Ania,
Sorry - didn't see your question earlier. I don't want to disclose more about myself, but I can tell you that when I applied to college the college placement officer told me I couldn't apply to Princeton, Harvard and Yale - I had to choose so as not to take up other spots (back then, probably between 15 and 30 students went to each of those schools). But that was a long time ago. I read the list of recent Exeter college admissions, and although there are still plenty of internationally known prestigious colleges and universities, including many excellent state universities, there are also colleges I never heard of before. And I understand that this is what the colleges are saying, too - there are plenty of good colleges, not just the big names. And nowadays, those big names are off recruiting around the world. And there may be a prejudice against the prep school kids, no matter that they are a diverse group, racially, economically, geographically, etc. Those are questions you'll have to ask the admissions officers at the prep schools. One thing is for sure - college was a piece of cake after Exeter. At the time, I believe honors was a B-, high honors was a B+ and highest honors closer to an A-.
You should go to take a look. I think you'll be bowled over. Classes take place around a table with 10-15 students - no place to hide. The facilities are equivalent to many colleges, and there are some very impressive students from around the world. And I believe all the faculty have advanced degrees - not sure why that's such a big deal, but I guess they know their stuff - including a number of PhD's teaching at the high school level.
I seem to have been to a lot of schools, and Exeter was far and away the best! Oh, and Andover and Deerfield are also supposed to be top notch - and I'm sure there are a lot of others. I'm not up to date and Exeter is the only school I really know about.
Oh, and cold definitely referred to the climate!!
