<p>Every year, I look for the very few parents or kids who get on CC and start with the question: “this is what I love, this is who I am - what schools might people recommend?” I love those posts and always want to respond.</p>
<p>Instead, the bulk of new CC’ers get on and immediately begin asking what they need to do to get into Andover/Exeter - a narrow, hair-brained, naive approach to an important decision.</p>
<p>+1 on this sentiment. BTW, pretty sure it’s “harebrained”…;-P</p>
<p>Agreed. And I’m wondering why the moderators haven’t moved the inane “chance me” threads on this forum over to the Chances forum where they belong. I keep thinking that if some applicants can’t even figure out that there is a specific forum for such “narrow, harebrained, naive” questions, they are off to a bad start.</p>
<p>(I have asked the moderator to move these threads to the Chances forum.)</p>
<p>Not that I actually knew this (should have attended Exeter), but it turns out to be a variant spelling: [Hairbrained</a> | Define Hairbrained at Dictionary.com](<a href=“Hairbrained]Hairbrained Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com”>Hairbrained Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com). So I am only half-embarrassed because I hyphenated. ;)</p>
<p>I already had an idea of certain characteristics I wanted a prospective school to have, so I started by looking for schools that had those characteristics. I came into the whole boarding school thing almost completely blind. I did research on my own, and then came to CC as a resource for finding schools that fit my criteria. I am now 95% set on a school (one that I feel is comfortably within my range), with a couple of back-ups, that I probably would not have found if it weren’t for CC. Now I’m going for the ‘Chance Me’ side of things. But I may start the ‘This is who I am, and this is what I love. What schools do you think fit this?’ to see if the schools I’m looking at come up again. That would be an interesting project. I think I’ll do that.</p>
<p>Some questions to ask yourself when u are selecting which schools and how many schools to apply to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Am I OK w possibly being a small fish in a big pond? A lot of kids who are the star at their present school will be humbled at an elite school. </p></li>
<li><p>Would I be better off as a big fish in a smaller pond? Class rank does matter…</p></li>
<li><p>Do my stats fall in the ballpark of the school’s average stats? Skip the CHANCE ME threads and be honest with yourself.</p></li>
<li><p>How many hours of homework am I prepared to deal with? At the elite schools, expect at least 20 hours of homework per week.</p></li>
<li><p>How much time & money am I willing to invest in this quest? Each application takes a significant chunk of time to complete, plus there are application fees & travel costs to visit the school</p></li>
<li><p>How badly do I need to go to BS? Am I OK with staying at my present school if I don’t get admitted?</p></li>
<li><p>What are the students at that school like—do I see myself fitting in? </p></li>
<li><p>How far away from home am I willing to be? Do I want to be able to see my family some weekends? Can my family afford the air travel for a far away school?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>But the most important question by far is:
WHY DO I WANT TO GO TO BOARDING SCHOOL?</p>