<p>P.S. I love CrackerBarrel (not the type of restaurant Neato is referring to, I am certain)!</p>
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<p>You, my fellow new englander, are a winner. ;)</p>
<p>What are your opinions on those New Englander commercials from McDonalds and Dunkin’ Donuts? Personally, I don’t know much of that stuff, lol.</p>
<p>I now see all the californians rushing for NE snowtourism and they will be extra-happy to get the ice as a bonus. :D</p>
<p>??? When did the discussion become NE vs California? For the most part, California only has two great but small boarding schools, and they are on the other coast to the majority of the applicants to NE schools. I don’t see good weather a big enough incentive for a lot of people to apply to let alone choose the CA boarding schools over NE counterparts. Of course, to be fair, that’s just me. For many people, maybe attending a boarding school is just as radical an idea as flying to CA for schooling while you have a great many of great choices close to home.</p>
<p>If you want to stay close to home, nothing will be closer than your local HS, lol.</p>
<p>^^Yeah. I think the majority of BS students/parents choose BS for the high quality education not for its distance from home, but rather despite the distance from home.</p>
<p>Considering the fact that (according to the SSAT school matching page) there are 72 boarding schools offering my child’s sports in the northeast and not a single one in CA (3 in the midwest, 1 in western Canada) it’s a no-brainer for us. 13 boarding schools and 28 day schools with these sports are within 25 miles of our house.</p>
<p>I tried the same with my other child’s sports. 47 in the northeast. 1 in CA, 1 in western Canada.</p>
<p>Rad…those Dunkin and MacDonald’s commericals are pretty much aimed at Bostonians. I live in a pretty rural area…the nearest Mac’s is half an hour, which is fine by me as I don’t eat there. We do have a Dunkin’s the next town over, but that is a rare event for me as well.</p>
<p>have to agree with you, pulsar.</p>
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<p>Are you kidding me?</p>
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<p>Wait, could that be because the west coast applicants all choose to go to the really good schools that are close to their homes and have no need to fly across the country to NE?</p>
<p>[Throws up hands in disgust and walks out of the room.]</p>
<p>Comparing the California and NE boarding school experience is silly. The NE schools are nearly interchangeable with one another in comparison to the CA schools, which by their geography offer students a fundamentally different experience. I’ve spent a lot of time on the campuses of schools on both coasts and believe that the academic education is the only similarity between the two. Outside the classroom, everything diverges: student and faculty demeanor, nature of competition, extracurricular activities, sports available and unavailable. Such differences are all about the climate and geography of East vs. West, which changes everything at a really fundamental level. </p>
<p>I love the schools on both coasts. And if the CA schools were a two hour car ride from NE, I would wager that you’d see a huge percentage of parents and kids want that school experience. It’s that different - but not better.</p>
<p>dodgersmom, don’t just walk out. If you could, pleast provide a Californian or west coast version of GLADCHEMMS and/or an expanded list of 20 or 30 west coast schools for NE and CA applicants to choose from. By saying there are more great choices of boarding schools in NE than in CA, is it some sort of “provicial superiority”, or are we just talking about traditions and availabilities?</p>
<p>Just look at the enrollment of the NE boarding schools. Up to 70% of the students are from the east coast, and the rest includes at least 10% of international students. There are indeed east coast residents who choose to attend Cate or Thacher, which is perfectly fine. And I did say “that’s just me”. Don’t get mad. Stay and don’t just ask rhetorical questions. I am sorry if offended you, but I don’t have “vested interest” in being again CA boarding schools. I was just trying to expalin away why CA BS are not attracting a large number of NE or east coast applicants, as I see it.</p>
<p>@ Parlabane,</p>
<p>Could you elaborate on the different “nature of competition” on both coasts?</p>
<p>DAndrew - I cannot provide you a “a Californian or west coast version of GLADCHEMMS and/or an expanded list of 20 or 30 west coast schools for NE and CA applicants to choose from.” First, the fact that there are many more California schools than the “two” you suggested earlier does not mean there are “20 or 30.” Second, to the best of my knowledge, none of the west coast schools hold themselves out to be “west coast versions” of the GLADDCHEMMS schools . . . and thank goodness for that! They are different. They are supposed to be different.</p>
<p>As Parlabane so eloquently explained, life on the west coast is not the same as life on the east coast. Climate, geography and “way of life” in California lend themselves to a fundamentally different boarding school experience.</p>
<p>To try to respond to kisskob’s query about competition, all I can say, both from personal experience and from other people’s comments on this board, is that the California schools are, indeed, more “laid back” than the NE schools. Doesn’t mean that a student in California doesn’t want to attend Harvard - it just means they don’t spend four years obsessing about it!</p>
