DS and I are looking for BSs that actually compete in chess, not just have a club. Google hasn’t been much help with this. Looking through school websites hasn’t helped much. After M10, we’ll probably just start contacting AOs and asking them. (I previously posted that he’s looking for schools with math past calculus. He’s a B/B+ students with a mid-80’s SSAT.)
Can anyone point to schools with a competing chess team or at least a really active chess club? Thank you.
UMBC has a very competitive chess team. I think they’ve won national championships a number of times.
There are people who look down on UMBC as a poor student’s UMD, but it’s a medium-sized university with a great reputation for undergrad teaching – one that’s well-deserved, according to my D. It’s the Honors University of the Maryland system, and known for STEM education. I’m not sure about business, though.
Hope this helps!
@NerdMom88 - the question was asked about boarding school. Good to know about this for college later on.
@PossiblePrepMom - are there chess competitions that list winners schools? I can point you to some math ones but my kid is not really into chess. He plays casually and played in an on-campus ladder tournament but is more into math competitions. I know a few day schools with some good chess teams. Trying to think aloud here.
A lot of times, individual names are mentioned, but not schools. We’re looking though. They’ve got to be out there somewhere!
@NerdMom88 We will definitely keep that in mind for the future.
In Massachusetts, I can see daily tournaments, so if the school is near a city he could go alone every weekend: http://masschess.org/
I made sure to ask at every school I applied to. Only some AOs knew much about their chess teams:
-The AO at Deerfield said that the clubs only competed if there was a high interest level in a given year, which probably means they’re not so competitive.
-AO wasn’t sure if Middlesex competes, but they do have a couple decent (B-level) players in the 1600-1800 level zone: https://www.mxschool.edu/article/2015/december/chess-masters
-Exeter was the most impressive. Honestly, I thought I’d be #1 with an 1800 rating, but these guys are unbelievably competitive. They have a few players above 2000, and I think a National Master (2200). If you want, I will PM you the email for the co-leader, Evan Xiang, with a 2000 ELO. According to the AO, they are very active and will travel together to compete. This was actually the ‘hook’ for me; I hadn’t planned on applying to Exeter before the interview.
Check out the high school nationals team standings and you will see which BS have teams that traveled there. Definitely Exeter.
Thank you prepqs and jacob. I found Exeter on the high school nationals team standings, but no one else. I’ll re-check in case I missed someone. Exeter is a great school, but I don’t see my son getting in there.
Schools that have at least pretty active clubs, such as Middlesex, would be good too. Thank you!
@MA2012 Will you share the math team schools please. DS says math competitions are more important to him.
I will have to do some research to get schools for you, but competitions my son has participated in include HMMT (https://www.hmmt.co), Interstellar Math Madness (http://arete.cc/math_madness/about), all the MAA exams - AMC10 &12/AIME/USJAMO & USAMO (http://amc-reg.maa.org/reports/generalreports.aspx), math league (http://www.mathleague.com/index.php/31-mathleaguewebsite/general/238-contest-results-high-school-feb-1516) - A lot of schools participate in this so you can see how they compare. Large schools will use top competitors for rankings. NEML is the abbreviation for New England Math League.
I would suggest you look at Berkshire School in Sheffield, MA and St. Mark’s in Westboro, MA. They both offer structure and high level courses. Berkshire just built a new math/science building a few years ago, and St. Mark’s has been doing some renovations too.
St. Mark’s opened a new STEM building in the fall of 2015.
PossiblePrepMom, when it comes to competitions of any sort, you must take into account the fact that private schools, boarding schools and public schools have different schedules. I have the impression that many competitions are arranged with the public school schedule in mind. Sometimes that’s not a problem, but if a competition falls during a school’s March break, they might not send a team. If it falls during finals, Deans might not give permission for students to travel.
The schools often do compete in math competitions. For other competitions, it’s best to try to find the teacher in charge of the activity. There are private school leagues for some activities. For example, I believe the private schools in our area run a Model UN league, as their schedules don’t align neatly with public schools. For debate there’s a private school league. (etc.)
On the positive side, boarding schools often have shorter school years than public schools. So if a competition’s held in June, a boarding school kid might be out of school already, and able to travel to Tampa to take part.
A number of the math competitions at DS1 school are pencil/paper or computer based at school so they are easier to arrange around the schedule. DS1 took the AMC12B tonight - math club was meeting at 7 or 8, after other obilgations. They travel to 2 major competitions a year - one is a day trip and one an overnight.
My child has recently become crazy about chess. Plays online and with my husband. I was wondering if anyone knew of any summer camps that would be good for teens? Will hopefully be attending boarding school next year and is talking about participating assuming admitted…but a little instruction and experience might be a good idea
USChess has a lot of great resources. http://www.uschess.org/content/view/8021/221/
Thanks!