<p>For me, it was Westminster School (UK). Admit rates of around 5% for boys and 10% for girls for 11th grade (only intake after 8th grade) and 100% yield so far this year, since decisions came early December. <45% to Oxbridge each year, 1st mixed school in the country for exam results and ranked first by most systems and organisations.
Most people would also include Eton (boys) and Wycombe Abbey (girls) from the UK.</p>
<p>When I applied to US schools, it was Andover, Exeter and Deerfield. These were the only top schools that met my criteria, which was pretty limiting.</p>
<p>Sorry to have assumed a lack of experience with East Coast schools when that clearly isn’t the case. I disagree that all of my criteria were size-based, although some were. Quality is important to all of us; we just view it in different ways. To say I emphasize size over quality feels like a negative character judgment, but I will assume that it was not intended. Matriculation stats do reflect quality of academics (among other things), and I stated specifically that individual school programs that go above and beyond what other schools are doing in a particular area are a big draw. </p>
<p>But then, this is also where “fit” comes into play. Obviously, the quality of SPS’s Classic program isn’t going to matter one bit if I have a kid who doesn’t care a thing about Latin and Greek, for example. If I have a kid who is really into music, Interlochen might be the “big” school for us and all of the coastal schools might get ignored entirely. You can’t just make a broad statement that you value “quality” and others don’t because, as you stated in your last sentence, it means different things to different people. I’d send a math fanatic to Exeter over Thacher, and I’d send a horse fanatic to Thacher over Exeter. It just depends.</p>
<p>One thing I didn’t touch on because it also doesn’t relate to "big"ness but does speak to fit is campus culture and dorm life. If your dorm life is hell and the campus makes you hate yourself and others, that’s not “quality” no matter what matriculation stats look like. But again, it doesn’t speak to what is “big” (which I took to mean prestigious), so I didn’t include it. Hope this helps clarify.</p>
<p>Going “big” will be very different for each family depending on the depth of the academic and extracurricular offerings at home. Our daughter will be happy and well educated going to our public school; however, she is very excited about the opportunity to independently experience a new environment with 1) an elevated academic curriculum and 2) a plethora of extracurricular opportunities, especially having the opportunity try new activities. As parents, we required there to be no academic sacrifice if she were to attend her target schools. She ended up applying to five schools, and for us Thacher ended up on that list along with the other four school on the east coast. “Big” will be different for each family on the CC board.</p>
<p>Chalet, I agree with your post completely. Good luck to your daughter!</p>
<p>I think we’re mixing up “big” and “good fit” a bit on this thread, which is easy to do because they overlap more often than not. I took “big” to mean “going for the most prestigious school possible” or “what criteria makes a school a big name school” and then went on to give my definition of “prestige.” I assumed I was answering the question “what is big” rather than “what is the best fit for my individual child.”</p>
<p>To put it another way using colleges as an example, perhaps Texas A&M is THE best fit for a particular student and has “quality” up the wazoo in whatever academic program that person wants to pursue. The dorm life, the location, the campus - everything is perfect. That’s a good fit. That would be that student’s ultimate dream. But that does not equal “big” in the sense that I thought this thread was asking.</p>
<p>But then, say that student’s friend goes to Harvard. I’m pretty sure that by most people’s definition of what is big/prestigious (as in the expression, go big or go home), if you asked anyone which student got into the “big” school, it would be the friend who went to Harvard. It wouldn’t matter if Harvard was an awful fit for the friend and they hated it and transferred because the question isn’t what fits, it’s about what’s “big.” And Harvard is a bigger name than A&M, just like Andover is a bigger <em>name</em> than, say, my local private day school.</p>
<p>Maybe I misunderstood the question posed by the OP, but I hope this makes my earlier post make more sense.</p>
<p>I think the way to best define “big” for each applicant is to imagine that you had a magic wand and could produce an acceptance letter from each and every BS in the United States. Which one would you choose to attend? Once you have defined what that school is, you now have to decide whether or not to apply. I think that if your stats are within the general acceptance range of that BS, then yes you should apply. I say this because if you can’t chase your dreams at 14, then when can you?</p>
