<p>Pretty funny-- there was just a letter from a football coach in the Deerfield Scroll complaining that it’s no longer a jock school and why are they admitting so many artsy kids, just because they built a fancy new arts building (you can look it up on line), they don’t even have enough people going out for football to fully man their JV team. My DS is an artsy kid-- very serious musician (at Deerfield and outside), with no jock friends (not all artsy, but no big jocks). If you tour, talk to both kids and teachers in whatever she’s interested in (studio art it sounds like?), and you’ll see. They do indeed have an amazing new arts building (auditorium, concert hall, theater, practice rooms, acting studios, dance studios, art rooms, new art gallery), but, more importantly, they have seriously worked on building up the programs to support that. In music, for example (just becaus I know it best), they have classes, band, jazz band, a chamber music regular class (for credit), 2 different orchestras, several different choruses, and the chorus and orchestra are going on a reformable trip to Korea this year. Kids definitely hang out together in the arts building, and you can do several arts- related co- curriculars instead if sports ( we know one kid who just graduated who never took a sport of any kind). Quirky (but not necessarily artsy) kids also hang out together in the Day Student Lounge (not just day students, by any means). That’s not to say they’re aren’t plenty of jocks as well, but they’ve definitely become much more than the academic/sports school they once were.</p>
<p>Oh, and, just as an aside, that video was made several years ago. It’s not that it seems inaccurate-- it just leaves out the whole arts thing, which has really changed in the last 4 or 5 years. And, in my opinion, their website is EXTREMELY uninformative and hard to navigate. But the actual school is great. Hope you get a chance to visit.</p>
<p>@Daykidmom - Can you comment on Deerfield Science Programs?</p>
<p>[Deerfield</a> Course Catalog](<a href=“http://www.deerfield.edu/almanac/academics/course-catalog/]Deerfield”>http://www.deerfield.edu/almanac/academics/course-catalog/).</p>
<p>Click on Science Tab at the top to look at the Science Course offerings.</p>
<p>@Daykidmom I remember being really excited when Deerfield put up their new website. But I agree—it’s very showy and not very useful. </p>
<p>Do read the Science section (under “programs”) on the website. It does give you an idea of what’s offered and what the focus is. The facilities (science and math center) are amazing, and there are many upper level classes in which students can really do research. There are also some interesting interdisciplinary classes (like the 2 year “global water” class with a capstone research project). I do have to say that in, our own personal experience, the intro level courses can be somewhat frustrating-- especially the chemistry courses. Intro Physics and chemistry are designed around the “problem solving” idea, so they don’t teach you concepts from a regular textbook in a traditional way. Instead, they give you a problem and you have to design a plan of how to solve it, figure out how to use equipment, how to test your hypothesis-- with the assumption that, like real science, it often won’t work very well. That all sounded really great to us (and my husband is a science person). In practice, at least for my son’s style of learning (he gets frustrated if he feels like he doesn’t know how to do something right), he felt like there was a lot of spinning your wheels and trying to GUESS what they wanted-- and then, right before a test, they’d shove a bunch of information at you because they’d realize you needed it for the test and there was no book (or there were things not in any reading)-- and sometimes the test was on the same day. Some of the intro classes are also self-paced. All those things might really be great for some kids, but it made my son, who always really liked science, not like those courses. He would have preferred at least a slightly more traditional course. Again, upper level courses sound fantastic, and he’s looking forward to taking some of them. There are also some other really great STEM courses (like Robotics). And he has found his math courses and teachers absolutely amazing.</p>
<p>Stargirl3-- I know-- right? By the way-- lots and lots of luck this year.</p>
<p>Thanks for the update on the Deerfield arts. My kid’s a budding theater nerd, but she’s got a good eye and if taught by anyone else will probably be a great visual artist- I’m a painter, but we don’t do well in a teacher/student situation. I think sideways compared to her, we just get frustrated at each other.</p>
<p>Very good theater dept., new “black box” theater and acting class space, very cool green room and make up rooms, Director (Catriona Hynds) took theater to group to Edinburgh Festival to perform last summer.</p>
<p>I am working on the parent sections of BS applications and I notice that there is no optional parent essay/short-answer section for Deerfield. Should I write something in the “additional information” section. I like having the opportunity to give a parent perspective of the applicant for other schools.</p>
<p>Hmmmm…honestly if you’d asked me, I would have said it DID ask for a parent essay-- but maybe I misremember. I don’t think I would add anything to the student application under additional information. If you have some things you want them to know, though, I would either just talk to them at the parent part of the interview or maybe send a separate letter. I think you want the student application to be clearly all from the student. They really value independence in their students, and you just wouldn’t want to look like you were writing any part of the actual application. But I’m sure they would read a separate letter from you carefully. </p>
<p>@NotTheMomma Have you considered Dana Hall School? Being all-girls, the sports are there, but it is balanced very nicely with theater/visual/music arts programs. There is also a fairly new science building and the corresponding emphasis. It might be worth a look?</p>