<p>Feeling a bit downtrodden by all of the heavy analysis and fretting going on at this time of year, it occurs to me I've never asked--or seen a thread here--that evaluates BS based on the fun factor. Where do the students seem happiest, and why? Is it because faculty are themselves approachable and upbeat? Great facilities on campus? Proximity to great activities closeby off campus? School spirit? </p>
<p>Can we please resist--on this thread--from repetition of average SATs, LAC/HYP matriculations, # of AP courses, etc., etc...I'd like to see current students' & alums' comments on why they love(d) BEing at their school.</p>
<p>I would so want to know too! Choate seems pretty fun, and so does Hotchkiss. Andover and Exeter seem very intense but of course, I’m sure students find time to seize the opportunities available on campus. A lot of the other Non-HADES schools like NMH, and Kent seem fun too. I don’t know about Lawrenceville, so if anybody has info it would be great! They have a golf-course so maybe the students go there in free-time or something. Deerfield has that new auditorium thing plus they have like a couple of cafe-cum-restaurant style cafeterias so if your a big foodie, Deerfield seems great. I guess location influences fun-factor too. I’m not really sure…</p>
<p>my friend goes to lawrenceville and it looks so much fun. it doesnt look extremely preppy and cold, and its a gorgeous campus. they had a fundraiser where they threw pies at each other and it was a world record or something. they are also so close to princeton, which is a beautiful town/university and there is so much to do around there. i think theres also a really nice mall around.</p>
<p>Depends on what you mean by “fun.” One thing that always annoyed me when I heard students complaining about a lack of fun at boarding school is they never defined what they meant as “fun.” Do they mean more free time to hang out with your friends? Or do they mean more parties? More drugs and alcohol? More Tv/video game time? More time for sports and non-academic interests?</p>
<p>Now to actually answer the question that OP asked. I think that at Andover kids can have a good amount of “fun.” They go into Boston often, and there’s stuff to do in Andover as well. Also, Andover seems to have a lot of school spirit. I’m not sure how happy Andover students are, but we can’t know that unless we go to the school.</p>
<p>This is an unusual bit of fun, especially for a Southern California beach community… Cate is having a “snow day” today. They had a snow / sleet / hail storm on Saturday, and even though the temperature was around 50 degrees, there was enough accumulation on the ground for one of the students to hit the headmaster with a snowball. A snow day was declared for today in celebration. The kids even made the world’s smallest snowman (I saw a photo - it was about 8 inches tall).</p>
<p>I so wanna go to Cate. My parents won’t let me apply to any school on the West Coast. Oh well. I can live with New England and the rest of the Mid-Atlantic.</p>
<p>@maddog15, that sucks. It snowed slightly back in December over here, but I was actually in New England for winter vacation, and caught sight of the big snow storm. I heard it’s been worse since then?</p>
I’m not really sure…</p>