<p>Hey all,
Just DA kid here to represent, and take any questions from any of you interested in the school.</p>
<p>What form are you in? Male or female? What are your sports?</p>
<p>Whoo!! Yay Deerfield!! 
When I had my tour, I asked my tour guide what Deerfield students did for fun, and she couldn’t come up with an answer!! What DO students at Deerfield do for fun?</p>
<p>uhm, j/w, what stores do you guys usually get your clothes? -that are formal of course.</p>
<p>The town seemed boring, do you even get out of the campus? Is it weird never getting to have girls/guys in your dorm for like a project or something maybe? Do you feel like your dorm room gives you adequate space(the one I visited was kinda small compared to my other schools)?</p>
<p>Questions I had for my tour guide but never asked lol.</p>
<p>Sarum: I’m a freshman - we just use the normal terms, you know, fresh/soph/junior/senior. The big split is really between underclassmen (fresh/soph) and upperclassmen (junior/senior) , thats how the dorms are divided. </p>
<p>Soccer, Wrestling, Baseball are my sports. </p>
<p>thingslost:A lot of the fun in a student’s life (and there’s definitely an adequate amount), comes from the cocurricular block. That’s a one and a half hour block after classes during which you devote your time to your cocurricular. Sports, dance, drama, community service, these all count as cocurriculars, and if none of them suit you, you can apply for an alternate one. So during the winter I’d go to wrestling practice at 3:30 and get out at 5:00. </p>
<p>So that’s where a lot of the recreation in a students life goes on, but if it doesn’t then I’d say after dinner and before study hall (7:45-9:45, in your room studying for underclassmen), people usually just hang out and socialize. On the weekends (no classes) after curfew people in the dorm will watch movies or play XBox or just hang out some more (just chilling is a major activity). </p>
<p>During the spring, all the fun is down by the river. It’s beautiful in Deerfield during the spring (I can’t really talk though, I haven’t experienced spring term yet), and everyone after practice and on the weekends are just hanging out, studying, listening to music, tossing a lax ball or frisbee, or swimming down by the river and in the lower fields. </p>
<p>I hope that answers your question</p>
<p>tiger max 22: There’s obviously a big divide between scholarship kids and non scholarship kids, but for the latter it’s usually, contrary to the popular J. Crew myth, Vineyard Vines. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry. Neither had I when I got there. It’s a very popular Greenwich phenomenon, even though I think it comes out of Martha’s Vineyard. Either way, I wear Brooks Brothers for the most part, considering they have a great factory store up by our place in Maine.</p>
<p>mpicz:
The town is quiet, yes, but there is always stuff to do on campus. You will either just want to hang out with friends, do work, etc. But SPAM (Student Programs And More) always has events going on, like Broomball and Dodgeball tournaments, movies showing in the large auditorium, trips to the local mall, often ski trips to the local mountain. But people don’t often leave campus on the weekends, they get occupied here. </p>
<p>You can have definitely have girls or guys in your dorm, usually for more than just projects. It’s called parietals and on the weekends underclassmen can bring a girl over to their dorm (or girl can bring a guy, it’s just usually the other way), and ask the faculty on duty if they can come up to their room. The door has to remain a little bit open (the width of your trash can) and the lights have to remain on. Faculty theoretically come check on you every once in a while, but it doesn’t happen that often. The dorm’s are pretty empty on weekend nights before curfew anyway. Your guest will have to leave 15 minutes before curfew too (10:30 on Friday, 11:00 on Saturday, both for underclassmen)</p>
<p>Dorm space? I live in one of the smallest rooms on campus and I don’t mind. I’ve moved my furniture arrangement once or twice this year, and it’s not that big a deal. You won’t be able to move your small library or your 30 inch monitor with media stand in there, but it’s definitely adequate. It all depends on the dorm, but all spaces are good enough. Obviously you might prefer a bigger room once in a while or get frustrated, but all that matters about the living space is the kis, and there are always great kids around.</p>
<p>Do you feel as if you form a good relationship with upperclassmen considering that you don’t get the chance to live in the same dorm as them?</p>
<p>What do you feel the advantages of going to Deerfield as a Freshman were as opposed to smaller equally academic rigorous schools like SPS, Groton, or Middlesex?
