<p>Choate vs. Kent vs Loomis vs. Taft</p>
<p>What do we all think of them and why?</p>
<p>Choate - pretty good school. good academics, sports, etc. They have a strong foreign language and arts program. Fairly tough to get in (33% acceptance rate i believe). Campus building are very nice ( especially the new music facility), but spread out . The school is located in a nice town , there is a good deal of things to do in town. Its somewhat bigger than most prep schools.</p>
<p>Kent- Don't know a whole lot about Kent. The school is located on some big river ( Connecticut River?) can't think of its name, but their crew team is pretty strong.</p>
<p>Loomis- Again don't know a whole lot about the school. They do have quite a few day students and admissions rate have rose slightly recently.</p>
<p>Taft- Campus is beautiful. Unlike some other schools most of the school buildings are connected so bad weather usually isn't too bad. Decent hockey and lax program, football program is fairly weak. Academics are good, like Choate there are tons of things to get involved in. Some consider Taft a safety school, which really isn't the case. Their admissions rate is just a little higher than Choate, however it is signifigantly smaller. Its also right next to a big city so there is plenty to do on weekends and what not.</p>
<p>Maybe someone can elaborate further on each school...
They are all good schools but I suggest checking out their websites/ as well as visiting to get an idea if you;d like to go there.</p>
<p>choate is definitely not 33. this year was at 24 or 22 as it usually is, i believe.</p>
<p>kent is often considered a safety, but that's only because of its nice acceptance rate. other than that, it is a great school. ask aussie13 about this place, he's studying there right now.</p>
<p>i have nothing to say about taft because i do not know it, am not interested, nor wish to apply in the future.</p>
<p>loomis has a high acceptance rate which i think would fall if only they took away the number of day students (60 boarding 40 day) down to maybe 100 (around 700 students, 300 of which are day) pretty good school, it's not as strict as some other TSAO schools but is fairly good in matriculations and has quality academics. sports not so sure what they're good at but yeah.</p>
<p>sorry that was a typo. on their website it says 1 in 4 applicants is accepted.</p>
<p>choate-my friend who attends there called it a notorious party school. primary reason for that is because of its location. it is 30 minutes from new york city and there are a lot of off-campus parties. also, a very easy place to pay-off the school for admission. this school is more known for eliteness, in my opinion. their acceptance rate is 16%.</p>
<p>loomis-i also have a friend that attends the school. has a high acceptance rate (33%), 83% average on SSAT, part of the ten school organization thing but still very rigorous. she applied to choate (waitlisted) and loomis (accepted) and has an average of 96% on her SSAT's. She comes from an upper class family (can pay full tuition) and one of the biggest reasons she chose to attend loomis was because when she visited the school, she saw many "hot" guys. lol. she is taking honors chemistry currently as a freshman and has a C+ which is above average overall in the course.</p>
<p>fif will wait until there is even more inaccurate info posted but feels inclined to offer some geography pointers:</p>
<p>Wallingford CT is a good 1 hour 45 minutes from NYC.
Kent is located directly on the mighty Housatonic River.</p>
<p>Carry on -- it's amusing...</p>
<p>I give up. (10 char)</p>
<p>Never give up. Never ever give up.</p>
<p>Choate: I have one friend I met from Duke TiP that goes there. She told me she picked it over Exeter and Andover because of stress levels at those schools and she wanted to be able to participate in 100% of her interests. She said that she probably couldn't have done all of the sports, ECs and clubs with the workload at Exeter. May or may not be correct.</p>
<p>Kent: I have two friends that go there... They are very busy. NOT WITH WORK. I believe that Kent was the only school that concisely laid out their structured activities offered on a weekly basis. I believe it is a little under 2 hours to New York. Students pop over for concerts frequently. An incredibly school when I visited. The Houstanic Valley is one of the most gorgeous valleys I have seen in my life. I LOVED the religious and athletic vibe. Chapel is excellent, the service I mean.</p>
<p>"Choate: my friend who attends there called it a notorious party school. primary reason for that is because of its location. it is 30 minutes from new york city and there are a lot of off-campus parties. also, a very easy place to pay-off the school for admission."</p>
<p>I don't usually weigh in to these type of discussions but feel obliged to respond to Senay's remarks, since we just returned from our first parents weekend at Choate, and are extremely impressed and pleased with everything we observed. If Choate is a party school, please inform my S and all the students I have seen who are working extremely hard. My S is one of those who picked Choate over Exeter, and he was attracted to its math and science program. He, and every one of his friends have about 4 hours of homework every night with required study hours from 7:30-10:30. It is academically rigorous, but also expects students to be involved in sports and extracurriculars. As for the comment about "paying off for admission" -- I find that rude and sour grapes; not worth responding to.</p>
<p>Senay-</p>
<p>The only BS 30 minutes from midtown is the Masters School in Dobbs. I don't believe this school is known for its wild party atmosphere, notwithstanding its close proximity to THE BIG CITY :)
Occasionally, "friends" will tell you anything if they think you'll believe it. Be mindful of this as you move through high school and beyond.</p>
<p>Skibum- ditto. I wonder how all of those "notorious partiers" manage to get past the 10 pm every weekend night face to face check in with their dorm parents? (Some of them obviously didn't). CRH actually has more supervision and nurturing of students than many of the other schools mentioned on this forum. Most reputable schools, however, do take their "in loco parentis" (sp?) role very seriously because there is a huge liabilty risk if they don't.</p>
<p>"their acceptance rate is 16%."</p>
<p>^ is anyone sure about this?
