<p>Goaliedad, did you go to Brown? :) I know it has a reputation for being one of the most liberal universities in the US and I recently visited there. It's very pretty and I like Providence/the atmosphere a lot.</p>
<p>You might consider visiting one boy school before the other two. This way, your son can consider whether or not he wants an all boy school. If he doesn't -- it's a fast elimination of 2 more schools. </p>
<p>Your son may be sensitive to school size as a preference factor. You may consider visiting a small, medium and large school among your first visits. </p>
<p>I don't know what kind of a learner he is, but some schools care about things like notebook organization more than others. Some schools have smartboards, so note taking becomes less important. Some have more structured study halls than others.</p>
<p>Just some thoughts...</p>
<p>He needs more structured study halls.<br>
He is not the best notebook organizer. In fact, he is a terrible one. LOL<br>
Takes notes ok, but does better with a folder system.</p>
<p>SPS is very loose e.g. a lot of freedom for students - no study hall for example. It may not be the best for your son.</p>
<p>I hadn't realized that about SPS. For some reason I thought I had read study halls. That's a bummer.</p>
<p>SPS has "quiet hours" for two hours instead of study hall. These two hours are supposed to be used for studying, but it is not mandatory that you stay in your room – you can go to the library, go to other dorms to see your teachers for extra help, etc. However if your grades slip you can and probably will be put on study hall every night. I don't think it should deter you from looking at the school. There are a lot of safety nets to make sure students are doing their work, most noticeably your advisor checking up on you.</p>
<p>Agree with pseud08 (based on conversations with school officials, nothing firsthand). The whole "independence" thing with SPS is that that is part of the value of the experience, getting students to that point by graduation. It's not that they only admit students who are independent, academic self-starters. I actually was left with the impression that SPS is more hands-on than most schools (partly a function of size, of course) but not in the sense that there's coddling. There are weekly meetings with advisors and residential staff and the communication with parents that they described was more elaborate than anything else I had heard about. If there are signs of slippage or poor choices being made, there are a variety of measures that the put in place. And they talk to the parents to see which ones best suit the student's learning/study style. This could include the student being required to study in his/her room (if working alone is best) or in a study hall (if a student is more productive when around others). These are details about student monitoring and academic support that were freely offered by SPS that far exceed the amount of information I got from most other schools.</p>
<p>To be sure, SPS is not the place to send a struggling child. But if a parent and child value working towards being very independent and they like the idea of being granted increasingly free rein over academic choices as the student demonstrates s/he can make good choices, it could be a good fit.</p>
<p>Thanks D'yer and pseud. What you described is the impression I had. My son is not struggeling. He just needs some structure in place about studying. Now that school is closer to starting, we did recently get some info from current school and I'm going to email the placement officer our list and see what her thoughts are.<br>
Thanks again, you all are very helpful.</p>
<p>This may help you weed out the list:</p>
<p>Here are some questions to ask from the parent's perspective, based on our personal experience. Your questions may be quite different depending on what is most important to you, and the answers may or not be a deal-breaker for you:</p>
<p>Safety: when are dorm access doors locked/unlocked. Some are locked during the school hours and unlocked after last class. Some are locked after a certain hour in the evening. Some require a key at all times. Similar questions for dorm rooms.</p>
<p>Dorm sign in: Are kids required to sign in/out? Does anyone read the sign-in book or monitor kids whereabouts? If you were to contact the school at any given time, would an adult be able to tell you where your child was? Are all students required to be present and sign in at all meals?</p>
<p>Television: hours of tv access. Is programming monitored?</p>
<p>Study time: are quiet rules enforced? how?</p>
<p>Common room: Is there an adult present or are the kids unsupervised? Is there evening supervision in the common rooms or on weekends?</p>
<p>Contact with parents: Under what circumstances will parents be notified? Spending time at a private home? Overnight off campus? Late for curfew? Missing class due to illness? Taken to infirmary or hospital? Grades slipping? Skipping a class?</p>
<p>Drug/alcohol tolerance policies: Are kids with documented problems admitted? How is the first, second, third offense dealt with?</p>
<p>College preparation: Ask for a detailed explanation about the process from beginning to end. It may not jive with your expectations or it may surpass them! If you're unhappy with it, and you don't ask before choosing the school, you won't discover it until junior or senior year. </p>
<p>ECs and community service: Are official records kept? Are kids required to perform community service? Are kids required to have a sport or other formal activity each season/every day? If not a sport, how is activity documented?</p>
