<p>If you were accepted at: Indian Mountain School, Fenn School, Applewild School, and The Bement School, which one would you enroll in and why?</p>
<p>Fenn. superior placement and reputation</p>
<p>Thanks. Can you rank the others and give more information on their respective placements and reputations?</p>
<p>Applewild. Excellent teaching, a strong program in both visual and performing arts, a variety of extracurricular activities, great facilities, and excellent secondary school counseling and placement. A number of interesting programs are integrated into the curriculum; some examples include public speaking at all grade levels, and participation in the National History Day competition in the upper grades. Students come from a broad and diverse set of communities. They are well-prepared to excel in high school, whether it’s a top independent high school or their local public school.</p>
<p>How many boarding v day at each school? Do the schools’ websites have any secondary school placement info? Do u have a preference for location? Do you have any issues w middle school kids mingling w high school age kids? Isn’t Bement co-located w Deerfield? </p>
<p>I’ve known of kids who have gone to Applewild and kids who have gone to Fenn. Realistically, someone who put in the same amount of effort at either school is likely to have a similar outcome. I’d look at the curriculum guides, whether you want coed or all-boys, what kinds of sports your kid is interested in and what kind of flexibility you want in the sports program, how long a commute it is and/or whether the school transportation options are convenient for you, etc.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the replies and questions. I am wondering why Bement and IMS do not get recommended … are they not as good as Applewild and Fenn? We have not decided on the single/code and day/boarding choices yet. Right now we are wondering which are academically strong, have a good reputation, can nurture a learner, but are also nurturing places for a child. </p>
<p>I really don’t know much about Bement, other than I noticed its location when we visited the deerfield campus. My personal bias is to have middle school kids away from high school kids, especially since boarding schools have older than usual kids (repeats & PGs).</p>
<p>My feeling about boarding is that I would not want a situation where campus is mostly lonely after hours because of preponderance of day students.</p>
<p>IMHO Applewild is a colossal waste of 25K if you desire a return on your investment, namely placement in a strong secondary school. The students coming out of AW are indeed well-prepared for a rigorous high school experience, but unfortunately the majority of them are relegated to 3rd or 4th tier schools because the school’s secondary school placement department is basically non-existent. It is a department of 2: one is an over-taxed teacher, the other is the headmaster who has no experience whatsoever in private secondary school admissions and who has never made any attempt to improve his knowledge. Don’t waste your money like I did twice. I wish all day long that I had sent my older boys to Fenn instead.</p>
<p>Applewild does have a small placement department, but most parents are happy with it. They bring in a number of secondary schools reps throughout the year to meet with the 8th graders and have personal connections with the local independent secondary schools. </p>
<p>In any case, the placement office at a school does not magically get students into top secondary schools; that’s pretty much up to the students. The strong students at Applewild are most likely to attend Groton, Concord, Middlesex, and St Marks, which are hardly third and fourth rate schools. The less-strong students will attend other independent schools or their local public school (though, of course, some strong students will attend their local public school, as many parents are more focused on the primary and middle school educational experience rather than secondary school placement).</p>
<p>If you look at school placement and take into account school size, location, and demographics, the placement is similar. The school that Applewild graduates are most likely to attend is Lawrence Academy, a school which many Fenn graduates attend. The school that Fenn graduates are mostly likely to attend is the Concord/Carlisle public high school.</p>
<p>I only know IMS … but i can definitely say good things about it. They’ve done a lot to improve and have a larger 9th grade class than ever before and a new art building. (The 9th grade does a lot to prepare kids and let them grow up–worked very well for us.) </p>
<p>They do have an excellent secondary school placement program-- in addition to the local schools of Hotchkiss, Berkshire, and Millbrook, kids go to schools from Suffield to Groton, from little Vermont schools to Loomis or Deerfield or Hill.</p>
<p>They support the student athlete and have excellent reputation for sportsmanship. And it’s a supportive place. Academically we found it strong enough without being crushing or cutthroat.</p>
<p>I never had a child at Bement, but I know several families who did, although most had kids who were day students. It’s a warm and welcoming place and, for a small school, they put a lot of emphasis on exposing the kids to the outside world: community service is very important, their arts program is pretty expansive and includes a lot of off-campus activities, their 9th grade class has a required trip the Dominican Republic to work in an orphanage every year (a trip that is so popular that several kids come back at spring break during high school to go on this trip again), and, for athletics, they use a lot of the Deerfield Academy facilities, which are right across the street. I believe their placement stats are decent ( there’s at least a little info on this in their on-line view book); of the kids we know, two are currently at Deerfield! one is at St. Mark’s, one is at Wiiliston-Northampton (her mother teaches there), and one is at the local public school. They do have a good relationship with Deerfield, and seem to always have at least a couple of kids go there. I think there are only about 40 boarders, so that may be an issue, but the families we know who went there were very happy with both the academic and extra-curricular aspects of it, and REALLY loved the sense of community. It is small, and not the facilities aren’t as fancy as some other schools’ (although their ability to use Deerfield’s facilities helps make up for this), but it seems like a good place.</p>
<p>Of those four, I’d choose Fenn. </p>
<p>As Fenn and Applewild are day schools, you’re deciding between your child being a day student at either, or his being a boarder at Indian Mountain School or Bement? In that situation, I’d choose Fenn.</p>