<li>hows the food?</li>
<li>teachers</li>
<li>amount of hw (hours) per night</li>
<li>whats a normal daily sched like?</li>
<li>can you really go to boston on the weekends?</li>
<li>how is the faculty there (experience, personality, etc)</li>
<li>are there any hidden rules that you didnt know about until you got there? like no service, internet shuts off, certain times you cant go into town, anything else. </li>
<li>how is the town around the campus? any place that stands out?
thanks!! :)</li>
</ol>
<p>Answer to question #5. Yes you can. My son walks to the train station with his friends for a weekend afternoon in Boston.</p>
<p>I don't go to Exeter, but I'm applying for next year, and one of my best friends goes there right now so after my interview/tour I got to stay the whole weekend with her and really get a better feel for exeter. I loved it :) From my stay there, here are my answers to your questions (this is for exeter only) :
1. The food was very good. It was a wide variety, and not just boring things like grilled cheese or hamburgers (though you can get those at the Academy Grill if you're just looking for a snack- or a slice of cheesecake ;)). Also, they had soft serve ice cream machines where you could get yourself a cone whenever you wanted. That was awweeesome, as I absolutely LOVE soft-serve ice cream. They also had crab cakes, quishe (sp?), pancakes, bagels, juice, yummy salad/sandwich bar.. It was great food in my opinion. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>I didn't get to know the teachers all that well, but the first impressions of them was that they were all very smart and kind, and tried to incorporate me in their class when I visited, which I thought was very thoughtful. The students were the same, not judgemental at ALL, and kind to me. I felt as though I were a student there and everyone was already my teachers and friends- that is how accepting they were of me as a stranger visiting!</p></li>
<li><p>My friend had I'd say about 2-3 hours of homework the Friday night that I visited. But, that's just one night, it could've been the norm or more than usual or less, so my answer to this question is not 100% reliable.</p></li>
<li><p>When I was there, I went to my friends Friday classes. She had a class in the morning, they're about an hour long, then she had another one right after. Then she went back to her dorm, had a break, then went to the varsity swim team tryouts. After that, we went to lunch, and went back to her dorm for a short nap. Then, we had a few more classes, dinner, and they had an assembly that night with Dan Brown, the Da Vinci Code author. </p></li>
<li><p>Yes, but the out-of-town forms are a pain to fill out so students don't do it every weekend. (It's a bit uncommon, but still is possible to do and happens)</p></li>
<li><p>(see answr to 3?)</p></li>
<li><p>These are the things that I found out that you won't learn off of the website ;) :</p></li>
<li><p>Internet is shut off at 11 (I was skeptical about this at first, but it really encourages time management so I think that it is actually a good choice!)</p></li>
<li><p>Preps need to be in their dorms every night at 8 o'clock, and instead of detentions the kids get put on "sevens" which means that they have to be in the dorm every night at 7 instead of 8. You get to be out later on the weekends, though.</p></li>
<li><p>They have saturday morning classes. This is because, they always have half-days on wednesdays. So, it evens out, but still- have to wake up early 6/7 days a week. </p></li>
<li><p>There's a lot more freedom than I thought. When you don't have a class, you could go off with your friends and just sort of walk around and browse the campus. My friend even took me to this like place over the gym sort of area that was so like tucked away- it was cool to know that though you're always surrounded by people, there are still many places you can go to get away (by yourself, or with a friend, or a boyfriend/girlfriend).</p></li>
<li><p>I loved the town of Exeter. It's small and quaint and really pretty! The soup and ladle was a resteraunt that I went to that stood out to me. They have a movie theater and a lot of cute little shops (and a chocolatier, yumm).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I don't know much about Andover (I'm only applying to exeter) so I can't really compare and contrast, but there's what I learned from my stay.</p>
<p>Here are some answers for Andover:
1.The food is good. It does get boring after a little while. There are tons of choices at every meal so you can always find something you want. If the main dining hall isn't open, you can stop by Ryley to get a snack or drink. The Commons renovation will be done at the end of this year, which should be great. It should offer a wider variety and several different atmospheres to eat in.</p>
<p>2.In general the teachers are very good, but of course there are some that aren't the best. I had some amazing teachers that I learned so much from. They are so passionate about their subjects and you can tell they enjoy teaching. The teachers are all very friendly and want to get to know their students better. They are very accessible in case you need extra help.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Homework varies. It depends on the teacher, the day, and how you study. I normally had around 3 hours a night.</p></li>
<li><p>Each day could be different depending on how your schedule is arranged. Normally, I would go to breakfast with friends, go to classes, go back to my dorm during conference period, have another class, eat lunch, go to another class, have a free period and then sports. After that I'd eat dinner, hang out with friends and start work. Sometimes I'd go grab a snack at Ryley or if we had a munch. After that I'd usually study and chill in the dorm before I went to sleep.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, I did it all the time. The key to spending the day in Boston is planning your weekend. If you start your work early, you won't have a terrible Sunday night. It's very easy to walk to the train station and use the subway to get around.</p></li>
