Since there’s no revisit days for us (and most other schools), I thought I would start this thread for any questions you might have about Loomis Chaffee. I’m a new student this year and I would love to answer any questions about Loomis or boarding schools in general!
AHA! I was looking for a thread like this lol.
So like, how is the “Loomis experience” for you? and like how are the English programs etcetc I’m deciding between peddle and Loomis so I wanna know
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The Loomis experience for me has been great, and I have made a lot of really good friends here. I found it really easy to make friends here whatever kind of person you are, with the variety of opportunities on campus for you to find new people, discover new interests, etc. The English program here is pretty awesome: all sophomores take Writing Workshop (lecture-based) once every cycle (7 days), and they have been very helpful to my writing skills as a not-so-great writer. The workshops fuse nicely into our English curriculum as we practice the skills in class.
The dining services also became a lot better this term since we just got a new food provider, and let’s just say people LOVED Poke Bowls. In general, I enjoyed my experience so far with plenty of resources for digging into my pre-existing interests and discovering new passions, as well as meeting awesome friends and passionate faculty. Let me know if you have any other questions 
@sparkatzz Thanks for offering your insights.
You may not know the answer to this, but we want to know more about the Loomis Scholar program. We see on the website what the perks are, but we are trying to get a sense for how rich of an experience is being a LS? For example, the website says you have special meetings (meetings with the HOS, etc). Are those meaningful mentoring meetings? Or once a year some cookies and punch? Is being a Loomis Scholar a meaningful, ongoing, rich affiliation? Or is it more of a cool honor, but not much else?
Again, I realized you might not know the answer.
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@Calliemomofgirls Haha, unfortunately, I don’t know much about LC Scholars other than the information on the website. You can probably ask the admissions for more information or to connect you with an LC Scholar.
@Mercurrii I was between the same two schools just last year (spoiler alert: I said yes to loomis). I planned on making this thread but looks like @sparkatzz beat me to it! Haha. For me, as a student whose focus is more an academics than athletics, I would say that Loomis did a really good job of balancing the two. In my opinion, it seemed to do a much better job than Peddie that seemed to be a heavily sports dominated environment and school culture. At loomis, I feel that they do a great job of balancing different extracurricular activities so one does not outweigh the other and make it clear that, essentially for everyone, the priority is academics.
While I was reading through your past threads, I realized that you are an LGBT+ individual and I’m not sure if loomis admissions highlighted that we are actually starting an all-gender floor next year in (I believe) Flagg Hall. Whether or not, this is something you would make use of they would leave completely up to you. But, I think that does a good job of exemplifying Loomis’s commitment to inclusivity in our community and ensuring that students do not feel alienated by the traditional boarding school culture. I would say that, in general, loomis has a reputation as one of the more progressive boarding schools and I have found that to be true throughout my time there.
When it comes to the English program. I’ve come to really love it and I’m a more humanities focused individual and still feel that I have learned a lot through the program. At my old school, all we did were analytical essays. Loomis does a good job of breaking things down and taking things back to mastering the basics and then expanding on it. Whether it be quote integration or grammar, I believe our english department does an exceptional job of preparing and eventually demanding of students higher level writing of all forms.
@Calliemomofgirls while I am not an LC scholar, I do have several friends who are and I can say that the program creates a semi-elite group of students who are often very involved on campus, often due to their innate nature and drive, and ensures that they are provided ample resources to succeed at Loomis. The LC scholars tend to form a close relationship with the head of school and have several meetings with her throughout the year. While Dr. Culbert does not necessarily act as their advisor (she typically is only the advisor of the Student Council President and officers), she does form close relationships with them as they have several meetings with her throughout the year. It is important to note that often these meetings are by grade so the group is even smaller and more intimate. I think that being an LC scholar is particularly helpful if you’re somebody who plans to be involved in a lot of school activities such as clubs, committees, student council, etc. A lot of the time we send out applications for such positions and being an LC scholar does often give students a boost in that process since it signifies that they have already been selected as a highly capable individual within our community.
@CC4life @sparkatzz Ahhhh! TYSM! I talked with my parents about Loomis a bit more, and it definitely seems like the school for me! But I was trying to find more information on the dress code and dorms etc. since the only public student handbook was the 2016-2017 version, so I was wondering if you could tell me more about those things? TYSM!
@Mercurrii I’ll start off with the dorms:
I believe that most freshmen come in with doubles, but there are some who request and receive singles (I haven’t really heard of people not getting the choice they want for a dorm). Each dorm has its on culture and honestly, I’ve found that everyone seems to find the dorm that works best for them over the years. There are solely underclassmen dorms and also solely upperclassmen dorms. We also have dorms that are a mix of 10-12th graders (i.e. Flagg and Palmer). I will say that the girls dorms , in general, tend to be nicer than the guys dorms. No one really knows why, but they just tend to get the nicer buildings and more recently renovated dorms. We’re currently undergoing major renovations on several dorms so by the time you would move in a large number of the dorms, particularly the ones around the Quad, would seem brand new.
