Need help differntiating/picking between the HADES (+ Choate)!!

Prep School Admissions
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<p>Looking to find a way to better differentiate, based on my personal interests, between schools that appear to be uniformly excellent in academics, scenic in view, and vibrant in student body. So students of these schools please give me a perspective! Justifications for your answers would be helpful and please don't just put your school on all criteria! I'm sure you and the rest of the student body believe YOUR school is THE BEST!! - and I have no doubt, wherever I go, I will feel the same way eventually - but I care more about best FIT! So please help :)</p>

<p>For the purpose of this - define "Best" as "most accomplished, large in size, scale, and student interest, etc."</p>

<p>Between SPS, Exeter, Andover, Hotchkiss, Deerfield, and Choate-Rosemary which school has the:
1) Best drama/theatre department?
2) Best speech & debate experience/rankings in competitions?
3) Best Model UN?
4) Best mock trial?
5) Best music program?
6) best acapella/singing programs?
7) Ease of studying multiple languages (at once!)?
8) Best Varsity Volleyball (G)?
9) Best Crew (Boys with G cox)?
10) Best Newspaper?
11) Most involved student government?
12) Most entertainment productions such as Mr. -nameofschool- pagents, date auctions, talent shows (less professionally talented, more students making glorious fools of themselves and enjoying it), etc.?
13) Best GSA program/support?</p>

<p>Also:
- How many APs do students at your school typically take?
- How many courses are taken each term?
- How difficult is it to maintain straight As?</p>

<p>Thanks for all your help!</p>

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<p>I’ll share what I know - however, I’m hesitant to use the word “best” with any of this, as I can only speak for Andover.</p>

<p>3) In terms of Model UN, Andover is second to none. At BOSMUN (Boston University Model United Nations Conference) earlier in the winter, Andover picked up 29 of the 36 awards given.</p>

<p>6) Andover has three a cappella groups: The Yorkies, an all-boys group, Azure, an all girls group, and Symphonies in Blue, a coed group. The Yorkies and Azure are pretty unique in that they combine beatboxing with singing. I have videos of The Yorkies giving an impromptu performance on the library terrace on one spring day after school last year: look for them at [MobileMe</a> Gallery](<a href=“http://gallery.me.com/thurstonsmalley/100011/IMG_0617]MobileMe”>http://gallery.me.com/thurstonsmalley/100011/IMG_0617) and [MobileMe</a> Gallery](<a href=“http://gallery.me.com/thurstonsmalley/100011/IMG_0616]MobileMe”>http://gallery.me.com/thurstonsmalley/100011/IMG_0616)</p>

<p>8) Andover won the New England Championships in Girls’ Volleyball this year! I play Varsity Boys’ Volleyball in the spring which is coached by the same coaches, and we won the New England Championships last spring, too! We’re a powerhouse!</p>

<p>9) Last spring, Exeter beat Andover to win the New England Championships in Boys’ Crew - for the first time in four years. Before last spring, Andover had won the New Englands in boys’ crew for three years running.</p>

<p>10) The Phillipian, Andover’s newspaper, is an incredibly quality production! You can read it online at [Front</a> Page | The Phillipian](<a href=“http://phillipian.net/]Front”>http://phillipian.net/) and you can access PDFs of what the real PRINTED papers look like at [Directory</a> Listing of //](<a href=“http://pdf.phillipian.net/]Directory”>http://pdf.phillipian.net/) where you can look at copies of The Phillipian since 1878! Yeah, it’s a pretty old paper!</p>

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<p>Oh, and also, Andover’s GSA is the oldest GSA in the country and has a real campus presence. PA also has a reputation of being a gay haven - there are a lot of out students, and there’s no flak against them at all. PA is an incredibly tolerant place and the GSA is very active.</p>

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<p>TomTheCat you are totally my hero for answering all my questions and so promptly! :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Now for more lol. I saw in another thread you mentioned you where President of International Club - exactly how international is it? Do you guys put on a lot of events, and what’s attendance at those like?</p>

<p>Similarly for the GSA: how many actually LGBT members do you have (maybe percentage if you dont want to give a number); how many straight supporters; and do you guys put on a lot of events/Day of Silence/bring in speakers/etc.?</p>

<p>& congrats on your V-ball win! I’ve been playing since I’ve been out of diapers essentially (it’s the family sport of choice!) and I’d love to play Varsity throughout HS. Would you say tryouts and making varsity are particularly difficult? I play in a local junior league that’s won numerous competitions, if that helps you with your answer.</p>

