<p>Yes, spiderman you are wrong. prep schools allow for much more opportunities, both academically and otherwise, than anything else. much more, and i agree with momofwildchild.</p>
<p>Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, PA. Looking from Wikipedia.com , it is a feeder prep school to a top Ivy institution, U Penn. Approximately 15-20% of itās students (most grade sizes are about 85-90 students large) go on to U. Penn every year. It also does very well at other ivies.</p>
<p>wow, thatās impressive.</p>
<p>NJ Boarding Schools (continuedā¦)</p>
<p>Two significant players on the NJ boarding scene are being left out in the discussions thus far: The Pennington School, in Pennington, NJ and Peddie. These are both National boarding schools, attracting kids from all over the country and abroad. Pennington attracts kids from all over the world, having one of the strongest ESL programs in the country, and one of the lowest acceptance rates among independent schools (35%). </p>
<p>Peddie, by the sheer size of itās endowment (over $100 million) automatically makes it into the top tier. Some of the schools mentioned are not National boarding schools, and attract only from a local pool of students. This does not make them any less superb, they are just different and should not be compared the same way.</p>
<p>Thai scholars have theiry say on the prestige of prep schools. I have many thai scholar friends. They told me that their governement gave them the option to choose which prep school they want to go to. They were also provided with a ranking which has established its authority among the scholars. Loomis Chaffee School is among the top five and this probably explains why LC is such a hot place for thai scholars.</p>
<p>I admit that it is much easier to get into Loomis than Andover, Exeter, Choate, Deerfield. Our school is not as selective as those. But a high acceptance rate does not equal to a bad quality of academics of the school. Loomisās history, english, science and performing art departments are all top-notch. Our schoolās classes are extremely rigorous across the board. A friend of mine took AP Chemistry at Loomis and got B average throught out the year. He graduated last year and went to College of W & M. He emailed our chem teacher that heās now breezing through his advanced college chem class with an A. Loomis graduates are also renowned for their critical writing skills thanks to the schoolās demanding writing training, such as the Writing Workshop program. Some college english professors even told our school that they recognized that LC graduatesās analytical ability is a notch above many other high school graduates.
If you go to Loomisās academic departments website, you will notice that almost all of the social science and english teachers were educated at Ivy League schools or other schools with equal caliber. Some of the teachers have become a legend themselves at LC because of their dedication and their sheer brilliance.
LCās science department is simply amazing. Every year (as far as I remember), we have students who made it to the two hundred semifianlists of US Physics Team, who are considered All-American physics students if you cannot grasp what a physics team semifinalist mean. LCās biology program is so strong that it refuses to have a AP Biology program because almost all of our biology classes beside the introductory course are harder and more challenging than your typical high school AP bio. And itās for this reason that we have attracted so many Thai scholars excelling in bio, such as the one, graduated last
year, who won International Chem Olympiad silver medal.</p>
<p>Spi derman has clearly never been at a boarding prep. Prestige? We hardly know whatās in styple because we have so many amazing things to do on campus that we donāt get to mall dwell. Our roommates are as likely to be rich foreigners as they are to be from Harlem.</p>
<p>Yes, we are kept busy, but thatās because we have amazing choices to do what interests us. Want to take a class at Harvard, a teacher will drive you down. Want a new class or club, just go find a few more who share your view. Sports, arts, academicsāyour needs will be met. And everyone is smart and motivated bringing thoughts into everyones lives. I canāt say how much I appreciate the sacrifice my parents made to make this happen for me.</p>
<p>And as for top preps, boarding, I think in the prep school world there is little arguement: Andover, St. Paulās, Exeter, Deerfield have long been THE TOP. The have the highest endowments allowing them to offer everything, they have educated the elite for ever and now the smartest. These 4 are in a class of their own and then there are another dozen very good schools.</p>
<p>Papa chicken: Interesting research that you have done. As far as catholic high schools, I was curious if you had any info on a few of Cincinnatiās better catholic schools. Saint X, Moeller, and Elder. Thanks</p>
<p>arnieā¦thanks, but those names donāt sound familiar. Iāll research them & include them in my next Top 20 thread installment (when I get eventually around to it, been a while)ā¦however, Iāve generally had very little luck with extracting matriculation lists from Catholic schools (or any parochial schools for that matter)ā¦PC</p>
<p>quick check on those 3 Cinci schoolsā¦no matriculation lists for Moeller or Elder, but St X does have a college listing w/out numbers of matriculants (so it wonāt make it to the Top 20 thread). HOWEVER, St X IS the only school Iāve seen in the hundreds that Iāve checked out that has an online honor roll listing!:
<a href=āhttp://www.stxavier.org/stxavier.aspx?pgID=1034[/url]ā>http://www.stxavier.org/stxavier.aspx?pgID=1034</a></p>
