Phillips Academy

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If Andover accepts your D, congrats. It’s an incredible opportunity for her.

But if you’re looking at other preps that have strong academics, girls soccer and supports club Soccer take a look at Pomfret School in nearby CT. Excellent school on the rise. Excellent girls soccer team with one of the top woman coaches in New England. Coach also coaches FSA ECNL and drives her team back and forth to FSA for winter and spring practices. She is very dedicated to her team and the school supports the girls playing at FSA. Girls from Pomfret are playing at Amherst, Holy Cross, Trinity to name a few. Beautiful campus. Well worth a look.

Thank you, we will check it out! Great to have options as we know Andover is reach for most applicants.

We are also not ruling out public school. So many decisions!

[Unregistered]

If Andover accepts your D, congrats. It’s an incredible opportunity for her.

But if you’re looking at other preps that have strong academics, girls soccer and supports club Soccer take a look at Pomfret School in nearby CT. Excellent school on the rise. Excellent girls soccer team with one of the top woman coaches in New England. Coach also coaches FSA ECNL and drives her team back and forth to FSA for winter and spring practices. She is very dedicated to her team and the school supports the girls playing at FSA. Girls from Pomfret are playing at Amherst, Holy Cross, Trinity to name a few. Beautiful campus. Well worth a look.

She guarantees generous play time for Pomfret players on her FSA game too

[Unregistered]

If Andover accepts your D, congrats. It’s an incredible opportunity for her.

But if you’re looking at other preps that have strong academics, girls soccer and supports club Soccer take a look at Pomfret School in nearby CT. Excellent school on the rise. Excellent girls soccer team with one of the top woman coaches in New England. Coach also coaches FSA ECNL and drives her team back and forth to FSA for winter and spring practices. She is very dedicated to her team and the school supports the girls playing at FSA. Girls from Pomfret are playing at Amherst, Holy Cross, Trinity to name a few. Beautiful campus. Well worth a look.

This message brought to you by FSA and the Pomfret coach, who by all accounts on the CT board favors her prep school kids over the other players

[Unregistered]

If Andover accepts your D, congrats. It’s an incredible opportunity for her.

But if you’re looking at other preps that have strong academics, girls soccer and supports club Soccer take a look at Pomfret School in nearby CT. Excellent school on the rise. Excellent girls soccer team with one of the top woman coaches in New England. Coach also coaches FSA ECNL and drives her team back and forth to FSA for winter and spring practices. She is very dedicated to her team and the school supports the girls playing at FSA. Girls from Pomfret are playing at Amherst, Holy Cross, Trinity to name a few. Beautiful campus. Well worth a look.

Oh wow, delivering kids to a bunch of killer programs must be well worth the investment?? No Ivies?? No Williams?? Sorry, you don't go to a prep school with these end points in mind. These can be had with any good public school.

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Oh wow, delivering kids to a bunch of killer programs must be well worth the investment?? No Ivies?? No Williams?? Sorry, you don't go to a prep school with these end points in mind. These can be had with any good public school.

If she had a pipeline to Amherst, I suppose I'd be impressed. But Holy Cross, Trinity (?!!): sorry, save your $. You can get to schools like those from public school without spending $40-50k/ year...

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If she had a pipeline to Amherst, I suppose I'd be impressed. But Holy Cross, Trinity (?!!): sorry, save your $. You can get to schools like those from public school without spending $40-50k/ year...

And don't waste your money with FSA either - they're awful

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Oh wow, delivering kids to a bunch of killer programs must be well worth the investment?? No Ivies?? No Williams?? Sorry, you don't go to a prep school with these end points in mind. These can be had with any good public school.

if the end game is highest sleectivity schools, then it needs to be stated that prep school is the hardest path to achieving that. class rank matters. Thats why most of NESCAC and schools like SLU, Hobart, are filled with prep school kids.

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if the end game is highest sleectivity schools, then it needs to be stated that prep school is the hardest path to achieving that. class rank matters. Thats why most of NESCAC and schools like SLU, Hobart, are filled with prep school kids.

Such a crazy argument: so many schools don’t report class ranks. We have 3 kids at NESCAC or Ivy universities, and they were more interested in getting good grades in a challenging curriculum coming from a quality school than anything else. Not having a class rank was irrelevant to our kids getting admitted.

