Commonwealth School in Boston

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<p>Does anyone have information about the Commonwealth School in Boston? I would love to hear candid opinions from parents, current students, past students, teachers, etc. It is a small school, and it has been a challenge to find people who actually know about this school. Many thanks.</p>

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<p>I only know a little, and since it’s a small day school, you won’t find much here. It’s a warm place, good for very smart kids , generally more on the ‘soft side’ - English/history/language than the ‘hard side’ - math/science. The sports program is also small, although they’ve been putting a lot of effort lately into the fencing team.
Get to an open house - you should have plenty of opportunity to speak to current families.</p>

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<p>Sorry not to be much help except to say that the 2 families I know who have had kids there have loved it. Plenty of professors’ kids there, when I looked at it a few years ago. Not sure what that means, other than very education-oriented families!</p>

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<p>my only experience is with someone who felt like they didn’t fit into their local ps due to quirkiness, “different” interests, and pursued Commonwealth because they are known not to be as academically rigorous, but interested in having kids pursue their own unique interests.</p>

<p>The student ended up matriculating at Williams, so with an N of 1, s/he didn’t do too badly.</p>

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<p>I am on my second kid there. We have been very happy with the school. Work load is pretty intense but teachers are very supportive and keep close track of how kids are doing - strong advising system - kids meet weekly one on one. Kids are academic but not competitive and it’s a friendly group of kids. They actually have very strong math and science programs esp physics and advanced math. Arts are small but nice. True not for someone who wants serious sports or a large school Both kids love that it is in Boston and you can take advantage of the surroundings. There are quirky kids but not quirky kids too. Definitely for kids who are self motivated to work hard though and you don’t have a lot of free time for outside activities.</p>

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<p>Can’t imagine how anyone would think Commonwealth is not rigorous. Median SATs break 2100 normally, and a commendable showing on APs, and in college placement. It’s not your standard prep school, to be sure.</p>

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<p>Agree with nemom - Commonwealth is very academically rigorous -all classes are considered equivalent of AP or honors and by Junior senior year there are small seminars that are like college classes. A number of kids go to Ivies but it’s not a school that puches kids into Ivies just to have good admission stats - they want kids to go to colleges that will work for tehm individually.</p>

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<p>If anyone is interested the open house is this Sunday from 3-5pm</p>

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<p>I attended the open house yesterday at Commonwealth and was impressed. In particular, the teachers seem to be very good.</p>

<p>There was one thing that surprised me, however. One of the parents said that 9th grade is graded totally as Pass/Fail. Is this true? Could someone confirm it or deny it.</p>

<p>Assuming it is true, could anyone give me the thinking on why the school uses mandatory Pass/Fail in the 9th grade. I think this is highly unusual. Also, what happens in the other three years? Is there rampant grade inflation–perhaps under the theory that “everyone is above average.” Does anyone know what the grading distribution is in the school?</p>

<p>Many thanks. As I said above, Commonwealth seems interesting and impressive.</p>

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<p>Freshman year is pass fail - the theory is that it gives kids from various different academic backgrounds a chance to acclimate to the academic demands of the school from more of a content vs outcome perspective. Kids see grades all along but on the transcripts classes are listed as pass fail. In following years the grading is the same as what kids were seeing it is just recorded officially. There is no grade inflation - it is very hard to get an A and there are only a handful of straight A students in any given class. The school actually send a grade distribution sheet to colleges so they can see that B’s are very successful here. You could certainly follow up on this with who ever you talk to when you visit.</p>

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<p>I looked into it as a potential place for my D to transfer to as our school’s budget cuts threatened to decimate AP offerings, but found it’s more rigorous than our high performing public HS and it seemed like even if she could get in for 11th grade, she’d be seriously behind in math and possibly other subjects. </p>

<p>Just for comparison, the only other school that I thought my D would be behind at was BU Academy. Most of the other private day schools around offered LESS of what my D needed than our public HS which she ultimately stayed in. </p>

<p>Commonwealth seems like a very rigorous academically oriented school for the smartest kids. For the top performers, I’d consider it very highly.</p>

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<p>Classic Rocker - what other day schools did you consider?</p>

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<p>BUA and Commonwealth are both known for ‘grade deflation’. It causes some parents to be worried, at least initially. But, both do send a school profile with all college applications that details the grade distribution and other important data. And, kids from both schools do just fine. Kids with a ‘mere’ 3.0 from Commonwealth and BUA get into top tier schools.</p>

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<p>I have investigated Commonwealth and have found it to be a very interesting school. It is clear that the students and faculty are very talented.</p>

<p>There is one thing that confuses me about Commonwealth. I thought people out there might have some thoughts.</p>

