<p>I'm really interested in attending Cate, I even have an interview set up. </p>
<p>But I have read some really negative things about Cate on this website. Is this school any good?</p>
<p>What negative things have you heard about Cate? Because Cate is a VERY superb school.</p>
<p>I’ve heard about Drug use, I’ve heard about discrimination of religion. Thats really it, but thats enough for me to think its bad. Also, do you have any suggestions on what a girl should wear to the interview?</p>
<p>Cate is a fantastic school. </p>
<p>There is one poster on this site, Princess’Dad, who rants repeatedly about his interview experience being marred by an apparently drug-using, secularist tour guide. He has said it so many times that it’s almost laughable at this point. </p>
<p>There is virtually no drug use at top flight boarding schools (Cate among them) because of a rigidly followed one-strike policy. Cate is safe, provides a superb education, and can mount a pretty good argument that it’s campus is the most beautiful in the U.S. (except for Thacher’s, of course.)</p>
<p>ThacherParent you are so naive…</p>
<p>Maybe, or maybe you chose poorly.</p>
<p>@ThacherParent: I would disagree that there is “virtually no drug use at top flight boarding schools”, but it is definitely lower than the national average, and much less “hard” drugs. It’s really a non-issue. You won’t be pressured to take drugs. There will always be people who make stupid choices, even if they’re otherwise intelligent.</p>
<p>At Thacher, there is virtually no drug use on campus. It’s a genuine rarity. I shouldn’t have brushed all top flight boarding schools with the same brush; that was stupid. Thacher is what I know best and I do stand behind my opinion with respect to that School.</p>
<p>Thacher and Cate are outstanding schools in all respects, where there is really little to no drug use. This is not the case in most New England boarding schools, including most of the top-flight schools.</p>
<p>And why would that be?</p>
<p>I can’t speak about the use of drugs at N.E. boarding schools. Nor can I point to specific reasons why there is no drug use at Thacher (or virtually none) in comparison to its N.E. peers. I’m only glad it’s the case.</p>
<p>Must be the weather, Hollywood, state budget crisis, fire and the incoming earthquak… ;)</p>
<p>I grew up very close to Cate. Just over the hill from Summerland in Montecito. We now live in another town but reasonably close.</p>
<p>My daughter chose not to apply to Cate because she is into competitive math and the answers we got on the tour from the math teacher about their math team were unsatisfactory. He told us he’d answer our questions IF she got accepted. Wrong answer!</p>
<p>She is now very happy and thriving at Exeter.</p>
<p>I’d go to Cate if weather/beach is a big consideration. You cannot beat the climate at Cate, or Thacher. It’s paradise, it really is. We’ve also lived in Hawaii, so we speak from experience.</p>
<p>BTW, Thacher has killer pizza at Boccali’s just down the hill</p>
<p>…there is really little to no drug use…</p>
<p>A weighty statement like that made with no substantiation whatsoever invites enormous skepticism. Do Thatcher and Cate do anonymous surveys among their students as many northeast schools do - and do you have access to all of the privileged data - from ALL of the schools? Or is your “statement” simply an exhalation of some wishful thinking?</p>
<p>Yes, here are two brand new, national studies that included top flight boarding schools around the country, conducted anonymously, where Thacher was rated first in the U.S. in areas of stress, diet, sexual behavior, gender equality and drug use. This is solid third-party substantiation of my claims. The studies are referenced in this article: [The</a> Thacher School](<a href=“http://thacher.org/common/news_detail.asp?newsid=551000&from=archive_1]The”>http://thacher.org/common/news_detail.asp?newsid=551000&from=archive_1).</p>
<p>Further, as a parent close to the goings-on at the School, there have been virtually no (or maybe just “no”) disciplinary hearings at the School related to drug use for at least the past six years. Again, I stand behind my claims about the environment at Thacher. </p>
<p>You don’t know me, of course. But, “wishful thinking” is not something I’ve ever been accused of - perpetually skeptical, maybe.</p>
<p>Is there a link available for this IGSB survey?</p>
<p>ThacherParent seems pretty aggresive in promoting the Thacher School. Good for Thacher! Cate and Thacher are fine schools, but they won’t be able to attract the strongest applicants <em>away</em> from NE, reasons being sending kids to a prep school is mostly a traditional in the eastern part of the country. Most applicants and most of the most prestigious and best schools are in NE and surrounding area, so geographically the east has the advantage. Besides, Cate and Thacher are just two smaller schools with no comparable peers in their area. They don’t NEED those many applicants anyway. But if you ever want to attend a BS in CA, Thacher or Cate is the way to go - no brainer!</p>
<p>I suppose that I am “aggressive” in my support of Thacher. However, the promotion of the HADES boarding schools is deafening on this site and far overwhelms what few rejoinders you hear from the likes of me. Forgive me for being a booster.</p>
<p>I am an East Coaster myself and highly familiar with the wonderful roster of N.E. giants. The greatest candidate overlap with Thacher comes from Exeter, St. Paul’s, Andover, Deerfield, Groton, and Cate. Last year’s yield at Thacher was 83%, if not the highest boarding school result in the nation, then in the top three.</p>
<p>The only point I ever really try to make is that Thacher (and Cate) are genuine equals of the HADES schools (and other NE schools) and not “just two smaller schools” in California. This is my opinion of course.</p>
<p>OK, let’s get real here. First, I do not disagree in the slightest that Thacher and Cate are both fine schools. However, ThacherParent, I give you an A+ as a cheerleader but an F in both skepticism and objectivity.</p>
<p>First, the “article” you rely upon for support is simply a PR puffery piece on Thacher’s own web site. It selectively draws from ONE (i.e., not two) extremely limited scope survey of only 23 schools with an even smaller sprinkling of Tier1 and Tier 2 schools. (Note that the second “national study” to which you alluded appears to me to be simply a survey of attitudes among only Thacher students and parents.)</p>
<p>Second, data from the 23 school survey seems not to be available for any public review so the “selectivity” of Thacher’s PR use of it deserves much more skepticism than you have shown about it.</p>
<p>Third, you describe Thacher as “first in the U.S.” based upon this PR article - but the most you MIGHT honestly say is “first among a limited sample of 23 schools,” most of which are apparently less than top schools.</p>
<p>Finally, with respect to student drug use which had become the focus of discussion here, even in Thacher’s PR piece there is NO claim that Thacher is first or lowest for drug use, only that “substance use by students is practically nonexistent at Thacher.” What does “practically nonexistent” mean? Less than 1%? Well, “less than 1 percent” was quoted as the average among the 23 schools surveyed. Even if Thacher had twice as much drug use as the average of the 23 schools, say less than 2%, some might claim that as a practically nonexistent problem too. Anyway, you have both seriously mis-quoted the puffery piece with respect to the statement it made about Thacher student drug use - and you have exhibited absolutely no skepticism about its highly selective use of one sparse non-public data set.</p>
<p>
well it doesn’t show in the small sample of applicants who post on this site. In this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/664905-master-list-2009-acceptances.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/664905-master-list-2009-acceptances.html</a>
Thacher only appears three times in the whole list. The candidate overlap with ADESG is not so obvious, espcially if you compare with the overlap of A & E, or S & D… btw, by “smaller schools” I didn’t try to imply that C and T are “local”. I was just talking about their size.</p>