<p>In your opinion, what are the top 15 boarding schools in America?</p>
<p>What would you rank Loomis Chaffee, Kent, Episcopal, and Blair at?</p>
<p>Please help... </p>
<p>I have no clue which schools I want to apply to/ should apply to.</p>
<p>What are your interests? What must a school have, in order for you to thrive?</p>
<p>There are more than 15 wonderful schools. Try the advance search function at <a href="http://www.schools.org%5B/url%5D">www.schools.org</a>. Enter academic programs and extracurricular activities which interest you. Should a school have a swim team, and offer Russian? Should it offer ceramics and fencing?</p>
<p>In short, look for more than the "15 best" boarding schools.</p>
<p>the top 5 are philips exeter academy-andover,lawrenceville hill, choate rosemary and that's all i can remember</p>
<p>Top 15 based on what? Size? Football team? Crew team? Number of faculty? Drug busts? </p>
<p>The only top 15 list that matters is the top 15 that match you and your interests best.</p>
<p>Despite some occasions when the stats are slightly out of date, boardingschoolreview.com is helpful.</p>
<p>Drug busts, ah ha ha. That was a good one laxtaxi.</p>
<p>Laxtaxi had a nice one for sure.</p>
<p>I'd say that if you want a good measure of WHAT COULD MATCH YOU then you should look at "Opposite sides of the Spectrum"
Phillip's Exeter Academy, Phillip's Andover Academy, Kent, Choate, Deerfield, Groton, Mercersburg and Concord are examples of different "styles" that schools have. Concord is art, deerfield sports, kent religious ECT.</p>
<p>I'M NOT SAYING THAT DEERFIELD IS THE BEST AT SPORTS OR THAT KENT IS THE MOST RELIGIOUS. I'm saying that look at those schools and that those are some strong traits I noticed.</p>
<p>The best school in America is .... (drum roll please) ..... the school of rock ! </p>
<p>Nobody knows for sure but everyone has their own personal opinions ...</p>
<p>Some people say Deerfield is better that Exeter and vice versa</p>
<p>Some people say Hotchkiss is better than Andover and vice versa</p>
<p>Some people say Milton is better than SPS and vice versa </p>
<p>The bottom line is each of these schools may in fact be the best school as a particular area (for instance debate, football, track, field hockey, volleyball, soccer etc. ) but if those things do not interest you then its not the best school for you. Look at what these schools excel at and how that matched up with what you excel at.</p>
<p>Top ten lists. Ugh. When all the noise on this CC website is about SSAT results and the number of college admissions to the Ivy League, it's easy to screw up the Boarding School search for yourself or your child. The last thing you want to do is have other people, especially all the 13-14-15 year old kids on CC, influence your approach. You'd end up with the same tired list of Schools. Self-image as a determining factor undermines smart boarding school and college decision-making.</p>
<p>Imagine making a boarding school choice without any knowledge of the school's SSAT, SAT and college admission data. All you would care about is whether the School would help your kid become his or her best self, adopt habits of honesty, fairness and kindness, aspire always to do the best he or she can, be unafraid of failure, be willing to dust off and try again, make friends for life, learn for the sheer joy of it etc. Imagine making your list based on factors like these and THEN learning about SSATs and college admissions.</p>
<p>You would be surprised at how different your top ten list would look if your first priority was personality match and your second priority was Ivy League admission stats.</p>
<p>(Banging my head against the wall.) There are many great schools. There are more strong schools in the US than there is time to visit them. </p>
<p>I have heard, and read, great things about Loomis Chaffee, Kent, Episcopal, and Blair. They all warrant a closer look, if their course offerings, activities available on campus, and school culture make them a possible fit for you. You have greater chances at admission if you choose a school which fits you. </p>
<p>At this date, you should be finishing up your applications. Many schools have deadlines of mid January, especially if you need financial aid. You should not still be building your list. Decide which of your interests is most crucial, and then pick a handful of schools to which to apply. Pick them today, and start the applications. Get the recommendation forms to teachers this week. Use a dart board if you have too, flip a coin, throw the dice. Choose!</p>
<p>You'll only know in 30 years if you made the right choice. Spending another two weeks procrastinating will only make it less likely you'll be able to go to any boarding school.</p>
<p>OK -- I'm a parent. And I'm confused.</p>
<p>I understand the bottom line is the school that fits my child best, but I don't understand the nuances of resources to uncover that school.</p>
<p>Where does the Concord is art, deerfield sports, kent religious ECT. originate?</p>
<p>My son likes sports, but is more at the intermural level. He LOVES art & electric guitar, but doesn't want to "cloud his livlihood" and by pushed to have his relxing hobbies forayed into careers. He loves an academic challenge, but hates "repetitive busywork."</p>
<p>So, my real question is, without visiting, how do we know what school fits? We obviously can't visit all schools that have fine arts</p>
