Hi! I was accepted into Middlesex, Milton, and Concord. I like all of the schools but they all seem very different. I am more of a STEM and music student and I’m not very into competitive sports. Milton seems to have an amazing music program and I like the large student population but I have heard some negative things about the math department. Middlesex seems very sporty which I am not into, but I like the high boarding percentage. Concord seems to have a friendly environment with not much emphasis on sports but I have heard it is a more arts and humanities focused school and I am also worried and the low boarding percentage. Does anyone have any advice or information?
It might help if you shared what you like & what you are seeking & expecting from your boarding school experience.
Congratulations on your acceptances !
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Congratulations on your acceptances!
My Daughter is a sophomore at Middlesex and loves it. Happy to answer any questions. Like you, she is not focused on athletics, but she has been able to try her hand at crew and Nordic skiing, which she never even dreamed about before going to MX. It’s a smaller school, so it is great place to thrive in music and there is plenty of room to grow in STEM - I hope you choose MX!
Do you live in the area? Did you apply as a day student? We live in California, so for our daughter, the boarding experience was important.
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Three great schools! Congrats! Our DC is also considering Milton so I can share that everything we have heard has been incredibly positive. The alumni we have spoken to have done incredibly well in college and beyond, saying that Milton prepared them well (mentioned were writing, research and note taking). Like you, we read some reviews about the math department but talking to other alumni/students has eased our worries. They recently got a new chair and a handful of new faculty in that department Mathematics Faculty - Milton Academy And we have heard from current 9th graders with above grade level math skills that they have no complaints and feel adequately challenged. I think above all else, we have consistently heard that the faculty are incredibly caring and “really want the students to understand the material.” And finally, if boarding, there seems to be a real sense of community. The dorms have been described as very social with a strong support network. Honestly, we have been very happy with all we have heard thus far! GLTY!
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Unless you are really into art (which would send you to CA) I’d choose Middlesex out of those three as a boarder, with the limited info you’ve given.
Milton’s admin and teachers did not impress me during Covid and I think it speaks to a deeper problem. Weak admin, disgruntled and uncooperative teachers.
The reasons to go to CA are the art department that is unique among its peer schools and the quirky kid factor. Being IN town is fun but the low boarding population is a negative (in my opinion, not in everyone’s).
The one problem with Middlesex math is that they don’t let you start ahead even if you test ahead/have already taken lower math. At some point, maybe it’s their pre calc, they think that their course is so unique everyone benefits. I think that’s hooey. MX has an amazing writing seminar that all students take.
Can you elaborate on why Milton’s administration didn’t impress you during COVID? Also, they are getting a new principal as of July 2022 and a new HOS next year I believe. Do you think that will make a difference? Appreciate your insight!
But we don’t know who the new HOS will be.
Definitely a fair point. Not knowing what the nature of the tension is however, I was thinking that might be one of the goals of putting new administration into place? More so, I would love to hear @one1ofeach 's insight on what might have led to the tension in the first place. As I mentioned, we have talked to multiple parents/students who are attending currently and heard that the faculty have been incredibly caring. If there is more to the story we just want to understand it so we can ask better questions.
As a Middlesex senior, I can tell you that you can actually place out of math classes right from the start! Last year, even, a freshman took BC calc without taking any other prerequisites at Middlesex.
Maybe they’ve changed that since my son was a freshman. I know several kids in that situation who were told no. (And to be clear they were calc level no question).
If math is important to you important to check with the head of the math department!! This rule was a deal breaker for several kids the year my son started BS.
One other item about Milton that we didn’t fully understand until we spoke with families who have children attending is grading in 9th. Students will get grades throughout the year and parents can see those grades, but they will not be sent on your official transcript when you apply to colleges. We were told the rationale is that there is so much adjustment happening in 9th with everyone coming from various educational backgrounds that they want the students to focus on improving and learning the Milton fundamentals as opposed to stressing about how each grade may impact their future plans. We know other prep schools do this, at least for a trimester, but this was the only one we looked at that did it for the entire year. Thought I’d mention that just in case you hadn’t seen that (we had not).
