Hi, I am in 8th grade, and I am having trouble choosing between Hotchkiss and choate. I enjoy both schools for different reasons, and I have no idea which one I want to go to. I am looking for a school that not only has excellent athletics and academics, but a fun social scene is also crucial to me. I love Hotchkiss, but I am worried about being in the middle of nowhere, and Choate has such a great town surrounding it. Can anyone please help me decide
Choate.
(Did that help?)
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I think this is where the lack of revisit days hurts a place like Hotchkiss more than Choate. It was a concern of my daughter as well, especially since we visited during the summer (super empty!)
You’ve yet to meet the circle of friends you’ll be spending a lot of time with, or anyone like them. FWIW I thought when I went to a liberal arts school outside of Philadelphia “I’ll go into the city all the time”…and wound up doing it oh once a year. These places are pretty self-sufficient and you should optimize for on-campus feelings. Good luck, nice choice to have!
I actually think this is pretty big difference between Hotchkiss and Choate, because Choate kids are all over Wallingford every weekend. I would not call it a great town, the downtown is cute but very small and the strip mall aspect of the rest of it is not all that appealing to me. However, it does have just about everything teenagers could want. There are several diners Choate kids are always at, as well as the variety of chain restaurants, fast food places, ice cream shop, Starbucks always has a couple groups of kids studying on Sundays, Wallmart, movie theater, bowling alley, sky zone place. Church right off campus fair number of kids as well as faculty attend, elementary school and town library kids volunteer at, haircut place etc.
The downside of it is that they do spend more money than kids in more remote areas, though Choate tuition is on lower end comparably so that helps.
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I have been living in Lakeville for three years and let me tell you, its not the most crowded or exciting area. Lakeville is the middle of nowhere period. Other than your potential future friends at Hotchkiss, there will be no one else around. Now, there are some other differences between the two schools but I’d say the location of Choate is definitely better. Although Wallingford is not an NYC by any means, there are more options(restaurants, shops etc.) Both schools are really close to the city. I’d say go to Choate bc of its bigger size, better ranking, slightly better/ prettier campus in my opinion and better location. At the end of the day, both really strong institutions, I’d flip a coin(jokes). I hope that helped.
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Both are great schools and known for their academics. You can’t go wrong with either. Even if you attend a school that is farther out from town, they will always have frequent events for the boarders. Movie night, trips to walmart, etc.
Being in an isolated location also has its advantages: fewer leave on the weekends, and can engender more bonding with friends.
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My kids chose Hotchkiss over Choate mostly because they sensed a hyper competitiveness among the students at Choate, but it’s tough to say if their concern was justified or even if that’s a bad thing. I think in the end they simply preferred the vibe at Hotchkiss. There is no wrong choice and both schools are equally good in their own unique way. Go with whichever feels right for you.
@4student4 Congratulations on having the choice among two amazing schools. I have no doubt you will be happy at either one. Both schools truly have terrific academic programs and faculty, and have “friendly” students, so you will make a lot of friends. Hopefully you can speak to some current students that have similar interests to you and gain their insight.
I assume you have a particular focus on a sport, or an arts field, or perhaps an EC like speech and debate? If so, I think these factors frame a more important part of the decision than secondary items, such as aesthetics of the campus (edge to Hotchkiss in my opinion) or how long a walk it is to an off campus coffee shop (about half a mile to 2 cafes in Lakeville, just a block or two in Wallingford).
My two older kids had choices between Hotchkiss, Choate, Deerfield and Exeter, in different combinations. They felt they would be happy at any of these, both preferred midsized schools (Hotchkiss and Deerfield), but ended up choosing their school based on varsity sport situations - strength of team, coaching, and club sport situation. One chose Exeter, the other Hotchkiss. Hotchkiss seems palpably warm and caring, which we deeply appreciate. My other one doesn’t “Bleed Red”, but does like his sport situation at Exeter.
You may absolutely hate the idea of Saturday morning classes, so Choate will appeal to that. As a parent, I love Saturday classes (50% of the time at Hotchkiss, less than that at PEA) because it spreads things out a touch during the week, and if there weren’t any, my kids would probably just slack off Friday night and Saturday morning. Even my son admits this! He says it does get him mentally ready for Saturday afternoon sports.
