Wow the forum has been so quiet lately… I guess everyone had a kind of crash after all of the M10 excitement :))
SO here’s the deal: I haven’t gotten the opportunity to visit any of the schools that have accepted me, and was wondering if anybody could tell me about any of the stereotypes about any of these schools, maybe the social scene, what the students are like? A lot of people have told me that Choate has a kind of New-York feel to it because there are a lot of students from there (that’s what a parent told me). I’ve heard that NMH is different from a lot of schools: apparently it’s a more connected community, more relaxed… I’ve heard that Milton is pretty much a day school, and that you don’t have a lot of fun.
In summary: if any of you guys have any opinions on any of these schools, or have any insight into what makes them individual, that would be amazing! What are the students like there? Is there a certain focus that the students follow (example: a ton of students are into science)?
Thanks so much for everyone’s help B-) you guys are the best!
Do you have a shortlist? Do you like a bigger or small school?All are good schools. Do you have a location preference? I suspect you will get positive comments about all of these schools because they are all good schools.
@panpacific I prefer bigger schools, so I am leaning towards Choate. No location preference, but I would like to be at a school where I can walk into town (like Choate). I would say that my top three are Choate, Middlesex, and Milton.
Thanks so much!
@CaliMex I have been in small schools my entire life, and I have never been able to stand the small size. In my experience, when your grade has 60 kids, it tends to be a lot more cliquey. Also, since I only have 60 kids in my entire grade, I can’t really ever take a break from one friend or maybe try talking to a new group because everything is so small. Again, this has only been my experience: I’m guessing that at boarding schools things will be different no matter the class size. Also, I don’t want to automatically know everything about everyone in my grade: I want to have classmates that I don’t know a lot about, so that I still have more interesting things to find out. In my current grade of 50 people, I could tell you the life story of everyone, and I find it to be extremely boring.
@Nico.campbell I wouldn’t worry about size. Even the smallest of the schools you are considering is 60 percent bigger than your current school. The student body will be more diverse than your current school, too, giving you much more to explore and learn about each individual.
I wouldn’t assume that bigger schools are less likely to have cliques, either. Often they just have more varied and specialized cliques (and sometimes, not always, people cling harder to their groups for comfort if the school feels too big.) That’s true about coursework and ECs, too. You will find more variety at a larger school (though you are still limited by the number of hours in the day!)
If there is something you are already passionate about and excel at, you might be able to explore it much more deeply at a larger school and find peers who have already achieved similar levels of excellence. But if you are looking to try brand new things, know that those classes, clubs, or teams may already be saturated with expert kids who have been specializing since grade school. Make sure you don’t let that stop you
BTW: I really enjoyed reading your rationale for wanting a larger school. We are in the opposite boat. Our girl has more than 330 kids in her grade in middle school (the magnet HS she would attend if she stays home has 900 per grade) and we are looking for something much smaller for her. Thank you for giving us your insider perspective on some of the drawbacks of smaller schools.
Milton is very diverse, but so is Choate. Milton is sometimes seen as a feeder school for Harvard, though Choaties do pretty well. The drawback to Milton is that it is largely a day school. If you want the true boarding school experience, Choate is better for that. Don’t know much about MX.
I am not sure if I’d say you can truly walk into town from Choate. It’s suburban but more residential; I’m not sure about walking into the town of Wallingford (and it’s not exactly the quintessential NE town, like, say, Kent or Lakeville). That being said, Choate is accessible – close to a couple of interstates and for Connecticut, relatively convenient for travel. The campus is large and spread out.
I am not sure Wallingford has a true “downtown” in a city sense. But,Choate students can do easily walk to the older small town center. There are 6 to 10 to restaurants/cafes and a few shops. My DD and all her friends make that walk regularly. There is suburban strip road with a Walmart and a lot more restaurants. That is a much further walk. My understanding is that this is an Uber ride in most cases.
You can walk into Concord town center from Middlesex School. According to Google Maps, it’s 2.7 miles away, which would take about an hour. So, if you walk, it’s likely a weekend activity with friends.
Ask Middlesex people if the school runs a shuttle bus, or if students use bicycles.
For MX: You can call a taxi if you want to (for weekend trips)… There is a reference for taxi service locally in the handbook…
There is a shuttle as well a train that runs from Concord to Cambridge to Boston… Its in the student handbook (under Transportation… Pg 26)
Choate: lots of scheduled bus weekend trips to NYC sponsored by the school. Lots of students who get parents’ permission take day trips into NYC on their own. The train to NYC is within walking distance from campus. There are weekend mall trips, but lots of kids do walk down to fast food restaurants and WalMart for supplies (as well as cab it) which is considered a town. All Wallingford is considered on campus, so you don’t need special permission. Closer is the public library where some kids study to get off campus and other restaurants including Mr. D’s the local cupcake and chocolate shop where kids shop for birthday gifts for friends. Off campus and NYC are both accessible.
Berkshire is a nice campus but very remote. It has been many years since we looked there but I’m sure there were many weekend activities including off campus trips.
I’m not sure how many kids walk into town from Middlesex but maybe they do. It is a bit of time to get to Boston on the commuter rail from Concord (40 minutes from Concord to North Station) but definitely doable.
NMH is charming but remote - you can walk to ice cream and maybe Dunkin donuts, and that’s about it. However, there is a van nearly every weekend to take kids to nearby shopping or dinner and you can Uber to nearby towns. In addition there are sponsored trips, off campus games, travel abroad etc. I would think nearly all the remote schools have these same options. Just offering this intel for those who are still pondering rural vs less rural.
@chemmchimney Thank you! I am definitely pondering rural vs less rural… I think less rural but honestly I’m beginning to question if I really care much.
This is a debate for us as well. As true boarders (not within driving distance), we believe there may be a benefit to rural. If everyone is remotely located, more people are probably around on weekends and you would think that the schools would have more planned activities.