<li><p>The only hidden rule was the bandwidth limit, but I have heard that they got rid of that rule. Everything else was pretty much what I expected.</p></li>
<li><p>I really liked the town. It is very easy to walk to during the day. It had a nice mix of cheap places to eat and nicer restaurants. I ate at Bertucci's and Mawby's with friends a lot. There is a large CVS in town and a bus that runs on Sundays to the grocery store.</p></li>
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<p>If you have any other questions about Andover, I'd be happy to answer them.</p>
<p>Wow, so lucky, you actually got to stay in exeter for a whole weekend. But could I add a question of my own?</p>
<p>What did people do right after classes? Like, play frisbee, toss a football, study in the lawn, go to the library, etc, etc? Even though it might depend on when you actually went (if you went during the winter, then some of these would be unanswerable).</p>
<p>kemmek
My son would have LOVED being able to sit in on a class!</p>
<p>You are so fortunate to have been able to get such an in-depth view of the school!</p>
<p>Yeah thank you so much that really helps me out a ton! Im actually going back to andover this saturday fornan open house and if im lucky enough to get in to one or the other or even both, ill definitely shadow someone for a day. Thanks again!</p>
<p>I know, I was so glad to be able to stay there for the weekend! It was a great opportunity! </p>
<p>Nasafato, I did go in the winter (November, but there was snow on the ground). My friend has told me that kid's in her dorm have said that when it's warm outside in the spring people will often study for finals and other tests in bathing suits outside their dorms in the like central green area. A tanning/studying combo.. sounds like fun to me! I love sitting out in the sun. When I was there my friend would sometimes go to other people's dorms after classes and just hang out or, like I said, we went back and took a nap, or other times she would finish up the homework that was due for the next class she had that day. It depends. I'm sure if it wasn't snowy it would've been a lot more lively outside. A LOT of people also hung out at the Academy Grill which is like a little mini-resteraunt sort of thing but has like grilled cheese, cheesecake, chocolate cake, hamburgers, hot dogs, soup, etc. and then has some TV's and couches and tables. Sort of like a student lounge, just a place for people to hang out that's never empty. There's always something going on though it seems, I was never bored!</p>
<p>haha yeah i go to the campus all the time in the summer and i saw people tanning outside with books. i wasnt sure what to think haha :)</p>
<p>Bathing suits? Tanning? Sounds like my kind of place. Even though I'd probably just sleep on the floor. I get tired alot now, for some reason. And the cheesecake at the Grill sounds good; I've always loved cheesecake.
It sounds kinda like CTY, except much, much better, with people that actually want to learn, and are as a whole on an even higher level of intelligence, and lots and lots of SPORTS!</p>
<p>Haha yeah i ate at the grill when i visited the food took a while but it was really good! Btw anyone else is free to post their questions about the two schools :)</p>
<p>what's the weather like? :P</p>
<p>My interviewing trip really sucked, lol, b/c every single school I went to, it was either raining or really damp and cloudy and, well, it just made everything look much worse. Except for Loomis Chaffee, the clouds had just parted by the time I got there, and it made everything look beautiful. (oh, and the three-hour long traffic jam after Lawrenceville didn't help)</p>
<p>thingslost, the weather is like typical New England weather. you might be familiar to it, might not (are you from NE?) but it's reallll cold and snowy in the winters, then muddy and rainyish and like 40's-60's in march-april, then may the rain starts to lay off and the ground is dry for the first time since before winter (yay, love spring) and it gets warm and by june it's like 70's, 80's. 60's on a cool day. basically, the winters are cold and awful but the spring and early summer are so beautiful. as is the fall, with all of the leaves. i love the weather for the most part, i just can't stand the dead of the winter. (AKA, right now)</p>
<p>haha yeah it can be pretty bad sometimes, but i actually like having four seasons rather than it being warm every single day... i get used to it :)</p>
<p>Lol, I kinda hate the cold. I'm just alot more sensitive to it than my friends are. But I still love skiing. It's just that if you made me choose between sweltering hot and humid Beijing or deep-frozen Moscow, I'd choose Beijing.</p>
<p>Nasafato, do you live in Moscow?! That's awesomeee!</p>
<p>Nooooo, lol. But two of my friends are in a boarding school in Moscow right now. They're applying to Exeter, too. It says I'm from New Jersey anyways. When I grow up, I wanna live in... Well, we'll see how the world is by then.</p>
<p>We used to live in Moscow. We still have a penthouse there. I love it. I'd choose Moscow over Beijing. Beijing is too humid, and I have too many relatives there.</p>
<p>A penthouse?! Well, I love Beijing, and China in general. Spent waaay too much time there. The heat of Beijing was great for my summer camp. Even though I ate like ten pounds of food a meal I still ended up losing like 5 pounds. And it's not b/c I have a hyper-active metabolism.</p>