<p>What makes schools like Deerfield, Hotchkiss, Taft and the others, better academically than your everyday local public/private school?</p>
<p>Nothing…</p>
<p>Haven’t heard of any of them, but I bet I don’t even need words</p>
<p>$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$</p>
<p>When I went to national Science Olympiad back in the day, my rural public school (enrollment 80 with exchange students) didnt stand a chance. We only had two coaches when everyone else had 15. Nor did we have wind tunnels or thousand dollar strctural modeling software.</p>
<p>less fun (10 characters)</p>
<p>i think their names are shorter</p>
<p>*edit: oops didn’t see the word academically there…</p>
<p>then i guess because they have better funding… our district is poor</p>
<p>They most likely have better educated teachers (I mean, the teachers went to places of greater prestige) and they probably use all these innovative teaching techniques… I really don’t know. I’m just guessing. </p>
<p>My friend was supposed to go to Deerfield as a freshman, but she decided to stay with us. But last year, she went there for a visit and she told me that their math classes seem really technical and unnecessarily detailed. They make it harder than it really seems. </p>
<p>Boy… those Science Olympiad coaches seem pretty intense. Fifteen, eh?</p>
<p>Less distractions, because the kids mostly actually want to be there/get into a good college so a lot less class time is wasted by disruptions and other nonsense</p>
<p>Large endowments</p>
<p>More intelligent students for the most part. It’s obviously somewhat difficult to get into a top prep school so instead of having 90+% of the students apathetic, unintelligent, or both, the students learn from each other through interactions in and out of the classroom. Also classes can be taught at a more advanced level or faster pace.</p>
<p>[ul]
[<em>]smaller classes
[</em>]better technology(look at Exeter’s and Deerfield’s state of the art science centers)
[<em>]lots of attention(adviser groups, faculty residents)
[</em>]teacher availability(most live on campus, can use for xtra help)
[<em>]lots of smart classmates=more academically stimulating discussions
[</em>]most teachers graduated from top colleges, some have phd’s
[<em>]discussion based classes(many schools use harkness method)
[</em>]less distractions(you have your day schedule planned out with mandatory athletics and study hall)
[<em>]you live on campus with your classmates, so you can work together or get help whenever
[</em>]the workload in prep school is much harder and you get more. trust me, I went to public school before boarding school.</p>
<p>and many, many more reasons that boarding schools are very good academically.
[/ul]</p>
<p>Better resources/facilities
Better teachers</p>
<p>Actually… most elite private schools I toured back in the brief moment my parents considered letting me go (which they almost immediatly changed their mind) had MUCH lower technology than my suburban/ruralish public high school.</p>
<p>I really don’t think private schools are worth it unless you go to a hellish public school. My teachers may not be Harvard educated, but most have masters from good places and a world of experience. Of my favorite teachers, one holds a masters of French from Middlebury and a masters of Spanish from la Universidad de Madrid while the other has a masters of Spanish literature from UW through Salamanca. Others have taught at prestigious places like UNC. </p>
<p>Maybe my school is just weird though, but I wouldn’t trade it for even the best private school.</p>
<p>nothing…you can definitely succeed in life having attended public school.</p>
<p>there are definitely a million reasons why prep schools might be academically better than some other public schools (not necessarily, but many times).</p>
<p>1) the facilities and resources are really advanced. the science centers at some of these schools (exeter, andover, deerfield) are state-of-the-art and many professional scientists come to use these centers for their research.
2) education is personalized. prep schools usually boast a low student/teacher ratio (around 12:1).
3) national recognition. prep schools get famous guest speakers each year. guest speakers are people like dan brown (author the “the da vinci code,” graduate of exeter), the bush family (graduates of andover), the most renowned experts of their field (i.e. nobel laureates, rhode scholars), etc etc.
4) the students around you all want to be there. they’re motivated and put in the effort to apply to these schools, which are very competitive in admissions.
5) a possibility of a better advantage in college applications. of course, it all depends on how successful you are in high school. but many times, these elite boarding schools are given somewhat of an advantage because of their big reputations for more challenging courses.</p>
<p>it’s literally like a mini-university. sometimes, boarding schools are better equipped than some colleges. of course, it all depends on what best fits the student.</p>
<p>1) They have more money to do stuff with.
2) Most people are more intelligent than that kid sitting in your 4th hour bio class that doesn’t know what a cell is.</p>
<p>“We only had two coaches when everyone else had 15”</p>
<p>Wow, I go to a prep school and we have had two consecutive people go to the bio olympiad. They only had 1 coach. </p>
<p>Aside from more motivated students, a lot of parent send kids there to:</p>
<p>a) Boast
b) Shelter their kids
c) Get a more personalized education
d) They went there themselves
e) Its religous</p>
<p>They have under the table connections with private colleges that public schools can’t even dream about</p>
<p>Unless your high school is terrible, the elite boarding schools offer to every student (who pays) what a public school can offer to someone who is dedicated, intelligent and passionate.</p>
<p>Other than that, the connections are what it’s basically about.</p>
<p>uh…have any of you actually gone to a boarding school?</p>
<p>“the elite boarding schools offer to every student (who pays) what a public school can offer to someone who is dedicated, intelligent and passionate.”</p>
<p>Ha. Yeah right.</p>
<p>Boarding schools have a counseling office that knows that there are more colleges out their than State U. or the local community college.</p>
<p>I don’t go to a boarding school but I bet most students who do would agree.</p>
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<p>The problem is that most public high schools are terrible. Only a few publich schools (TJ Tech, Bronx Science ect.) can compete with the elite prep schools.</p>