Full disclosure - my DC has several friends at Hotchkiss now, we know several alum, and DC will probably attend. We know a few people at Choate, but not as well.
As far as turnover, we found it odd that in most of the schools we looked at the Headmaster was new … I recall for certain Lawrenceville and Groton, but I think it was true of other schools too, that the Heads were new or new-ish. TBH my take on it is that they are all 100-150 yr. old institutions and I’d be much more concerned if all the staff were new. (everyone we met seemed to be lifers!). Moreover, a mix of old and new is always good.
I have founf it interesting to hear parents and kids discuss revisit days at DC’s school. Everyone can espouse a seemingly logical reason for their choices, but people will say things about schools that are diametrically opposed to what someone else just said! There is very little truly concrete factual reasoning for choosing among HADES or for that matter Gladchemms. It is all gut feel masquerading as something more defensible, if you ask me.
You are choosing your home for the next 4 years. You are choosing among largely equivalent academic quality and prestige. You cannot really go wrong. I simply do not believe you do not have a gut preference. Follow it.
I would also comment that most of these schools are very similar in their student body make-up, missions and the outcomes of their students insofar as college matriculations. ALL of these schools have become frighteningly political correct–its the age we live in. Roughly half of each school gets Financial aid, they all have lots of wealthy entitled kids and athletes and smart wonky kids. I think the major differences are between the more heavily athlete/sports oriented schools like say AOF and Hotchkiss/Taft OR Cushing and Groton or Tabor and Exeter/Milton. Those sporty schools are still very very good but they will be different than the others. Hotchkiss, Choate and Taft are nearly two sides of the same coin–very similar SSATS and SATS, very similar college matriculations…
Some excellent comments above. Yes, sadly the political correctness seems to be all too common and not unique to Hotchkiss. It becomes an order of magnitude question - is the school accountable to what matters - the students and their success/growth - or more beholden to promoting pet political crusades, how divided vs unified is the school, is the school promoting the values you want your child to espouse, is there racial/other animus on campus, will the level of academic rigor be worth it (however defined), etc? Take a deeper dive into what is actually going on, beyond the revisit day dog and pony show. Also take a deeper dive into college matriculation - statistics can be massaged as we all know. Good luck - buy the current fact, not the rumor…
After following up with a number of close family friends in the last week, I was able to gather more information and it seems as though the general consensus of Choate during revisit day is that it lacked warmth. Whether this is true or not is probably up for debate but it DID seem consistent with my visit and interactions with the school. I believe it is difficult for a larger school like Choate to offer the same quality of community and guidance as a school like Hotchkiss. After hearing this from close friends in addition to the information in my last comment, I believe Hotchkiss is going to offer you a better experience.
In regards to Hkiss4liberals comments, I think every school has to address the PC problems including Choate. Also, from what I have seen from numerous visits to Hotchkiss, I do not feel as though there is a lack of leadership. The new headmaster seemed equally impressive as the last, worldly and very charismatic. Current students I spoke with seemed very pleased with the state of the school and its leadership.
Feel free to DM me if you have any additional questions. I too am considering Hotchkiss and will most likely be attending (2020) this fall.
I just have to say, I find it so funny when people say a given school is warm or a given school is snobby or cliquish. I am sure they are all some of both. We didn’t get a bad vibe from any school we interviewed at, visited, or revisited. Maybe we are too easy.
My view is, these are large diverse organizations. Some of the people in them are wonderful, some are jerks, some will become dear friends. Like any large organization, you find your peeps over time.
I would choose the school whose mission statement emphasizes that the curriculum “inspires students to appreciate the importance of beauty and grace in their lives.” THIS is so much more important than food, cell reception, faculty turnover, perceived warmth/snobbishness, location, dress code, size, GPA boosts, political clubs, economics courses, debate teams, college matriculation, and any of the other mundane criteria I’ve seen posted on this and other threads.
Never forget that these privileged educations in these beautiful places should be doing more than preparing you for college. Along the way, they should be reaching deep inside, touching your finer self and stirring your young soul to appreciate, well, “the importance of beauty and grace” in your life. A school that understands this is a school that has its priorities straight in my book. Choose the school that values these finer things and whispers them into the curriculum.
(Well, which school did you expect me to champion? Just stay away from the ceramics building.)
Oh, and a boarding school without crew is just sad.
