<p>Thankyou...................</p>
<p>Don't let prospective students in the future be deterred by such absences, alot of these schools love when the students take the initiative to start a program like volleyball.
Majority of the schools have the facilities and willingness to accommodate additional programs.</p>
<p>MY, if you were accepted for 07-'08, I'd think you'd be class of 2011, not '10.</p>
<p>Olivia, class of 2011 mean you will graduate in 2011. If she's in the class of 2010 then she was accepted for tenth grade.</p>
<p>Oh, I see. I thought she was a freshman. :)</p>
<p>I looked at middlesex this year, and I was very impressed. Although I did not apply. It seemed to give me more of an at home feeling then many of the other schools. If you guys ever get a chance to go I thought all of the wood planks were very cool.</p>
<p>Yes, they are impressive!</p>
<p>hockeykid841 is referring to the mahogany plaques that seniors must carve as a graduation requirement. It's a great tradition. The plaques of Middlesex graduates adorn the halls and walls of many prominent spaces throughout the school.</p>
<p>What the school says about them: <a href="http://www.mxschool.edu/arts/plaques/%5B/url%5D">http://www.mxschool.edu/arts/plaques/</a>. The Middlesex web site also says this about the plaque tradition: Among Middlesex's many traditions, one has remained virtually unchanged since the first graduate received his diploma in 1904: every graduate has carved a plaque that permanently adorns a wall of one of the School's main buildings. Students have always been given great latitude in the subject matter of their carvings, and the plaques are full of representations of home states, favorite sports, meaningful experiences, and even rock album covers. But carving a plaque is a graduation requirement and more than a few students over the years have spent the night before Commencement applying the final coat of varnish on their plaques!</p>
<p>I think it's a terrific commentary on how the school and its students interact. To me, this tradition says, "Middlesex is not only a part of our graduates, our graduates are always a part of Middlesex." </p>
<p>The plaques reinforce the concept that the students contribute to the welfare of the school; it's an interactive experience and symbiotic relationship. The plaques repudiate the notion of BS as a purely commercial exchange in which parents pay money to induce a school to provide their children with an education. </p>
<p>Any school can create a viewbook that says "Our graduates take their school experience with them into the world and our graduates leave a legacy of their own, each leaving their own indelible mark on the school." The Middlesex plaques prove the point. </p>
<p>Alas, the plaques used to be hand-carved. Now many of them are carved by machine, using elaborate templates. It considerably reduces the homemade look/feel of the plaques; but it also opens up the possibilities, enabling seniors to select designs that are truly reflective of themselves or whatever it is they want to express with their plaques. The plaques in the new science building (obviously newer plaques) are amazing, but the plaques in Eliot Hall (the main school building), particularly those in the Terry Room where the earliest plaques are located, have attention-getting character. The posthumous plaques of students who died before graduating (apparently there was a flu pandemic or some other catastrophe that led to the deaths of a number of students one year) are compelling, even though there's nothing but text to behold.</p>
<p>They're just a bunch of stupid old pieces of carved wood. You can go to most any old school and see kids in a wood shop class carve a plaque. (<a href="http://www.mxschool.edu/arts/facilities/default.asp?newsid=130196%5B/url%5D">http://www.mxschool.edu/arts/facilities/default.asp?newsid=130196</a>) But I'm truly impressed by the message Middlesex sends us with the way these plaques are made an integral, inescapable and permanent fixture that help shape the identity of the school itself. Very cool, Middlesex!</p>
<p>Do any other schools have a tradition such as this...in which every graduate leaves an indelible mark on the school?</p>
<p>Well at St. George's, I must admit we have no plaques, but we do have two extraordinary beaches to gaze out over every day of the year, and a miniature gothic cathedral. Students have indeed signed their names over the years in the chapel if you know where to look. At St. George's I love that the chapel is connected to the school house. I believe that in a way similar to Mx's plaques physically marking the idea that school and graduate are connected and draw from each other, the architecture of our chapel and school house physically embody an ideal that learning and the life of the soul are not only equally important, but also necessitate each other and belong on a hill in a position of importance in our lives.</p>
<p>If I'm not mistaken prepschool06, the chapel connects to the schoolhouse via the dining hall...right? If that's correct, I'm sure there's a wonderful allegory buried in there for someone better than I to articulate!</p>
<p>One of the things I love about your campus is the way the light plays games. Being up on a hill -- something more akin to a mesa -- that is so close to the ocean, the light reflecting off the water and sand below appears to be emanating from the ground up. If you're behind the school house or walking from the library towards the chapel on a sunny day, you not only have light from above but light from below that envelopes the campus.</p>
<p>Have you ever noticed this? Or maybe I was imagining things. I know that your school and Middlesex are rivals, so allow me to give St. George's props for its superior waterscape. Middlesex has something that's not quite a swamp but not quite a lake along its entrance drive, whereas your coastal view is extraordinary and a sight to behold for anyone, including those not interested in BS in the least.</p>
<p>A while back I posted photo threads from various schools that I found on-line and there were quite a few pictures of St. George's chapel taken by a British couple visiting the Newport area (if I recall correctly).</p>
<p>Please set me straight on the chapel-schoolhouse connection and whether the dining hall is betwixt and between the two.</p>
<p>The wood comes from Honduras and I believe they still carve by hand rather than by machine. It is a wonderful tradition.</p>
<p>St. George's has every graduates name inscribed on the wooden walls of the "King & Queen" dining room which looks like something out of the Harry Potter School of Hogwarts. St. George's website is exceptional with wonderful areial photos of the campus.
The school is definitely a gem and prospective students should certainly give it serious thought.</p>
<p>Another school where every graduate carves a plaque is Belmont Hill, all-boys day/5-day boarding school in the ISL. The plaques add something special to the environment at both schools.</p>
<p>Yes, applied to Middlesex will revisit.</p>
<p>Cartoger, if you like you can PM me regarding Middlesex v SPS v Groton. All are very nice but very different. One thing for sure they all have top notch academics</p>
<p>Many students who attend Middlesex come from parents who are in academia who also happen to be well published from U of Chicago, MIT, Harvard to name a few. In addition former AOL execs must also think highly of MX as their child also attends MX. The IBM chairman and CEO also has two children currently attending MX. There are many in Academia who have chosen Mx for their children, this should speak highly to what Middlesex is doing as an educational institution.</p>
<p>either that or the level of security they offer...</p>
<p>did anybody else notice several silent black helicopters patrolling the skies above the mx campus when they toured there? :)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.blackwaterusa.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.blackwaterusa.com/</a></p>
<p>hahaha i live by mx and the black helicopters are highly normal around here...lol</p>
<p>Hanscom Airforce Base</p>
<p>cartoger when are you going? we go on wed.</p>
<p>Hmm, I always thought I was seeing things from lack of sleep when traveling to visit D at MX. Smile</p>