NHM or Salisbury or Berkshire or KUA or Cushing

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>My son is current sophomore. Considering repeat Sophomore or entering as Junior.
B-B+ student, taking SSAT in December but guessing he will be 55-70% range, good all round athlete--lacrosse is critical sport--he wants get as much play time as possible (even if JV) and playing is more important than being on the "best" team. Wants to be able to get to skiing on weekends.</p>

<p>We think he needs some academic support to keep him on track (some ADD type issues but needs no accommodation). Study skills support would be helpful.</p>

<p>The current list is </p>

<p>Northfield Mt Hermon
Salisbury
Berkshire
Kimball Union
Cushing</p>

<p>Your thoughts on these schools in light of the above. Thanks for your input on this and my last thread.</p>

2

<p>I have had two children attend NMH (one currently) and while they (and we) love the school, I don’t know that they offer any structured academic support. They do have a study skills extracurricular-type course, but beyond that, I have never heard of anything. Have you contacted them? There could be something I am not aware of. If you find that they do have such supports, I can certainly offer lots of other information and our own opinion of the school.</p>

3

<p>Even though my brother went to Berkshire, and my sister started at Cushing, I feel I can’t comment on either as it was so long ago and schools have changed. However, I wish you would reconsider Proctor. My son is a senior there, decent student, and a lacrosse player. Lacrosse is incredibly important to him and today he is signing his letter of intent to play division I next year. He is a big fish in a small lax pond, but the team, as a whole, had its best season in years. Lacrosse aside, Proctor is an incredibly nurturing school. My son repeated his jr year. He was accepted at the three other schools he applied to and all the schools had better lax programs than Proctor. However, in the end, we asked him where he would want to be if something happened and he couldn’t play lacrosse. He didn’t even hesitate.
Good luck.</p>

4

<p>How do you feel about the closing of the library at Cushing? </p>

<p>We are scheduled to visit Cushing soon but, as a parent, I am having a hard time getting over the elimination of paper books in favor of e-material. Even my s is concerned since he likes to read a “real book”.</p>

<p>Is anyone concerned that when it comes time for college admissions from the new library-less Cushing that college admission offices will have a bias against graduates who have had no exposure to a library?</p>

5

<p>^^I just think it’s sad. The library is one of first places I like to see when we visit any school. I don’t know if it will have a bearing on college admissions, but I think it will affect Cushing’s apps.</p>

6

<p>The lack of a traditional library doesn’t mean the death of reading. It does mean the death of now obsolete research resources. I wouldn’t rule out a school for the lack of books in a library. Now, if they started to do away with courses like AP English, then I would be put off. Kids learn differently these days, and my kids and their friends never check books out from a library. They rely extensively on the internet. I think that parents have a nostalgia factor at work with regards to Cushing’s decision. They may leave the tour with a sense of loss, whereas I bet the kids will be amazed and excited by the new facility.</p>

7

<p>I don’t know, zuzu. A lot of kids feel the same nostalgia. While my kids do a tremendous amount of research reading online, they literally sleep with their books…dozens and dozens of them. Most of their earliest memories involve books - books on the sofa, books by a fire, books while soaking in the tub (really), books on car trips, beautifully bound books and cheap paperbacks. So I guess it depends on if the kids actually read for pleasure or not.</p>

<p>I think the saddest part of the trend towards electronic books is the inability to share them. There are single copies of books in my family that have been read by dozens of people.</p>

8

<p>Now that I’m in a sentimental mood…</p>

<p>Remember when you had to sign out library books? There was this card in the back pocket and you could see who else had read it and when. I miss that.</p>

9

<p>My kids also read a lot…and they do like books (real, paper ones). My son checks out books at his school frequently.</p>

10

<p>Should clarify my post. My kids read (does the Twilight series really count?), but rarely books from the library. We’re more likely to buy the books. I would think it is most likely because our town library is so teeny and limited (but I love its small town feel)</p>

11

<p>My brother went to Salisbury (long time ago). We were all born with skis on our feet so I know Salisbury has skiing. They also have a great lacrosse program. Being all boys their teams are traditionally very strong. I may get clobbered for this but girls have been known to be a distraction at a time when a guy really needs to focus on his studies and not concern himself with whomever and it goes both ways. The size of Salisbury ensures that no one falls through the cracks. It is one of the last holdouts of an all male boarding school which has enabled it to maintain it’s strong traditions.<br>
My opinion only, out of the 5 schools Salisbury is best, NMH never impressed me much when I played against them in sports many moons ago while at EBS, but if you want coed then go to NMH. Berkshire still reminds me of the '70’s (not exactly a good thing buy my opinion only). Cushing just tossed out it’s library, need I say more and Kimball I never heard much of.</p>

12

<p>You should check out Brooks School in North Andover, MA.</p>

13

<p>neato-I have kids like yours, books everywhere, all the time. Our public library has a huge book sell twice a year ($1.00 hardcover, .50 paperbacks). We get there at 7:00A.M. to be first in and leave with boxes of books. </p>

