Governors and Brooks

Sue22
Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:49:00 +0000

I’d urge your son to attend the revisit days for both.

Since the Brooks website publishes a 5 year college acceptance list and GA has the 2011 matriculation list I dug up the most recent Brooks single-year matriculation list I could find so you could compare apples to apples. It seems to me that the Brooks list is stronger, although there are many overlapping schools.

https://www.brooksschool.org/ftpimages/277/download/College%20Matriculations%202010.pdf
[The Governor’s Academy: College Matriculation](http://www.thegovernorsacademy.org/page.cfm?p=393)

The GA theater facilities would seem to be stronger. The main auditorium at Brooks is a converted barn. It has an old school “chairs bolted to the floor” feeling about it. The school also has a black box theater. GA, on the other hand, has a full performing arts center.

What sports does your son play? Has he met with coaches? If not, he may want to get a sense of what it would be like to play at each school. If he plays a sensitive position like goalie he’ll want to know who the coach has in the pipeline. For instance, if the current varsity goalie (or quarterback, or catcher, etc.) is a freshman you know your son is likely to remain on JV until senior year unless he is very, very good. If, on the other hand, the starter will graduate this year or next your son may step right into a varsity spot.

You may also want to ask how day students are integrated into the boarding populations at each school. Both have similar percentages of day students but you’ll want to think about any differences in philosophy. Are day students allowed in the dorms? Can they stay overnight? Are they welcome at all weekend activities? How many required evening activities will you need to slog back to campus for?

You’ll have a hard time getting useful comparisons here because very few parents have had kids at both schools. So while we can all tell you the things we love about our own kids’ school we can’t honestly assess those strengths relative to the competition.

As for the 10 percent figure, do you remember how it was worded? Was it perhaps something like “1000 applicants for 100 spots”? If so, the rate of acceptance would need to be higher to account for the fact that the school will not yield all students accepted.

Good luck with the decision!