<p>My daughter has been accepted by SPS and Milton, on waitlists of Andover, Exeter, Groton, and Deerfield. We are having difficult time to make decision. Any suggestion? Thanks!</p>
<p>Revisits! I would highly recommend attending them to get a better feel for the schools. </p>
<p>Tell us more about your daughter - interests, sports, passions?</p>
<p>One thing I really like about SPS is the 100% boarding community with faculty living on campus. It makes for a very tight knit community.</p>
<p>Unfortunately we do not have the time. She does not want to miss school and I am traveling overseas.</p>
<p>All the schools are very good, and we were impressed by most of them during our campus interview. My D was more impressed by Exeter. SPS campus is very pretty as well. </p>
<p>She likes SPS more than Milton at this moment. She prefers Andover, or Exeter. But both schools put her on the waitlists.</p>
<p>She was accepted to two great schools. I personally would not hold out for a hope. Revisits are best, but since you can't, here are my thoughts:</p>
<p>The schools have a very different feel.</p>
<p>SPS is 100% boarding, on a rural campus outside a small state capitol town. High matriculation to Ivies, more focus on well-roundedness (academics/sports/arts). More of a classic boarding prep experience.</p>
<p>Milton is ~50% boarding, with lots of day students, very casual with students milling about in the student center, in a suburb of Boston. Strong, but not as high, matriculation to Ivies, seems to have more students that specialize in arts or sports. More of an elite private school that has some boarders.</p>
<p>SPS and Milton matriculation to the ivies mulls around the same area, along with DF. Milton, of all the BS, has highest to Harvard whereas SPS has more to others. </p>
<p>Even though Milton is an elite private school, it has more than "some" boarders. For most purposes it IS a boarding school, just a smaller boarding community. It won't make too much of a difference if you are a boarder. </p>
<p>I would say speak with teachers, explain you cannot go and they will accommodate you.</p>
<p>She wants to go to Ivies. That is one of the reasons she chooses BS, but not necessary Harvard. Based on the number published by schools, SPS has higher rate to Ivies. So, SPS may be a better choice.</p>
<p>Depends. Which ivy she wants to go to... </p>
<p>Milton has an edge on Harvard, MIT, Yale, and Princeton whereas SPS has an edge on the other few, I think.</p>
<p>In terms of matriculation you cannot chose one over the other they are too similar... I think it would be a bad idea to chose a school solely due to matriculation, especially when both are exceptional. 6 and one half a dozen.</p>
<p>BS is a great experience but definitely not a ticket to an Ivy league college. It would be a mistake to make your decision based on matriculation alone. Many of the kids entering ivies from BS benefit from preference given to sports, minority status, legacy or a combination.</p>
<p>Applicants get into the Ivies not because of where they went to school but because of who they are and what they achieve. In fact, you can make a strong case that some students are less likely to make an Ivy from an elite boarding school. It is the student, not the environment. Don't be under any illusions.</p>
<p>^exactly 10000chars</p>
<p>Don't get over focused on Colleges. St. Paul's is great.</p>
<p>I agree with the above post. Don't get too focused on "going Ivy". I'm sure your D is a fantastic student but SPS and Milton only take driven, high achieving kids (tkae it from me-I'm a senior at Milton). Sending her to either one won't, by any means, guarantee an Ivy League acceptance.</p>
<p>To say Milton has an edge on Harvard probably has the most to do with how many staff kids and legacies they have and nothing to do with the school.</p>
<p>It's very, very important to understand that many, if not most of the kids getting into ivies from elite schools are the hooked candidates: recruited athletes, legacies and URMs.</p>
<p>The 30% getting into ivies plus from all of these schools are not the top 30%.</p>
<p>I know you said she doesn't want to miss school, but if there is any way she can do the revisit days she should. They are so important and give a much better feel for the school than the initial tour. I know more than one student who knew exactly where they were going and the revisit day changed their mind.
Milton and St Paul's are very different in many ways - the biggest being SPS 100% boarding and Milton 50% or less boarding.</p>
<p>St. Paul's.</p>
<p>I go to Milton and its definitely a really nice environment, with a lot shenanigans nonetheless. Oh and in terms of matriculation, there are always a handful of kids out of the class of approximately 160 who get rejected from everywhere they apply, so I wouldn't go there with the notion that your D would definitely get into an ivy, even if she is really smart. The thing is, EVERYONE there is "really smart" or gifted, so from a college admissions perspective, a really smart kid at boarding school is compared with the other really smart kids at boarding schools rather than the american teenage public.</p>
<p>So the about 34% of the people who do go to ivies are composed of legacies, jocks, and development cases?</p>
<p>absolutely not...read what I wrote on the Milton thread before. Yes, a few jocks get recruited every year but not a significant number and yeah, a few legacies get into Ivies or good schools or whatever but they are still very desvering of the acceptance. I can only think of two kids, one last year one this year-who were accepted to Ivy League schools over more qualified better kids. But no one said college acceptances were "fair".h</p>
<p>Mason, What do you mean by shenanigans?</p>
<p>why don’t you just list the pros and cons for going to SPS and Milton, and then ration it by pros to cons. the one with a bigger pros to cons ratio could be the better school for you. this probably isn’t the best idea, but whatever.</p>