Governors and Brooks

ArtsandSports
Fri, 06 Apr 2012 08:19:09 +0000

Thanks all for your feedback on this!

There is a sharp distinction between the theater and the fine art facilities - with GA’s facilities being very nice while Brooks not so much as was pointed out by libbyb4 and sue22. PelicanDad’s insight that Brooks may be more outcomes based along with Sue22’s observation that the matriculation stats may be slightly stronger at Brooks supports our assessment that the college counseling may be stronger and better staffed at Brooks. The few anectdotal comments we’ve pick up, seem to support our general impression that GA may be a bit stronger academically, which is andover2016’s assertion. Because we live close to both schools, we have been to both numerous times for open houses, revisits, plays, sporting events, etc. so have a good feel for the campus and “feel”. I don’t think a new theater director has been hired at Brooks but it is something worth asking more about, as is sue22’s comments on sports team make-up.

I guess for us, our biggest criteria is what happens in the classroom, in terms of rigor, expectations, excitement about learning, college prep, e.g. the academic culture. Our feeling was that GA may have more of this academic culture, without the intensity of a PA or PEA. Again, so much of this is subjective guessing. I’d be interested in hearing if anyone had any insights or impressions into the academic rigor of GA relative to the prep schools considered the more rigorous academically, e.g. PA and PEA.

@ExieMIT - my son does have a slightly stronger tug toward one of the schools, and after sitting down this weekend and discussing, that is likely to be the deciding factor. It was comforting to me that my son’s observations in this whole process, e.g. relative strengths and weaknesses and fit, of all of the schools he applied to and visited, mirrored ours. We were careful not to give him our feedback before having him give us his. And we are all grateful that he does have a choice between two excellent schools.

As there was some speculation about the acceptance rate at Brooks, the wording of the recent letter, referencing this year’s accepted, not admitted students is “It was an incredibly competitive year in admissions. We received 957 applications for only 95 spots”. I guess this does not indicate the number that Brooks actually “accepted”. It could be estimated if the historical or expected “yield” for Brooks were known. I don’t know if that can be found.

@Andover2016 - I’d be interested in hearing more about why your feel certain that Governors academics are stronger. What leads you to that conclusion?

Thanks all!