I received a fairly quick response from our AO about a meeting request with the learning support team. He also set up a zoom with my daughter to personally congratulate her.
I would assume most AO’s are working right now given the craziness of M10 and the days to follow. I am sure though they are swamped with email and calls.
Yea, you can appeal for a review of your FA. Each school has its own process so you’d need to contact your AO and / or the financial aid department of whoever school you are trying the appeal at.
As for merit scholarships - that depends on the school. Not all schools offer them.
tysm!
That’s so nice, congratulations! 
Everyone who was accepted into multiple schools is in the same rut as you, and hopefully we’ll all make the right decision.
Yeah, it certainly is hard.
I’m leaning Exeter (over Andover) right now because I liked the atmosphere that the students portrayed (in a california event) a lot, as opposed to Andover which was a little dry. I know this may not be an accurate representation of the schools, but it is what is ingrained into my mind right now (may change with a visit, which I’m doing late March).
Anyway, talking to some BS contacts, they seem to say that Andover is slightly more liberal arts and Exeter slightly more STEM. Does anyone with experience have any comments about that? Thanks!
Hi, current Exeter student here!
A lot of students here tend to focus more on STEM, but from experience, there’s a very healthy balance between the two. That being said, there are more required STEM courses at Exeter than art requirements, and from my understanding, a lot of students end up majoring in STEM-related topics.
Nonetheless, there are so many opportunities for students to be involved in the arts.
Examples: Clubs, electives, private music lessons, theater groups, performance managers, and much more!!
Thanks for the response! I actually prefer Exeter because of what you stated, I’m definitely a STEM student. If you don’t mind, how many math/science vs arts/languages courses does the average student take, and what is the max STEM courses a student can take? Thanks!
Hi, i got recruited for music (I play the double bass)
How is music at Choate? I’m currently deciding which one to go between choate and lville.
This is my hope for my son! He has so much yet to discover and has been in his expected rolls at home and school here. Thank you for sharing about your son.
My daughter was accepted. We investigated the school and attended an Admissions reception and loved what we were hearing. Then came the campus visit…we had a really hard time “feeling” the community. There didn’t seem to be a vibe that we were picking up on. How would you describe the community (students and faculty) and overall experience? What other top 10 schools would you consider it most like? My daughter is very excited about the acceptance and we would really love to help define what Choate might mean for her vs. Lville.
Thanks!
How competitive are sports at Choate compared to other top schools? Thank you! 
Sure!
I’m getting all this information from the diploma requirements section in Exeter’s Courses of Instruction booklet!
Feel free to check it out: https://exeter.edu/sites/default/files/documents/PEA-COI-23-24-Web_3.7.pdf
This all depends on what grade you’re entering, but typically there are no more than nine required math courses, unless you’re doing math at a higher level, and no more than six required science classes. There’s also one comp sci credit but it’s only required for preps. Meanwhile, there are no more than three required art courses.
I don’t know about the exact average but for STEM classes, it’s somewhere between a total of 8-16, and for art classes, it can range from 3 to 6.
The max number of STEM courses one can take would really depend on the other classes being taken but in total wouldn’t exceed 18.
Hope this answers your questions!
Thank you for the response. I didn’t realize that was available online, so thank you for sending it!
Found out my daughter was wait listed at Peddie and not rejected. She was the one checking the email and told me, mom is a no. I thought a no as rejected but it was a no as wait listed. I have been removing her from those wait listings today as we already know where she will be going. It was between St. Mark’s, Kent and a magnet high school here…
I will try to reach out to the schools in Monday. Hopefully there will be people working and not out for Spring Break.
I’d say Choate socially feels the most like Andover. It’s very progressive; students don’t have a dress code (okay, there is one, but it’s very very lightly enforced and pretty much nonexistent), residential life restrictions are pretty light (IMO), et cetera. It is quite diverse, and a student will definitely hear a plethora of life experiences and different perspectives throughout their time there. Choate has its traditions (Deerfield Day, various holiday traditions, and much more) but I would not call it very traditional. I think the great thing about Choate is its diversity in student experiences and interests. It’s sort of hard to pinpoint one vibe to explain the student body and student life. To me, I’d say students as a whole are fun-loving, active, and pretty chill. While like any other top school there is an inherent layer of competition, it is also really collaborative. Choate definitely felt like one of the more accepting schools, as well.
I’d say it heavily depends on the sport! Football is really competitive, for sure, but sports like track are not at all. I only have experience with track, as I was more of a theater/robotics kid, but my impression is that many of the sports are pretty easy to make a team in, while others (squash, football come to mind) are harder.
Thanks! This makes a lot of sense as I read more about the Choate community. I think my daughter will really like it. She wasn’t too excited by the “preppy” schools and she loved Andover (but was waitlisted).
Can I just say how awesome it is to see you here, @CavsFan2003 ! Have been wondering how you are liking college…
Nice to see you too! 
College has been insanely hard but super interesting. I’ve met some really cool people and learned a bunch of really cool stuff! Workload is insane though!