Help! which prep school is best for a brainy kid: Boston

Periwinkle
Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:49:24 +0000

Welcome, daddy-o! I hope you will stick around for a while, and add your impressions to the forum. The boarding school side of things is very well represented on CC. The day student side needs more voices!

First, please remember that this forum is primarily populated by parents and applicants. The parents are usually not prep school insiders, and the applicants are 8th & 9th graders, on the whole.

All four of your schools are top drawer. It’s an interesting mix of schools. We neither visited, nor applied to them, so my comments are only general impressions. If all four schools accept your son, you must go to the revisit days, as that’s the best time to meet potential classmates. After March 10th, you can sit down with the course books and school policies, and try to figure out which school fits your son best. You can also call current families, to ask for their honest assessments of the school.

If you need financial aid, that should be the deciding factor. If you don’t need aid, I believe Roxbury Latin has the lowest tuition on your list. If money is no object, then it really comes down to where your son feels most at home.

All your schools are superb, and they’re all exceedingly selective. The competition for spots as day students is fierce. They are a reach for everyone. Being two years ahead of peers makes your son stand out in public school. It may not make him stand out in the pool of applicants to these four schools.