This discussion is helpful for more than just new BS parents. Over the past year and a half, these conversations here on CC have changed my own views quite a bit. I think I was way more “prestige aware” than I am now. This statement may be seen as hypocritical as my own kid attends a “top” BS. However, after just two trimesters I can tell that what has been truly transformative has more to do with the BS experience itself rather than the academic rigor: managing one’s social relationships and identity, learning to compromise, making daily choices and discovering their long-term consequnces, dealing with pressure, managing time, advocating for oneself, and independently taking care of all aspects of one’s life, from eating, sleeping, and staying fit to doing laundry, ordering food, dealing with online customer service, and being a savvy traveler. These are the experiences that have made my kid grow by leaps and bounds compared to friends who stayed back home. That’s why it seems more important to me to find a safe and nurturing place that facilitates such growth rather than count the total number of courses a school offers. No single individual can take all courses anyway, so I’d focus on what a school does for MY kid instead on how many other kids it has gotten into HYP. Sure, the academic environment has to be able to accommodate the kid’s wingspan, but beyond that requirement, which can be met by a number of schools, the intangibles collectively known as “fit” are way more important than we tend to think pre-M10. When I just asked my DD, who is home on spring break, what she likes best about SPS, she didn’t refer to prestige, competitiveness, or being pushed daily. She said, “I like the sense of community. We’re one big family: we all live there, we get together as a school at least four times per week, I know everyone by name and they know me, I can get help from a teacher or someone else literally 24/7, I love spending time with my friends, my advisers and dorm parents, and my teachers just talking about things, coloring, or cooking. And we have therapy dogs in the library!!” That feels like home to me. :)>-