Linden Hall Questions?

Prep School Admissions Prep School Cafe
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<p>Alright, so I'm seriously considering Linden Hall. I've heard the negatives, but to be honest they don't seem to bother me too much. I was just wondering some things, so if anybody knows (goes there), PLEASE feel free to answer:</p>

<p>1.) Looking at Linden Hall at an academic stand point does it really seem to be worthy of it's top-rank status?</p>

<p>2.) How are the students? Are they cliquey, or are they more friendly?</p>

<p>3.)How are the teachers? The teachers are important to me (of course).</p>

<p>4.) If anyone boards there, how is residential life? I'd be coming in as a boarder, and I want to know if it feels...homey.</p>

<p>5.) Do their scholarships cover a lot of the tuition? I sent them an email but they haven't answered.</p>

<p>6.) How is their drama program? I love drama.</p>

<p>7.) Does this school seem...easy to get into? I've heard some things and I'm not sure if this school just takes almost anyone, or is it more selective?</p>

<p>8.) How many african americans would you say are in the school if you could give a number or percent? It's not too much of a concern, but I just want to know if I'd be a major minority or not. :P</p>

<p>Okay, thanks a bunch!</p>

<p>-Baillie</p>

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<p>*African Americans</p>

<p>And if no one can answer THESE questions, by just looking at the website, what are people’s opinions on this school?</p>

<p>And is anyone thinking of applying? :)</p>

<p>-Baillie</p>

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<p>I heard that Linden Hall is great, teachers and people wise and that the dorms are nice. The drawback though is the number of international students, which make up majority of the boarders (70-80% i think)
If you’re a great student, I think you’ll definitely qualify for some sort of scholarship or aid.
I’m sorry that I can’t offer any more information than I already have because I just heard a few things from a current student there. I think in CC there’s a current student that you can PM. I’m not sure what’s her username though.</p>

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<p>Okay, thanks! I’ll do some looking around :P</p>

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<p>My cousin went to Linden Hall for a year, and I visited here there a few times. She didn’t go back after one year, though. She made some good friends, especially among the day students, and she thought the academics were very strong in most of her classes and her teachers were excellent. However, the boarding situation was just miserable for her. Among the 7-day high school boarders, the vast majority (maybe 90+ percent) are Chinese students, and she was very lonely. She thought that the Chinese girls were cliquey and very competitive and looked down on the American students. The dorms are a bit dumpy and musty smelling, and the food isn’t that good.
All Americans are minorities there. There were some friendly Black girls at the lunch table when I visited but any native English speaker is a minority, especially among boarders. Academically, I don’t think it is that all that competitive to get into but they do have honors classes for really excellent students which are smaller, and of course the smarter you are the better your chances for financial aid. Some of the general classes are pretty big, though. The “top-ranked” status is something they awarded themselves and I’d take it with a grain of salt. They do have SAT prep as part of the curriculum and a lot of their Chinese students are a bit older and study like crazy for the SATs so they do have high SAT scores, but I’m not sure that really means that much in terms of the overall academic experience.
The thing is this: they are very generous with financial aid for American students, and have academic aid as well as need-based aid. They won’t tell you up front what kind of aid they will offer so you have to go through the application process. Linden Hall was not my cousin’s first choice but it was the only school that gave her the financial aid package that she needed. The American girls she met there were pretty down to earth, maybe because many of them went there with financial aid, which is nice.<br>
Most of these boarding schools use financial aid to get the diversity they want, so if you are African American and have demonstrated financial need, be sure to consider some of the other girls’ boarding schools out there, because some of them are amazing.</p>

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<p>Thanks, that was a really nice post.</p>

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<p>I am considering Linden Hall too, unfortunately I passed all the deadlines before I realized I really wanted to go to boarding school. I would also need almost full FA and I’m Canadian. Do you think it’s too late?</p>

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<p>boardingschoolreview.com says that Linden has rolling admissions.</p>

