<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>I am a student at the Kent School in Connecticut. If anyone has any questions about Kent or boarding school in general, I would love to help!</p>
<p>I take all sorts of interesting classes, and I do cross country, squash, and crew for sports.</p>
<p>Thanks, and I look forward to answering your questions.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I’ve heard talk about drugs on Kent. Is that true? Like, lots of them. </p>
<p>And how selective is Kent?</p>
<p>What is the town like? And what are typical weekend activities?</p>
<p>@bs, from your perspective how is Kent different from other top notch schools? What makes it unique?</p>
<p>What are the English classes like? I really liked Kent’s reading lists. Also, you say that you do Crew. How hard is it to try Crew at Kent? I know how competitive Kent is at Crew. And third, what do you think about Kent’s music dept, specifically choral music? Thanks.</p>
<p>Sorry for the late response guys!</p>
<p>rizzledrizzle- In short, yes there are drugs at Kent. However, there are not really any more drugs than at comparable boarding schools from what I hear. Kent is just very vocal about getting rid of these kids. Also, the drug users are only in one small circle of kids, 99.8% percent of whom are from New York City. Kent has a lot of City kids, which is most certainly a bad thing. I don’t think people should worry too much about a drug reputation at a school, because no one will ever force you to do drugs. Drugs are extremely expensive, and people want to keep them to themselves. So yeah, there are some drugs at Kent, but you would never encounter that scene unless you were looking for it.</p>
<p>Kent is fairly selective, and getting more selective. The acceptance rate is somewhere in the mid to high 30s, or at least that is what the Admissions Department tells us.</p>
<p>ballerina22-The town is my favorite part of Kent! I almost went to a different school, but I decided that I loved the ability to walk into town. You never feel as if you are trapped at Kent, becuase you can always walk into town. It is so nice to be able to step away from campus for a bit. There is a grocery store, plenty of great restaurants for students, a state park, pharmacy, etc. Everything you really need for boarding school. </p>
<p>Every weekend there are dances and other fun trips, such as paintball, movies, mall, amusement park, etc. Because Saturday is taken up by sports for most students, many people prefer to just spend Sunday goofing around in town. Almost everyone goes out to lunch in town at least two times a week.</p>
<p>redbluegoldgreen-Kent is very unique. I like the approach towards students. First of all, every student has a “job” which can be anything from sweeping floors in the science building to cleaning dishes in the dining hall. Kent’s main purpose is to teach self-reliance, so they make you handle your own problems as well. And if you get in trouble, the school puts you to work for “work hours.” For these reasons, many snobby people don’t fit in to Kent’s social scene. Nobody does stuff for you. You are on your own at Kent. That is why I enjoy Kent so much. When I meet kids at other boarding schools, namely Choate, Taft, Loomis, and Hotchkiss, they seems so snobby compared to Kent kids. Every kid at Taft has his nose permanently raised into the air. It’s ridiculous. </p>
<p>ifax108-I have enjoyed my English classes immensely. This year, I had the honor of taking Mr. Hunt’s class. He is known as the best English teacher at Kent. He worked us all very hard this year, but I learned a lot from him. Our English classes are in Harkness table form with open discussion. Kent likes to put a lot of emphasis on essay writing. Kent does indeed offer some interesting books for summer reading. I have liked them. We also get authors to come to our school occasionally. This fall, Ishmael Beah is supposed to come, because his book was our summer reading. </p>
<p>For crew, that depends. The boys and girls are good, but the boys are the best known rowing team in America. For the girls team, it seems that you can try 4th boat as long as you are in decently good shape and want to try the sport. For the boys, even the 4th boat is extremely competitive. But again, if you are in good shape and like to work hard, you can do well as a Kent a rower. In fact, the average 2k times for Kent’s 4th boat is better than most public school 1st boats. I know this to be true because I row for Kent. Also, crew at Kent is a bit of a cult activity. You become obsessed with crew over the course of the season. You get invited to a ton on banquets and events for crew alumni. It is fun to go to big regattas and be the favorite to win every race.</p>
<p>how rigorous are the academics? do you feel significantly challenged (in a good way) by the courses and the faculty?</p>
<p>how many new sophomores are added?
