My daughter has been approached by a coach about applying to Nobles and Greenough. I know the school has an excellent academic and athletic reputation but I’m concerned about the social dynamics of the school. While we are fairly well off we certainly aren’t flying private nor do we have a second home on Nantucket. My concern is that the Nobles community appears to be the .01%. Will my DD or the rest of the family feel like paupers? Is the community inclusive or cliquey? Thanks so much!
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We have many family friends who’ve attended, with excellent outcomes. Many of them were on financial aid. Nobles is more meritocracy than country club.
As a primarily day school (there is a five day boarding option) the student body isn’t going to be as diverse as a boarding school.
Schedule an Admissions visit in the Fall and see how your child feels. Go to some athletic and cultural events. Think you’ll learn that most parents send their kids there for the education and social aspects play little or no role.
Expand your choices as well. Depending on the sport and where you live, BB&N, Lawrence Academy, Milton, Rivers, and Thayer are all options: and those are just the nearby ISL day schools! Tabor and St Marks are also ISL Girl’s Soccer powerhouses, as further examples.
Our read was not like @Garandman. At the several functions we attended, parents @Nobles did not really speak to one another or engage in any way. The admissions office was also very stiff. One guy sat next to us in the admissions office and in a big booming voice— he spoke about his daughter ( who happened to be sitting next to him) and how great she was. LOL> Then he proceeded to ask the AO about all the people who lived in the same town. What a windbag. Don’t know why they conducted this info exchange in public.
Despite this, the STEM program looked good. A deeper dig uncovered that most kids were very local and the town they came from mattered ( really just a handful of local towns maybe 3/4 with a feed from the same privates into Nobles in grade 7 and 9). In the end, the impression was very wealthy families ( top 1%) with high aspirational aims for their kids. Kids were less academic than other schools. They have a great matriculation record. But if you dig deeper, they have many alumni in the Boston area who are pushing for Johnny/Jane to go to their alma mater. The next group are athletes who go to strong schools on an entirely different basis. So I think the matriculation is skewed and doesn’t accurately reflect achievement. We found no national level scholars, high level award winners etc.
In terms of wealth, we are comfortable with people of any background. But, we aren’t interested in that type of social interaction. Honestly, it was the least friendly of all the schools we visited in terms of the other families. Though the AO was extremely warm and missed a meeting to take my STEM kid around which I appreciated, I felt that it was a super competitive environment with a small clique. Maybe was just a bad read but we attended several events ( Open House, Interview and a social event).
We do know two families who have kids there. Both have a parent who attended. Both kids are good academically ( definitely not great) and both are stronger than average athletes. The kind of full pay family that can also influence a matriculation list. Nobles is also known for NOT offering much financial aid. We know a family who crossed it off their list due to this reason. Honestly, I think taking a look around is the best idea. My read and my student’s read was that it really wasn’t a top place for an academic achiever who wants to dig deep. We also both thought the sports teams would be pretty good.
I would recommend visiting and getting your own vibe. My daughter and I both disliked our visit and she chose not to apply. Some reasons: when we walked through the common areas during free time the kids were very segregated into standard cliques, I know kids who went to Nobles and they were academically far less prepared for college than I was, terrible interview (could not have chosen a worse person to interview my daughter, he loved her, she hated the interview). In the end, we both got back in the car and had a vibe of “not for us.” I also know people who are blown away by Nobles so YMMV.
Friends had both their kids there are were very happy with the education and experience. They did comment that there was a lot of "showy wealth " and entitlement among some of their kids’ friends but it didn’t have a noticeably negative impact on their experience.
(They are very down to earth, but not without means.) You will need to check it out yourself.
FWIW N&G claim 25% of their kids are on financial aid. Nearby day schools Thayer Academy claims 35%, BB&N 24%, and Rivers 29%.
Gut reaction is a valid tool: if you don’t feel comfortable there are the aforementioned day-only schools, and all the other ISL boarding schools have 20-30% day students.
Thank you everyone! I have spoken to several families IRL and unfortunately it does seem that most families are extraordinarily wealthy and even UMC families can be made to feel “less than”. Probably not the school for us.
@mamc1111 Better to find out now before you apply than after you’ve sent in your check.