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<p>I will attempt to answer your questions for SPS.</p>

<p>1) Best drama/theatre department? SPS has an excellent theater dept. Shows tend to be wonderful and the director, Mr. Valdes, is very highly regarded by students. <a href=“http://millville.sps.edu/allaccess/divisions/theatre/[/url]”>http://millville.sps.edu/allaccess/divisions/theatre/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>2) Best speech & debate experience/rankings in competitions? SPS is very strong. Typically, places well and usually has one or two students going to Internationals every year. The students in the program are very cooperative and the more experienced debaters are good about helping those new to it. Hotchkiss is also very strong. I was surprised that Exeter’s program didn’t seem very robust.</p>

<p>3) Best Model UN? SPS has an ok program. Attends a few events each year like Yale and Dartmouth conferences. Not the strongest club on campus nor the weakest but supposedly a lot of fun.</p>

<p>4) Best mock trial? Not sure.</p>

<p>5) Best music program? Amazing orchestra and choirs. Band is strong but not quite at the level of the orchestra. You can take lessons in pretty much any instrument. Bagpipes, anyone? I consider the music program - actually all the arts - one of SPS’ strengths. <a href=“http://music.sps.edu/[/url]”>http://music.sps.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>6) best acapella/singing programs? See above. Many options and strong program - select choir, broader choir, gospel choir, coed, all male and all female a capella groups. They often take trips - South Africa 2 years ago, Cuba this year.</p>

<p>7) Ease of studying multiple languages (at once!)? Taking 2 languages at once is quite doable and many students do so. </p>

<p>8) Best Varsity Volleyball (G)? SPS team did fairly well last year. </p>

<p>9) Best Crew (Boys with G cox)? Varies from year to year but generally strong. Great home course and boat house. However, guys’ crew usually has male coxswains.</p>

<p>10) Best Newspaper? It’s ok. I think Exeter and Andover are better, honestly.</p>

<p>11) Most involved student government? Yes, Student government is involved and can have influence on school life. </p>

<p>12) Most entertainment productions such as Mr. -nameofschool- pagents, date auctions, talent shows (less professionally talented, more students making glorious fools of themselves and enjoying it), etc.? Sometimes, talent shows and plays. There is a lot of traditions like Boar’s Head, Fiske Cup (each dorm puts on a play and competes for a cup) and the Club system where all students and faculty are placed in a club and compete against other clubs all year (kind of like the Hogwarts thing.)</p>

<p>13) Best GSA program/support? There is an active GSA program and it seems like the community is very open. There are students and faculty her are comfortable being open about their orientation. check out: <a href=“Coming Out Speech (Part 1 of 3) - YouTube”>Coming Out Speech (Part 1 of 3) - YouTube; there is a part 2 and 3 as well. The beginning is shaky but hang in as it gets better.</p>

<p>Also:

  • How many APs do students at your school typically take? no official AP classes as all classes are considered advanced. Most kids take a few or more AP exams. </p>

<ul>
<li><p>How many courses are taken each term? 5-6. Humanities is a double credit course the first 3 years. A normal course load is 6 credits but you can take a 7 credit as well. </p></li>
<li><p>How difficult is it to maintain straight As? SPS has its own grading system rather than ABC grades but only a handful of students get the equivalent of straight As. There isn’t grade inflation at SPS. But, colleges know the rigor and the grading system and students do very well in college matriculation.</p></li>
</ul>

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<p>wait, what happened to all the info you had creative1? It’s like half the size now.</p>

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<p>I reinserted but my edits for typos, additions are gone and I can no longer edit so forgive my poor grammar/typos in spots.</p>

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<p>Thanks Creative1! Can you tell me more about SPS’s Cup and club system(s)? It sounds fascinating! (Like you said, like Hogwarts!) Are the clubs dorm related or interest related or just randomly chosen so that different people can mingle?</p>

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<p>Here are some recent news stories on the revival of the club system at SPS. Everybody is enjoying its resurgence this ear and i’m sure it will continue to grow next year. Clubs are not dorm related. You are assigned when you join the school and if you have family that has attended SPS then you are placed in the same club - Old Hundred, Isthmian or Delphian. It is a good way to meet other people on campus. </p>

<p>Student Council Makes Club Revival Its Mission
10/27/2010</p>

<p>Up until the 1960s, students of St. Paul’s prided themselves on their club affiliations. They bled Isthmian red or Old Hundred blue or Delphian maroon.</p>

