<p>HELLLLLLLO! We, an international family, is making a decision if the applicant will go to Peddie or NMH. It is hard for us because we do not know these schools very well. Could anyone compare this two great schools for us, especially in areas below:</p>
<ul>
<li>prestige</li>
<li>college matriculation</li>
<li>friendly or not to int’l student</li>
<li>academics</li>
<li>others</li>
</ul>
<p>We appreciate your warm help!! THANK YOU!!</p>
<p>It would help if you could clarify your questions:</p>
<p>Prestige – what exactly do you mean by this? How much prestige the school has locally? nationally? </p>
<p>College Matriculation – both schools list past college matriculation on their websites. Do you need additional information? Are you concerned about matriculation to one particular school? to Ivies? to top 25 schools?</p>
<p>Friendly or not to Intl. Students – both schools also publically list their % of intl. students (which is a good way to tell if intl. students will feel welcome). Are you looking for additional information – like special programs for intl. students, ESL, etc? Any particular concerns?</p>
<p>Academics – Again, the schools provide you with class listings, average class size, etc. Are there particular areas that your student is interested in? What are your particular concerns?</p>
<p>Both are excellent schools, I know a bit more about NMH than Peddie. I do know that NMH is known to have a good group of intl. students and is very welcoming of them. They have solid college placement. NMH is on the semester system (the kids take 3-4 classes each semester, for a total of 6+ classes a year). There are advantages and disadvantages to the system – it all depends on your student.</p>
<p>Have you looked at Boarding School Review? Although the numbers are not exactly accurate, it can be a good place to compare things like the size of the school, % boarding and dress code requirements. Try this link and compare Peddie and NMH side by side:</p>
<p>[Compare</a> Boarding Schools - Boarding School Review](<a href=“http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/compare_schools.php]Compare”>Compare Boarding Schools)</p>
<p>I have two different pieces of information regarding ranking – both from a few years ago.</p>
<p><a href=“http://interactive.wsj.com/documents/wsj_tuition_040104.pdf[/url]”>http://interactive.wsj.com/documents/wsj_tuition_040104.pdf</a></p>
<p>In this one, the schools were ranked by the number of kids that were at 10 selective schools, including 7 ivy league schools. NMH is on the list – Peddie is not.</p>
<p>prepparent posted a ranking of the top 50 boarding schools in this thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/201404-prep-school-reputations-5.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/201404-prep-school-reputations-5.html</a> according to this ranking, NMH is slightly above Peddie.</p>
<p>From what I can tell – as far as rankings, prestige and college matriculation – both schools are fairly equal. Now it comes down to which school is better for your student.</p>
<p>My son chose not to apply to Peddie because of it location (too close to urban areas) and the campus size (230 acres vs. 1100 acres). this might not be a concern for your student.</p>
<p>Personally, I would lean toward NMH for two reasons – larger international population and higher percentage of kids boarding. </p>
<p>best of luck!</p>
<p>Are you applying or accepted? If accepted, how did you get within 2 weeks of 4/10/08 without knowing anything about the schools?</p>
<p>The OP said they “do not know these schools very well.” I think as with many posters these folks are trying to gather more information to help their family make a decision.</p>
<p>I understand that. Looking for help deciding where to apply to boarding school to makes sense. Looking for very basic information about a school to which you have already applied and been accepted seems strange. How can you apply to a school about which you don’t know anything? And, stranger, how can you get accepted? That’s why I asked whether this request was for a prospective applicant or an admitted candidate.</p>
<p>It bothers me when the first concern is “prestige”. However, that is not uncommon for internationals. Peddie would probably have more “prestige” by a slight amount, but both are excellent schools.</p>
<p>Also, check out airports and travel to/from the schools.</p>
<p>rankings and prestige are definitely not my idea of the best way to decide on a school – but you are right MomofWildChild, it is a common thread among international students.</p>
<p>Definitely Peddie for prestige, academics, and matriculation. Both are great schools, though.</p>
<p>Jonathan – interesting you would say that. The two ranking I referred to both have NMH as higher than Peddie based on matriculation to ivies. What are you basing your info on? Just curious – not trying to be argumentative.</p>
<p>Peddie is very diverse. Something like 20 different countries represented. They have a rather large day school population something like 35% day, 65% boarding. Campus is very nice, a little smaller than some of the others but fenced and well laid out which will be important on bad weather days. Brand new science building, great theatre, nice center of campus, dining room and great history building. Location wise you are smack in between New York and Philadelphia. Academically, they send their students everywhere, to just about every Ivy school; highest number went to Penn. Really close relationships between students and faculty. Laptop program, smartboards, study groups in every subject. Sports fair pretty well in the local prep scene.</p>
<p>I would love to go to Peddie. I like it but got waitlisted.</p>
<p>hsmom - Compare NMH and Loomis, they are about the same rate to Ivies, but NMH SAT score is much lower, why ?</p>
<p>Peddie is amazing. The campus is beautiful and the school itself is awesome. The teachers seem so nice and helpful. All of the students are very friendly. The academics and athletics are outstanding. There is a real feel of community. I would seriously consider attending Peddie if I were you.</p>
<p>arling – I am not an expert, I was just bringing up information that I gathered earlier in the year when my son was putting his list of schools together. I can only refer you to those same links that I originally posted for rocncyber.</p>