<p>I think it is the responsibility of each applicant’s parents to bake some words of caution into the whole BS admissions pie. As parents we should manage expectations, but some responses in other threads have saddened me. I am not quite on board with all this admonishing (and sometimes poking fun) at those 8th graders who dare to dream and risk rejection. While it may seem that some applicants choose to put together an unrealistic list of schools, that is their chosen path. That is ok with me.</p>
<p>Ah, that makes sense. In that case, for us, there’s no way to tell just yet! I’m excited to learn which, if any, “magic wand” boarding schools exist for our DC in the future! I’m personally keeping a very open mind, with fit being first and foremost. :)</p>
<p>Just to provide another data point, DS is a “math geek” and had minimal experience with horses. He chose not to apply to Exeter, but applied to and was accepted at both Deerfield and Thacher. He is a current freshman at Thacher, and his favorite class is his advanced math class.</p>
What prompted this thread was a surprising comment I read this cycle by a poster who wrote that he is applying to Andover & Exeter only because even Deerfield isn’t considered good enough. </p>
<p>So a translation of my original question is:</p>
<p>I am curious
Which schools are “good enough”, and
What criteria do applicants use to decide which particular schools are good enough, compared to the alternative of staying put at home.</p>
<ul>
<li>School name recognition/prestige?</li>
<li>College matriculation record?</li>
<li>Admit rate?</li>
</ul>
<p>If you’re only concerned with brand, acceptance rates and college matriculation, you have completely missed the point of a Secondary School education.</p>
<p>@PhotographerMom…some parents aren’t gonna pay 50k unless they get a brand name and top matriculation. I don’t think your missing any point of secondary school education, you just want the best or to stay where ur comfortable</p>
<p>This all goes back to how each kid/parent/family defines “best”. While I think “the usual suspects” are all fine schools, I personally feel that chasing “prestige” is a fruitless pursuit. </p>
<p>Also, another thing that I think many prospective kids/parents fail to understand is just how much rigor the “second tier”
[quotes intentional]
schools can offer. The average kid applying to HADES will get their butt kicked academically/gradewise even at a BS they think is beneath their consideration.</p>
<p>My sibling and I both went to Exeter. My child now goes to Taft along with siblings of many classmates. I see absolutely no difference in educational quality. I do see more “hands-on” engagement of students and a better quality of life at Taft. That doesn’t mean I don’t love my school, I do. But I’m amazed at how many people look at stats and reputation and think that Exeter’s stats means the same will apply to them. If anything, Exeter tends to attract a well connected constituency because those families have the same desire - “the best” and thus can cherry pick top students. Hence why there is so much competition and why so many students who limit themselves only to ACRONYMS end up with nothing to show for the effort. Even if they didn’t cherry pick, there are too many applicants for too few dorm beds and all well qualified.</p>
<p>Go big shouldn’t mean go blindly. And one quick note: Going to a school with prestige does not necessarily mean you’re going to be in “the club.” Some of those things are not functions of the school, but the class system and political connections already established within the incoming families. Add to that some “star” students who are not connected but have hooks. And you’ve got the big ole donut hole in the middle that is left over. The kids who went in dreaming of “going big” and found themselves with no acceptance letters - or worse, were accepted and discover upon graduation they’re not the “stats” the IVY’s are looking for.</p>
<p>Be realistic in how you define “the best.” If you’re satisfied staying put if you are declined. So be it. No harm no foul. The odds are that is going to be the outcome from that strategy.</p>
<p>It’s just bizarre to me that people really think that there are two schools that are that much better than all others. It’s a self-perpetuating fallacy.</p>
<p>Just because there are so many brilliant classes, or teachers, or extra curriculars, doesn’t mean your kid is going to do (or excel at) any of them. Nobody can participate in more than a fraction of what any good school (public, private, boarding) has to offer. </p>
