<p>Thanks, mountainhiker - great article!</p>
<p>Hey guys! 34 days till the big march 10th! </p>
<p>Applying for freshmen class of 2016. :)</p>
<p>What was the greatest difficulty you encountered as a freshman in such an elite boarding school?</p>
<p>I would say academic rigor/homework load and balancing the EC/actitivities on campus. Missing family is right up there too, but you get over it over time.</p>
<p>BUMP! sorry that I’ve been gone for a while…exams are slowly approaching as are your awaited results! Any questions that I could try to help you with? Ask me anything!</p>
<p>Ive tried to ask this like twice already, but do you know where the guys get most of their clothes from?</p>
<p>To reiterate mayafairy’s question, how much partying goes on at Deerfield? At every school there is at least a small community of frequent partiers, so how prominent is this group?</p>
<p>Yet another amazing visiting speaker… [Ken</a> Burns Speaks at Deerfield](<a href=“http://deerfield.edu/2012/02/ken-burns-to-speak-at-school-meeting/]Ken”>http://deerfield.edu/2012/02/ken-burns-to-speak-at-school-meeting/)</p>
<p>I am not familiar with where most of the guys get their clothing…polo? This is a very common brand worn by guys at Deerfield and if you want to go for the “typical” prep clothing vineyard vines would be the way to go. But in no way would you be singled out if you didn’t choose to wear these…these are just two that I see some guys (and girls) wearing sometimes) off of the top of my head. </p>
<p>What do you mean by partying? There are dances in which everyone has a great time…but you won’t just see some random people partying on the weekends in the street, or something. Dances are fun and everyone has a really good time at them–would that be considered partying? I can answer your question a little better if you tell me what you mean.</p>
<p>ASK AWAY GUYS! March 10th isn’t too far away…</p>
<p>There’s an occassional bus to Northampton. And a few kids will take a taxi to Greenfield on a Saturday night. It’s definitely isn’t a ‘party’ school. Friday nights, there’s tons of little kids because of big brother/big sister. All the dorms usually have faculty present. As @bingalot says, the dances are fun, as are ‘KFC’ nights (friday concerts). For the freshmen, I think the highlight is ‘Freshmen Lockout’.</p>
<p>Hi! I hope you’re all doing well! I was wondering how you received your Deerfield acceptance? I never received an online login, so I’m assuming DA will notify you by snail mail? Thanks a bunch! Best of luck to all of you! 
xx</p>
<p>pianoswim838: just looking on these threads (procrastination)! I know I don’t go to DA, but got accepted so I can tell you about acceptance letter. I got mine late on march 10th (I think it was a thursday, around 7:00 pm). The package consisted of an envelope with a deerfield pin, an acceptance certificate, an acceptance letter, tuition info, revisit day info, and a letter from the swim coach (my sport). Later the next week, I got a package from deerfield with a poster of deerfield, MA, and a pack of green and white m&m’s (and by the way, they were AMAZING). People who go on here and try and bash on me just cuz I go to PA, please don’t, just trying to give info on a subject that I do know</p>
<p>Wow!!! Thanks so much for the detailed response! I’ve heard a lot of good things about the M&M’s. Hey, <em>if</em> I do get into Andover, then we might be on the swim team together! If you don’t mind me asking (you don’t have to respond), but did you fill out the special interest form for Deerfield? Thanks again!! I hope to meet you one day. :)</p>
<p>While I think it is fantastic that there are some freshman here answering questions, I do think it there are some aspects of the school that need clarifying. I’ve also glanced over the last few pages but I’ll respond to some of those questions and then check back to see if any more are asked directed at me. I was the class of 2010.</p>
<p>@mayafairy
Honestly, how much partying/drugs/alcohol goes on?</p>
<p>A moderate amount. There will always be a group of students drinking before dances. The two biggest drugs used are weed and adderall/ritalin (mainly by the male students). There is not drinking and partying in the dorm every weekend as many students find it is not worth it and amuse themselves in other ways. If a student wants to be part of it, they likely can, if they want to avoid it, they can as well.</p>
<p>Now away from Deerfield is a different story. Students from many different backgrounds and many different social groups at school get together on long weekends/vacations and party. There are many students who refused to drink or do drugs at Deerfield but feel perfectly comfortable doing it on these weekends. Some parents knew this and sheltered their kids from these breaks. Ultimately they did their child a disservice in two ways. First, they removed them from their classmates during times when everyone was relaxed and bonding. They therefore missed out on many great stories and shared experiences. Second, when some of these kids wound up on college campuses the results were disastrous. I know many parents think their children won’t binge drink because they have been raised well, I can tell you that is a naive view to hold. Let you children get exposed to drinking in high school with their friends, not when they show up to college with many unknown people in an unknown environment.</p>
<p>@Classof2015HS
How many people get “straight A’s” all four years? Would it be around one-fifth of the students?</p>
<p>Not many at all. I’m not sure where the freshmen are getting there numbers but while 88-91 is the average range, above 93/94 is generally top 5% of the class. I believe our classes top two students were 95% or 96%. Basically it’s hard to get below an 85 but hard to get above a 93.</p>
<p>Finally, I would like to say that I loved Deerfield. I had a very special class, we had great times together and we continue to have great times together. I know many other prep-school college students and nobody is nearly as close as the students that graduated from Deerfield. Sure, the school has some flaws, but if you are looking for a good education, a fun time and great friends, look no further.</p>
<p>DAgrad - Thanks for joining us!</p>
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<p>Leaving the drug/alcohol issue aside, it’s easy to participate in long weekends & vacations when you have money, and a lot of kids at Deerfield do. What about the kids that don’t . . . do they tend to be excluded from much of this off-campus social scene? And how do these differences in family background/wealth impact the less affluent kids’ quality of life at school?</p>
<p>I have many other questions, but I’ll start with that one . . . thanks!!!</p>
<p>Wow, this is a great thread! Thank you all for posting! It’s really useful!</p>
<p>Dodgersmom</p>
