Advice Needed: NMH vs. Concord

Prep School Admissions
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<p>My DC has narrowed down the choice to two schools: NMH vs Concord. Both are great schools, but as the experts on this forum are aware, they are very different. I would love to get your opinion on which of the two would be a better fit for DC.</p>

<p>Some notes on our own comparison:</p>

<p>NMH:
Love the faculty we met during open house, the campus and dining food, the work-job program, block periods, etc., but currently our concern is the college matriculation record. Among the BS's we considered, it is the only one with a very vague college matriculation records, i.e., instead of specific figures, the school website just lists names of colleges to which "two or more students matriculated during the past three years." Question for the insiders and experts: Should we read this as a sign of a weak college placement? Our goal in sending DC to a BS is NOT just for college placement --- but obviously this is one of the reasons we considered BS in the first place.</p>

<p>The recent article in NYT about NMH being the feeder school for the Ivy league-athletes adds to our concern. Perhaps the record is even more exaggerated by these athletes being groomed for the specific purpose of attending the Ivies? The school also seems to be going through a lot of changes lately, with a new head of school, the experiment with block scheduling, etc. Maybe I am really off, but the reorganization of the school in 2005 still seems to have a ripple effect to this day. </p>

<p>Concord:
Liked the intimate environment, academic rigor, the location (much more convenient for our long transits), and college matriculation record. However, we heard from a current parent recently that the reason why the school has such great college matriculation is because school, being so close to Boston, has a lot of children of legacy and Harvard/MIT faculty. Could this be true? Another downside is the high proportion of day students (50%), which may dilute the BS feel and faculty/administrator attention for the boarding students. </p>

<p>Some info on DC:
Interested in visual art and science with SSAT scores in high 90's. Currently waitlisted at Exeter, Andover, Groton, and Hotchkiss. The current choices are somewhat ironic because DC thrives in high-intensity environment; for this reason, DC is leaning toward NMH but I wonder whether there are other factors to consider.</p>

<p>Would love to hear from the current students and expert parent (especially ChoatieMom who seems to be a strong advocate for NMH :-) ). Many thanks in advance!</p>

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<p>I have no stake in either of these two schools so I really can’t present a bias and will just give overall perspective. They are both great great schools and I am sure DC will thrive wherever. From my perspective, it’s all about fit. You and DC have been to both schools and should be able to make the determination as to what works for DC. I would not rely on what you have heard/read/inferred.</p>

<p>Most graduates of both schools go to a college on their dream list. I’m assuming when you are talking matriculation that you are not talking specifically HYPMS, because that is not a reason to choose any boarding school.</p>

<p>As a boarder myself, I feel that some on CC make too big a deal of the day/boarder ratio. Day students are generally well-integrated into the community, and the only difference is where they put their heads at night. Day students are often on-campus through dinner and study period, and on the weekends. Day students also provide boarders an oppy to get off-campus and have a home-cooked meal once in a while, as well as the oppy for a place to stay on the shorter breaks.</p>

<p>It’s no secret that NMH has athletes that are Ivy-recruits, particularly in hoops; this is not a new phenomenon. However, NMH has PG’s, while CA does not. CA is also not exactly renowned for sports in general.</p>

<p>Someone with more intimate knowledge can comment on the administration, but I will say that change is not always bad. Groton recently got a new headmaster, and I’ve only heard good things. Also know that there is no guarantee that the head of school at any school will be there in 4 years time.</p>

<p>As has been said before, love the school that loves you. Don’t think about the waitlist and select from the 2 great choices you have,</p>

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<p>I was waitlisted at both Concord and NMH. Both are great schools and I would love a spot at either.</p>

<p>At Concord, faculty are referred to by their first names. I’ve heard that at both schools, students support each other and are not competitive in a negative way. One thing to consider is the location–NMH is located in what I affectionately call “the middle of nowhere,” while Concord is in the type of town that comes to mind when you say New England. Concord has a slightly smaller student body and meets regularly in the chapel for some sort of school meeting. I don’t think NMH does that.</p>

<p>Good luck, and if you can, attend revisits!</p>

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<p>Have you attended revisit days at either school yet? If not, I suggest attending at both schools. The revisits really are helpful when making a choice between schools. I also suggest reaching out to Photodad regarding Concord. I’m not sure if there is a current parent from NMH on the board.</p>

<p>We did attend the revisit day at NMH last year. I had many of the same concerns as you regarding all the recent changes, new head, etc. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Here are some responses to your concerns about CA.</p>

<p>With regard to the college matriculation record, I would expect that a school with strong placement would advertise it. You can often find more details or more recent information about college placement on the school’s College Profile sheet that they provide to colleges. It’s usually available on school’s website; the Concord one can be downloaded from the College Counseling page in the Academics tab. This document also contains other interesting information about the school, such as AP test performance. If you can’t find the NHM one, you could ask them to email you a pdf of it. </p>