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<p>I am applying for Linden Hall and have heard many negative things about it. Can I have some true insight on the school please?</p>

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<p>Don’t go to Linden Hall. Some of the staff are amazing, but some of them are the opposite. Mean, degrading, possibly evil people. The headmaster got fired last year for the bad things he did. It isn’t a good school. I would say more but I don’t know how to without profanity.</p>

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<p>After seeing this thread, I looked at the Linden Hall website. They claim that they are “the top-rated college preparatory school in the United States.” I find this confusing as I have never heard of the school and have never seen it ranked anywhere in “best prep schools” lists. I wonder where they get this information from? That’s not to say it’s not a good school, but still…strange.</p>

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<p>BTW, I am not a big fan of ranking BS, but still, there ARE rankings out there. What was Linden Hall’s methodology?</p>

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<p>I’m a current student at Linden Hall, and I personally don’t think it’s as bad as danceaway says. The last headmaster was indeed horrible, but our new headmaster is doing a much better job.</p>

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<p>Oops, I meant to post more but pressed the wrong thing. :stuck_out_tongue:
Here’s the rest of it:
The staff members are extremely qualified and, although there are a couple had apples in the bunch, most of them know what they’re doing. </p>

<p>The international population is big, and I think that can be good or bad depending on the person. Most of them are Chinese, and I’m pretty sure the last headmaster admitted a lot of them just for the money, but this year, we’ve had an increase in extremely talented and academically amazing people. Also, I read somebody saying that the large asian population in the dorms made a student lonely, but really, I don’t see how because everyone knows each other in the dorms and are either friends or on friendly terms. There isn’t any of that hate thing between cliques or even individual people because the population is so small. Cliques do tend to form, but I don’t even know if I should call them cliques because its really just a lot of the people from the same culture/country hanging out together, which I’m sure happens anywhere. And seriously, trust me, you’ll find friends. The population is literally so small that it’s impossible not to. </p>

<p>Academically, I find the work really challenging and I do feel like I’m learning a lot here, but I can’t speak for regulars, because I take all honors/AP. But I know that for some classes, there is quite a lot of difference in regs and hon/ap while in others, there’s really not that much. There are of asians in the regulars so I don’t know how the pace is compared to the honors classes…(this is in no way racist since I’m asian myself;D)
The thing I don’t really like about the academics though is that the school is SO academics oriented. You kinda have to go out of your way to do things outside of academics. Besides the math stuff and some art/literature stuff, it’s really hard to participate in competitions and things like that, although it is possible. It’s just that it’s not like THERE for you: you have to find it yourself, talk to teachers, etc.
but they really do prepare you for standardized tests. All the honors classes past freshman year and some even in freshman year require that you take the SAT II subject tests. It’s considered your final exam grade, so if you mess up, it’s on your transcript.</p>

<p>The school wasn’t my first choice, and I’m kinda sad about the lack of boys and that there isn’t that much diversity in weekend activities, but you can really focus on school here, which I’m grateful for. For a girl’s school, it’s not that bad, though the school doesn’t have that much money so some things facility-wise might not be as good as a lot of the other boarding schools, academically, it really is better than I think all the other girls boarding schools based on what I hear from friends who’ve transferred to some of them. </p>

<p>And I’m sure the school says best college prep school based on the fact that it is (academically) the best girls boarding school. Just not so much otherwise( out sports suck btw). I really think I really think that if you looking to apply here and are confident in your academics and extracurriculars then you might want to apply to some other schools ads well as this one cuz it never hurts right? And if you are looking at girls schools specifically, don’t just apply to this one. Apply to more, visit, and see which one fits you best. I personally don’t regret coming here because the community is amazing and because of the small population and the boarding thing, you make extremely close friends. Like friends till we die kind of friends. </p>

<p>Anyway, this was a really long post… Hope it helped and PM me if you have any specific questions.</p>