<p>How is the support system at the schools mentioned above?
<p>Groton:
Advising System-well functioning but certainly depends on how open the student is to taking advantage of it.
Faculty- Absolutely wonderful, very approachable and very caring.
Faculty members’ time- They are willing to spend as much time as your child requests</p>
<p>For all schools you mentioned with the exception of St. Andrews(because I am not so familiar with it), I can say with confidence that they excel superbly in all those pertaining fields you asked about. Great advising system, approachable faculty, independent study that’s geared towards to fit the individual students’ needs… Those are why you choose prep boarding schools instead of others.</p>
<p>In our experience with Milton, which admittedly is 10 years out of date, they had one of the best advising systems we encountered. Students are in an advisee group that meets weekly, and stays the same throughout their four years (unless they wish to shift). What is discussed in the group stays there, and I believe the students honor this, so that they have a supportive and relatively safe spot to touch base, even though they may or may not be close friends with this group. In addition, this creates a close bond with the advisor. Whlie this may have changed, it was a much stronger system than at some of the other ISL schools we have experience with. The faculty was tremendously approachable as well, but I think this is true of all good schools.</p>
<p>I second luckypaernt.</p>
<p>Advising system at Groton, imho, is fantastic. The advisors will be there for you whenever you need their help, but they don’t try to enforce it. For example, my kid used to go to his advisor almost every day for about 15 minutes and talk to his advisor about his life. He and his advisor got to know each other very well and still keep in touch long after graduation. </p>
<p>Approachability of faculty. Well, the great thing about Groton is that it’s small. The faculty is small enough that you’ll know most of them by the end of your first year. Quite few of them, you’ll become great friends with. My son had at least 5-6 teachers whom he could rely on for personal and academic guidance. If he needed academic help, they were right there for him. One even came over at 10pm in the morning because he was freaking out about a research paper due the next day. He stayed until 2 am, making sure that he is okay and that the paper is in good shape. </p>
<p>And to the last question…
It’s incredibly easy to create a new course w/ an instructor through the tutorial system. For example, my son did 3 tutorials in one term: group theory/galois theory, modern physics, and james joyce. Teachers are open to any new ideas and will be supportive.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>