<p>Any NMHers for next year?
Or for that matter, anyone already there?</p>
<p>My son currently attends (9th grade boy). Hellosunshine is a current student (9th grade girl) who posts occasionally. Keylyme has a son that graduated NMH and one son who currently attends. laxtaxi and warriorboy648 have current students attending NMH. Linda S lives in the area.</p>
<p>I believe that agogparent’s student will be attending NMH next year; apples & bananas and Penquins may be students attending next year who post on this board (I can’t remember what everyone decided).</p>
<p>NMH is a fantastic school – let me know if you have any questions!</p>
<p>Going NMH!!</p>
<p>Great! I am going next year entering as a male sophomore. How about you guys?</p>
<p>My son will be a repeat sophomore playing basketball. We are from NC and he can’t wait for late August ot get here.</p>
<p>Wow – my son currently attends NMH as a freshman, so he will be a sophomore next year. So far I know of 5 new, incoming sophomore boys.</p>
<p>I found your posts (and keylyme’s, laxtaxi’s, and hellosunshine’s) over the past year very helpful in understanding the culture and lifestyle at NMH. It really helped my son make his decision.</p>
<p>Any advice about early preparation - Family Weekend reservations, stuff you can’t do without, and preparing for the first few weeks away from home?</p>
<p>An update-</p>
<p>We attended one of the revisit days and my son accepted at NMH. Now we’ve shifted back to travel, graduation and summer plans, but we will be back on boarding school topics in a few months.</p>
<p>bballdad – </p>
<p>to answer your questions:</p>
<p>Family weekend reservations – there are tons of places to stay, including the guest house on the Northfield campus, the very cheap Windmill Motel and lots of other places. The NMH website has a long list of places to stay under admissions/visiting. Once the calendar is set, you can start making reservations. Costs tend to be higher in the fall because of the number of people visiting the area to see the leaves.</p>
<p>One warning – if you can visit unlimited times, definitely don’t miss family days. If you can only visit a few times, you might not want to purchase airline tickets in advance – you might want to visit another time. My son was in a play, so we visited 2 weeks before family days. Same with a sport – you might want to schedule the visit for a time you can see him play. </p>
<p>Stuff you can’t do without?? depends on the kid – a good computer, a nice desk chair and comfortable linens for the bed seem to be the main ones. NMH will send out a supply list this summer with a list of the basics – there is a shopping area about 30 minutes away in Hadley, with a Walmart/Target/Staples/etc. </p>
<p>Preparing for the first couple of weeks – my kid was used to being away (summer programs for several years) and the first couple of weeks they are very busy. We just made sure that his room was organized and that he has what he needed (less stress) and he knew he could call us any time on his cell. They work hard to keep them focused, busy and not worrying about being homesick.</p>
<p>bballdad, my advice is don’t worry about the small stuff now. That can wait. Take this time to enjoy your son’s acceptance and get excited about NMH. It is a wonderful school and I am confident your son will enjoy it. As for preparing for those first few weeks, I suggest you go back and read last August/September posts on the prep school forum, lots of parents (me included) bemoaning how hard it was to give them up and be an empty nester. It did get better but those first few weeks were really, really hard, at least for me.</p>
<p>There are also stores in Keene, NH (30 minutes north). Same as Amherst…Target, WalMart, Staples, Dick’s, etc. No sales tax, though!</p>
<p>My son is a current sophomore, but probably a year older than your son as he was a ninth grade repeat. They might very well become friends if your son is going to play V basketball (and if he is, he must be amazing as they don’t recruit many underclassmen).</p>
<p>It is an amazing school. Congratulations!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the good advice. Our son is just coming to grips with idea of going to boarding school and is dealing with with the idea of losing his day to day relationships with his friends. He is very excited about NMH, but the upcoming change gives him pause. Growing up is hard, but he is looking forward to August.</p>
<p>I was also wondering…
Is NMH strictly a sporty school? Do you have to be a strong athlete?
Can you get into an excellent college (Ivy League) through superior
academic performance and a little bit of sports?</p>
<p>It is absolutely not a “jock” school at all! In fact, I really think their main strength is in the arts, or at least it is a “tie” between the two. Though like most preps, they do take athletics seriously! </p>
<p>btw…do you play tennis??? Have you seen the twelve new courts? Not quite completed, but almost. NMH is still hard at work on many campus improvements.</p>
<p>The IVY question…you don’t see as many Ivy-goers from NMH, partly because they don’t instill that idea into the students and partly because they don’t necessarily have as many kids who could get into an Ivy. I think it is a mix of athletes (mostly basketball players) and strong students (not to say that the athletes aren’t excellent students as well!) who get in, and this is from my own observations - my son lets me view his intranet account showing college acceptances.</p>
<p>The answer to the Ivy question is yes, you can certainly attend an ivy after going to NMH (this year they had a total of 20 acceptances to the ivies). Keylyme is correct, though – they don’t focus on the Ivies as the ultimate goal of every high school kid. They work hard to match the kid with the college that best suits them – and for many kids that might be a small LAC. For the stronger sports oriented student, it might be as a recruited athlete at a Division I school. I also think that NMH lacks the ivy legacies that you see at some of the big name boarding schools --which impacts the ivy admission rate.</p>
<p>You definitely don’t have to be a “jock” to enjoy and benefit from NMH. Nor do you have to be “artsy”. The beauty of NMH is that it is a school for everyone willing to be a part of a community. There are kids who are exceptional athletes and those that just enjoy shooting hoops, students whose artwork gets national attention when they are a freshman – and those who just enjoy seeing an occasional play. There are kids who focus on community service and there are kids whose only focus is on academics. And then there are kids that just like it all. All these kids are members of the NMH community – and they know that whatever their contribution is to the community, they are valued.</p>
<p>^^She is correct. It is an extremely inclusive community. No one is singled out as “weird”, or if they are, people still accept it. My son’s friends run the gamut from top athletes to computer geeks to artsy types.</p>
<p>I agree too. NMH is very accepting of kids who are different. It is a school with good athletics that is not a jock school. It is a school with an excellent arts program that is not an arts school. D has friends who play sports who aren’t athletes, and friends who engage in the arts who aren’t artists or performers. </p>
<p>As for the Ivy question, if a kid’s goal is to get into an Ivy I’m not sure NMH is the best place for that kid. Not because NMH can’t or doesn’t place graduates in the Ivy leagues, but rather because NMH’s culture doesn’t emphasize Ivy league credentialing as a trophy or mark of success.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info.
But I’m still wondering if you do really well at academics at nmh and only play a little bit of sports can you go to an ivy league institution if you wish to?</p>
<p>No. 10 char.</p>
<p>You need to do more than do really well in academics to get into an Ivy League from any school. Ivies want more than just academics.</p>