<p>My child has found St. Mark’s to have a high “camaraderie quotient.” There have also been many opportunities to work with other students on assignments in a truly collaborative manner (i.e., anything but the “group work” so dreaded by gifted students.) St. Mark’s is Episcopalian, so the ethos is one of helping others, and respecting individuals. </p>
<p>I’m not certain how one can judge a school’s atmosphere from the outside. I’m glad you started this thread, as we have a rising 8th grader who’s interested in boarding. I also wonder about schools’ competitive atmospheres.</p>
<p>My next child is very, very bright, but would be offended by some of the tactics allegedly used by students at very competitive schools, such as students sabotaging others’ works, hiding reserved library books, or refusing to inform others of homework assignments. Is that sort of behavior an urban myth, or does it really occur?</p>
<p>Periwinkle is right! I just checked Bunkel’s “Camaraderie Quotient” (latest numbers are for February 2010) and St. Mark’s got 56.477 which is just off-the-charts! Wow. It’s out of your geographic range, seekers, but Asheville School has an outstanding 49.493 (unweighted) as of last February and it may be worth looking at.</p>
<p>St. Mark’s is a great school with a great community. I have friends at various elite prep schools across New England (some that many of you consistently rave about) and they complain. Most have recently graduated, but they did spend 4 years there and they would tell me the cut-throat things students would do. </p>
<p>St. Mark’s was really good to me. I had some really rough times there and I consistently had the support of my peers and teachers. I never felt alone or that I had to be super competitive with my fellow classmates. Everyone wants to help everyone out.</p>
<p>I’ve heard about that kind of behavior at college, specifically among premed students, but honestly, has anyone heard of it in prep school? I don’t think that the big New England schools rank students, I know ours doesn’t. One of my kids is in a very hard science class, and meets almost every night with a group of friends to study- I don’t think any of them would be doing well in that class without each other!</p>
<p>This is a bit off topic but havd you guys seen St.Marks acceptance rate ? I was shocked that it was so low. It’s hit 16% for the Class of 2014, In all respect though it is a magnificent institution but I just thought I should spread the news about the school since people are talking about it a bit.</p>
<p>OP, I think in general the more selective schools tend to be more competitive because of their strong and motivated student body. I don’t know how cutthroat it can get. I guess it also depends on the individual’s persoanlity and tolerance. If it is a main concern of yours I would choose a smaller second tier school with solid academics. Also whereever you go you can choose to be yourself and not be super competitive. Just my 2c</p>
<p>Thanks to those who recommended St Marks, we’re going to look into it more closely now (it was in our consideration pool, and moving up). </p>
<p>We hope people feel free to chime in with schools like Asheville that our outside our geographic range. It will make the thread more relevant to those who share the same interest in avoiding cutthroats, but are in other areas than we are. [Oh, and Asheville’s reported Camaraderie Quotient of 49.493 really makes it tempting to extend our range!] </p>
<p>Perhaps Benley’s right that this will be a better way to expand our list than shrink it.
We’re still hoping we just wind up with a much better fitting & smaller list after we drop some of the schools for whom only the crickets chirp (actually discrete warning flags have been shared via PM’s, and are very helpful).</p>
<p>Dapple & llville, thanks for confirmation of Lawrenceville classes being collaborative. There’s only one review at boardingschoolreview (speak up Lawrentians!), but it is speaks clearly to this point: “The caliber of academics is very high, but competition amongst students is minimal… classes are very collaborative and engaging, as opposed to cutthroat.” And, we’re completely fine with the friendly competition of house rivalries (which seems to make a relatively large school feel smaller).</p>
<p>Baystate: thanks for the Choate vote. The general tenor of student reviews is that the students are open, diverse, and highly intellectually motivated. </p>
<p>Several commented that the classes at Choate werent competitive, but that there was an insane amount of work to be done with a lot of stress and late nights. Another student claimed to average only 5 hours sleep a night. So my question for those who have looked at Choate: is the work load on par with the rest of the top schools? Is the stress level unusually high? </p>
<p>Another area of concern, several students complained that the dining hall is overly cliquish, and the townies can be overly hostile. Both of these are warning flags for us can anyone comment or reassure (PM welcome). Well also note that these two problems are mirrored in the student reviews of Andover.</p>
<p>Seekers- that’s so interesting, because I don’t get that impression at all about the dining hall. What always impresses me is how racially mixed every table seems to be- there doesn’t seem to be any of the self segregation that I remember at college. There are different sections for freshmen and seniors. Someone asked me in a PM about the workload, so I’ll try to remember what I wrote. It absolutely depends on the student and the level of the course. If you don’t work efficiently- ie, Facebook is open, there’s a movie playing in the back round…the work will take hours. If you are a very efficient, focused student, you should be able to get through the homework in honours level classes in 2-3 hours/night. There’s not as much “busy work” as their friends report at other schools. Both of my kids have a wide circle of nice friends, who easily cross the lines between athletics and the arts. Others might have a different experience- that’s why I’m constantly drawn back to reading these boards! You really have to visit for yourself- we knew immediately when we had the “right match” school, and the same thing happened in the college search.</p>
