<p>I was reading about all these schools have to offer, and it has become apparent that some schools are more humanities oriented (and I'm a humanities person), while some have better lacrosse (which I couldn't care less about, no offense)... it's a lot of information to process and I was just wondering what YOU think would fit me as a WHOLE.</p>
<p>I'm looking for a HADES tier school; I'm currently looking into:
Andover, Exeter, SPS, Hotchkiss, Choate, Deerfield, and maybe Loomis and maybe Milton.</p>
<p>// PROGRAMS
strong newspaper
strong international affairs curriculum
strong music (& pref. art) program
strong speech and debate team
strong liberal arts curriculum</p>
<p>// LOCATION
on the bigger side (>700 preferably, but I'll look into those a bit lower too)
close to a big city (within 30 min. car/train/etc.)</p>
<p>// ATMOSPHERE
liberal
politically active
humanitarian activism (human rights especially, i.e: saving Darfur, Amnesty Int'l club)
lots of international diversity
lots of financial diversity
very open to new ideas</p>
<p>A random plus would be a color guard (it's the part of marching band with the flags and sabres). I understand very few boarding schools have them [as far as I know, only Milton].)</p>
<p>ANY INFORMATION AT ALL WOULD BE REALLY HELPFUL</p>
<p>THANKS FOR YOUR TIME & ANY INPUT!</p>
<p>wow, thats sooo strict</p>
<p>Okay I don’t think I made this clear… any info about any of these school’s aforementioned qualities would be nice.</p>
<p>Obviously no one school is going to have them all, so just which schools fit more so than others.</p>
<p>Sorry about that.</p>
<p>ok, well for obvious realsons, i only know about one of those shools- hotchkiss, but i dont know too much because i will be new
BUT from what i can tell/ have seen/ heard…</p>
<p>when i was there i read the newspaper thingy…i liked it a lot. it was very well put together, but i have no basis for comparison because i am not a newspaper type of guy…
international affairs? in the course listing book there were some classes that were about international affairs, and i know that a LOT of hotchkiss grads are interested, and get into georgetown which his really strong in this area
i witnessed the music. in one word- INCREDIBLE! they have state of the art facilities, one of those fazolli (? sorry, i really dont know what its called, but i know theyre rare) pianos, and private instruction. i even talked to a kid who went to juliard on weekends
speech and debate? best in the nation. well regarded in the world. nuff said</p>
<p>its not more than 700 kids… 500 i think?
not close to city. middle of nowhere</p>
<p>im not sure about the political diversity, but i am a moderate…</p>
<p>international diversity? i met kids from all over the globe! it was pretty cool</p>
<p>financial diversity? i dont know. i do know that i am dirt poor and going on a full scholarship so… :)</p>
<p>since ive never been i dont know about how open they are to new ideas</p>
<p>one of the things about the school is they are always talking about building an “international community” and stuff like that…maybe that’s important to you?</p>
<p>i dont even go to hotchkiss yey, but i already love it!</p>
<p>hopefully others will answer for their schools</p>
<p>Wow, thanks so much!</p>
<p>When you say Hotchkiss has the best speech & debate in the nation… do you have any statistics, by any chance? If you do, that would be greattt.</p>
<p>Anyhow, have fun at Hotchkiss! :)</p>
<p>from what ive heard thats the ranking…i didnt just make it up. i dont know where to find it though, but im sure that somebody else can confirm that. i think that deerfield is also good at debate if im not mistaken (but of course not as good as the big H 
)</p>
<p>dude, honestly…apply everywhere…ur lucky if you get in to any of these places…</p>
<p>Yeah, I want to apply to all of these schools, and more, but my mom won’t let me apply to that many. She wants me to cut a few down because of application fees, travel time for interviews, etc. So I’m trying to see which ones I might be better off at and take out the ones I might not like as much.</p>
<p>Milton caters to that very well, as does Andover.</p>
<p>^ agreed. </p>
<p>if you want a liberal community, go andover. 
seriously.
for international diversity, i’d say hotchkiss, they have a pretty large intl population.
if you want strong art/music, i’d say loomis/SPS (btw, SPS’s dance program is amazing. added bonus!)
for “close-to-big-city”, i’d say milton (haha).
hotchkiss is supposed to be the “old boys school” & they’re supposedly pretty traditional so i don’t know how “open” they’d be to new ideas but their speech/debate (possibly for activism in the future? eh) is top-notch.
GOOD LUCK!