<p>All that changed at the onset of interscholastic sports, which gradually replaced the bragging-rights-driven, school-spirit-inducing club system.</p>

<p>Unless they are affiliated with a club soccer or hockey team, today’s students no more know to which club they belong than why the club system was so important in its heyday. With any luck, however, all that is changing.</p>

<p>Sixth Form officers Joe Nore</p>

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<p>For some one who is serious about APs, EXETER IS THE PLACE TO BE hands down. Their curriculum and faculty are unmatched, imo.</p>

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<p>pulsar, could you please elaborate on why you say that Exeter’s “curriculum and faculty are unmatched,” as opposed to the other schools? Direct me to any statistics or information that justify this claim? Thanks.</p>

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<p>I have read the entire exeter curriculum. If you do so, I’m pretty sure you will reach the same conclusion. If you compare the faculty qualifications, you will probably say WOW. Their qualifications are like college professors!</p>

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<p>Oh, so kind of like the qualifications of the teachers from a lot of elite NE boarding schools! Huh.</p>

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<p>Tom, Please take the time to go to the Exeter faculty qualifications listing and come back and give us an honest opinion. They are unmatched in the BS world. I know you love Andover, but…</p>

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<p>Pulsar, relax. Exeter has great teachers, so do many other schools. Let the exonians rave about Exeter.</p>

<p>Read my post on teachers at Hotchkiss. Some of the faculty here at Wharton are incredible and obviously put faculty at Exeter or anywhere for that matter to shame. I would not trade my Hotchkiss teachers for them anyday. When you grow up you will realize that qualifications and prestige mean very little. How they teach is all that matters. One of the best english teachers I know only had a BA from some random liberal arts college. My friends who went onto study english at Harvard, Stanford, Penn attest to his superiority.</p>

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<p>Zexan, read my posts here on the last page here:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/658755-hotchkiss-thread-14.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/658755-hotchkiss-thread-14.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thanks kafkareborn! Hotchkiss sounds amazing - especially for it’s community. But a couple questions I still have - what’s the student government like? How involved are people and are student govt officers always around and interacting with other students? </p>

<p>Is there a GSA and what’s its presence like on campus; is there support for it?</p>

<p>You mentioned debate - but what about Model UN and mock trial? </p>

<p>What is the most attended sports event(s)? (ie. most popular sport) Are people football mad? soccer crazy? really into hockey? etc.</p>

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<p>Im just adding my two cents. St. Paul’s boat house is absolutely gorgeous. And not like this matters but PA’s co-ed a capella group is called Rhapsodies in Blue (get it.)</p>

<p>1)drama/theatre department? Well has a pretty in-depth theatre department (truthfully I hear Choate’s and Concord’s are spectacular). We do three full-length shows a year, one shakespeare in the winter, usually one musical, and one regular play/misc all directed by faculty–although depending on the director the show may have student Assistant Directors in charge of blocking an entire scene. The cool thing about Andover’s theatre department is what we call DramaLabs. Dramalabs are short 10-30 minute plays directed, acted, produced, and sometimes written by students. I have directed, acted, and stage-managed for countless dramalabs. Its an awesome side project which usually consumes 2 weeks of your life, but it is great for those of us new to theatre or who dont have the time to commit to a full-length play. We also allow for Theatre Independent Projects which allows students to direct a full length play as a class. I was in an independent project my freshman year which was awesome. </p>

<p>11) Most involved student government? Andover’s StuCo has a reputation of being very secretive. As a member of StuCo I can honestly say I had no idea what we did before joining. However, we are in constant discussion about how to make Student Council meetings and happenings more open. As in involvement, StuCo–and is members–have been championing lots of the change that has occurred in the past few years. The Blue Card, Big Blue Bikes (a communal biking system being put into place this year), among projects that student council is working on for the spring.</p>

<p>Also thank you Creative1 for putting Nicky’s video up. He is a good friend of mine, and would want his experience to be shared.</p>

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<p>DieterSama - My pleasure and I’m glad that you think he wouldn’t mind. You have good taste in friends. I know he was very liked and respected on campus. He served as a great role model to many kids. It was my child’s all time favorite chapel meeting. :)</p>

<p>I’m glad you and TomtheCat post here for Andover. It’s great for folks to hear directly from students and your articulate communication speaks to the quality of students and the education at Andover. Still prefer pelicans to gorillas, though ;)</p>