Hampton vs Latymer Upper - advice please

[2012mom]

Blessed to have received offers from both. I always had the impression that Hampton has been on an upward trend and becomes academically a bit stronger, with higher rankings and better A Level results. However, looking at the leavers' destinations, LU seems to fare much better, with more Oxbridge, more into LSE/Imperial/UCL, medicines and better US college admissions (vs Hampton almost none). Am I missing anything?

Surely we will look into many other factors, but the above does puzzle me.

We had a similar decision. I don't think there's much academically between them. The families at LU are possibly a bit more international hence more overseas universities. Location / campus and co-Ed/ single sex obviously the main differences. Hampton will also draw boys from a much wider location than LU where all almost all will travel by public transport. Very different feel to both schools so go with your gut!

It could be a culture effect. As you say the exam results are on a par (with Hampton very marginally edging it).
Maybe Hampton boys aspire to things outside of Oxbridge? Perhaps they want to live away from home also and the great London universities make that more difficult to justify?

I agree re affluent / international families at LU. Also the rowing is weaker at Hampton, re the LU US uni acceptances, I wonder how many are rowing based and how many are self funded by the parents (£300k plus) and not scholarships.

I would decide on single sex v mixed and journey times. If your ds likes sport you will be dropping off at hampton school on Saturday mornings.

There have lots of threads in the past re the 2 schools and often journey time is the decider.

LU - some of the families are from US or studied there so they know the process or pay for US education consultants. Also, if parent graduated in US, they can apply as legacy US university route. Therefore if both parents met at Stanford, their DC applying is on a different route especially if they donate as alumni yearly or mentor etc.

LU will be more international, partly because of catchment, but also because many Americans and Europeans feel more comfortable with co-education. It is what they are used to.

US applications from LU have risen a lot in the past decade. If you are thinking of the US as an option it is worth looking at a school with experience. The application process is complicated and top US schools, very competitive.

Non Brits are also more likely to prefer US Universities with good international name recognition. So whilst many London children might prefer to get away to Warwick/Durham, internationals will probably prefer LSE/Imperial. Europeans especially don't have such a strong focus on going away to University.

We opted for LU at the end. Hope we made the right choice.

Same here!

LU is a brilliant school!

@2012mum @ViolettasAria Hello, can I ask if you are happy with your choice? How easy it was for DC to settle in at year 7?

hi - yes very happy with our choice. My advice would be to chose the school that is closest to you. There are a lot of early morning starts/after school clubs/matches/weekend sport... it all becomes very tiring for you and the child if a huge amount of travel is involved.
In my experience, settling into year 7 takes time but it's all been fairly smooth for my son so far and certainly no issues as regards the school etc.

@ViolettasAria Thank you! This is great point.

Are you happy with your decision?

my DO has had an Interview on Wednesday and we are in the same dilema.

we are waiting from latymer and Hampton and also tiffins?

what would you guys choose ?

We had the decision on LU, Hampton and Tiffin as well. Went for LU and totally happy with the decision. I do think location/ journey is very important though. My DC does lots of extra curricular stuff at school which would have been much more inconvenient to do at Hampton I think due to where we live. Also really like Co-Ed although that wasn’t so much a factor when we were choosing for yr 7. But can’t go wrong with any really!

we live in Richmond so he can get to all the schools very easily.

As you said co-ed was not the factor why did you choose latymer?

@Aimhigh20- location and gut feel basically!