(i probably didn’t help you at ALL, only confuse you. i confuse myself too, don’t worry)</p>
<p>Just for the record- it is a common CC myth that “Hotchkiss has the best debate team n the nation.” Someone more involved than me can fill in the details but…Choate won the debate tournament at Hotchkiss this year! Choate also beat Hotchkiss at the Yale tournament this year. The Loomis tournament featured an exhibition debate from the two best teams there- one from a local public school, and a amazing team from Andover. How do I know this? I have a relative who was a judge. It’s great that Hotchkiss has a few student cheerleaders who spend a lot of time on these boards…but even the hated Prep Review does not have it listed as a “Top 10” school.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone!</p>
<p>Does anybody want to confirm DiveAlive’s statement that “Hotchkiss… is supposedly pretty traditional”?</p>
<p>I thought Exeter was known as the diversity school. Exeter also has the strongest newspaper program in the nation, in my opinion at least. I got a copy of one of the papers and it seemed super professional, but I also heard the newspaper crew at Exeter are complete fanatics.</p>
<p>Divealive’s post is very helpful, though. And that relieves me, Biohelpmom! I’m not applying to Hotchkiss and it makes me feel better to know other schools have amazing forensics too, since I’m really into that. (Reason for not applying at Hotchkiss is its location and environment, haha.)</p>
<p>Lemons, what grade are you applying for? And yes, I’ve heard that about Hotchkiss a lot. It’s one of the reasons I’m iffy about applying to Hotchkiss too. It’s still an incredible school though!</p>
<p>Repeat-sophomore. I heard about boarding school in March. x_x</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve heard from a friend who just graduated from Exeter that if you join/get into the newspaper, it will suck up your whole life. :)</p>
<p>How long does it take to get from Hotchkiss to the nearest city?</p>
<p>Oh my word, lemons! I saw the title of this thread and I decided to make a “fit” thread myself. Then I read yours and realized I didn’t have to. EXACTLY the same! so weird. like, every little thing, except for maybe theater. But newspaper, debate, liberal, humanities, activist… exactly the same.</p>
<p>Deerfield! but you’ve already heard my deerfield schpeal haha. A bit farther from the city perhaps, but only about an 1 hour 45 minutes to boston which isn’t bad, but I will just give some information on the points you listed…</p>
<ul>
<li>They have what seems to be a well put together paper, with interesting articles, you can read it online at scroll.deerfield.edu (no www)</li>
<li>Really cool international affairs stuff, they are a member of Round Square group of schools, which is SO COOL. It’s like, a big group of top schools from all around the world, that meet all over the world, and Deerfield sends a delegations every year! (you can check it out here - [Round</a> Square: Home](<a href=“http://www.roundsquare.org/]Round”>http://www.roundsquare.org/) )</li>
<li>Good music program, not great, but if you want, you can be a member of the Youth Symphony in nearby city (I can’t remember which!) and that practices sunday afternoons and they take a van down every week. (I’ve been playing the flute since I was 7, studying privately and doing a lot of ensembles, so I guess my expectations for music are pretty high, but Deerfield seemed good enough. They have great private teachers for flute I’ve heard…)</li>
<li>I’m told they have a good debate team by my interviewer. I think most all top tier schools do.</li>
<li>Great curriculum in all areas =D</li>
<li>683 in the school I think? So perhaps on the smaller side for you, but it seems pretty big when you tour</li>
<li>as for the atmosphere, it seems to match up with your criterias as far as I can tell, especially your humanitarian activism, once again, check out round square.</li>
</ul>
<p>( Okay, I think I am the official Deerfield cheerleader haha. )</p>
<p>I would highly consider Milton if I were you.</p>
<p>Milton is a pretty good fit for your expectations. </p>
<p>:D</p>
<p>Hotchkiss for music is superb. We have a fazioli piano (apparently some of if not THE best pianos in the world)! Plus the acoustics in Elfers hall are awesome we had the Guarneri string quartet come in and what not. Some of our kids go down to juilliard on the weekends and play there they are some amazing musicians here. The facilities are really top-notch. During the summer we host a musical ensemble with musically talented students coming from around the world it really is amazing.</p>
<p>And Hotchkiss’ remotness reports are exagurated - it’s just a way for anti-hotchkissers to write the school off. Fact of the matter is though it is remote - no way even a Hotchkiss debater could convince you otherwise- BUT it is close to a train station which means you are only a train ride away from New York which takes just over an hour 45 or so but we have ipods and company now so its a breeze. It is very convenient and I have done that a few times it really is easy to get into the Big apple so that is not an issue. It is not much more remote than Deerfield though …</p>
<p>Never in a million years did I think I would have to defend Hotchkiss’ Speech and Debate team’s record. This is just ridiculous I suppose it is testament to the anti-Hotchkiss vitriol out there by certain disgruntled individuals. If you ask any non-biased individual at Exeter, Andover, SPS, Deerfield or any other peer school about Hotchkiss’ debate team they will tell you it is number one. Ask them what the most important tournament is and they will the say the world tournament. Ask them who wins it year after year after year and they will say Hotchkiss. Ask them which team dominates debate and their answer will be Hotchkiss. I mean it is as clear as the summer sun. Now let me rebut your principle claims. </p>
<p>You used the Loomis tournament’s exhibition round to suggest that Choate was better than Hotchkiss … except you are forgetting one key fact - Hotchkiss did not even attend that tournament also at nearly every tournament Hotchkiss did attend the top debaters at those tournaments were Hotchkiss kids and the exhibition round was held with them. There was never a tournament with both Hotchkiss and Choate kids where the top debaters at the advanced level were Choaties. Not ONE. </p>
<p>As to your claim about the HOtchkiss tournament it is true that choate won despite Hotchkiss completely dominating at the advanced level. Our only short comming was at the novice level where we lost by a single match. But almost exclusively the top debaters at the Tournament were from Hotchkiss. No choate debater came in the top 3 advanced at that tournament if my memory serves me correctly. </p>
<p>Thirdly the DANIES tournaments are merely qualifying tournaments for the WORLDS tournament. Your point that Choate managed to top Hotchkiss in one (and only one midn you) tournament is ridiculous. It’s like a team who has never won the superbowl claiming they are better than another team who has won it ten years in a row - including that year - because they barely scraped a win during the regular season. If you were not so serious I would find this extremely funny. The fact of the matter is no chaote debater even qualified for WORLDS which is why you are so reluctant to talk about that. </p>
<p>Year after year after year the top debater at Worlds is from Hotchkiss, the top american debater is from Hotchkiss, and this year the number 2 over all was from hotchkis swe dominate.</p>
<p>There are lots of great prep school (and high school!) debate teams out there…I was just giving examples of how Hotchkiss is not known as the “all around best.” And hopefully, the moderator will remove your post with student names.</p>