<p>I doubt that Concord has more legacy parents of Ivy League/MIT/etc schools than other comparable independent schools. It does have several parents who are MIT faculty or staff, but that has zero affect on MIT admissions. I don’t know about Harvard faculty, but the current president of Harvard went to Concord. However, in the past 5 years Concord has sent more than twice as many students to Yale than to Harvard, so the Harvard faculty theory doesn’t fly. I think the strong college placement comes from the rigorous academic program, wide range of extracurricular activities, strong college counseling program, and high SAT scores (achieved without a focus on SAT prep). The relatively high number of admissions at MIT and Caltech results from strong science and math programs, along with an active engineering club. About 150 colleges come to campus each fall to meet with students.</p>

<p>I don’t think that having 50% day students dilutes the boarding feel, although I’m not altogether sure what you mean by that. Day students take advantage of the boarding program, such as being able to stay late in the evening, come in on weekends to meet with friends or work in art studios, stay overnight in a boarding house, etc., so it’s probably more correct to say that the boarding program dilutes the day feel of the school (in a good way).</p>

<p>I also don’t see how it would dilute the faculty/administrator attention for the boarding students, since there would be the same number of faculty and students regardless of the day/boarding ratio, so the students are going get the same amount of attention regardless. Each boarding house of about 25 kids has 4 house parents (2 or 3 of whom live in the house with their families), which I suspect is a larger ratio than at many other schools. All students meet with their advisor for a half hour individually once a week, so they get a lot of faculty attention.</p>

<p>It is true that Concord athletes don’t get recruited by Division I colleges, but it does have students who have gone on to complete at the Division 3 and club level in college (sometimes in different sports than they competed in at Concord).</p>

<p>As stargirl3 mentioned, the entire student body meets first thing in the morning for 15 minutes every school day. Three or four times a week they meet in the (nonreligious) chapel for a Chapel Talk given by a senior; all seniors have the opportunity to give one, and these are one of the highlights of a student’s senior year. The other days they meet in the performing arts center for announcements.</p>

<p>I agree with the above posters that attending revisit days is a great idea. Feel free to ask any other questions.</p>

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<p>tc: I have no affiliation with NMH other than our son’s application experience three years ago. I loved the school vibe, the remoteness, the farm, the work-job program, and the wonderful connection they made with our family, and I had to tell them what they did so right during the admission process that made it so hard to check the “will not attend” box. I probably shouldn’t post this, but I do wonder if CK wouldn’t have been a better fit for the rhythm of a block schedule/semester program (I think the trimester schedule at Choate is tough). He’s happy where he is, but some part of me was left on that campus.</p>

<p>I’ve always liked Concord Academy, too. I used to work in the vicinity (CK was born at Emerson hospital), and loved the iconic town, but have no personal experience with the school. We did a self-tour of the campus the year before our son applied to BS, but he felt it was too small and did not have the particular facilities he was looking for so he did not apply.</p>

<p>I think you are fortunate to have such great choices and don’t think your DC can go wrong with either. I’m with those who encourage you to go to revisits and choose the school that speaks best to your child as a place to call home for the next several years.</p>

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<p>Thank you, especially skieurope, photodad and ChoatieMom, who provided such detailed response to my inquiry. I also appreciate the PM’s I have received — They were thoroughly helpful. Yes, all of you are right and we should go visit the two schools on the revisit days. The only problem is that both DH and I have conflict with our work schedules. Since the trip involves a long international flight, the revisit days seem out of reach for us. Because of this, your comments were particularly helpful.</p>

<p>As a side note, we have had a chance to meet with several alumni of both schools in our area over the weekend. I am happy to report an unexpected benefit from this search process: We are now completely convinced that the boarding school experience, whichever we end up with, is exactly what DC needs. We look forward to the adventure — and thank you all again for the advices.</p>

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<p>A friend of mine is deciding between these two schools as well. He is leaning towards NMH. He’s a very sporty kid, intelligent, not at all artsy. I agree that this decision is about fit. Concord is a wonderful school as well, I think of it as more artsy, more liberal, and less traditional. This is just my opinion, I don’t attend either nor did I apply, but I know people and at both schools. I suggest attending revisits.</p>

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<p>Thanks, exeterbunny. If my DC was sporty, I would have definitely decided on NMH - No question about it. We feel lucky to have such a choice though; competition for BSs in our region is so fierce and many qualified applicants did not get a single acceptance this year. Good luck ~</p>

