We visited all of the HADES schools and each school had a unique pull that I liked. Overall, they are all different yet the same. There was something peaceful about St Paul’s - maybe the isolated campus. Exeter lived up to my expectations. Deerfield was unique despite the proximity to a local town. Choates new buildings are shinny, and Andover cool as well. I think the only school that did not have something to blow me out of the way aesthetically was Lawrenceville. However, after attending a local parent event - I could see the value of sending DD there. Can’t wait to find out results!
Ok…a show of my ignorance here…what is HADES? And I think there is another acronym floating around that I have no clue as to what it stands for either…help?
Hades and Gladchemms - acronyms grouping some of the most popular/recognizable/highest ranked BS.
Hotchkiss
Andover
Deerfield
Exeter
St. Paul’s
groton
lawrenceville
andover
deerfield
choate
hotchkiss
exeter
milton
middlesex
st. paul’s
some may disagree on which school is meant by which letter, but i think this is the generally accepted list
Agree with above observations by@preppedparent. We also enjoyed teaching DD about the history of each school and leaning about those who have walked he halls. There is a “hall of history” at Emma-- be sure t check it out if you visit the school - great to share with your student the history of education in America, particularly the early vision (and fight) Emma Willard had for women’s higher education. Check out her letter to Jefferson (if still there). We had shared the history of the schools with the family before we visited. Groton & SPS chapels are so beautiful. History of Deerfield and environs is interesting. We did sight seeing and made the visits a history lesson. DD is an architect wannabe, so she actually knew more @ some schools than the tour guides.
The history of many of these schools, architectural and otherwise, is indeed often quite interesting. These are inherently conservative institutions, so they often take their histories seriously. If you have the time and opportunity, you may very well find you have a different perspective about your school or your kid’s school after learning some of history.
Milton Academy: Loved the Diversity, but also even though the buildings may seem run down, my daughter loved it, thinking this was a place she could really relax in, and not be afraid of breaking anything. It felt comfortable, at home and a place where you could relax and just do your best.
The campuses that appealed more to me aesthetically were those that were more open, light and bright – all the “hilltop” campuses referred to in their brochures – with beautiful views. I also like the feeling of those that are more centralized, with a quad of some sort. Choate, for example (where DS did not apply) is beautiful but huge and spread out – I found it overwhelming. I also liked the academic buildings that feel more open and airy with lots of windows and natural light. As a sports-oriented family, we were totally hooked by beautiful athletic facilities. Who knows whether DS will play in college, so he might as well enjoy first-class facilities in high school. (And DS was scouting hockey rinks for his younger brother.)
Substantively, I appreciated the schools where they made an effort to line up coaches to speak with my son, even though he is not a recruited athlete. At one school, he’d gotten no response to an initial email to the coach (in his 2nd sport), but when we arrived for the interview we spent the first 20 minutes or so talking with the coach and two of his players. At another school, the coach wasn’t available on the interview date, but he had lunch with DS on a shadow day, and then kept up an email correspondence over the next few months. At another school, two coaches spent probably at least an hour with DS, and some other people whom DS had met previously stopped by the admissions office while we were there to say hello.
Overall, the admissions folks and faculty we met were extremely warm and welcoming, across the board. I realize it’s their job, but still – there was not one dud in all of our visits. We left every school saying, “Wow, those are the nicest people. How could we say no if they accept DS?” Although I realize that in the early stages it’s their job to encourage kids to apply, they really did make the process surprisingly easy and enjoyable for DS and all of us, including all the follow up notes and emails, shadow days and other communications.
Any insights or opinions on George School or Porters?
