<p>Curious as to why there is no thread on this school yet, as it has been my C's top choice throughout most of the app process. Received acceptance packet from CA yesterday afternoon, with no email or online posting anywhere, as far as I know. Looks like C will be choosing between CA and SMS, so will be attending revisits. No word from Andover, which must mean rejection.</p>
<p>Do you live close to MA? How many hours? I have received nothing yet</p>
<p>My first kid received the CA acceptance packet by mail the day after all the others, no email either. As you wait for revisit days, it might be useful to look over the course catalogs and back issues of the student newspapers, if you haven’t already looked at them. At CA they’re on the web site on the Academics and the Campus Life -> Publications pages.</p>
<p>I’m happy to answer any questions here about CA academics, student life, day/boarding student relations, arts, sports, etc.</p>
<p>xDragon, yes we live just a few towns over from CA, and my C was accepted as a day student. Photodad, I’ve been following your posts about CA with great interest, and will probably PM you one of these days with questions. Thanks!</p>
<p>DC child is on WL at Concord. We both REALLY love the school, however, with other admission offers in hand I feel it would be foolish to hold out hope here. Especially since we can’t afford to lose a deposit. </p>
<p>Congratulations to all who gained admission to this fabulous gem of a school!</p>
<p>My DC was accepted at Concord. We received an email, however. </p>
<p>We are waiting for the packet to find out about aid. </p>
<p>Weird that some didn’t get an email.</p>
<p>Mamabug, did you get a letter or an email? I’m still trying to figure out of my decision got lost it the mail or not…</p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6330VW using CC</p>
<p>@xDragonFlyx:</p>
<p>DC received an email on M9 and a letter arrived yesterday via USPS. We live 1,000+ miles from the school.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>We got an email on M9. Small package arrived vis USPS on M11.</p>
<p>Just found out they counted my application as late because my guidance counselor send the rec and transcripts in end of february instead of december when i asked for them. 
looks like i wont get accepted even though i sent everything in by the 15… Does anyone know the chance for late applicants?</p>
<p>I’m sorry to hear that, DragonFly. Are you at a public middle school? If so, I think you were at a disadvantage in terms of getting everything in on time. My c is at a public middle school, and it took repeated requests to get those recs and transcripts out. Public schools have nothing to gain from timely submission, because they are not concerned about placement stats like private middle schools are. Those pesky rec forms are bottom priority for overworked and underpaid public school teachers.</p>
<p>I have no idea what the chances are for late applicants. Did CA waitlist you?</p>
<p>They haven’t viewed my application yet, but they most likely wont accept me because they’ve already picked all the kids for this year. And yes, I do go to a public high school</p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6330VW using CC</p>
<p>The strengths of CA are obvious, and amazing. But its the unpublished factors I want to know about.<br>
I would love to hear a little bit about the day/boarding relationship at CA. Do most boarders go home or home w day student friends on the weekends? Does campus ‘empty out’? Are most of the boarders international students? </p>
<p>What are some of the traditions at the school that produce school spirit. The student who toured my daughter around came right out and told her that the sports teams just don’t win and there aren’t many fans at the games, especially since you have to take a van to get there.</p>
<p>I think this is an amazing school with outstanding programs, and it is one of two very different schools my daughter is considering. What kind of reputation does it have- I have heard elitist, snobby , liberal- are those descriptors accurate at all?</p>
<p>This much I can say, the tour guide that toured me as a parent at CA said, and I quote, it’s definitely a liberal school. She sent three Ds there and loves it and has been giving tours to parents for five years. Her Ds were day students and she said they always had boarding students at their house on weekends, and said her current student D spends practically every waking hour at CA during the week.</p>
<p>It appeared to me that there would be a high percentage of int’l students in the dorms (just by doing the math), which I considered a plus.</p>
<p>Characterisitics like “Snobby” and “elitist” are in the eye of the beholder, imo. I think CA is better described as less traditional, relative to the iconic New England prep school, which can be good or bad, depending on your own views. I grew up in Mass., but from a public school family, and knew little about New England prep school culture until I began looking into it for my child. At the start of the search, the more traditional boarding schools seemed snobby and elitist and, yes, conservative, to me.</p>
<p>How refreshing it was to discover CA - intellectual, yet less traditional, with less focus on athletics. And yes, more liberal…All good things, in this family’s eyes. Perhaps all of that contributed to the relaxed and decidedly unsnobby and unelitist feel, to us. But the reverse might be true for you, depending on your own views.</p>
<p>If you are looking for the traditional boarding school culture, CA might not be the best fit. However, I wouldn’t say it’s way out there. I know of a family who felt CA was “too traditional” and opted for CSW instead.</p>
<p>I’m sure photodad, who has 2 kids at CA, will chime in and provide more info about school traditions and school spirit.</p>
<p>Finally I will add that it’s not such a bad thing for a kid to experience a culture which differs from that of his or her family. My kid is choosing between CA and St. Mark’s. The latter is one which we initially discounted because we thought it was too traditional, too conservative, and too sports focused. But it has other important strengths, and I think it would be good for our kid to learn from kids with very different views than we have at home.</p>
<p>Sorry, I had missed this thread.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>It’s hard to tell the difference between boarders and day students during the day. Day students and boarders become very close friends. My 2 kids were day students and more than half of their closest friends were boarders.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>They occasionally go home or with day students on weekends but most stay on campus. A lot of day students are on campus on the weekends.</p>
<p>The day students come from a relatively large geographical area due to the school’s proximity to both Route 2 and the commuter rail (a third of the day students take this to school), so the best place to see a lot of friends in the evenings and weekends is on campus.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Slightly less than a quarter of the boarders are international students.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>School spirit is not based on sports, although it does sometimes come out at sports events. </p>
<p>Probably the most important tradition is the chapel talk. Every senior has the opportunity to give a 15 minute talk at the start of the school day about any topic. They usually thank family, friends, and teachers, and then talk about something personal that’s important to them (or sometimes put on a performance). Prior to the talk, students will line up and hug the senior about to give the talk (and I don’t mean a couple of students, it’s usually half the student body). </p>
<p>I think a lot of the school spirit, or love of the school, comes the from fact there’s no real social strata, and kids with varying interests can be friends with each other. They’re free to be passionate about something unusual, or wear something unusual, or not, and still feel like they fit in. </p>
<p>There are probably other school-spirity traditions, but the only one I can think of now is that after a theater performance, most of the students will hang around in the performing arts center and cheer the performers as they come out from the backstage after changing.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>It’s very liberal, though both my kids were friends with at least one Republican. From the inside it doesn’t feel elitist or snobby. However, a school where the students get more excited about a student-directed performance of a Shakespeare play than about a sports event may appear elitist or snobby to those outside the school.</p>
<p>Hi, I am entering CA for freshman this year!
is there anyone else coming? If so please pm me! Also, I know that there have been previous attempts to start a CA thread but they did not last long. Lets hope this one does!:D</p>
<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I am now comfortably packed into my dorm at Concord and I have had a blast in the first week of school. If anyone has any questions, they can PM me or just ask. I am a freshman here and can answer some questions</p>