groton, middlesex or st paul's

GMC2918
Sun, 08 Apr 2018 16:16:48 +0000

I wrote this on another thread a couple of years ago, and can’t find it now, but I’ll briefly explain how my daughter organized her decision-making.

1. choose 20 “attributes” which are important to you (the student). Food, proximity to a town, teachers etc.

2. identify 5 of those “attributes” to be the most important

3. make a spreadsheet with “attributes” down the left, and your three schools across the top.

4. assign a score of 1-10 (10 being highest) for each school, each attribute.

5. weigh the most important attributes more, by doubling their score

6. add 'em up!

For example, my D was comparing Cate, Milton & Spence (a day school). She chose food as an attribute, and rated Milton 3, Spence 6 and Cate 8. Although food wasn’t one of her 5 “important” attributes, if it had been she would have doubled each of those scores before tallying everything. Although in her mind she viewed the three schools equally and was having a tough time deciding, Cate really came out on top once she did this exercise. I think that listing & prioritizing what is important to you is incredibly valid, and seeing it all in black and white on a page can be very helpful.

Another thing that she found useful was to talk to Junior/11th grade students about the 5 “important” attributes. Juniors were the most realistic & frankly critical - the glow of freshman year had worn off and the nostalgia of senior year hadn’t yet kicked in. If you ask each one the same questions, you can compare their responses.

HOWEVER. while my daughter was doing all of this methodical decision-making, her best friend chose between Deerfield, Hotchkiss & Choate by flipping a coin.

Congratulations on some wonderful options OP!