Hi everyone! The discussion and Q&A forum from last year seems to have been closed, but I wanted to reiterate that I am a current Hotchkiss student who would be happy to answer any questions you have about the school!
Here is what I posted to start off the thread last time:
Congrats to everyone who received good news this M10! I am a current student at Hotchkiss who absolutely loves my school and I created this thread to hopefully show others just how special of a place it is. If any of you are considering Hotchkiss, I hope that this thread can help inform you while making your decision. Feel free to ask any questions you may have! I also decided to list some things that I (as well as most students) absolutely love about Hotchkiss!
The Campus
Hotchkiss students definitely do not take the beautiful campus for granted. We have a lake that is a two minute walk from the main building (if you luck out, you might get a dorm room with a lake view!), a nine hole golf course that students can use at any time, a farm that provides a lot of our meat and produce, and I believe about 500 acres of woodland. In warmer months, teachers love to hold classes outside, and you can always find a group of kids passing a lacrosse ball or a frisbee on Bissell Quad. Our rural campus provides other benefits besides just beauty, as students tend to leave campus for the weekend pretty infrequently, creating an even more tight knit community.
The Humanities Program
Whether or not you love English, History, Philosophy, and the arts, most students look forward to Humanities classes. The same group of students will be in your English, History and Philosophy classes, which allows everyone to form a special relationship, facilitated by the open ended discussions that happen around the Harkness tables.
Living in a Dorm
Personally, I know that I was really curious about what dorm life was like before I went to boarding school. I can assure you that it is one of the most fun experiences I have ever had. While the amount of students on a floor can vary from six to over twenty, no matter the size, your floor will get very close. Each floor has two or three proctors, upperclass students who have a leadership role in the dorm, who are always there if you need someone to talk to, or just want to hang out. “Feeds” are awesome snacks that your dorm faculty member will sometimes provide for your floor after check in, a great thing to look forward to at the end of a long day. And, if you choose to have a roommate (which I would highly recommend), that will make the dorm experience a million times more fun!
Holidays
Hotchkiss gets three holidays a year. If you aren’t familiar with the tradition, a holiday is a secretly planned day, announced the night before, when no classes are held. While we do have Sundays, and some no class Saturdays to relax, there is something about holidays that encourage students to unplug and relax by spending time outside and with fellow students. The administration knows that students work hard, and always seems to plan holidays just as students begin to start feeling overwhelmed, giving them a day to slow down.
Bearcat Pride
One universal commonality about Hotchkiss students is that we truly “bleed blue”. This is true in the classic athletic cheering area if that’s what is important to you, but it extends so much farther than that. The blue and white society does a great job of rallying support for games, theater performances, music concerts, and any other events involving students. Another great example of how much Hotchkiss students love the school is the enthusiasm for being a tour guide. The admissions office usually has about double the necessary number of tour guides for each period because students just want to show prospective students exactly how amazing Hotchkiss is. Our alumni-student connection is pretty incredible too. Hotchkiss hosts alumni networking events for students on campus so that they can learn about different fields and gain connections in the field, and current students have tremendous pride for bearcat alums (I’m pretty sure the highlight of the Oscars for most students was watching former bearcat Alison Janney win best supporting actress).
Of course, I could go on forever, but I hope this list gives you a glimpse at what an amazing place Hotchkiss is. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask (I’ll try to be a bit more succinct than this, I promise).
How often are there Saturday classes? My understanding is that they are not every week. I feel like I heard the Saturday classes are roughly every other week.
At Hotchkiss, you will get a questionnaire about housing in the spring if you choose to enroll. It will ask you to rank your preference for a single, double, triple, or day student double. Most students get the type of room that they request (I would say the exception is that occasionally Juniors who request singles are placed in doubles, but I can’t think of any pairs who were actually unhappy with their Junior year roommate). Anyway, as a new sophomore, I would guess that you would be very likely to get a single if that’s what you request.
Classes are 45 minutes and then you will have a double (90 minutes) once a week as well. All of the humanities classes are very discussion based (usually the students talk more than the teacher) and use the assignment from the night before as the basis for the discussion. Math and science are active but in different ways – think splitting up into groups to do hard problems on the board or doing labs. The amount/type of homework in science and math classes definitely varies by teacher (some grade it more harshly than others, some assign a few challenging problems while others assign more textbook problems) but in humanities classes you can expect 30-45 minutes of reading unless there’s an essay or other assignment coming up.