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I have a high-schooler at Milton and will have another one joining in the fall. The music department is definitely phenomenal. The quality of their musical performances has been very impressive, to a point you would forget these are high school students. True, Milton is stronger in languages, literature, and humanity than in math. You do have the option to be placed in higher math if you have taken prerequisite courses. You can also opt to take the prerequisite course over the summer if you scored a 98 or 99 percentile on your SSAT Math. However, most students still find it adequately challenging to get an A at the regular level unless math is your standout strength. Many students who normally get straight-A’s in middle school won’t necessarily continue to feel like it is still a walk-in-park at Milton. As positivevibe mentioned, the student’s 9th-grade report card is reported to colleges as P/F and not used to calculate your GPA. However, a grade is given to the students so they could improve and get an idea of how they are performing. I think there are other schools with this practice as well.
We believe Milton is a better fit for us. We had a choice and we chose Milton.
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Thank you @MommyArchitect. Appreciate the first hand experience! Can you comment on the discussion earlier in the thread about tension between faculty and administration at Milton? Have you found that to be the case and more importantly, has it impacted your attending child’s experience? Also, just to round out the subjects, any thoughts on the science program @ Milton?
Covid:
Admin tell parents school will be open in person. Kids get to school and 4/5s of their teachers are virtual. From the teacher who described it to me “they aren’t worried about Covid, they’re just lazy and the admin can’t make them come in to work.”
Andover had similar problems fwiw.
Appreciate the explanation @one1ofeach Evaluating choices during COVID times is proving to be incredibly challenging!!
Yes. Although it tells you a lot about the workings of the school. Andover and Milton in contrast to Groton where admin rules with an iron fist. Sometimes one or the other plays to your favor (Groton open in person last year, teachers mandated to teach in person) and sometimes it doesn’t (Groton still mandating masks when most other ma bs having dropped them weeks ago).
Could you please elaborate on that? We are considering Milton and would like more info, please.
Not a current Milton parent, but we were also considering and found that teachers/coaches were not responsive to questions in deep contrast to other schools. Feel free to DM me if you want to chat offline.
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Hi @positivevibe. I haven’t witnessed that part of it. I have not heard that from my daughter either. However, the parents are very cohesive. We have a monthly meeting with the head of school and the college counseling office and find that to cover all kinds of topics. They are great opportunities to ask lots of in-depth questions. I have only had one situation where there was an infamous teacher who loved to post assignments halfway into Sunday. The school asked teachers to honor the 24-hour advance notice to assign homework or else the students do not need to submit it. The parents knew who she was without mentioning her name. My daughter would always spend Sunday evenings doing that homework because she said that teacher doesn’t honor the policy. This lady was a legacy faculty and was with Milton all her life. The good news is that she just retired, well one year too late for my daughter. Maybe the legacy faculties would be the “disgruntled” ones, but to be fair, I am sure that this is the case in other schools too. There will always be an isolated few who don’t align with the school’s values. But no doubt, Milton has a strong team that seems to align well together. We got many emails from individual staff introducing themselves and offering Zoom meetings. I regrettably had let a few of them pass.
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Congratulations on your acceptances! I am answering but realize you have probably revisited these schools already and have gotten a good feel for your preference.
My kiddo is in her first year at MX and loves it. She, like you, is into music/theatre and not so sporty. She has found the sports at MX full of camaraderie and fun - it keeps her active. She is starting JV tennis currently and is very much enjoying that.
The music program at MX, headed by Dr. Wetzel, is excellent. The Rachel Carson Music and Campus Center is beautiful. My kiddo is currently singing in chapel choir (a non-audition singing group) and is planning to audition for a smaller chorus next year. She is also taking clarinet and will perhaps try her hand at the chamber orchestra at some point. She passed her ABRSM level 5 Music theory exam last year and finds that many of her peers are at her level or higher.
As for STEM, she is in a Pre-Calc class with one other freshman having placed there through the exam MX sent out last summer (this is a higher placement than we expected). She knows of at least one student who placed into Calc. as a freshman. Though this is not the norm, it does happen. She very much likes her math teacher this semester and is learning quite a bit. She is also taking Honors Biology and loving that class.
The percentage of boarding students definitely weighed into her decision to apply to MX over Milton. Though the total number of boarders is roughly equal, she wanted a school that’s focus was more on the boarding population since she was coming from Virginia. She also liked the smaller school feel. She did not consider Concord. Good luck with your decision. Please let us know what you decide. And if you have more specific questions, please feel free to ask.
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