<p>I see the word 'tier' used, not often, but often enough, with schools and such, such as Andover and Exeter being first tier, and other schools in second and third tier, depending on who's talking. Does this mean tier ranking is based on how much prestige a school has, or is it also based on academics, sports, SAT scores, etc.?
I saw recently that USNews has a tier ranking list for colleges and universities on the web somewhere. Is there also a definite one for boarding schools? Because other than Andover, Exeter, and a few other boarding schools, some schools seem to jump to second tier and down to third tier and back again when you talk to different people. Is this because they're ranking on different aspects?
Also, is looking at what tier a school is in a good way to decide what schools to apply to? Or is it just basically a way of saying how prestigious a school is?</p>
<p>It's a way of saying how prestigious a school is from the perspective of a beholder who usually has not experienced many schools. Perspectives can vary widely. I don't think there is any clear way of defining tiers, other than your own ranking of which schools would be the best fit for you. </p>
<p>If you want to pick schools that are good matches for you, don't get trapped into thinking in tiers based on what others think. You should search for schools that offer what you want. The schools that are the best fit for you are your tier one schools.</p>
<p>That said, there are some schools that consistently score high on basic criteria such as SAT averages, college matriculation, endowment, etc. These schools set the bar and score high in name awareness. However, they may or not be the right schools for you.</p>
<p>I had the same question last year and it seems to me that the schools that are well known and therefore receive a lot of applicants are considered tier 1. I would never suggest using tiers to determine the schools to apply to. We were sucked into this at the beginning of our search last year and wasted time visiting some "tier 1" schools that my son had no interest in. Fpoe some reason on CC there are quite a few people that snub their noses at any school that they do not see as a "tier 1" chool. In the real world, most of the schools have a fabulous reputation. There are kids on my son's lax team going to Bershire, Gunnery, avon Old Farms, Trinity Pawling etc... My son chose to go to NMH. I am positive that all of these kids are going to get great educations at the school they chose.
Good Luck with your search..</p>
<p>In most things, "top tier" implies "broadly regarded as being of very high quality" and "difficult or costly to attain/obtain." It does not mean that the top tier thing is the best for everyone. For example, I don't think anyone would consider my car a "top tier" model, but it works for me. </p>
<p>When it comes to boarding schools, I would say that there are a few things that make the top tier different:</p>
<p>1) For almost all the boarding students, the "top tier" school they are attending was their first or second choice among all of the schools they could have applied to. (Many non-top tier schools are very hard to get into for day students and are the first choice of their day students, which is why I said boarding students, who have broader choices, here.) The fact that most everyone is at the school of his choice has an impact on the environment at these schools. </p>
<p>2) It is unusual to hear, "why is he going THERE"? about a top tier school. We live in a place with a good public school, but if you go to a school like Andover instead, nobody asks "why"? The top tier schools are generally regarded as being good for a broad range of students, not just those who play certain sports or who have a particular bent.</p>
<p>3) A top tier school is nobody's safety. (In reality, some students are highly likely to be admitted because of ties with the school, but they are a small group.)</p>
<p>The top tier schools are hard to get into even if you don't need FA and have high yields among admitted boarding students. They tend to have an easier time raising money and have higher endowments per student which gives them more flexibility in how they run the school, including more money for FA.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the information (:
I had a feeling that tier probably wasn't going to be a very good factor to consider while searching for schools.</p>