<p>And, as Parlabane said, it’s not a difference in academic rigor - it’s just a difference in attitude. The “pressure cooker” atmosphere that I hear about in some NE schools just doesn’t exist on the other side of the country . . . well, at least not that I’ve seen.</p>
<p>The regulars on this board are, for the most part, willing to declare that if it isn’t HADES, it doesn’t count. Well, George School and Westtown (both Quaker schools) aren’t HADES, but they provide a fine education . . . and probably teach their students a lot of things (about social responsibility, for one) that HADES students never learn! Holderness School in NH provides absolutely extraordinary opportunities for its students - with its two-week long Project Outreach, Artward Bound, and Out Back programs. Thacher has a wonderful outdoor program and the Athenian School, in northern California, has a mandatory 26-day “Wilderness Experience” program.</p>
<p>Some of these schools also offer linear algebra - and some don’t. And if all you want is to be a math genius, then these probably aren’t the right schools for you. But if you want to develop as a person and as a contributing member of our society, then I’d go out on a limb and say that your “education” at any of these schools is likely to be just as good as, or even better, than what you’ll get at a HADES school. Education is about more than what goes on in the classroom.</p>
<p>In my mind, there’s a difference between “prep” schools and “boarding” schools. I embrace the latter and remain leery of the former. Which is probably utterly unfair, of course, because the really awful traditions of some of the NE prep schools have almost nothing to do with the schools themselves and everything to do with the eras they were a part of. The California schools avoided issues of anti-semitism, for example, by simply not being in existence at the beginning of the last century.</p>
<p>Look, if you want New England prep, there are plenty of schools to choose from - take your pick! But your choice, DAndrew, is a reflection of your bias and has nothing to do with the inherent inferiority of west coast schools. If I had grown up in Nw England, I think there’d probably be nothing much stranger than a California boarding school. And, by the same token, if I had grown up in California, I don’t think I’d be able to imagine attending a NE school! They’re different. Difference is good. Embrace it.</p>
<p>But do stop pretending that the only schools that are good are the ones in your backyard!</p>
<p>^Apparently you are taking issue with the “tone” in which I talked about CA schools (regardless, for the record: I don’t “discriminate” a non NE school, period.) instead of the actual contents. All I said was: 1) There are a great many more of choices of boarding schools in NE than in CA; 2) CA is too far away for many families in the east coast. As I said, students/families choose to attend boarding schools for the quality education they provide despite the distance from home, so when they have viable choices close to home, they tend to choose from them instead of looking for options on the other coast. </p>
<p>Also, this is not a discussion about HADES and non-HADES - at all! I may have biases of all kinds, but in this context all the bias I have is “close to home” or “far from home”.</p>
<p>DAndrew, I apologize. I think I may have misunderstood what you were saying.</p>
<p>Just as people on this forum have said it makes sense to love the school that loves you, it also makes sense to love the schools that are in your backyard . . . as long as you’re willing to peek over the fence from time to time!</p>
<p>@kisskob - the most common refrain from the faculty that I know that have taught on both coasts is that competition is greater among students (and faculty) on the East coast and greater with oneself on the West coast. Performance of the individual on the East coast is prized higher than performance of the group, which is more a West coast value. The difference in orientation is subtle, but apparently quite noticeable on the campuses. </p>
<p>Whether one coast or the other has a slightly different cultural orientation is not a claim of superiority however. It’s only an acknowledgment that the differences are real, and apparent to those familiar with both environments. These differences do have an effect on the way students come to see the world. Concepts like achievement and competition, and the adoption of specific values, take root during these formative boarding school years. So, like anything else, there will be folks more comfortable with one orientation or the other.</p>
<p>dodgersmom - Although I appreciate your enthusiasm for California based schools and the level of knowledge you bring to this site regarding them (which does, unfortunately, seem to be biased towards schools in the Northeast) I don’t think you should stereotype New England schools in general or HADES schools in particular. By making statements like this:</p>
<p>“they provide a fine education . . . and probably teach their students a lot of things (about social responsibility, for one) that HADES students never learn!”</p>
<p>…you perpetuate stereotypes and misinformation about NE schools while getting frustrated thinking that others did the same regarding California schools. </p>
<p>Some Californians do seem to think East coast schools are worthy - at least the 36 Californians at my kid’s school do. 
And, yup, social responsibility is a reoccuring theme at the school.</p>
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I didn’t…sigh.</p>
<p>She was addressing dodgersmom, not you DAndrew. </p>
<p>It’s too easy to be misunderstood on these forums, isn’t it? :)</p>