<p>After having browsed these boards for a while, I am rather perplexed at the focus of individuals here on AEDS or the Prestige 7. Granted that these are all top-notch schools, but I fail to understand why these schools are held in such high regard here, to the exclusion of comparable institutions with impeccable reputations such as Groton or Milton. Is this simply a case of the former schools having greater nationwide name recognition? Otherwise, is there another basis from which the members of this forum have selected the AEDS schools as vastly superior to their peers? In addition, I cannot find any mention of these schools referred to as the Big 4/AEDS or Prestige 7 beyond these boards. Were these monikers a homemade invention or were they coined by some other esoteric source I am not familiar with?</p>
<p>AESD or AESDCH or AESDCHL. You’ll find that the fixation on those schools is the same as HYP or HYPSM over on the college side. </p>
<p>Not sure about the origin of the acronym, but it is irrelevant. It is shorthand for status first education second. Quite frankly I just tune out most of the time. If you know what is best for your child, then the rest of the clutter is easily ignored. </p>
<p>The same can be said for the discussion raising one’s 90+ percentile scores on the SSAT being similar to raising your 2240 SAT score.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, there are some of us whose kids go to what they might call “lesser” schools and have SSAT scores below the 90th percentile. And our kids are just fine.</p>
<p>Welcome to the neurotic world of competitive admissions online.</p>
<p>Hello, GCabot, I am the parent of two very happy students at one of the “lesser” schools. It was actually my younger son’s preference <em>gasp</em> to not even consider a “top tier” school, even though he would have had an excellent shot at admission. It is mostly the kids here who are tripping over themselves for the “brand-name” aspect of the top schools, when indeed many of the schools with fewer applicants are every bit as rigorous and offer the same incredible experience.</p>
<p>AEDS was coined by the forum applicants last year and then updated to include Choate and Hotchkiss. It was sad to witness a few applicants get sucked into believing that these schools are the only worthy ones, and then not get accepted into them. I’m amazed that the “If you could choose…” thread is still limping along because I think they have exhausted all the possible combinations of the “top” schools. </p>
<p>Many schools have merit. Now is the time to consider your options and the kind of life you will have in your home away from home. Please don’t eliminate schools just because anonymous people on a board don’t recognize it as a “top” school.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s necessarily prestige, so much as a combination of economics and parental reluctance. I think for many posters on this board, attending boarding school is a very expensive dream. I also suspect that many of their parents have placed strict limits on how much the family will pay for boarding school. If the students are already attending good schools, parents may resist allowing their children to switch to any but the “best,” i.e., those schools which have a national reputation.</p>
<p>On the financial side, many students gravitate to the list of schools with the highest endowments, as they seem to assume that those schools will be the most generous with financial aid. (As an aside, they should be looking for the schools with the greatest % of students on financial aid, particularly if they hail from middle class families.)</p>
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<p>And add on top of that that they should be in the top quartile of accepted students to expect “generous” FA. The “top” schools didn’t get that way by subsidizing their weaker students.</p>
<p>And quite frankly, I think that no matter where you go to boarding school, the top students (unless you are so brilliant that you stump the instructors - LOL) will almost automatically receive the best opportunities (best teachers, smallest classes, etc) both within the classroom and in the college advising, FA or not.</p>
<p>I know that, for a good friend of ours, it was definitely the prestige. Her daughter went to Exeter and they love to name drop about who they sat next to at this event, whose son their daughter dated, etc. Of course, it is an excellent institution, and I am sure the majority of kids who go there are there for the sound education, but for many prestige is a big part of it.</p>
<p>I think there are good reasons for that shorthand. Many of us don’t buy into the notion that those schools comprise the universe of schools worth considering. Yet we might still resort to that acronym or some other shorthand in which we use those schools as benchmarks and bellwethers.</p>
<p>This board has an international audience, so these are the schools that, through their reputation, enable us to converse with each other and understand and visualize each other’s experiences and impressions. That makes the terminology useful here, though I agree that relying on this crutch reinforces a perception by newcomers that these are the schools most worth applying to.</p>
<p>When I’m talking about looking beyond those schools I can’t help but fall into the trap of referring to them as the Top Tier or Tier One schools…not because I subscribe to that view, but because that’s the lexicon of those who most need to hear the idea that it’s okay to expand your search and do your own thinking and evaluation of what’s best.</p>
<p>For this message board, I don’t think there’s any getting away from the AESDCH acronyms because they do serve a purpose and almost universal reference point for more productive discussions. I hope that most people who see this talk will quickly realize that these are simply points of reference and aren’t (always) value judgments…and certainly not value judgments applicable to their own child’s personal abilities, needs, desires, etc.</p>
<p>Although it is a good question, I don’t think GCabot is asking why people focus on “top tier” schools when other schools might be a better match for them/their children. I think he is asking why certain of those “top” schools get more attention than others, namely Groton and Milton, on this board.</p>
<p>I think one basic reason is that Groton and Milton are less well known among the general population who might be looking at boarding schools. Some people seem to start with A or E and then look at similar schools in size, location, composition, and “quality.” Groton is different because it is smaller and many applicants seem to like a big school with lots of choice. For some reason it gets some negative press on this board, while Middlesex gets billed as a happier good small school. Milton is different because it has so many day students. The experience may not end up being all that different than at Andover or Choate (both of which have many boarders from not far away)but people overlook it without realizing that it is an extremely strong school.</p>
<p>Although it is a good question, I don’t think GCabot is asking why people focus on “top tier” schools when other schools might be a better match for them/their children. I think he or she is asking why certain of those “top” schools get more attention than others, namely Groton and Milton, on this board.</p>
<p>I think one basic reason is that Groton and Milton are less well known among the general population who might be looking at boarding schools. Some people seem to start with A or E and then look at similar schools in size, location, composition, and “quality.” Groton is different because it is smaller and many applicants seem to like a big school with lots of choice. For some reason it gets some negative press on this board, while Middlesex gets billed as a happier good small school. Milton is different because it has so many day students. The experience may not end up being all that different than at Andover Choate or Lawrenceville, but people overlook it without realizing that it is an extremely strong school.</p>
<p>I’m applying to milton. I got a great vibe from them and wouldn’t think of it as a bad thing if I got into milton and not exeter. although I don’t like how many day students there are they have a lot of great qualities that exeter doesn’t (the same goes for exeter having great things that milton doesn’t have)</p>
<p>What two AESD schools have under 500 kids?? We went to a Ten Schools meeting and were told that St. Paul’s School (with just under 550 kids) was the smallest of the Ten Schools Association members. We were specifically looking for smaller schools – so that was a focus of ours.</p>
<p>Andover and Exeter enroll almost 1100 students and Deerfield enrolls just over 600 students.</p>
<p>I don’t think so – Deerfield lists an enrollment of 600 on their website.</p>
<p>There is a lot to be said for name recognition – and the top schools work very hard for it! Doesn’t necessarily make them a better school for your child – just one that is better known.</p>
<p>Think of Harvard – no question about it, one of the best known universities in the world, yet not a good fit for many, many students. You have to get beyond the name.</p>