<p>As far as a lower average SAT score at NMH than at Loomis, I can only speculate – but that could be due to a number of factors: recruited athletes with lower scores, larger academic spread of students (top scorers and low scorers), larger number of international students with less time in the country, incorrect score reporting (remember – they self-report those averages).</p>
<p>I do have some other info from another reliable source – for 2005 the average SAT score for NMH was 1205 and the average SAT score for Loomis was 1261, so the difference is very slight (certainly not enough to be the basis of choosing one school over the other).</p>
<p>Also – I just want to make clear that I am not saying that NMH is better than another school, just that comparing it to Loomis/Peddie based on test scores and college matriculation doesn’t show a clear winner. Based on other factors, one may be a much better school for a student.</p>
<p>I was looking at the stats as well, and I did notice that NMH offers ESL, while Loomis does not. The ESL students could help contribute to that lower SAT score. NMH has 21% international students as compare to Loomis at only 11%
Only 60% of the Loomis students are boarders vs. 78% at NMH. Loomis offers 14 AP courses; NMH 22. They have similar class sizes and student:teacher rations. NMH seems a bit more generous with their FA…137 million endowment with 44% students receiving an average of 23,800 vs. Loomis’ 175 million endowment with only 30% on aid receiving an average of 21,000.</p>
<p>My daughter went to NMH for four years. At that time, approximately 1 in 4 students was international. It made for very interesting discussions in World Religion classes. Since there is also such a large boarding pop, the campus does not clear out on weekends. I cannot say enough good things about NMH.</p>
<p>I’m sorry I did not make my question clear.
Yeah, we’ve got acceptance from both schools, and we are making decision.</p>
<p>Why we send the applicant out of his home country to US for boarding school? The main reason is we want to give him better chance to have the top-level college education - IVY as we expected can be good choice - and we thought BS can be good preparation for colleges.
That is why so many intl students concern about college matriculation and prestige. </p>
<p>I’m confused. In the areas I mentioned before, some of you said Peddie while others NMH. If you were me, what do you choose?</p>
<p>The problem is, we are not “you” and “you” are not your child! Many of us US parents really believe in what we call “fit”, which means picking a school where a child will fit in and be happy while at the same time achieving his or her academic potential. This achievement can occur at either of the schools you are considering, which is partly why you are getting different opinions. The top students at either school will have the opportunity to go to highly selective colleges, if they so choose. HOWEVER, please keep in mind this VERY important fact- admission to the Ivy League schools and other comparable highly selective colleges is EXTREMELY competitive, and simply attending a certain boarding school (even if you are at the top of the class) is NO guarantee of admission, especially for an international applicant. My son had an Asian classmate at his boarding school whose parents were deeply disappointed that he did not get into an Ivy, U of Chicago or NYU. They reluctantly allowed him to attend Swarthmore, which is an outstanding school but not one that made it on their “prestige” list!<br>
A good prep boarding school will develop your child in academic and social areas and will prepare him or her to attend a college that is also the right “fit”. This may or may not be an Ivy!<br>
I personally like the MAPL schools and feel the headmasters and administrators work together among the schools to ensure the best possible environment for their students. This is not to detract from NMH, which is also an excellent school.
We can’t make the choice for you, but please do not get too invested in where your child is going to go to college.</p>
<p>You have gotten some excellent advice – and I know how hard it is to make that final decision. I really do not think you could go wrong at either school. Your student’s possibilities for obtaining admission into an ivy league school will be the same whether he/she is at NMH or Peddie. (and MomofWildChild is right on target with her advice on college admissions).</p>
<p>Now it comes down to which school do you think your student will really excel at? Students who have passionate interests and are able to demonstrate those interests (via activities, leadership positions, community involvment and academics) are the ones that have the better chance for ivy league admissions. So the school where your child will really thrive will be the best one to chose.</p>
<p>Consider the international student population – would you student prefer more internationals or fewer? How do they fit in with the rest of the kids? What is the break down from different countries? Are there special activities for international students? a special advisor? what are the college placement rates specifically for international students?</p>
<p>Take a long look at class choices – which school looks better for YOUR child? are there opportunities to take advanced classes in areas your child is interested or excels? What are the opportunities for independent study? Only worry about that effects your child – if you son/daughter doesn’t take French, it really doesn’t matter if the school offers AP French.</p>
<p>Take a look at the activities and extracurricular opportunities that your student is interested in. Would your s/d like to do science research? compete on a math team? play violin? protest China’s human rights policies? build a boat by hand? See what is offered – and how that matches up to your son/daughter. </p>
<p>Talk to current parents and students about the residential life – the food, the amount of sleep, type of socialization. Do the kids routinely stay up all night studying? Do they break off into cliques, so that you kid will end up hanging out with just a few international students? do they spend all weekend playing video games? Try and talk with parents of another current international student.</p>
<p>Look at the logistics – is it easier/cheaper to fly into one airport over another? What does the school calendar look like? multiple short breaks or fewer long breaks? How does that work for your family? </p>
<p>I truly think that you cannot make a bad decision – so if after you talk about the above issues, you or your son/daughter feels like one school is the better one, then that is the school for you.</p>