Contrasting some things beyond sports, arts, other ECs:
Size of student body and boarding %- we have heard through the years that schools like Hotchkiss, Deerfield and SPS that are mostly boarding have tighter knit student bodies, whereas Choate is 25% day. Former/current Choate and Loomis kids have told us they didn’t hang with day students too much, which is a shame, but understandable given the logistics of socializing late at night in the dorm or on weekends.
Rural vs. suburban - Hotchkiss (and Deerfield) are definitely rural, but kids are so busy with school and sports Monday-Saturday, it’s often only Sunday when they have time to chill and hang out, and even then, there is sleeping in, sports training or rehearsals, EC clubs, the odd trip to NYC, ski and other day trips, community service. Wallingford isn’t all that interesting - big edge to Andover or Exeter on the coffee-shop scene in my opinion.
Shopping - I think Amazon has pretty much levelled the shopping playing field between the rural, suburban and urban BSs. Going to Walmart in Wallingford is a highly overrated experience (we did this for a Choate summer program).
Teaching - extremely high caliber, and having the faculty mostly live on campus or nearby, and generally available, is an incredible feature of these BSs. We are thrilled with the teachers at Hotchkiss (and Exeter).
Location - they are both an hour or less from Hartford airport, and 1:45-2 hours from Manhattan and JFK, very roughly.
Again, congratulations on having great options, you can’t go wrong, and stay safe and healthy! (Feel free to PM me, if you are permitted by CC).
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Wallingford gets too much hate. It’s a nice little town in a good area. Easy access to Hartford, New Haven, and NYC. Lots of good restaurants (my favorites are Riva’s Taqueria, Colony Diner, and Iron Chef) and a decent amount of stuff to do. Suburban location makes it easy to order food or whatever you want to do. Good proximity to Walmart, Stop & Shop, and ShopRite. Meriden has a bit of shopping you can do right next to Wallingford.
I picked Choate over Hotchkiss. Hotchkiss’s revisit, to put it plainly, sucked. I hated the air of the school; it felt too pretentious and status-driven. Choate is competitive, but it’s not cutthroat in any way. You don’t pry into others’ academics or anything. More collaborative, imo. I LOVE Choate and am so glad I picked it over anything, but especially Hotchkiss.
Obviously, I’m very biased lol
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@CavsFan2003 I love your posts, and so happy to hear your Choate experience is going fabulously. It’s too bad you didn’t enjoy your THS revisit. I don’t know if you can say Choate is more collaborative than Hotchkiss - you have no firsthand experience to compare the two schools. From your previous posts, you must acknowledge that Hotchkiss admissions was very keen for you to attend and tried hard to convince you. Our family’s experience has been great at Hotchkiss, and like yours at Choate, not cutthroat at all.
All the best, and stay safe and healthy!
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@Mumof3Boyz Totally right on the no firsthand experience! I was more addressing the comments of Choate being over-competitive; I didn’t really get a cutthroat vibe from Hotchkiss! I’m glad your sons’ experience has been great! Just wasn’t at all a fit for me. OP, if you read this, all of us only have our experiences. Your experience will be different from mine, and MumOf3Boyz’s sons’.
And man, Hotchkiss’s admissions officers were incredibly persuasive lol. Dinner and a stay in the Interlaken Inn! I felt bad for saying no because everything was very kind, but I just couldn’t shake off a feeling of “you won’t like it here.”
Hope everything’s going well in your household!
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Hi! I hope its not too late to answer this (I heard they moved the deposit deadline to June so I am guessing it isnt)
I am a current student at Choate, and I previously went to a junior boarding school in the same town as Hotchkiss and spent all of my winter term days at Hotchkiss for two years. I would say I might be biased but I am qualified enough to compare the two. Hotchkiss and Choate have very different feelings.
Choate is a school that works hard but plays hard. Of course, you would see a few select people that work way harder than they play, or those who play harder than they work, but overall the community promotes a healthy balance between the two. The people at Choate are like that themselves, which makes it easier to foster a community that Choate often advertises as one of our strong suits. Overall, Choate would be a great place if you want the academic rigour, reputation, and the fun years of high school.