<p>On d’s first day at St. Paul’s we went to the library and she checked out a bunch of books and they still have the cards in the back, with student names and due dates on them. One book had first been checked out in the 80’s.</p>

14

<p>ops - My guess is at EBS, your teams played NMH’s Thirds teams. NMH has very strong teams in many sports. Using 3rds to judge is just not a useful barometer.</p>

15

<p>My daughter attended Cushing and they did an incredible job with her. She was an excellent student before her transfer as a repeat soph. She previously attended a local private school. She had her pick of boarding schools and picked Cushing over other so called top tier schools. She utlized the Cushing Academic Support program for time management skills due to her ADHD. With Cushing’s help she went from doubting how she could sit and finish her AP exams and even her SAT’s to scoring extremely high on all of them (a nice string of 5’s and 4’s on the AP exams, for example) and was accepted early decision at a highly selective top 20 national university. I can’t say enough about Cushing. I highly recommend it. And I think the library is a great idea. In my field as an attorney, we eliminated our traditional book based library years ago, as have the law schools. The faculty at Cushing is top notch, and the campus is safe and quite pretty.</p>

16

<p>Yes of course we played their thirds and I don’t think we won either. It was an observation made by a 13-15 year old at the time who also noted those EBS classmates that went there and those before them. Sorry no offense intended and I’m sure that NMH as with so many of the boarding schools of yesterday have excelled by leaps and bounds with respect to facilities, faculty and students.</p>

17

<p>dtracy, I agree that for RESEARCH, electronic media is the way to go. As a matter of fact, I think the link between reading from a screen and work is one of the reasons so many people cherish their time with a paper book. My kids are no exception.</p>

18

<p>NMH is competitive in manhy sports now, sending lots of players on to DI schools. Particularly strong are men’s basketball and, not quite to the extent of basketball, soccer. They lead the league in class A titles.</p>

19

<p>bump up now</p>

20

<p>fif knows two of these schools quite well, one fairly well and two hardly at all.</p>

<p>NMH</p>

<p>fif hears that NMH has successfully restructured itself. In recent years they have consolidated two campuses into the boy’s site in Gill, dramatically reduced the size of the student body (1100 to 650) and constructed some needed dorms and academic buildings. </p>

<p>Pretty campus with a nice mix of old and new. Not A or E academically, but quite strong… Can’t speak to academic support.</p>

<p>Lacrosse coach, Jeff Neal, is an alum and former college player. Assistant at Salisbury formerly, he is determined to make MNH competitive in a very tough league. Good guy, good coach. Lots of PG’s recently.</p>

<p>Good luck and feel free to PM with any specific questions.</p>

<p>Salisbury</p>

<p>Your correspondent is an alum and parent of a former varsity lacrosse player here.</p>

<p>A little over 300 Boys on a beautiful campus near the village of Salisbury. Strong athletic program especially football, hockey (defending NE champions), basketball, lacrosse (defending West I co-champions) baseball and crew. Good academics, and a well established learning center.</p>

<p>New academic buidings, new dorm, brand new boathouse and about to go online: a 110,000 sf athletic center with 2 basketball courts, 8 squash courts, a wrestling arena, and an Olympic size hockey rink.</p>

<p>The lacrosse program is exceptional with players consistently going on to Georgetown, UVA, Cornell, the service academies, and good D-III schools like Colby, Hamilton etc.
Coach Bobby Wynne was a All-American at Hobart and coached at Cornell. New lit, turf field. 5-7 PG’s.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that it is an all-boys school, which is not for everyone, but great for the right kid.</p>

<p>Berkshire</p>

<p>fif is the parent of a Junior girl now in her third year here. Berkshire is an up and coming school, with a great young headmaster. About 380 kids. Stunning setting under a mountain with a completely renovated Bershire Hall as the centerpiece. Also a new hockey center with two rinks. Solid academics and a surprising number of course offerings. The academic support center has been very helpful to D and she is now on the HR. We are very pleased.</p>

<p>Lacrosse program has dominated West II for years but will move up to face the West I big boys this year: Avon Old Farms, Deerfield, Hotchkiss, Taft, Kent, Westminster, Trinity-Pawling, Choate, Brunswick, NMH and Salisbury. Will stuggle, but fif understands that there a number of lax PG’s there this year. Coach Bowler seems to know what he is doing. Two turf fields.</p>

<p>KUA</p>

<p>fif stumbled on the campus while lost in NH some years ago. Proverbial middle of nowhere. Nice if not fancy campus. Academics appear so-so. They have a strong athetic tradition.</p>

<p>Cushing</p>

<p>Cushing has a well deserved reputation for succeeding with underachievers. They are currently trying to position themselves as a “cutting edge” school (21st century Initiative, removing books from the library etc) and time will tell if it works. Campus is not fif’s cuppa. </p>

<p>Athletically, they are renowned for hockey and have sent several players to the NHL. Lacrosse is so-so at best.</p>