When we went to tour and interview at George, the thing that really impressed me was that our guide had been given information about DS before she met us, and (without a cheat sheet), she gave him (us) a completely personalized tour. She explained how his sport was set up, took him to see “their” fields, knew which instrument he played and explained the performance groups, made a point of visiting practice rooms, talked about what it was like to be a day student (since that’s what we were contemplating there), etc. I was so impressed that a girl who shared so few of DS’ interests was able to do such a good job of tuning into him. At other schools (and later colleges), we always got a tour of the “guide’s school” whereas this young woman was trying to show DS what “his school” might look like. I kept thinking “Wow, if they are this attentive to applicants, I can only imagine what it’d be like to be a student here!” (Let me add at this point that I don’t think that this registered with DS at all. He was just sort of taking it all in.)
The campus itself is quite beautiful, especially the trees and old red brick buildings, but to be fair, we didn’t visit a school that wasn’t attractive. Many of the classroom buildings are older. The then new library, with all its natural light and terrific views, really stood out. A new athletic complex was built about 2 and a half years ago – after we visited – and it is gorgeous. It was also sorely needed - the old one was sort of dark and grim.
Probably the thing that impressed me the most, though, was how genuine and nice the kids seemed to be in that “comfortable in their skin” way. At almost every school we visited, the students who were working in admissions were very polished and gracious. The students we met at George, including ones at other admissions events, were very articulate, but sort of stand-outs for being natural and feet-on-the-ground. DS interviewed with the AD who was very warm. My impression of this school based on the initial visits was very positive, and I felt that it was a school that was much more about people than place, although the latter is great.
(Full disclosure, DS ended up here, and it completely exceeded expectations so while I was once impartial, I am no longer!)
@CaliMex Regarding MPS, the best insight I can share is that Porter’s is in the middle of a decent concentration of strong boarding prep schools, and many girls who grow up on those other campuses as fac brats choose Miss Porter’s. MPS has the reputation of maintaining a ‘come as you are, we relish you flying your freak flag’ more than some of those other, larger schools in that area. Beyond that, Porter’s families and Porter’s students usually are among the most enthusiastically postitive about their experiences… Ymmv, of course, especially if you are a dude.
@gardenstategal and @SevenDad : What is it like for boarders at George given the school has such a large day school population, especially compared to schools like SAS or SPS?
BTW: I know one can look up average or median SAT and SSAT scores and what not. But I wish there were scores for each school’s kindness level and stress level…
Can someone please give their opinion on NMH, I never go to visit the campus as I did a skype interview. Please type all the details and opinions as it will surely help me choose the right school for me. All help is deeply appreciated.
NMH has a beautiful campus. It’s in the middle of nowhere, but once you drive into the campus it’s absolutely lovely. We loved the work program and they fact that all kids are required to participate in it. The working farm is nice too.
They do block scheduling but I know more and more schools are moving in that direction. It is on the large side for a boarding school. I loved it and would have signed on dotted line immediately, but not my child. He wanted something smaller and felt it too remote for his taste. Personally I don’t think you could go wrong here.
@CaliMex , Boarders outnumber day students at GS, but it’s true that GS has more day students than many other schools. With that said, there are still about 300 boarders, so it’s not a tiny boarding community. (Some schools that are 100% boarding have fewer boarders.) I suspect that most boarders, when they graduate, will report that their closest friends are boarders, and that most day students, in general, will say they are closest to other day students but that there are extremely close relationships formed that cross pretty much every line, whether boarding, grade, etc. It really is ONE community, not a community of boarders and a community of day students, or a community of freshmen and a community of sophomores, etc. who share a campus. DS remains close to, and in contact with, friends who were both day and boarding.
Day students often spend the night in the dorms with boarders, and boarders often come home with day students, Many day students arrive at 7 in the morning and stay until the library closes on the weekdays and come back on weekends for sports and activities. (If you look at the campus life part of the website, you’ll see some of the activities that are available every weekend, and you’ll see why day students would want to participate! There is one administrator who does nothing but work on programming, and one of her objectives is to come up with things that will appeal to both day and boarding students.) Most of the teams that DS played on went to dinner together after practice, so day students weren’t rushing home at the end of the day. (Day student tuition includes all 20 meals a week so that there’s no reason for them not to be on campus.)