If you’re choosing between Choate and Hotchkiss, don’t rely on mission statements or other such nonsense, but instead find something concrete, something tangible, something important to you and important enough upon which to make your choice. It could be large or small but some thing, some reason, like a certain class or a particular program or one outstanding teacher or the presence of a crew team or the town or the golf course. I hate to say it almost doesn’t matter, but it almost doesn’t matter which school you pick. Both Choate and Hotchkiss are fine schools and most/many kids could and would do fine at either. Plenty of people will, regardless of which one you pick. You can’t attend both, so be selfish and figure out why one is better than the other for you and that’s the ball game.
The truth is that after you make your decision, there’s a better than 99% chance you will immediately begin to justify that choice in your head and won’t stop ever. That’s human nature, too. You’ll be sure that your school is the perfect one for you and the other one would have been a disaster because that’s how most humans are wired. When your choice is one like you have here, everybody makes the right choice, everybody’s happy, and everybody wins. Go with it. There’s a reason to pick one, so do it, do a good job, and then be happy you made the right choice–even if there really wasn’t a wrong one.
It’s a close call, I personally prefer Hotchkiss because of their debate program and what i think is a drop dead gorgeous campus and facilities. Other than Lawrenceville perhaps, with its close proximity to lovely Princeton, I’ve not found any BS town to be a draw, nor has DC.
@ChoatieMom How is what you said going to help OP choose between Hochkiss and Choate? Which one “values beautify and grace” more other than maybe one of them says they do in their mission statement?
No one can help this OP or any other OP choose between schools. That should be obvious by now. ONLY the student and his/her family can make that decision, and they will have to make that decision based on what they personally experience and what they value as a family – no one else’s input or experience matters one iota.
My comments are of no more value that anyone else’s here, and I certainly hope the OP is not making any decisions based on what anyone says on an anonymous Internet forum.
Yes, every kid/family has a reason for pickin’ one school over another. Find it. Some are good, real good, like money, and some are hilariously trivial, but all are valid. All you gotta do is pick. Choate V Hotckiss: The Dawn Of Justice is a pretty even split, I would imagine. Not like you’re choosin’ betwixt Dublin School and St. Paul’s or Cheshire and Choate or…
Not that some kids/families couldn’t ever choose Dublin or Cheshire for good reasons…
Sometimes all it takes to makes yer choice is a little encouragement. Maybe that’s the sorta thing you could get from this place.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Multiple OT posts deleted. I have mentioned this several times on other threads, but College Confidential is not a debate society. Feel free to make your opinion known or to politely disagree with another poster’s opinion. Recognize, however, that opinions will not be changed, so don’t keep banging the same drum. The Original Poster is not interested in the back and forth banter.
" I didn’t realize that Choate’s crew team had to make such a commute to practice, I personally plan on doing crew, do you think that this will be a large burden? Is the team good? "
Obviously, I need a tutorial on the quoting thing but I can answer this!
Balancing rigorous academics with training is the burden not the commute. If you want to find out how good a BS team is go to Row2K and look at last year’s ( HS) Spring/Fall race results. You can also track a team’s trajectory by digging deeper into the site’s results archives. Go to the Crash B’s 2016 website and find out individual rower results. I believe Choate sent several rowers to Boston this year… go see how they did.
If you have a commute to a BS BH- do what other rowers do: Use that time to sleep!
Hey- Maybe if they ran to the BH they could beat Kent…
( OMG. Did I just say that out loud, @ChoatieMom ? )
Choate has a couple of exceptional rowers who entered during ChoatieKid’s junior year. He says they and a couple of club rowers will be taking the team a new level next year. We’ll have to see. As @PhotographerMom says, Row2K is your friend.
The commute is a short distance. The smart rowers do try to get some sleep or do some reading on the ride, though.
My daughter chose Choate. It was very clear to her. She had 7 offers, but we could not revisit all. She knew on revisit day that Choate was it. She articulated what she liked better about Choate than Hotchkiss or others, but those were things she found important to her or picked up on that may not be important to others or may have just been what she saw based on who she was with on those revisit days. We are excited the decision has been made.
For those folks grumbling that Hotchkiss should have crew, I think that THS has wisely, but unknowingly, aligned itself with the immortal football coach of Clemson, Frank Howard, who proclaimed that Clemson would never offer a varsity sport where folks sit on their butts and go backwards.
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