<p>I am sorry to disagree. NO matter how big the endowment is at Peddie it is now nor has it ever been a school for top tier brilliant kids. The school is for average kids and now 50% minorities pulling them up by their bootstraps which is a noble goal but its NO ST PAULS OR EXETER OR ANDOVER!!! NEVER EVER. GIVE ME A BREAK!!! JUST GO THERE AND LISTEN TO THE KIDS? DUMB DEE DUMB DUMB!!!</p>
<p>Does anyone know how likely schools are to follow the expected family contribution as determined by SSS? My d has applied to Emma Willard School. Her SSAT scores were 82% math 84% verbal but only 68% reading. Sheās been in G&T schools and/or programs since kindergarten. Nationally her scores tend to be in the 97 %ile and sheās in the advanced math program at the public school sheās in now. Emma is the only school she applied to. Itās either that or public high school (which is very good, but not what she wants). She was a Johns Hopkings CTY participant also. Didnāt score high enough on the SATs for their top rank of classes, but did make it into their āsecond tier.ā Sheās got about a 90 average in school.</p>
<p>There are indeed several excellent private schools all over the USA. But nomatter how you cut it, the top ten in the country are:</p>
<p>1st tier: Andover, Deerfield, Hotchkiss, Exeter</p>
<p>2nd: St. Paul, Groton, Taft, Milton, CHoate.</p>
<p>3rd: Lawrenceville.</p>
<p>Those are the top 10 accademically, atheticaly, in terms of developing the whole person, and as best environments to prepare you for the top world universities.</p>
<p>then, you can consider Miss Porters, or St. Andrews or Loomis.</p>
<p>There are indeed several excellent private schools all over the USA. But nomatter how you cut it, the top ten in the country are:</p>
<p>1st tier: Andover, Deerfield, Hotchkiss, Exeter</p>
<p>2nd: St. Paul, Groton, Taft, Milton, CHoate.</p>
<p>3rd: Lawrenceville.</p>
<p>Those are the top 10 accademically, atheticaly, in terms of developing the whole person, and as best environments to prepare you for the top world universities.</p>
<p>then, you can consider Miss Porters, or St. Andrews, Loomis, Northfield, and the others.</p>
<p>East coast:St. Paulās, Milton Academy, Andover, Exeter, Deerfield, Choate Rosemary, Groton, Taft, Lawrenceville, Loomis.
West coast: Thacher, Cate, Webb School.</p>
<p>Kevster,
You have forgotten Hotchkiss. That is probably the best prep school now days, besides Andover and Exeter. Andover and Exeter have the prestige and the legacy but they are so large that is almost a university experience. If you are looking for all the challenge, diversity, and breath of curriculum of Andover and Exeter, but in a smaller school, where you can still be a teenager in high school and know all your teachers and classmates and have a world class, top academic educationn then Hotchkiss, Deerfield and Groton are the choice. Perhaps Taft too, that one is easier to get it than the others. These schools have been educating the elite for over a century as well, and the smartest specially now, when their endowments are so large that they do need the wealthy children and can pick the smartest from the whole world. Hotchkiss had the largest number of applicants in its history last year and took only 20%. They are top 10 in the world for SAT scores, for endowment, Hotchkiss has won national prices for public debate, math, science, languages and had 2 athletes competing in the last winter olympics.</p>
<p>1st tier: Andover, Exeter</p>
<p>2nd: Deerfield, Hotchkiss, Groton, Choate.</p>
<p>3rd: Lawrenceville, St. Paul, Taft, Milton</p>
<p>I am sure your daughter will get into that school. Academically she sounds prettty solid up for the best schools. As long as she comes across well in the interview and also has either music, sports or community service or some other interesting interest.
Good luck. That is a very good school and she can learn to ride horses well.</p>
<p>Iām not going to take the time to back up my opinions beyond saying that I know the east coast boarding schools very very well.
Groton is one of the finest (and I mean academically but more generally in terms of the kids that the school graduates) if not the finest school in the countryā¦ I would place it right next to or above andover and exeter.
Below these three schools, I think it is much more helpful to look at the schools in terms of size or sports leagueā¦ there are the isl schools and the founderās league schools. Deerfield, Hotchkiss and Taft are great schools but they are quite different from St. Paulās or my school St. Georgeās. If you want a school that aims to educate its students physically, mentally, AND spiritually (this is arguably an exaggeration of what actually takes place, but the mission remainsā¦ both SPS and SG are Episcopal schools with beautiful Episcopal chapels) and facilitates this with an extremely small community than look at SPS and SGā¦ if you want a bigger school where the athletics (obviously Iām aware that there are exceptions, SPS is better at squash than Deerfield or Hotchkiss, St. Georgeās is generally better at sailing than Hotchkiss) are at a higher-level and the community feels more like a high school than look at Hotchkiss, Deerfield or Taft.</p>
<p>Youāre mistaken. St. Pauls is actually around the same size as Hotchkiss, Deerfield, and Taft.</p>
<p>St. Georges and Groton are generally considered the smaller schools. Hotchkiss, Deerfield, Taft, and St. Pauls are all medium sized. While Andover, Lawrenceville, and Exeter are the schools with the largest enrollments.</p>
<p>Jaqueline- i was rushing through the list. Yes Hotchkiss too.</p>