i'm skeptical choate would beat andover, exeter, sps, deerfield, AND groton in a year. XD</p>
<p>(don't you hate double posting? i do too.)</p>
<p>Westcoast -- straight from the AD, last year's acceptance rate at Choate was 24%.</p>
<p>Choate is one of the biggest party schools out of all the elite schools. I don't go to Choate, I go to an all-girls school, but I have plenty of friends at Choate, and all I can say is the facts and those are: In one week 11 people got kicked out of Choate. 7 for pot, 3 for plagiarism, and 1 for dealing cocaine.<br>
Let's just say that doesn't happen at my school.</p>
<p>Oh my. Look, as a parent, I applaud any school which enforces its code of expected behavior. Kicking out 8 kids for drug offenses isn't, in my book, evidence of a "party school." I'm far more concerned about the schools at which parents and administrators might say, "oh, that doesn't happen here." Logically, only one of two conditions can be true. Either, such things doesn't happen at that school, or, those in the position to enforce the rules turn a blind eye to misbehavior. </p>
<p>Also, kicking out for plagiarism? Good. So long as the evidence of plagiarism is clear, and the school has made a serious effort to define plagiarism to the students.</p>
<p>Periwinkle said it straight.</p>
<p>The only consistent truth of every school is that there will be drugs. The method that the school uses to deal with these occurences is what I really want to know and what people should focus on. The plagiarism was probably on a paper or some large assignment and must have been pretty clear(I would like to think). Kudos Choate.</p>
<p>PS:
My friend still says that she has never heard of excessive parties at Choate. She went to Miss Porters and then to Choate so she used that as an example.</p>
<p>to everyone-</p>
<p>im just repeating what she said. when i asked her where the parties were held she said in the city. plus when i asked her what the admission rate was because i was too lazy to look it up, she said "16% i believe" (she was probably refering to the acceptance rate when she applied which was a couple of years ago). i believe that there are A LOT of hard working students at choate, my friend is definitely one of them (international student), and she doesn't involve herself with the school's party people. she just one day made this remark about choate being a "party school". i wasn't trying to offend, scare, or make the school look bad. its definitely a great school with great students. it's only those few rotten bunches.</p>
<p>just so you understand, i am just repeating my friend's comments who currently attend the above schools.</p>
<p>ive heard from some parents whose kids attend the top ten school's saying that they believe that their kids have a little bit too much freedom (the schools that have the 10pm check in's). just because current students of prestigious schools work hard and are intellectual beings doesn't mean we aren't still teenagers. we are still regular teenagers that like to have fun and cuss behind our parent's back. we still break rules now and then. (well i do). just like when i go on overnight school trip's, the advisor's assure my parent's that they have strict rules and we are watched over, but when we go where ever, we are free to do whatever we want after check in.</p>
<p>maddie (code name) who goes to loomis, was complaining to me that this other girl who had straight B's, was accepted to choate and she thought that the girls parents paid the school off because of their apparent affluency. this does happen occasionally, you can't deny it. otherwise the school endowments wouldn't be so high. or maybe she was just jealous because she got waitlisted.</p>
<p>for the comment about choate's distance from nyc, im just guessing because i haven't thoroughly researched the school since i wasn't really interested in it.</p>
<p>Wow, a fair amount of misinformation about Choate. Choate is about two hours from NYC, not 30 minutes. I think acceptance rate is about 22%. </p>
<p>Party school? I don't think so. Academics are very rigorous. Just returned from parents weekend and was very impressed by classes I attended. Also, I know my kid is working pretty darn hard and not partying. Nor are most of his friends. If anything my kid complained that because they have to check in at 7:30 and then again at lights out, it's hard to go into Wallingford to see a movie on a Friday or Saturday night. Also, remember Choate sometimes has Saturday classes - which tends to cut down of Friday partying.</p>
<p>Can't really speak to what Choate kids who live in New York do when they go home - but then you're talking about a pretty small subgroup of a school that has kids from 30 something different states and numerous foreign countries. In fact, one of the things that really impressed me about Choate was it's diversity.</p>