That’s not how the boarders feel. And the boarding students have been a very high priority under the current head.
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Regarding The Cambridge School of Weston, I would agree that the boarding community is robust in spite of its size. However, in terms of academics, the school serves kids focused on arts very well, but does an inadequate job in the area of STEM. Furthermore, a super intelligent student would potentially not be super intrigued by the school’s academic rigor (or lack thereof).
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Hijacking this thread! Current CA student. We have separate committees to handle boarding affairs that meet every week alongside the all-school meetings. 6 houses with 1-2 Heads of Houses (some are bigger than the other) + Head & Vice Head of Boarding that meets separately with the dean of residential life weekly alongside the other meetings. Boarding students (40%) are very, very, very well-taken care of with very enthusiastic student leaders and house parents that are very caring. My closest friends come from the virtue of boarding.
On the topic of LGBTQ acceptance, I’d argue CA is very accepting. We were one of the first schools to have a gay-straight alliance and we’ve had multiple LGBTQ+ speakers come to campus and be welcomed by the administration. There’s a good amount of faculty too who identify as LGBTQ. In fact, my first house parents that I met my freshman year was a gay couple and no one “cared”. Many of my friends have same-sex parents and its basically a non-issue alongside the usual queer affinity groups.
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I’m sure I’ll have more insight when I get on campus, but from what I’ve seen, Westover is very accepting of LGBTQ+ students! There are a few queer dorm parents and a good amount of queer students too. In addition, the Westover administration seems to be very good at listening to students on issues they have and acting on them. For example, they changed their chapel meetings to be Lumina to be more inclusive and when BIPOC students provided a list of demands during the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the administration began fulfilling each one. From what I can tell, there’s good progress!
(But this is all information I’ve read up on or heard secondhand, so there’s a chance I might have heard wrong!)
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I second @mondaydevil!! I have heard amazing things about Westover’s inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community. It’s also all girls, and I really think you should look into it!
If you are interested in a bigger, coed school, NMH is super diverse and accepting of the LGBTQ+ community.
I would recommend Andover @Lily1! According to school surveys, roughly 30% of campus is part of the LGBTQ+ community (with ~40% of girls identifying as LGBTQ+/questioning) so the student body is definitely pretty accepting.
Additionally, there’s All-Gender Housing and girls’ dorms in general are super supportive. Lmk if you have any questions!
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Cambridge School of Weston and Putney are supportive and have a thriving LGBTQ+ community.
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Does anyone have any ideas for a safe school? The school that was mine looked great until I talked to a few alumnae and did more research to realize they were a little too religious for me and I was a little too gay for them. It’s not exactly that I am against religious schools it’s just that I want to be able to be completely myself on campus (a main reason I am looking at boarding school to begin with). Thanks
You may want to take a look at NMH. I’ve heard they have an all-gender dorm as well.
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George is very LGBTQ friendly and is very much a place where everyone is encouraged to be their authentic selves (i.e., not a place where there is an ideal to conform to.) Take a look!
I think you will find most schools have LGBTQ students and have policies designed to be accepting. Whether the environment is as welcoming is often more subtle and is something that’s more baked in to the culture, so you will need to do your homework on this. While this is easier to do in person, you can probably see from social media, for example, whether pictures from dances show couples who look relatable.
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I admire and respect your honesty. For many of us these are “new” issues, not something we have dealt with for a large chunk of our lives. It does take some getting used to. Our kids all learn from example and some just don’t have the benefit of kind and decent parents.
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I’ve added George to my list after receiving this feedback a lot and doing more research of my own.
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Choate has a large LGBT+ population on campus. As a member of the community, it’s been incredibly accepting.
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That’s good to know, choate has been on and off my list for a while now
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Choate is definitely an LGBTQ friendly community. During our son’s time there, he produced this video (among others) for SMASS that you may find helpful.
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While you check out George, take a look at Peddie in the same region. You will find the the community is welcoming any diverse, kids are encouraged to be themselves. LGBTQ+ diversity is also reflected in the faculty, which I think is important. They have added a gender neutral dorm this year.
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Snapchat:
I was CA grad during the super-funky '80s. Is there still a place there for funky kids?
@dsylvian, yes, CA (Concord Academy) isn’t quite as funky as it was in the 80’s but there’s still a place for everyone. Everyone fits in. And what’s nice is that not only is the school LGBTQ accepting, so is the town.
Still funky
I had a classmate at CSW in the 80’s who was a transfer from CA - she thought CA was too uptight, LOL.
I think both schools have perhaps become a tad less… different? Or everyone else has caught up.
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