<p>Just curious. For applicants who are doing the Go-Big-or-Go-Home strategy, what schools are you applying to? </p>
<p>Anyone applying to Andover & Exeter only?</p>
<p>Andover, Deerfield, Exeter, St. Paul’s, and Choate</p>
<p>Exeter, Andover, SPS, Deerfield, Choate, Lawrenceville, and Milton.</p>
<p>Andover, Deerfield, Hotchkiss</p>
<p>Only applying to A&E but only because of my parents restricting me.</p>
<p>GMT, I hope you are planning on taking this thread towards the many other REALLY WONDERFUL schools where the students will be challenged and thrive. We call them hidden gems. Many parents on this board have students there, who turned down A and E for various reasons.</p>
<p>If you are just applying to A and E, seriously prepare to stay home. Take a look at the results threads from prior years. The majority of well qualified applicants are turned down.</p>
<p>2prepmom: I will start another thread for the other side! LOL</p>
<p>If going big is applying to a fantastic school with a low admission’s rate, Thacher and Deerfield would be at the top of that list with admit rates of 13%.</p>
<p>I would consider go big or go home the GLADCHEMMS schools cause they are the boarding schools with the best matriculation and the hardest to get into</p>
<p>Ha! I used that expression yesterday in a thread. 
</p>
<p>Here are mine:</p>
<p>Andover
Exeter
SPS
Deerfield
Choate</p>
<p>And to a lesser extent, Groton, Milton, Lawrenceville, Hotchkiss.</p>
<p>That said, I kind of also love Thacher and Cate. They’re not necessarily “going big” in my eyes, but IMO are still worth choosing the boarding experience.</p>
<p>“If you are just applying to A and E, seriously prepare to stay home. Take a look at the results threads from prior years. The majority of well qualified applicants are turned down.”</p>
<p>This should be an auto reply for all “Chance Me” starter posts…</p>
<p>I think that’s what’s nice about the “go big or go home” strategy; if you’re not desperate to get out of your current situation, you really have nothing to lose by applying even if the odds of acceptance are slim for everyone.</p>
<p>^ I second that.</p>
<p>@coconutcake: But I would counter that MANY people who are applying to these schools have an unrealistic picture of their actual chance of admittance. Additionally, I bet you MANY kids wouldn’t be happy staying home…otherwise they wouldn’t have looked outside their LPS or day school in the first place.</p>
<p>You have a Thacher bias because that’s what your family chose and that’s your experience; I have an East Coast bias because that’s what my family (of origin) chose for me and that’s my experience. I’ve never visited Thacher and I’m sure it’s a fine school. I looked at the website some time ago and really liked it.</p>
<p>I think for me, “big” isn’t only defined by acceptance rates, but also college acceptance and matriculation data. That’s huge for me personally in defining “going big.” Sure, not every kid who goes to a “big” school gets into an Ivy, but when you see 30+ kids from one graduating class going to one (and even more being accepted), that’s an eye-opener. Are Ivys everything? Obviously not. But I’m just speaking of what I see as being “big.”</p>
<p>Other “bigness” factors for me include athletic record and offerings, art/theater/dance program quality and/or collaborations with serious conservatories nearby, as well as special programs that other schools lack. Take the Classics program at SPS, or the specific academic concentrations and scientific research program at Choate, for example. Thacher’s horsemanship program would fall into that as well, but less in an academic way and more in a cool elective sort of way.</p>
<p>And then there’s the brand name recognition piece and perceived prestige. As much as we all hate to admit it, we’re swayed by it. At least I know I am.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that “big” should be defined this way. It’s just the way I personally define it. “Fit” and “big” are not one and the same.</p>
<p>Definitely prepared to stay home. I go to a top notch school, the best in my state. College matriculation is awesome and we were the school to get the highest amount of merit awards. I guess that might be why they are only making me apply to A and E.</p>
<p>(For the record, I personally did not attend a “big” school.)</p>
<p>SevenDad - You are right, but I don’t think that any amount of pleading with the “Chance Me” people to be more realistic is going to change their views even if they know deep down that a particular school is way out of their league. Sometimes we all have to learn the hard way. Rejection builds character in most scenarios. Every one of us past the age of 25 (or even 18, or even younger) has been rejected from something, and we’ve all had to feel that sharp sting over something we wanted and didn’t get. It’s inevitable. We can’t protect others from it. If rejection doesn’t come with boarding school, it will come with something else down the road. And as an added benefit, there’s no better cure for baseless entitlement than a kick in the you-know-what. ;)</p>
<p>I shouldn’t have said anything to begin with…and now I’m throwing good money after bad. Anyway, Coconut, I live on the East Coast. I went to an East Coast boarding school. Five of the six schools we looked at for my son were East Coast. And while he did choose Thacher, I like to think our choice was highly and well informed by our East Coast options. </p>
<p>Your description of “going big” doesn’t do it for me because some of the criteria you cite as “big” are opposite of what our family puts a premium on. Your “big” has mostly to do with attributes related to size, not quality. As to the brand name/prestige argument, that just doesn’t resonate for me at all. </p>
<p>I respect your comments and your point of view, however. They’re just different than mine. But that’s why there’s a Thacher for us and an Exeter for you!</p>