Time is on your side here, so take advantage of that! With nearly two years before you would need to make a final decision about where to attend, and more than 1.5 years before you need to make a decision about where to apply, I might consider having a much larger list to consider loosely now. By that I mean, sign up for catalogues, check websites, and do some poking around here. Also, I will add that I think the next six months are going to be an odd time, so I’m not sure it’s going to be prime info-gathering space for a family who has the luxury of waiting a bit. You likely won’t be able to do the early “pre-visits” that we saw some schools offer 7th graders, for example. With all the craziness going on with Covid, I think admissions might be pretty busy pivoting their processes to manage next year’s cycle, so they may not be as available to dive deep into the following year’s cycle as early as we might hope.
In any case, I might suggest that it is way early to be honing your list down to four schools. (Four great schools, but also: four VERY different ones!).
Also, as mentioned, these are four very competitive schools in terms of admissions.
Perhaps consider taking a step back and looking at a wider selection of schools? Take a peek at some of the results threads or M10 freakout threads here to get a sense for the realities of the application cycle, and how many great kids get shut out after only applying to a few schools.
This isn’t to scare you at all! There are SO many amazing schools out there! If you really do the research and do the application process right, you will have options if you want them. And I personally do not believe that you have to be the stellar SSAT whiz to get into top schools. (more on that another day, if you care to ask…)
So, if I were to suggest a timeline to a friend applying to boarding school, it might be something like this:
Now: consider 10-30 schools, depending on your interest in doing this kind of research, and your desire to be sure to have options come 9th grade. (If local public school is awesome and you consider that a great option, then you can be more “go big or go home” in your application strategy.)
Late Summer 2021 (summer before interviews): Narrow down to an interview schedule/visits of say 8-15 schools, expecting that you will find maybe 20% of those not to be good fits, so you will drop them from the application process after interviewing.
Fall/Winter: Apply to the schools you felt are good fits – so maybe 6-12 of those schools, depending on how wide a net you cast (read: are you including less competitive options), and how important it is to go to boarding school. (Because there are plenty of great kids who apply to six schools and get into zero. Again, not to scare you; just to be clear now, and not in January of 2022 when you are stressed that you have applications at only these four schools and realize that your DS might end up nowhere.)
Anyway, I hope that is helpful. If it is not, then disregard what doesn’t feel right for you and your family.