<p>Simply stated, why isn’t Commonwealth’s college placement better than it is? I did a little research. Commonwealth students have almost the exact same SAT scores (including % semi-finalists) as Roxbury Latin. The class of 2011 had a total score of 2200 at Commonwealth, while RL has 2235. If you look at the two primary scores, reading and math, Commonwealth is only 5 total points behind RL. Essentially the same.</p>

<p>Given this, you would like that Commonwealth’s placement would be similar to RL. Far from it. Over the past five years, 22% of the RL graduates have gone to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, or Caltech (a group often seen as the “elite”). The same figure for Commonwealth is 6%. If you expand this list to include the other Ivies, RL’s figure is 32% and Commonwealth is only 13%. (All of this data comes directly from the schools’ web sites.)</p>

<p>I understand this comparison can be criticized on many levels. First, RL has jocks and Commonwealth doesn’t. Fair enough. Attribute a quarter of RL’s admissions to athletics. Another point is that some kids would rather go to schools other than those listed above. I agree, but it is not clear to me why there would be a higher percentage of such kids at Commonwealth than at RL. Finally, someone could say that RL is unique for whatever reasons. I’m not sure this is true, but I also compared Commonwealth with some other private schools (Milton, BB&N, Belmont Hill) and was still left perplexed.</p>

<p>What’s up?</p>

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<p>The college matriculation list for the Commonwealth School impresses me. It does seem to lean toward small liberal arts colleges, and universities one might call intellectual havens. Commonwealth is a small school, 153 students according to its website. Perhaps the families who choose Commonwealth don’t buy into the Ivy, Stanford, MIT frenzy?</p>

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<p>Because in the end, the very top colleges are looking for a lot more than just very high SAT scores scores and AP classes. The most selective colleges reject the vast majority of those students. The kind of person, community member, teammate and contributor to life away from self-interest is very important to colleges (in addition to the required high test scores and grades).</p>

<p>The schools listed above by Jim C have tremendous success in large part due to their long history of educating young people with those exact philosophical components being paramount (particuraly Roxbury Latin: founded in 1645 which states “we care most of all what kind of person a boys is.”). The importance of a “character education” and the above schools’ success in teaching to it and creating a student body and faculty which reflects those principles does translate well in a great deal of subjective data; most notably in their outstanding matriculation results. It does makes a difference.</p>

<p>To argue that it is simply “jocks” which differentiate the the matriculation numbers would be highly simplistic and very inaccurate. It is this long standing process which produces caring, disciplined, focused and balanced young men and women and many of the top colleges know this, understand it and appreciate it. Roxbury Latin has had literally centuries to “get it right” and in the cases of the RL, the above schools and a few additional schools, they do get it right. This to me is undeniably reflected in the above matriculation numbers referenced by Jim C.</p>

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<p>RL also has had centuries to develop relationships with the NE ‘brand name schools’. It also definitely draws from families who are strongly interested in such schools. And there are quite a few ‘brand name’ legacies at RL.
Colonel - are you really suggesting that the kids at Commonwealth are inferior in terms of character to those at RL?
Commonwealth kids also go to schools that offer opportunities that the ‘brand name’ schools don’t - Art Institute of Chicago, Pratt and RISD, for example.
I would also agree that , based on my small sample set, Commonwealth kids and families are less interested in the ‘brand name schools’ than RL kids and families.</p>

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<p>I would also consider Brown and Univ of Chicago on par with the MIT’s and Harvard’s and Comm matriculates a lot of kids to these schools plus top LAC’s. The school also has very personal relationships with many of the top tier LAC who know the school and they types of students it produces. Comm also has a real focus on the whole person not just the academic,and values arts and music as well as academics as mentioned above so sends kids to a range of schools.
I will say though that I fall into the category of parents who are not IVY driven:)</p>

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<p>JimC: what it boils down to on RL vs. Commonwealth is that RL has a TREMENDOUS history with Harvard, which is, if I remember correctly, THE top college kids go to after they graduate. Because of this storied tradition with Harvard and RL, RL and Commonwealth aren’t comparable.</p>

<p>Now to Comm. If you fit this mold, it’s one of the best schools out there for you. For a typical applicant/well-rounded applicant (eg, sports, academics, EC’s) this is not the school. Not to bash Comm and BUA at all (my past school sent 8 combined to the two), but they are very different from the other schools someone might find.</p>

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<p>Answer: student self-selection. </p>

<p>Experienced from our kid who went to RL and considered transferring to Commonwealth: the kids at RL tend to be much more traditional while the kids at Commonlwealth tend to be more avant garde/alternative. For all their benefits, the Ivies are a core part of the Dominant Paradigm . . some kids gravitate toward the System and other away from it.</p>

<p>Result: many smart, engaged, hard working intellectual kids simply do not prefer the Ivies.</p>

<p>Another part of the answer: the admissions folks at RL have longstanding relationships the more traditional Ivies, and that relationship appears to be symbiotic.</p>