Hotchkiss, however, has a wide range of students. Based on what I hear and what I saw, Hotchkiss is the place to go if you aren’t necessarily searching for a balance. For example, if you don’t really care about academics and want to focus on a sport (or vice versa) without the pressure of maintaining a balance, Hotchkiss is the place to go. This is also one of the reasons why Hotchkiss is known for both their sports and academics- because people there focus and do extremely well on things they enjoy/do, whereas people at Choate like to strike a balance.
Hotchkiss is also wayyy preppier than Choate (people, community, dress code, etc.) Choate, I would say is one of the most laid back prep schools- we dont have saturday classes, a dress code, and people here are not preppy. If you like the preppy vibe or you think you would enjoy it/have it be a major personality trait for you, that would be a major reason to choose Hotchkiss.
Locations don’t really matter that much because although Hotchkiss is in the middle of nowhere, a bus ride would get you to beautiful new-enland feeling towns with probably more things to offer than Wallingford.
Above is based on my observations, but please take my advice with a grain of salt.
Hope this helps.
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Hi,
I am not sure if you are still active in this forum, but I wonder how you would rate your kids’ Hotchkiss experience? My son got into both Choate and Hotchkiss. He is into engineering. How is the school community? Are teachers really caring, or they want students to do the most of the work/learning by themselves?
Thanks!
Our kids had a great experience there and while kids at Hotchkiss’ and Choate’s level are naturally competitive, I’d say that the students were not particularly competitive with each other but more self driven. Choate has a reputation for students being more competitive amongst each other, I believe, but I think it’s more important to consider your kid’s personality. There will certainly be kids who don’t engage with that sort of competition and the schools are more alike than not. Both will be fine for STEM kids. My kids had particularly intense interviews at Choate owing in large part to a separate interview and audition with the head of the music department. They both had music hooks and got a hard sell. In the end, it was a big turn off for them and they didn’t even apply but I doubt that’s a common experience and some kids may thrive in that situation. The biggest differences in my mind are the urban v. rural settings, sizes, and boarding to day ratios. I can’t say enough good things about Hotchkiss. Choate will have its advocates too. Nice choice to have.
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Can someone address the different “herding” structures for kids? I think I’ve read that Hotchkiss has more rules, more enforcement, required study periods, lights off? Is this correct. Since we’ve never seen any of the schools we are flying blind.
School rules and policies can answer some of these questions and can be found in each school’s handbook which can be found either online or by asking each school for a copy.
I’d agree with this.
Teachers are exceptionally caring (our son’s freshman English teacher knitted a scarf for each of her students) and no one is on their own to learn. If a school uses Harkness or a Socratic method of teaching, a lot of onus is on the student to heavily prepare for each class and be ready to contribute, but teachers are there to teach.
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Some schools are more in the “you figure out how to manage yourself and if stuff goes wrong, we’ll help you work it out (if you ask)” camp and others are more in the “we’ll do the managing so that nothing goes wrong” camp. While neither of these schools is at an end of that spectrum, they may not occupy the same place on it either. Some kids might chafe at more management while others really need some scaffolding. It’s really up to you to figure out what is best for you.
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I can’t offer a comparison on the rules but in my kids’ experience (pre-covid) the rules were not onerous and their enforcement waned as they rose through the ranks. Lights out was kind of a joke. Hotchkiss is a one and done school for the big violations. I was concerned about that and found myself at at a parent lunch seated next to one of the school psychologists. When I suggested that it seemed harsh to expel a kid for one stupid mistake, she told me that in her experience it was never one stupid mistake but a growing pattern that led to dismissal. I don’t think that Hotchkiss expels any more or fewer students than any other boarding school on average no matter the violation policy. Schools don’t want to kick kids out. I do think that the one and done policy made kids think seriously about the potential consequences of their actions. Anyway, I wouldn’t sweat the small stuff.
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My son who is art-focused is debating between Choate or Hotchkiss. This year, it is especially hard because we could not visit the schools due to COVID. We heard Choate’s atmosphere is more cutthroat, while Hotchkiss is more supportive. Is that true? Does Hotchkiss focus more on athletes? I hope to hear from existing Choate and Hotchkiss students or recent alums who can share some lights. For Choate Art Concentration Program, does it not requiring any sports every term, and students do the same pre-requisites for graduation? Any Choate Art Concentration students out there?
Has not been the experience of my two kids at all. Some kids never leave their rooms and work endlessly for A+ grades. Others act like…well, normal kids. But there is not a culture of climbing over other kids to claim good grades.
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