<p>Cars on campus: Can students own cars and keep them at school? Is permission required to ride in a private car? If so, how is this enforced?</p>
<p>That's all I can think of at the moment...(trying to think back to those sleepless nights!)</p>
<p>pseud08 - thank you for the much more accurate description you gave re: study hall/quiet time than I portrayed. It's great having current students like you on here.</p>
<p>Wow. That's an awesome list of questions, baseballmom!</p>
<p>D'yer--all questions I wished I'd asked back in 2002!</p>
<p>I remember being shocked that my 14 year old had an 11:00 curfew on Fri and Sat nights when prior to the day she started school she'd never been out of the house on her own at night other than to be dropped off and picked up from the movies or a friend's house!</p>
<p>I agree - great list! THANK YOU!</p>
<p>Ok, somehow, the list has not really gotten any shorter....it's gotten LONGER. I went on the Naval Academy Foundation site and found the list of the NA prep schools. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The Academy has relationships with those schools - they think highly enough of them to send kids there (often with the NAFoundation paying for a good part of the bill based on need) to develop one more year (95% of the NA prep students end up at the Academy, the 5% who don't, I got the impression that they changed their minds vs. not being accepted). </p>
<p>So, we had already added Loomis-Chaffee as one of my son's friends is going there this year and one more looking for next. And, from the Academy Prep list, we added Kent and Portsmouth Abbey. Salisbury is one of the schools as is NMH, so now we have 4 which is good. I think we have ruled out Gould and Proctor. That still leaves us with about 16 or somthing. </p>
<p>I did find out that most (all on the original list but DA and SPS) come and do lunch with the 9th graders at our school. That should be helpful for my son. </p>
<p>In any case, anyone know anything about Kent?</p>
<p>Here is a possible approach: Visit/interview at your 2 reach schools (Deerfield & St. Pauls) and your 4 USNA schools (NMH, Kent, Portsmouth Abbey & Salisbury). You can add at least one nice small/medium coed boarding school from your list like Suffield or Cushing. You started off saying that you thought your son would be well-placed in a small/medium school. After you do the tours, ask your son what he liked/disliked about the schools he saw. Ask yourself that too. Then you can look through your list of potentials to see which have similar characteristics. For example, if he likes Salisbury, then you can visit Avon Old Farm &/or Trinity Pawling. If he likes a larger school (after seeing Kent, Deerfield, & NMH), take a look at Loomis. </p>
<p>There was a thread on Kent that you can find with a search.</p>
<p>Here it is.</p>
<p>I was curious to see what it covered as I recalled it myself and wondered how it played out. The thread went off on a tangent over "zero tolerance" policies, but one-time poster Ed Haskell brought it back to reality. And if you can reach Ed Haskell, it sounds like he'll have some substantive firsthand information to share.</p>
<p>Be a little careful here with the USNA connection.
All four of the Academy bound Salisbury grad's this year are lacrosse players.</p>
<p>Kent sends rowers.
Etc.</p>
<p>There is a definite athletic component to this.</p>
<p>Along those lines, I'd be hesitant to choose a high school anticipating (or hoping) for admission to a particular (and extraordinarily competitive) college that, in several years' time, my child might not be the least bit interested in.</p>
<p>Why didn't those schools make your list originally? Is the gamble that your son will still want to get into Annapolis -- and will be able to get an appointment -- be worth pursuing those schools in the face of the likelihood that your son will either not want to attend or won't be admitted? </p>
<p>There was something about those schools that didn't thrill you in the way the other schools caught your eye. Does a good track record with Annapolis propel them onto your list and make it worth ignoring any shortcomings or comparative deficiencies at those schools?</p>
<p>Great points everyone!! </p>
<p>Burb...that is exactly I was thinking. To start with those 6, plus Cushing and Suffield and go from there. </p>
<p>Fun - yes, we know that the Salisbury USNA bound grads are lacrosse. We also know there is certainly know guarantee as a "traditional" student there, but just thought the connection between the schools would help. At this point, Lacrosse is his sport. I have no idea if he'll be "recruitable" as our current school is not known for it's athleticsw. As far as him changing his mind, it's certainly possible and that's fine. However, he's wanted to be a Navy pilot since he was about 8. </p>
<p>Good point D'yer about the why the schools didn't make the list to begin with. Well...first, I think we were limiting our list to schools that were recommended to us or that I happened to find or see in another context. Second is size. We were looking to be around 300-400 or so (except for DA and SPS). </p>
<p>More to think about...</p>
<p>Doesn't the Naval Academy have its own finishing school?
<a href="http://www.naps.edu/index.cfm%5B/url%5D">http://www.naps.edu/index.cfm</a></p>
<p>Curious as to why they also use other boarding schools in addition to this? Is this just for PGs?</p>