Accepted Concord Academy! What do you think?

Prep School Admissions
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Hi, my brilliant stepdaughter was admitted last week to Concord Academy. She’s half-German and half-American, attends school here in Germany, a semi-professional actress, very committed to visual arts and dancing, progressive, open-minded. Her sister went to Andover as did I.

She’s waitlisted at Andover and Exeter but received very generous financial aid offer from Concord, outstanding in fact. But I don’t know enough about CA. Does anybody know it? Particularly interested in theater and arts programs. We live in Germany now, will be in France next year, so a strong and welcoming community is essential for her as she will be alone. I am familiar with some boarding schools with big day student populations where the boarding kids are isolated and alone. This worries me.

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I always wanted to go to Concord Academy. Congratulations. It is a small campus with beautiful white clapboard dorm buildings in the beautiful, culturally and historically rich town of Concord. My daughter danced with Concord’s Summer Stages program, which no longer exists, but got to know the faculty (Amy and Richard for dance, at least then) and facilities. Concord Academy has a reputation of being very artsy.

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I do not know much about Concord Academy. I do know quite a bit about Concord, the town. I used to live within a few miles of Concord Academy.

Concord is a relatively wealthy town, and is an old colonial town. There is some “old money” in the area, and also quite a bit of high tech money (some of which is starting to be from biotech, which is hot in Massachusetts right now). The local public high school is considered to be quite good.

There are quite a few beautiful homes there from before the American Revolution. These are generally quite well maintained. There is a nice hotel / restaurant right in the middle of Concord where we used to go for special occasions (like our anniversaries). The “Old North Bridge” where the revolutionary war started is only about a mile from Concord Academy. Walden Pond where Thoreau had his cabin is more like two miles. There are also quite a few other historic sites in the area.

I would consider it to be quite safe in the area. It would not surprise me if some people in the area do not even bother to lock their homes, at least when they are there.

When I lived in the area I would occasionally see groups of students who went to Concord Academy at various stores in Concord. They generally looked happy, well behaved, and did not look poor (for example they tended to be well dressed), but I did not happen to talk to them very often. I thought that quite a few of the students there were boarding, but I do not know for sure and it would be worth checking.

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I went to Concord many moons ago, in the 1980s. At the time, it was considered one of the top-three boarding schools in terms purely of academics, and the student body was very proud of that. There was also a lot of pride that this was a place with a lot of artsy and nonconformist kids, as well as lots of sophisticated European kids. I’ve gone back for reunions fairly regularly, and I’m told that this combination is still how the student-body sees itself: “We’re smarter than you, but also likely to wear pajamas or some wacky punk/emo/hippy/anarchist/avant-garde outfit to class.” That said, the campus looks more mainstream preppy to me when I visit . . . I don’t see the nonconformity, visibly. But that may be more a function of the times we’re living in, versus the not-so-relevant 1980s.

I’m not sure why, but it appears to me from reading various rankings., etc., that the prestige of C.A. has slipped somewhat. The reputation is no longer “we’re in the top three!” I cannot speak to how or why that happened and if it reflects anything other than marketing and perception, or if it reflects some actual slippage in standards.

My kid didn’t apply to C.A., even tho I sort of wanted her to, because we/she felt C.A. hadn’t made enough progress on diversity and inclusion. This is possibly (?) in part because a large chunk of the C.A. student body are day students, and day students in affluent, suburban Boston areas might tend towards the whitebread? Or maybe they just haven’t addressed it as effectively because the endowment is smaller than some schools? Anyway, after my kid decided not to apply there, C.A. hired a brand-new head of school in the autumn who is Black and who used to run something called the Revolution school of Philadelphia. I was kind of delighted: Maybe preppy C.A. has kept that progressive spirit, after all.

C.A. has some strong positives, in addition to the academics. Proximity to Boston and Cambridge (half an hour on the train, and, yes, we did totally go to Harvard Square to hang out on weekends). And it’s right in the historic center of Concord, Mass, which is a pretty cool place, surrounded by history. So you can shop or go out for a slice of New London style pizza whenever you want. I believe boarders all still live in the old, traditional New England houses that line Main Street. More fun, to me, than a sterile dorm.

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Oh, by the way: Boarders definitely are not isolated at C.A. If anything, the bonds formed are stronger. We were very tight-knit as a smallish community of boarders, and frankly were sometimes (obnoxiously) barely aware of the existence of the day-student population, and (as adolescents) almost felt like only we counted. There was a running joke that the school administration felt there was “a rift” between boarders and day students… we all laughed about that and mocked it. “The rift, the rift, ha ha!” There wasn’t a rift per se, just a real closeness and bond between boarders. Also, being right in the village of Concord made you feel connected to the community, too.

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Like @DadTwoGirls, I have affinity with Concord. My office was nearby and our son was born there. I have spent a lot of time in the town and concur with everything he posted. We toured the school when our son was going through the process, but he thought it was too small. Concord doesn’t get as much press on this board as some schools, but it has a strong reputation as an artsy school with a very tight-knit community as @BonackerNY posted. With 40% boarders, I don’t think I’d worry about any boarding student being isolated and alone.

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Thanks very much for this reply. It was very helpful to us.

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Concord Acadm

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Nothing about CA reads preppy to me. They are incredibly invested in social justice. Every door has a pride flag or a blm sign. I strongly suspect their %students of color is far more because of the large day student population and maybe the smaller endowment. This school is generally considered the safe place to send your quirky kid who might flounder at another school. A kid invested in art would flourish with their art program. An athlete would be frustrated here.

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I agree, they are very much about social justice. They did not come across as conservative at all to me! Maybe they have been on the past, but certainly not now. As for any of the schools, looking at the course catalog is important.

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