and my mom asks if the dorms are single sex…?</p>
<p>The freshman class is doubled during sophomore year. There were 60 people in my class freshman year, and 120 after sophomore. This system works wonderfully for incoming sophomores, as they are not ostracized like at other boarding schools.</p>
<p>The dorms are all single sex. Well, one dorm has both sexes, but they are separated by a common room.</p>
<p>“Kent has a lot of City kids, which is most certainly a bad thing.” can you elaborate, please?</p>
<p>blehjoints-I do feel that the academics are rigorous. Of course, this is up to the individual student. Some take easier classes, some take harder classes. By the time I graduate, I will have taken 7 AP courses, which is much more than I would have taken at my public high school. However, the honor roll system at Kent is a bit odd. Around half of the students make honor roll, so it is a bit of a farce. There is also a high honor roll, which only a small handful of students make. I have vastly enjoyed my difficult classes at Kent.</p>
<p>DiveAlive-Ok, so I hate to judge people so quickly. I won’t say that all people from NYC are bad, but 99.9% of the city kids are bad apples. All of the negative stereotypes associated with boarding school life only really describe the kids from New York City. Snobby, big drinkers, drug users, etc…all is true of many NYC kids, especially the girls. Kent has a lot of students from NYC, so this sort of becomes a problem on the large scale.</p>
<p>Any more questions?</p>
<p>Bumpage…</p>
<p>Hey sorry I know I already asked a few questions but I have a few more:
How is the size of the school community? Is it too big or too small?
Is there a lot of “lax culture”?
How is the LGBT community?
What would you tell your past self who is just starting to look at boarding schools?
What factors did you consider before ultimately choosing Kent?
What schools dis you choose Kent over?
Looking back, do you feel you got a good sense of the school from the interview/tour?</p>
<p>Could you please describe kent’s choir specificly? If I have a great interest and passion in choir, and I have also won a lot of international choral awards,would that be a great advantage in applying kent? Thank you!</p>
<p>Ehphant-I like the size of the community. It is large enough that there are always new people to meet, but small enough that you feel like a major part of the community. Sorry if that sounds cliche, haha. We have about 540 students. Personally, I would not mind if our school was a bit smaller, like 450. I definitely would not want to go to a larger school.</p>
<p>There is a large lax culture. It is only really for guys however. I don’t really hang out with that crowd, but it certainly exists. People often pass lacrosse balls around on the chapel lawn, occasionally hitting innocent bystanders. 
I am not sure how the lax culture compares to other boarding schools though.</p>
<p>The LGBT community is surprisingly quite extensive. I am a member of the GSA, and am a staunch advocate for gay rights. The community is generally accepting of LGBT people.</p>
<p>I would tell myself to look at more schools, for sure. Not that I am unhappy with Kent, but I only looked at a few schools.</p>
<p>I decided on Kent for a few reasons. It gives a very different vibe than other boarding schools that I looked at. It does not give off a snobbish vibe at all! I love that about Kent. Also, I really enjoy the ability to walk right into town. The town of Kent is practically an extension of the Kent campus. Due to that, you never feel “trapped” at Kent.</p>
<p>Hmm, I’m not sure. That was a long time ago. I suppose I did, except I had a really crappy tour guide.</p>
<p>PabloIglesias-To be honest, I don’t know a ton about the choir at Kent. The community is really supportive of the choir, and many talented musicians go to Kent. A few members of the choir are very accomplished performers in their own rights.</p>
<p>That would definitely be a big help for applying to Kent. You may want to speak to Mrs. McDonald, who runs the choir.</p>
<p>Bump?..</p>