@payn4ward Literally, Hotchkiss has no service whatsoever. Extended if you’re really, really lucky. My roommate has Verizon and she had no service. Her parents were at Hotchkiss looking for her and they couldn’t get in contact with her, so they ended up leaving.
Andover: Enriching
Thacher = no
Brooks= Community
thacher = slick
Now that’s an interesting adjective to describe a school, @onthewestfence. Care to elaborate?
@itcannotbetrue the visit was very much scripted without much improvisation. pm me if needed
@onthewestfence --oh yes, got it. You meant slick = overprepared/canned. Disregard my earlier PM response.
We’ve had that reaction at a few schools, too.
Thacher is not the kind of school where all kinds of students can thrive. You should really reconsider going to Thacher if you are not into camping, horses, or certain sports (such as lacrosse). For students interested in subjects such as visual arts or music (except for singing, which the school supports strongly), the school’s resources are meager. The only working club at Thacher is the Environmental Action Committee. Also, it is much more conservative and strict they seem to be, and for students who like more freedom and ‘breathing room’, it might feel suffocating.
Slick? My experience with the school would be to attach the opposite meaning. While it’s true as @lunagotit says that the school is not for everybody (thank God) and that luckily there is a major emphasis on the outdoors (camping, horses etc), there is also a huge and robust focus on formal and informal music and visual arts. The ascription of the words of “conservative and strict” to Thacher shows how people use vocabulary differently. This is a secular Southern California school; there is little at Thacher that can be described by those words. Perhaps some current parents have a better view. @mountainhiker, @patronyork, @Mussels
@ThacherParent I am actually a current student who has been here for a few years now, and I was just trying to provide some insight on what the atmosphere is really like. And as of the visual arts program, even my current art teacher (I am sure you know her) agrees with the fact that it is largely ignored. Not trying to hate or anything,
@lunagotit So sorry you feel that way! There are a ton of things I’ve admired recently, everything from the ninth grade intro arts course that requires the frosh to sing, do improv comedy etc, to that amazing dance group that performed in front of 10k people in China last year, to the chamber group, which I love, that sang at the Vatican and is heading to Cuba this year, even to the Toadfest. I really liked two of the recent traveling artists, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Dave Stamey. Also, don’t you have a super artistic grad heading to RISD next year? And truth be told, I ALWAYS enjoy the school’s woodshop program. It’s amazing some of the beautiful work that gets generated - has to be one of the best programs out there. Anyway, this is what i see from afar. I hope your experience is otherwise great.
@lunagotit, What I figured out about Thacher’s visual art as a visitor is that, they spend well below average time for it in general, compare to other boarding schools. I also noticed that, they focused more on conveying messages and modern pop arts, instead of traditional art skills such as drawing, 2d, 3d and painting. I thought it was a brilliant approach to have the student get the most out of limited visual art curriculum. It seemed a more efficient way for the majority of high school students.
And I figured that it can actually work very well even for my daughter, who has already finished the foundation courses at community colleges, and would benefit more from Thacher’s approach. Modern art is all about conveying messages and not techniques. But now I think about it, I agree that it might be the best environment for some students with strong visual arts interest.
St. Georges- preppy