don't care. So we talked about that for a while. </p>
<p>Will the view books give a different "feel" than thier web sites?</p>
<p>If their viewbook & website offer a completely different feel, then there is a problem of some kind. It could be that one or the other is being updated. Otherwise, the marketing of the school is not cohesive which is not a good sign. Good leadership and unified strategy should result in clear messages.</p>
<p>That's what I figured about the view book and the web sites. I was hoping I'd be wrong, because now it looks like we'll be doing 15 visits! UGGH!<br>
Actually, maybe he will spend more time with the book and eliminate some?</p>
<p>Ok, we've gotten a bunch of view books, looked at pretty much all the web sites, but one of us has not ruled any of the schools out yet.<br>
I'm now classifying as reach, safety, match in terms of admissions.<br>
Reach:
St Pauls
Deerfield
Match:
NMH
Canterbury
Salisbury
Trinity Pawling
Millbrook
Cushing
Suffield
Avon Old Farms
Safety:
Proctor
Holderness
Gould
Kimball-Union</p>
<p>I'm not thrilled with any of the safety schools at this point. And think mabye a match or two and be moved to the saftey catagory. </p>
<p>We'll apply to both reaches, that's a given unless the visits go horrible, which I don't imagine that will happen.<br>
Matches, at this point I'm thinking apply 4 and only one safety. THat would mke 7 applications. I think the matches are strong and could possibly move a couple of them to the safety catagory. But when I look at the list, it's hard to narrow it down...I hate to do 14 visits though.</p>
<p>I think having only one true safety school isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially considering your current list. I would probably organize your safeties into a list based upon what you see in them so far and start by visiting the first. If it is satisfactory, I would skip the rest. These schools are not highly selective and admission is almost guaranteed for most prep school kids.</p>
<p>If you don't like the schools in your "safety" list - skip them. I think many of the schools you listed under match could be safeties for you.</p>
<p>Remember, a "safety" need not be a BS safety. Perhaps your local public school beats some of your BS safeties. You shouldn't apply to anything that is less appealing or basically equal to your local options. Unlike college admissions, your child will be attending a school next year even if no BS offers him admission (with the required level of FA for your purposes). Depending on what your local options are, you may not need to have any safeties and you might even greatly limit your "match" applications.</p>
<p>It just depends, from applicant-to-applicant, and from community-to-community.</p>
<p>I think you are right Creative, that some of the "matches" may really be saftey schools for us (at the risk of sounding too confident).<br>
We are getting the materials from Proctor, but my son, who is pretty conservative, said it looks like a "hippie school" to him. LOL </p>
<p>Thanks for the reminder about a local school being in the mix. Local public is an option, but honestly, we'd have to really be unhappy with either the school or the amount of financial aid to consider it. But yes, we should definately have that as a benchmark when visiting some of these. </p>
<p>We could do Holderness and Kimball-Union in the same day. Given that they are safeties, I won't worry about rushing and not being able to soak it all in. Or....I can start with my matches that are closer to the safety level and maybe eliminate the others all together? </p>
<p>Once we get all the books, we'll spread them out and go over them together. That might help. THANKS!</p>
<p>remind us of what's are the key features on you and your son's wish list, please</p>
<p>Some of the schools on your match list have availability now for this fall so I would consider them safeties</p>
<p>I would definitely start the visit/interview sequence with the safety schools. Gives your son some practice at interviews and builds confidence.</p>
<p>Small school. (600 is tops, 300 is better, but if he gets into DA or SPS 600 will work :) ).<br>
Lacrosse (all have that)
He would like Japanese (SPS only one)
He had an 87 on SSAT and is a solid A/B student. Could easily be all A's with only a small amount of additional effort.
Is, in his words, lazy (thus the B's) when not challenged
He is a motocrosser - not that the school would have that or that he's want to ask for time off for it. But it's his personality. Determined, athletic, hardworking (when he wants to be). It's been his major EC, as we spend every weekend racing from April - October.<br>
He's pretty conservative from a political standpoint (thus the "Hippy School" comment.)
Does that help?</p>
<p>I had forgotten about the practice/confidence part - thanks goaliedad!</p>
<p>14 visits would be exhausting - I can't even fathom it. Definitely winnow down the list. Consider some of the matches as safeties and pick the ones you think you'd be less interested in to do first as practice (of course, your list of favs will most likely change after visits).</p>
<p>I only have some knowledge about 3 schools on your list - Deerfield, SPS, NMH - in order of most to least conservative student body. I am unfamiliar with the rest.</p>
<p>I heard that St. Gorgeous had plans for a moto-cross track, as soon as they complete the double heli-pad they're building.</p>
<p>Yes, 14 visits is daunting, thus the narrowing of the list. </p>
<p>DA and SPS are givens. That's 2.<br>
Trinity and Canterbury are about a half hour away from each other. They could be on the same day and could possibly be moved to the safety category and thus visited early on. I don't think we necessarily need all 3 of the all-boys schools on the list and thought we liked Avon and Salisbury better than Trinity. Canterbury looks great in a number of ways but the small endowment and low average financial aid award puts it lower on my list. </p>
<p>So, that's another 4 - up to 6.</p>
<p>Cushing is one that we'll at least visit as a family we know well has 2 kids attending there. That's 7. Suffield and NMH are not that far from us, that would put us at 9. It would mean visiting the lower matches first instead of the safeties. Then for applying purposes it would eliminate all the safeties plus Millbrook. We could always add more visits if we didn't find the right "fit" from any of these.</p>
<p>Any schools known to be conservative? I do know that NMH is known to be more liberal.</p>
<p>Without getting political in the discussion, are you looking for a more conservative school because he (your son) doesn't want to deal with it (a predominantly liberal attitude), or because he is thinking it will be easier to find friends at a more conservative school?</p>
<p>Thinking back (a LONG time ago) to when I went to college, I was rather conservative myself, but ended up going to one of the most liberal universities on the planet. Seeing the inmates run the asylum and the general disdain of the other side, it made me a cynic (and still very happy to be one). But I did end up with friends of all political stripes. We just didn't talk politics</p>
<p>I knew the environment I was going into beforehand but wasn't apprehensive about it at all. That may be the difference - that apprehension about "hippie schools" your son has. </p>
<p>What I'm saying here (in a long winded manner) is that you might consider talking about the challenge of attending a school with divergent views and see how he thinks about the role of a minority. </p>
<p>I wouldn't necessarily try to eliminate schools because of the dominant political culture but rather try to change the mindset of the student to that of a challenger. I wouldn't trade my undergrad experience for that anywhere else.</p>
<p>He gets frustrated when he feels that the "other side" is not presented.<br>
He's fine with other points of view as long as he feels that his point of view can be heard and respected (not that he thinks everyone has to agree).</p>
<p>"Liberal" or "Conservative", all of these schools will feed your son a steady PC diet, from diversity to global warming to internationalism. Some will be less obvious or blatant (NMH is not one of those) but you should get used to the idea.</p>