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<p>Very fair question and one that the answer will vary slightly by year. First of all, there is a limiting factor that there won’t be any venue or house that can hold all 150 students on a long weekend. Tho two times that generally all can be accommodated are senior spring break (Nassau) and the first clump of senior parties. Sadly these come at the conclusion of ones Deerfield tender. Nassau is also generally limiting but we were lucky to have 3 students with homes there, so that helped to alleviate some of the parental tension and financial tension for their friends. </p>
<p>The second limiting factor is that if a student has an empty house or parents that are willing to let them make use of the house they tend to want to keep the numbers down (especially if their parents are monitoring) and like to limit it to their friends. The largest event I can recall was a 100 student (combination of two grades) get together at a bar/restaurant followed up by a few smaller more exclusive parties.</p>
<p>Finally it is important to note that while everyone is quite friendly at Deerfield and I think its one of it’s best attributes, when people tend to have close friends, they tend to come from similar backgrounds. There was not one group of friends; however, I can point to that came from all one background or one region. The largest group of friends, in our year, was dominated by boys & girls from the NYC,CT&LI geographic areas. Included however were students from California to all the way to Bermuda. That group was also fairly close with a group of lower income boys from the same area and I felt they always treated them with respect. The lower income girls did not appear to ever be close with the girls in that group of friends.</p>
<p>So when it came to these parties and vacations the initial factor was friends. If a party had a limit it was filled with one’s close friends first. Now these parties were initiated by many different groups of friends so it was always possible that the larger or popular groups were excluded. People generally were very loyal to their closest friends and there is very little social climbing as most students feel very secure with their friends and their place within the Deerfield community.</p>
<p>I apologize for the long explanation, and I realize I may not have gotten my point across. Let me try and conclude. Lower income students who left for the long weekends could almost always find a party or event to go to. There failure rate to find a party was the equivalent of the wealth students. Was there always one big party or one city that everyone conversed on, no, this only happened occasionally. That said I never felt that income or friend group was a limiting factor on the fun one could have on a long weekend. Friends were always sharing rides and Deerfield offered buses back to NYC. Did certain group of friends not want to party, yes, they would go home and they enjoyed that too. Effectively a lower income student never was excluded because of their income.</p>
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<p>Extremely little. This was actually one of the ironies that came up frequently on campus with the administration. They wanted to take away large monitors and projectors as they felt they were items of have/have-nots. Yet there were about equal number of students that came from low income backgrounds and high income backgrounds that had these devices. Eventually it was dropped our year (although I believe later reintroduced).</p>
<p>Another item that comes up is dress code and this applies more to the female half of campus. For the men it can be quite had to distinguish between somewhere wearing a $500-1000 outfit to class or one wearing a $100-200. For the girls, it becomes much more apparent and I believe actually affects them more. The boys can wear the same blazer and tie all week without anyone noticing, caring, or saying anything. The girls cannot get away with wearing the same top or dress all week. The school does provide funds for those who need it for uniforms but it tends to only solve the situation for the boys not the girls. Sadly I’m not quite sure how to fix this as even if the school provided more to the girls on FA, the wealthy girls would certainly go out and buy more expensive clothing and jewelry to distinguish themselves.</p>
<p>I also should clarify that with both of these answers I’m not trying to pick on the girl subculture at Deerfield but it is generally harder to fit into and I have known multiple girls (from all walks of life) that struggled with it. Possibly because all girls can somewhat feel like they are always trying to fit into the male dominated Deerfield culture. The boys all tend to mesh better regardless of the backgrounds, its not exceptional, but its pretty good.</p>
<p>Thank you, DAgrad . . . amazing, detailed, wonderful answer! So, if you don’t mind, a few more questions (recently posed in another school thread, but equally relevant here) . . .</p>
<p>Quality of life - Certain other schools oft-mentioned on this board have a reputation of being “pressure cookers.” Would you describe Deerfield the same way?</p>
<p>Clubs & Activities - One consequence of the intense academic demands at those “oft-mentioned schools” is that even though there might be lots of opportunities to get involved in clubs and specialized activities, the reality is that ones time is so limited that involvement in any activity can rarely be more than superficial. For example, if your dream is to start a competitive synchronized swimming team (just a hypothetical), it’s just never going to happen at “Big Name School X” because the school expects you to be focused 100% on your required activities (academics and school sports). What about at Deerfield?</p>
<p>Entering as a 10th (or 11th) grader - It’s never an easy transition. From what you observed during your years at Deerfield, is there anything about the school that makes the transition either easier or more difficult than at other schools?</p>
<p>What would you change? - If you could go back and run the school for a year, what, if anything, would you change? Why?</p>
<p>Thanks so much again for taking the time to contribute to this thread - your efforts are appreciated!!!</p>
<p>HI, in full disclosure this is Cheez32’s Mom…So how do the kids find out if a student is on FA? I would like to think they don’t talk about it. Is it an assumption based on where they live, or the cloths they wear? There are kids in our town that come from very comfortable families, but you wouldn’t really know it. At these parties do you think the parent’s have knowledge of the drinking but turn a blind eye? Also I was wondering how day students are honestly perceived? Signing off…Mom…</p>
<p>Yes we did it. [Deerfield</a> wins Green Cup Challenge](<a href=“http://deerfield.edu/2012/03/green-cup-results-da-beats-andover-environment-wins/]Deerfield”>http://deerfield.edu/2012/03/green-cup-results-da-beats-andover-environment-wins/)</p>