I really enjoy Hotchkiss’s location! Honestly, I would bet that no matter where you go to boarding school, you’re going to be busy enough that there isn’t really time to leave campus on the weekdays anyway. On the weekends, there is a shuttle to the closest big-ish town (Millerton, NY) and there’s a train station 15 minutes away that takes you to New York City in around 2 hours. In return for the “isolation,” you get an amazing campus that you get to enjoy every day. Like I said, the lake, the golf course (a.k.a. the best sledding/mudsliding hills), and the woods are pretty incredible, and my parents always remind me that I have the rest of my life to live in cities.
The Saturday class schedule is kind of hard to explain. CC doesn’t allow links, but if you search up “Hotchkiss calendar 2018-2019” you will be able to see when we have no Saturday classes. In some months, like January and May, we have Saturday classes once in the month (and that’s only when we have no classes on the following Monday). There are other months where we have them 3 times a month, but usually, when you factor in longer breaks when we don’t have Saturday classes, it’s about twice a month.
What’s the school like for black students. Is diversity of race an issue at Hotchkiss or do black students typically enjoy the same experiences as do all other students?
Hi, @Ba4La1 - I’m a current student and I’m Asian-American, so I can’t speak for black students, but last night at our Admitted Students of Color dinner someone asked the same question. What the current students responded was that sometimes classmates will expect them to speak for their whole race, if they are one of the only students of color in the class. They do face some microaggressions, but otherwise they do enjoy the same experiences. Also, everyone is open to changing their behavior and becoming more aware, it’s just a matter of talking to them and opening up conversations.
@iamveryconfused I’m an admitted freshman, and also Asian-American. Does Hotchkiss do a good job of intergrating all races? I loved my revisit but would love to know more about the diversity. Does being Asian hinder your social scene in any way?
I am a Hotchkiss parent, and I strongly feel they do @ellelie . My son, who is not Asian American 's best friend and roommate is Korean American, and another close friend is from Shanghai. I hope you can attend a revisit day so you can form your own impressions.
Also huge Hotchkiss School news: Hotchkiss has launched Varsity Rowing on Lake Washinee and has recruited a Rowing Coach, Victoria McGee from Duke.
According to the website: "The program will be open to boys and girls, and will include a co-ed boat. Both novice and experienced rowers are welcomed to participate. Teams will row “fours,” or four rowers per racing shell, and compete against private and public schools throughout New England. Co-Athletic Director Robin Chandler noted there is a lot of excitement about the announcement. “Timing was right with increased student interest and other factors. We are pleased to be able to introduce rowing and expand our co-curricular offerings,” she said.
@ChoatieMom - know you love prep school rowing, so cc’ing you.
@hotchkissbearcat We will echo that daughter loved it and had remarkable opportunities to grow and be challenged at Hotchkiss. She graduated in 2018. Some memories in her own words:
“We began with a skating drill. The coach made it look simple, but when I tried to maneuver around the cones, I tripped over my skates, lost the puck, and crashed into the boards. I was a prep, I barely knew how to skate and I had never played ice hockey. Surrounded by gifted Hotchkiss students, I was afraid to be anything less than perfect. I wobbled back to the line in tears and hoped that nobody saw my error. The girl in line in front of me, an upperclassman whom I had never met, told me to watch her complete the drill, and I expected a demonstration of her advanced skating skills. She swerved around the first cone, her skating fast and fluid, when suddenly, she dove onto the ice and crashed into the boards. A teammate, one I had never met, tripped herself to end up face-first against the boards to make me feel better about my fall. That, my friend, is the spirit of Hotchkiss JV puck.”
“At practice, we blare “Who Let the Dogs Out?” and run “Superman” drills, where we dive onto the ice and attempt to travel great distances on our stomachs. We celebrate mistakes, and even the most experienced skaters lose balance and fall daily. In competition, we chant creative cheers that do not necessarily involve hockey to support our teammates. A fan may be confused to hear “Do what you love and the money will follow!” after a goal, but that is a tame cheer for JV puck. After games, we play “The Macarena” and invite opposing teams to join us in dancing. I do play on other sports teams, but hockey brings me the most joy. Thanks to hockey at Hotchkiss, I can laugh at myself and my errors rather than hiding them, which has helped me grow as a person.”