I’m thinking the smaller three would be kinder gentler places for my 14 year old son to go in and board… far from home next year.</p>
<p>Gobigred: I understand what you’re saying, and I was originally wondering the same thing. The answer is that tons of underclassmen know and talk to upperclassmen, especially sophomores, and they know eachother through tons of different ways. Mainly, the sophomores know juniors who were in their dorms when the sophomores were freshmen. </p>
<p>Another big link is through sports teams, especially if you’re a varsity athlete. Teams are the source of a lot of strong friendships. But to break the ice, each underclassmen hall (floor of a dorm, usually around 12-15 people) has two proctors, or seniors who live in the dorm with them and serve as leaders.</p>
<p>This works really well because you don’t have a weird hierarchy develop amongst the younger students (thinking Lord of the Flies) when they all have a pair of guys much older (and very liked and responsible, b/c the proctor position is much sought-after) in their hall to look up to.</p>
<p>Sarum: It’s a good question. I think the appropriate size of a school varies from person to person, depending on what suits their needs, but Deerfield settles with a very medium 600 kids. I like this because while it isn’t huge (like Exeter or Andover), it isn’t too small (like St. Grottlesex). </p>
<p>When it’s small, I think the opportunities aren’t as plentiful. For example, most schools have a step team, kind of like an urban cheerleading. But Andover, I’d say because of it’s size, offers a step coach, which takes the experience to the next level. The depth of the Exeter newspaper I don’t think would be possible without it’s size. These are just examples, but it paints a picture: Larger schools offer more opportunities. </p>
<p>A large school definitely has it’s disadvantages - the community can get notoriously loose and spiritless, more cliques form because kids want to find their group in a huge student body, barring them I think from expanding. Things like that.</p>
<p>But now I’m just philosophizinging(ing). I think Deerfield is the perfect balance of these two, maintaing community and individual strength while not losing the huge variety of opportunities available.</p>
<p>Hmm I wouldn’t really call it a happy medium. SPS has around 550 and deerfield around 600. 50 extra students doesn’t make that much of a difference. I think a school with around 750 would be a happy medium. Not sure how small groton or middlesex are but SPS and deerfield are about the same size.</p>
<p>Deerfield brings in the 19 year old PG’s… SPS doesn’t. This is another class or age group present,and I was wondering how much it alienates the 14-15 year old freshman at the beginning of the experience, where as Middlesex/Groton/ and SPS (though it is relatively large) doesn’t do. I know my son will be a varsity player in two sports by at least Junior year.
I was an 8th grader at Lawrenceville (12 years old during the fall) and I can tell you it was two different worlds that maybe brought better teams into the school, but certainly didn’t help the 8th graders feel as though they were a part of the machine.</p>
<p>mpicz I guess I should have pointed ou that when I used the term ‘St. Grottlesex’ I was talking about St. Mark’s, St. George’s, Middlesex and Groton (that lists usually includes St. Paul’s, you’re right) all of which have around 350 kids. </p>
<p>Sarum I think the PG’s aren’t too overwhelming. Yes, they’re there, and yes, they’re big, but it’s not any different from the seniors, really. I think socially they’re just older seniors. It’s like having a little bit more, very athletic kids added to the senior class.</p>
<p>Hayllo 
I have a question- how much homework do you guys usually get? And how long does it usually take to finish it?</p>
<p>Hahah muchos gracias.</p>
<p>Do you ever feel a sense of isolation? Like a cult, almost? Being your own town, really, do ever feel cut-off from the world?</p>
<p>I’m basically comparing it to Exeter and Andover, where both are integrated into the town.</p>
<p>FYI: St. Grottlesex, historically speaking, is St. Paul’s-Groton-Middlesex. Only recently has someone on Wikipedia tried to change the definition to include St. Georges. But go back 50-75 years, when the term was invented and it was as above. Not that it really matters.</p>
<p>So SPS gets mentioned twice> Both in St. Grottlesex and HADES!?</p>
<p>Winterset, the author of that article was clearly a current student of graduate from SGS or SMS. Middlesex, SPS, and Groton are head and shoulders above SGS and SMS…</p>
<p>karenasaurus: Homework really varies with what courses you take and what teachers you have. I’d say the lowest given on average is around an hour, an hour and a half, but that’s really low, while the high extreme is something like three and a half hours. Most kids I know get two and a half hours each night, which means you need to put in a little extra after or before your study hall (again, the 2 hour period from 7:45-9:45 for underclassmen).</p>
<p>mmoynan: It’s a good question. One thing that I find kind of special about the community (maybe not unique, but certainly special) is that while the student body is a very large percentage of the people on campus, and that’s often great, you’ll always see faculty kids around, and faculty families, and often we’ll share our athletic facilities when we don’t use them etc, and the fans at our football and hockey and lacrosse games are often just people from the local area. This presence of the “outside world” really liven things up, and while there is a healthy presence of the local area, there is no sense that the campus is crowded with people aren’t really part of the “community”. </p>
<p>And regarding St. Grottlesex, I’m just using it as I’ve heard it used. I hate to cause confusion sorry about that.</p>
<p>The town…why do I keep thinking of “Children of the Corn”?</p>
<p>Anyway do you have a pov about this:?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/666631-today-deerfiled-day-west-coast.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/666631-today-deerfiled-day-west-coast.html</a></p>
<p>In the end I think girls will make a very small factor of a boy’s decision, especially with pressure from parents to be thinking about certain things, etc., although I can’t say that it isn’t a factor at all. If that’s what it came down to between SPS and DA for one specific kid, thats the way it was, but 1. I can’t tell you anything about SPS girls because I haven’t really been there 2. I don’t think it matters too much, he’s very lucky to be able to decide between two great schools in the first place.</p>