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Such a crazy argument: so many schools don’t report class ranks. We have 3 kids at NESCAC or Ivy universities, and they were more interested in getting good grades in a challenging curriculum coming from a quality school than anything else. Not having a class rank was irrelevant to our kids getting admitted.

I think you're missing the point. It's true that prep schools commonly don't report class rank. But colleges still have a general idea where your kid falls relative to his or her classmates, and they will take that approximate ranking into account in their admissions decisions, even if the class rank isn't explicitly reported by the school.

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I think you're missing the point. It's true that prep schools commonly don't report class rank. But colleges still have a general idea where your kid falls relative to his or her classmates, and they will take that approximate ranking into account in their admissions decisions, even if the class rank isn't explicitly reported by the school.

Sorry but you obviously have no idea what you’re talking about.

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I think the argument is this: a very bright kid at a prep school might have a B+ average and be in the bottom half of the prep school class. If that kid went to an average public school they probably would have straight A's. The same kid has a better chance of getting into a selective college with the straight A's, even though the board scores would be the same, and the prep school is acknowledged to be more challenging and rigorous.

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I think the argument is this: a very bright kid at a prep school might have a B+ average and be in the bottom half of the prep school class. If that kid went to an average public school they probably would have straight A's. The same kid has a better chance of getting into a selective college with the straight A's, even though the board scores would be the same, and the prep school is acknowledged to be more challenging and rigorous.

How well the university knows or doesn't know the high schools and prep schools can also have an impact. Locally they have a stronger sense of what schools are more challenging than others. Further away less so. Is a student ranked lower at a top school a better/worse student vs one ranked higher at a less challenging one?

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I think the argument is this: a very bright kid at a prep school might have a B+ average and be in the bottom half of the prep school class. If that kid went to an average public school they probably would have straight A's. The same kid has a better chance of getting into a selective college with the straight A's, even though the board scores would be the same, and the prep school is acknowledged to be more challenging and rigorous.

First vast majority of prep schools have extraordinary counseling and strong relationships across the top spectrum of schools. They will find a school with a solid fit for ur child. Who cares if it’s an “ivy” - (ivy grad here). Second a kid with a b+ will not be “in the bottom half of the class”. Third, standardized testing still has a miraculous pull for institutions. Fourth, and most important, where you attend college simply doesn’t matter as much any more. What matters are: civics, creativity, emotional intellect, and ambition. That’s why one pays for a prep. Individual focus.

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First vast majority of prep schools have extraordinary counseling and strong relationships across the top spectrum of schools. They will find a school with a solid fit for ur child. Who cares if it’s an “ivy” - (ivy grad here). Second a kid with a b+ will not be “in the bottom half of the class”. Third, standardized testing still has a miraculous pull for institutions. Fourth, and most important, where you attend college simply doesn’t matter as much any more. What matters are: civics, creativity, emotional intellect, and ambition. That’s why one pays for a prep. Individual focus.

The last two sentences are exactly why you pay for prep. The young adult that comes out the other side is worth every penny. The fact that few acknowledge is that prep alone rarely gets a student into a better college. For an Athlete, whose sport is helping them get in, Prep school will indeed prep them.

As for rankings, US News includes class rank in methodology. Colleges CARE about their ranking, they will say they don't, but their admissions models have to include HS class rank. Nothing in US news methodology weights the actual HS.

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First vast majority of prep schools have extraordinary counseling and strong relationships across the top spectrum of schools. They will find a school with a solid fit for ur child. Who cares if it’s an “ivy” - (ivy grad here). Second a kid with a b+ will not be “in the bottom half of the class”. Third, standardized testing still has a miraculous pull for institutions. Fourth, and most important, where you attend college simply doesn’t matter as much any more. What matters are: civics, creativity, emotional intellect, and ambition. That’s why one pays for a prep. Individual focus.

You are responding to my post. My 3 kids all attend (Or did attend) prep schools. I agree with much of what you write. The top schools have infinitely greater pull and connections with colleges, and vastly better college counseling, than public schools. Agree you'll find a college that's a good fit for your child. Absolutely disagree about the B+ average being in the bottom half of the class. Two of my kids were exactly there! At a "HADES" school (Hotchkiss, Andover, Deerfield, Exeter, St. Pauls). Agree on your last two points, yes super high board scores are very attractive to colleges (one of my kids) and two where you go to school (I would add, so long as it's in the top 50 or so of universities, or top 50 liberal arts schools) doesn't matter as much.