<p>Did you guys pay any attention to the rankings on prepreview.com in choosing schools? Does Saint Paul’s being number one and Deerfield being 7 mean anything Browninfall? How do kids do at these schools who were strong students at top private day schools? Are they shocked by the competition if they’ve gone to strong middle schools?</p>
<p>honestly as far as prep school experience goes, although both are in an elite class with which i would include only andover and groton, it doesn’t get much different than st. pauls v. exeter. do more research on what you want from your prep school experience and go from there. you will have a completely different high school experience at each school and do not go by rankings to determine where you will be happy.</p>
<p>kirmum </p>
<p>As far as I’m concerned the top boarding schools are interchangeable as it relates to the quality of the education and the intellectual capacity of the student body. That doesn’t mean they’re the same, though. I agree with Justice that Exeter is very unlike St. Paul’s in a number of ways. It’s also purely subjective as to which school is supposedly number 1 and which school is supposedly number 7. These top schools are all incredible institutions.</p>
<p>There were three boys from my son’s school who applied to boarding schools last year. My son applied to Deerfield, St. Paul’s and Exeter and was acccepted at all three. Another boy applied to Deerfield, St. Paul’s, and Groton and only got into Groton. The third boy applied to Deerfield, Exeter, and Episcopal and was accepted at Exeter and Episcopal, but not at Deerfield. When my oldest son was a student at St. Paul’s he dated a girl there who had been accepted by St. Paul’s but not accepted at Exeter. I know that these are only anecdotes, but I think that one can conclude that if one school was decidedly stronger than another it wouldn’t be accepting students that another school farther down the list is rejecting.</p>
<p>St. Paul’s, Exeter, Deerfield and Groton are all amazing schools. In my view they are the cream of the crop (I’d Andover to that group as well) and were the only schools that we would allow our son to consider. They are akin to HYP at the boarding school level.</p>
<p>My son’s grade point average was the highest out of 70 students at his private suburban middle school. He made the honor roll first semester at Deerfield, but had to work very hard for it. The boy who was accepted at Groton, but turned down at St. Paul’s and Deerfield, had the second highest grade point average in that class with SSAT scores in the low 90’s. He’s currently playing on the varsity hockey team as a freshman at our local high school - opting not to attend Groton. I think that should help you better understand who you are competing against not only to get into these schools, but in the classrrom as well. In my son’s case he wasn’t necessarily shocked by that competition, but it has opened his eyes to the fact that it’s a big world out there. Everybody understands that fact eventually. He just learned it a little earlier than most.</p>
<p>If you are accepted to a school will they call you? If you are rejected or waitlisted will they call you?</p>
<p>i just want to thank browninfall and paleo for taking all the time to respond. As you guys know, it is very hard to get this kind of info and I really appreciate all the effort. I’m almost through with all the essays and will let you know how it turns out!!</p>
<p>esahopeful95</p>
<p>Everything was by letter - no phone calls.</p>
<p>Thanks!!!</p>
<p>In case Cubfan is still wondering how hard St. Paul’s is compared to a public high school the following grade distribution might be of interest. 32% hh, 47 h, 16% hp 2% p. This roughly translates 32% 90+, 47% 80+, 16% 72+ which is not all that different from the distribution at a normal high school. Since the bottom end of the ability distribution simply is not at Saint Paul’s, for practical purposes this means that you will likely have to work rather harder at St. Paul than at your local school but your grades should look about the same.</p>
<p>At Exeter, grades seem to be distributed a bit more harshly. </p>
<p>A perfect gpa is an 11.0, rather than the more prevalent 4.0 system used at most other schools.
11 - A
10 - A-
9 -B+
8 -B
7 -B-</p>
<p>And it keeps going down to 0 or E (fail)</p>
<p>At the end of the year, the school always sends home a grade distribution chart calculated by your year. Typically, about 15-20% of students earn higher than a 10 (A- average), 30-35% between a 9 and a 10 (B+ average) and the rest fall somewhere below that. </p>
<p>From my limited knowledge (and correct me if I’m wrong), I was always under the impression that A’s at Milton Academy were the absolute hardest to come by. At Exeter most teachers at least give one or two A’s a class, but I’ve heard horror stories about B- ceilings at Milton. Any truth?</p>
<p>Does anyone at Exeter make straight A’s? Where do the lower ranked people (bottom 50%) go to college?</p>
<p>usually, a lot of the bottom 50 or 25% are the athletic type. Therefore, they go to other great colleges and the majority of the rest can go to other top 20 schools.</p>
<p>6 out of the 7 applicants from my high school (in my grade alone) were accepted to Exeter. I come from Montreal, Quebec, and found it odd how not only 6 Canadians were accepted, but 6 from my very own grade (90 students).</p>
<p>that’s surprising. Did they have any particular talents, interests, or amiable personalities?</p>
<p>Wow, that’s pretty good.</p>
<p>Nothing special. We have a pretty smart grade, but I’d have to say we’re a bunch of down-to-earth, well-adjusted people.</p>
<p>That makes sense. They probably showed that they had the ability to work on their own and showed some sort of potential too.</p>
<p>I wonder why so many Canadians apply to American schools? I’ve never heard of American’s applying to Canadian schools?</p>
<p>We like your American universities 
And Quebec is out of luck, with our horrible CEGEP system. (however McGill is an excellent university in Montreal)</p>
<p>What’s a CEGEP system?</p>
<p>It is hard to equate Exeter with St. Paul’s School because they are so vastly different. You have to pick the school that is congruent with the aspects of who you are. Both are great schools and they will prepare you for whatever you want to do. Don’t focus so much on which is better. Rather, look into which will give you the greatest chance to let you colors and talents shine brightest.</p>