It is almost impossible to articulate how very hard George works at creating community (and developing the skills in the students to do this elsewhere); community is one of the Quaker values, and these are critical to the school’s mission, so there’s a lot that’s “baked in” to their system to ensure that everyone has a chance to interact meaningfully with everyone else – through advisories, work shifts, dorms, sports teams, classes, service work, arts performance groups, etc. The school is known locally for having a “culture of kindness”, and I think (as a parent, so looking in from the outside) that this is deserved. (It is kind and nurturing, but not coddling, if that makes sense.) It’s a place where everyone is encouraged to be his or her best self, rather than better than others, and there’s enormous respect for the individual. It seems that that kind of acceptance really lightens the load for a lot of kids; these years can be so tough, and it’s a real gift to be in a place in which there is so little pressure to conform and so little to conform to! For some students some of the time, it is definitely stressful; the academics are rigorous (but not competitive) and everyone is encouraged to be active in the community, so most kids have a lot going on. The school is very intentional in helping students figure out who they are and what is “authentic” for them, which in and of itself, relieves a lot of stress! Again, consistent with Quaker values, the kids are given a lot of forums for being reflective and thoughtful and for developing self-knowledge, and in many cases, that can head off hysteria and burn-out that come from doing things that aren’t really meaningful.
@SevenDad has had kids at both SAS and George so can definitely make a better comparison between those two.
Thank you, @gardenstategal … @twinsmama, would love your thoughts on Mercersburg in terms of kindness and stress levels, too. That strikes us as another school that is thoughtful and deliberate about those things? or have we read to much into your past posts?
@CaliMex: Having had a kid spend 4 years at SAS (100% boarding) and now one do 2/3 of a year (so far) at George (after 2 years at another boarding school), here’s my take: The 100% boarding programs are very unique, and I recommend one if possible.
That said, I feel like my daughter who’s currently at George would say that GS is better than her previous prep school in terms of NOT feeling like the school clears out on weekends/like the boarding program feels like an afterthought.
As a parent, I like the way permissions and communication has worked with GS better than previous school. The Deans Office at GS really serves as an effective/responsive single point of contact for most correspondence — especially with regard to her comings and goings (which are probably more frequent than most due to sports training/competition).
7D2 is generally off campus one long weekend a month in her sports season, and is often off campus one day of 2-3 weekends a month for training. So I think her experience is colored a bit by that factor…meaning she is off campus enough in the course of a month to not be as susceptible to the feeling of being “stuck” on campus.
While it lacks the jaw-drop factor of Noxontown Pond, GS is quite a nice campus in its own right. In fact, my wife just remarked that when we dropped off our daughter for one of the Spring Break service trips this past weekend…she literally said “GS is so pretty…”
Thank you, @SevenDad … Any insights to share on the school cultures and how SAS and GS compare?
@calimex, Mercersburg is very intentional about constantly learning about what is best for adolescents and making refinements accordingly (one example: classes don’t start until 8:50am). Homework is not excessive (not light, either, but not excessive). It is possible to get enough sleep (not everyone does, including one of my children, but it is certainly possible). That, in itself, is hugely important for increasing students’ ability to manage stress. There is certainly a culture of kindness at Mercersburg. However, doing what is best for adolescents also includes encouraging them to persist and work hard when things get tough, and I think that is an important piece of the culture as well. I know I keep using the word “sane” to describe Mercersburg, but it fits.
Thank you, @twinsmama . Do you know any families there who live far away? Wondering how tough the logistics might be for a California girl.
Are either of your kids interested in Science or Math?
Some kids are from very far away - my daughter’s best friends are from Korea and China! - and there are definitely some from California. It can’t be easy, but it is possible. And no, my kids’ interests tend toward the humanities. But they’re both pretty advanced in the science and math curriculum, so PM me if you have specific questions for them about that or anything else.