<p>I can't speak about Deerfield or Kent because we don't know the school at all. As for Concord, it does have a reputation for strong art/music program, maybe more so than other bs mentioned here. But it is not a school that will have students' "hobbies forayed into careers". The most devoted/serious artist/musicians/dancers/writers, from my understanding, goes to Walnut Hill School (Natick, MA).</p>
<p>Notnim-</p>
<p>What you have to do is just some research; look up the schools on Google, get their guide book and take a look through it, visit their school website, go to neighbourhood school recessions, e-mail the admission office, talk to some friends who have sent their children to private/prep/boarding school, hire a consultant.</p>
<p>It's really not that hard to get an idea of any school, just take some time and look into the schools, you don't have to do any more than one of the things I listed above.</p>
<p>Notnim -- All the schools have fine arts and they will offer non-varsity sports for several sports each season.</p>
<p>Have you visited any schools? Were there any your son liked especially? If you mention a few schools you have visited and both liked with reasons you liked the schools, it is much easier to suggest a few more that are similar.</p>
<p>happyday -- Loomis, Kent, Episcopal and Blair are all quality schools. If you have specific questions about Blair, please feel free to ask me. Sorry, I have no idea how to rank. A school could be recognized as among the "best," but not be the best for you.</p>
<p>leekleek
We aren't in a socio-economic position to know many people who go to BS. We know 1.</p>
<p>We have gone through boarding school reviews website. </p>
<p>We have a healthy stack of catologs.</p>
<p>We are visiting Lawrenceville & Peddie tomorrow. We have visited Exeter & SPS. We are visiting St Andy's next week.</p>
<p>The problem we have is that ALL the schools seem to have a good art program and stong academics. </p>
<p>We actually looked at top Colleges grads go to in order to narrow down our lists. My son is very liberals arts in nature; if the colleges look like colleges he'd be interested in then we gave a bit more weight to the BS -- a backward search, but helped us whittle down a bit.</p>
<p>Notnim: I agree with you in that the process of narrowing down the schools can be daunting. So many of them are excellent! One thing we did: are there one or two new things that your son would like to try? Let's say he wants to study Chinese and take instructional crew, for example. That might eliminate a lot of schools. Another example: not many schools have swim teams. Does the school offer JV1 and JV2 teams in sports he likes? Check out the English course offerings, what school has the most that might appeal to him? While it may seem arbitrary, one has to narrow down the choices from what can seem like one hundred great schools to maybe 6 - 10 applications. And, be sure you don't apply to only 5 schools that all have acceptance rates of less than 20%. Five times 20% does NOT = certain admission to at least one school.</p>
<p>Has he taken the SSAT yet? The results can be one component of your search as well. </p>
<p>Good luck. As long as you apply to a range of schools, you will be successful!</p>
<p>Notnim: It's good that you're visiting the schools. Once you've visited a few, you'll believe in "fit." When I read of fit, before our visits, I was skeptical. I now believe.</p>
<p>I had high hopes for one school we visited. On paper, it looked as if it had everything we were looking for. After the visit, I'm not certain we'll complete the application. And yet, I know that there are students who love this school. </p>
<p>My child liked most of the schools we visited. The interviews all went very well--the value of being an extrovert. Yet, our response, and, in my opinion, the interviewers' responses, were more enthusiastic at the schools where our applicant fit the school, and vice versa. </p>
<p>I think you should be careful of taking any school's reputation at face value. Schools can change drastically in 20 years' time. Some of the reputations are also a matter of emphasis, rather than focus. When reading something on this site, take it with a grain of salt, as many of the posters are very young.</p>
<p>Concord Academy has a strong reputation in the arts, but I would not say that the academic courses come second to the arts. It's a very rigorous school.</p>
<p>I'm looking for a school that offers:
-dance courses
-AP Spanish Language & Literature
-Economics classes
-A broad-range of athletic offerings (including interscholastic w/ crew & field hockey) (Also, intramural sports too).
-music theory class
-Ceramics class
-Astronomy
-Lots of diversity (both national and international).
-A dedicated music program
-more than 50 extra/co-curricular activities.</p>
<p>& I would also like it to be near a town; definitely not completely rural.</p>
<p>Also, I must confess that ivy league admission is a very significant factor in all of this for me.</p>
<p>The schools I have been looking at & am having trouble with eliminating any of them are:
-Deerfield
-Hotchkiss
-Lawrenceville
-Andover
-Exeter
-St. Paul's School
-Groton
-Middlesex
-St. Andrew's (DE)
-Episcopal
-Loomis Chaffee
-Milton
-Blair
-Peddie
-Kent</p>
<p>I have to narrow it down to a maximum of 12 schools...with at least 2 matches/safeties included in that number.</p>
<p>Any suggestions/advice would be helpful... thank you in advance.</p>