In terms of dorm life, each dorm differs on its policies in terms of strictness regarding room inspections, lights out, in rooms. etc., but the check in policies are typically standardized across the board. I will add that the boys dorms have competitions against each other ranging from Dodgeball to Basketball (I’m not really sure what the girls dorms do). Let me know if you have any other questions regarding dorm life, prefects, RAs, or really anything else.
When it comes to the dress code, it is pretty relaxed compared to schools like Deerfield or Hill, but at the same time you are still expected to look presentable (i.e. no sweatpants or leggings). The girls tend to have more flexibility with the dress code as they can pretty much where anything that is appropriate as long as they are not wearing jeans. Guys typically wear khakis and a hoodie, collared shirt, or button-down shirt. Let me know if you have any other questions. I know I’ve really come to love Loomis and I think it’s really an environment that is balanced and therefore does a good job of catering to the needs and desires of wide variety of students.
What @CC4life said pretty much summed it up.
I think in general people in each dorm bond very well with the dorm activities and spending a LOT of time together. Some of the girls dorms host dances sometimes, and sometimes they have bowling trips or other activities depending on the dorm. The new co-ed floor is still under discussion and hopefully the school will come up with a detailed and good plan soon, but I think they are only for upperclassmen?
The dress code feels pretty laid-back most of the times, especially for girls. For shirts, usually it’s fine as long as it doesn’t have a lot of graphics; No hoodies or graphic tees unless they are the Loomis ones. The nice thing about being a boarder is that you can wear sweatpants to breakfast and still have time to change for classes.
@sparkatzz Hey! Random question but does loomis allow dyed hair?
@Mercurrii – Are there schools that don’t?? (not that DD has dyed hair, but gosh! gets out all school handbooks to read them more closely…)
Also, not that this matters at all, Merc, but I realized that I have always pictured you with dyed hair and I didn’t even know it until you asked this. HA!
@Calliemomofgirls Yeah, I noticed none of the schools specifically mentioned it. But since Loomis has such a different dress code than my current school, I was wondering if my hair needs to undergo changes by the end of summer too 
And yeah, your picture of me with coloured hair is kind of accurate. I dyed my hair every 2 months last year until my mom told me to stop lol. But she said if I got into BS I can dye my hair again and since I did…let’s just say there’s going to be some blue very soon 
Question:
When is the whole school ever together — all school meetings? Meals?
@Mercurrii I’m not 100% sure, but I’m pretty sure dyed hair is fine because the swim team and a lot of other athletics teams bleach their hair towards the end of their seasons. It’s a loomis tradition to dye your hair for sports, so I’m sure having your hair dyed throughout the rest of the year is fine.
@Calliemomofgirls The whole school is together during convocations which occur several times throughout the year, I want to say at least once every 3 weeks, but it is at varying frequencies. Typically, these involve guest speakers or addressing something of importance for the entire school. Our last speakers were soccer player Abby Wambach and journalist David French. Additionally we have class dinners which are supposed to occur several times throughout the year, mostly through the spring term, however, we just got an email that told us we are doing remote learning for the rest of the term so that isn’t the case this year. We also have class meetings around once every 3 weeks during community free which is a 1 hr block after our first class everyday. These meetings are for announcements, info for the grade, etc. we also just started a new house/team program which creates school wide teams that compete against each other and often times these competitions are during the class meetings. Typically, dinner and breakfast is attended by all boarders, however, lunch periods are staggered, so about 1/3rd of the student body has lunch together at each given time. This is to avoid overcrowding in dining hall lines.
okay last question I promise.
What are the showers like? Do yall change in the showers or do you go into the bathroom w a robe or something?
@Mercurrii I’m certain that you are fine with dyed hair. For showers, there are plenty of showers on each floor (my floor has 4), and a lot of people in my dorm (girls dorm) go in w a robe, and some other people change in the showers too. People also put music on in the bathroom, and normally there are not a lot of people showering at the same time.
@sparkatzz There is a relatively high number of day students for a boarding school. How is a sense of community achieved at Loomis? What do most boarders do over the weekend? Thanks
@redwhine I think the boarding percentage is ～70% which is pretty similar to the numbers at Choate or Andover. As a boarder, I don’t really feel there’s a division in day student/boarders, and a lot of the times I forget who’s a day student :lol: . In terms of community, everyday people hang out a lot in the student center and the dining hall in between classes and after school. There are also class meetings, formal dinners, and people get really hyped up about sports games throughout the week. And one of the most important things coming up, is that Loomis is going back to compete with Kent as rivals, which is definitely going to be a boost for school spirit and a sense of community.
The boarders actually have a lot of things to do on the weekends. Because of Loomis’s vicinity of the town, I often walk into town with my friends on the weekends to get groceries or do homework in the café. There are also some brunch and Thai restaurants. The school also organizes a lot of student activities (movie screenings, trivia nights) on campus and trips to malls, trampoline parks, movie theaters, etc.
@sparkatzz Thank you- very kind of you to answer our questions!