<p>To add to what Exie said, going to a school with prestige doesn’t mean your kid will be happy there, and it doesn’t mean he or she will be happy and “successful” in life. (One of my best friends from college went to Andover and committed suicide 20 years later. One of my best friends from home went to the local state school and became a superstar in his field. As with all things, YMMV.)</p>
<p>But that gets to the real question: if your definition (and by “you” I am not thinking of anyone in particular, just anyone who defines “the best” so narrowly) of best school is limited to two, what is the end goal? What constitutes a successful life? Do you already know what field your child should go into, and what level of success you expect him or her to rise to, or else risk disappointing you? What’s the finish line?</p>
<p>Funny that while I’m following this conversation, a college friend of mine just posted on Facebook the exact though I posted here a day or two ago. She is interviewing this year’s crop of candidates for our alma mater, and posted that, if she were applying today, she probably wouldn’t get in. We were some kind of transitional generation, perhaps - we came after the era of country-clubbers and legacies, and early in the co-ed years, so that someone like her, or me, a bright accomplished kid from not-the-east-coast, could get in and do pretty well. But before this era of superstar driven kids. The year I applied, my school took something like 11% of applicants. This year it’s 7%, I’ve read. I am lucky to be old!</p>
<p>If HYPMS college matriculation is the reason to go to Exeter or Andover, stay home.</p>
<p>That is the advice of most of the threads discussing this topic on CC, and the Andover students themselves (online newspaper Phillipian polled in May, 2012 “Andover hurts college chances more than it helps” now agreed to by the majority of the student body for the first time since this question has been asked every year)</p>
<p>About 10 kids a year from Exeter go to Harvard - out of 300. 5 are typically early cum laude (top 5% of class) and 5 are athletic/hook/legacy/development. Stats are similar for Yale and Princeton, and lower for MIT and Stanford. Andover is usually pretty close to the same matriculation numbers, although 2012 was a little lower than usual. </p>
<p>YOU ARGUABLY HAVE A SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER CHANCE BEING VALEDICTORIAN AT HOME.</p>
<p>Go for the education, the peers, and most people are very glad they went to boarding school. But even A and E are no longer a ticket to top schools.</p>
<p>I agree with many of the points made. But won’t international students (non-US citizens) be better off at an ACRONYM school? When applying to colleges, they will be considered along with the other international kids, and doing well at an elite school that colleges are familiar with will give them a huge boost compared to those who attended high school in their home country or unknown US private schools with questionable rigor?</p>
Int’l students will face the same situation as domestic students to finish with a competitive ranking, regardless of what high school they attend. </p>
<p>I think int’l students intending to continue on to a U.S. college are better off attending any reputable U.S. boarding school, not because of the name of the school, but because they have boarded in the U.S.</p>
<p>Compared to their educated-at-home countrymen,</p>
<ul>
<li><p>they have a higher likelihood for admissions yield, as compared to their countrymen who have not yet demonstrated the considerable financial commitment to travel to the U.S. to attend school</p></li>
<li><p>they have a higher probability for successful cultural integration, as they’ve already had the opportunity am American educational setting to integrate</p></li>
<li><p>they will not have transitioning issues with being a boarder. </p></li>
<li><p>they will have a higher level of English proficiency</p></li>
</ul>
<p>…and there are plenty of non-ACRONYM schools that are considerable better than “unknown schools of questionable rigor.” Just because folks on CC boards are not thoroughly familiar with the range of U.S. BS out there, you can bet that college and university AO’s are not quite so limited in their awareness.</p>
<p>There is no shortage of citing personal anecdotes to support one’s argument here. Many of them are just statistical outliers. It’s true that our lives are not mere data points in statistical analysis and your case may well turn out to be unique, but by relying on anecdotal observations without statistical support, you risk distorting the big picture and sometimes you have to pay a hefty price for it. Hey, my grandma outlived her contemporaries by 20-30 years despite smoking, drinking and obesity.</p>