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<p>I can only speak regarding NMH as my D will probably attend this fall. She is very liberal arts focused and while NMH does have a “sports” reputation, the arts/english departments are top-notch, from what we observed. More importantly for us, we received the impression that if we visited NMH on a random class day that the overall good vibe and family-feeling would be the same as it has been on visit and other official days. I can’t say that we could make that statement about other schools we visited. To us, that says more about a school than most things at this point in the process. Also, regarding OP’s original post questioning change at NMH, I would argue that I would prefer some change rather than keeping things the same b/c of traditions, etc. The world is evolving and BS is no different. I look at change as wanting to be better and not being content with status quo. I will also make a shameless plug for Hugh Silbaugh, NMH Dean of Faculty. He was probably the most impressive orator we heard during this cycle at any school. Passionate, honest, witty and dedicated are words that come to mind. NMH would be best-served by making sure they hold on to him!</p>

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<p>Since we can’t go visit the school on the revisit day again, it is quite comforting to hear from other parents on their impressions. Thanks, CroissantMiser, for your input. I also agree with you on the importance of willingness to change at the organizational level (I once wrote a thesis on this topic eons ago so I should remember a thing or two!). The only concern I had was whether this is due to the school still experiencing the residual aftermath of the reorganization, i.e., the school is still dealing with the learning curve of some sort. From the comments I have received so far, I think I can rest easy on that point. Thanks again.</p>

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<p>I hear NMH has some pretty awesome food…</p>

<p>But that’s not exactly a reason you’d choose to go to BS for. In the end, it’s about fit.</p>

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<p>@mrnephew Really? Food > fit! :D</p>

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<p>I am Alum of CA and D is graduating from NMH. Both are amazing schools. It was a long time ago but I absolutely loved my time at CA. Bottom line is the match for your child. I sat in the NMH admission office looking through a book that showed where every senior was going to college. I was so impressed with the VARIETY, top notch schools to gap years to liberal arts and state schools. I felt like this was an indication of exactly what was being advertised to us on our visits. There are athletes for sure, but there is everything else as well. The block schedule was good for my child, she was amazed at how quickly that hour and twenty minutes flew by with room for questions and real discussions. At the end of both visits My D said “Please leave me here!” and the deal was done, same thing happened for college. This has to do with the excellent job they did “matching” her with colleges that suit HER.</p>

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<p>porter1,
thanks for that insight. as a parent of a D who is probably attending NMH, it’s always great to hear current perspectives. My D has felt the same way after our visits so far: “this is where I belong and where I know I can fit in w/o having to try”…music to parent’s ears!. I like the cross-section of athlete/liberal art/cultural and racial diversity/socio-economic diversity, etc…It probably has been the school that has been most “reflective” of the world we live in out of all the schools we visited thus far.</p>

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<p>@stargirl3 On second thought, I think for me, good food IS good fit. :)</p>

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<p>I loved my visit to CA too, but my DC is leaning toward NMH with a more “boarding school-like” feel. Double-periods are good for the courses of interest as well. Feeling excited about the school already - Can’t go wrong with that. Now only if NMH was a bit closer to JFK airport where we will be flying into most of the time… </p>

<p>For the current students & parents: How do you manage this transportation issue? I know that the school has some sort of a pick-up service from JFK right after a break, but I hear it doesn’t run that frequently. Hope international students, completely jetlagged after a long flight, don’t have to wait around for hours (honestly, this was one of the positives I checked off for CA). How does it all work?</p>

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<p>“It probably has been the school that has been most “reflective” of the world we live in out of all the schools we visited thus far.”</p>

<p>I had the same feeling during our visit. It was the school that felt the most like home. Surprisingly, DC found this feeling to be more of a con. Said something to the effect of “sometimes we learn more from differences than similarities.” I really didn’t expect this response.</p>

<p>Good luck to all who are trying to decide between these two wonderful schools!</p>

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<p>Regarding travel, I can’t speak to NMH, but it seems a lot of schools offer bus service (for a fee) to the nearest airport(s) and some sort of pick-up service at the end of holidays. Our school has only one set pick-up time from one airport and shuttle service from another that runs during a specific time frame. I’ve also heard that some students pool their funds and obtain private car service. This option can sometimes be less than what the school charges for their service.</p>

<p>It can be really difficult arranging travel around such a limited window. We aren’t an international family. We do travel about 1,500 miles from the middle of nowhere. Smaller airports and winter travel delays make this process even more troublesome. </p>

<p>The expense and difficulty involved with student travel has been an eye opening shocker. We seriously underestimated this part of the boarding school experience. </p>

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<p>Transportation is exactly as how @Pops2017 describes.</p>

<p>I am an international boarder, and distance from the airport knocked off a few schools from my initial list. Between waiting hours for the bus and having another couple of hours on the bus was not appealing. I am close enough to Logan that I generally split a cab with a friend. However, I’m traveling to/from Europe which is fairly stress-free. Travel to/from Asia is a different story. As posted on another thread by GMTplus7:</p>

<p>"the problem is that a lot of BS dismiss students for break too late in the day to catch a flight to asia. Or the flights from asia arrive too late in the day to catch the school-organized transportation back to campus. This can mean having to ‘stage’ the night before the flight, or booking expensive private drivers. "</p>