<p>Does anyone know how quaker schools are, specifically Westtown and George? I know that they aren't as prestigeous as HEADS, but how do their academics compare? And, how is their social life, community etc?</p>
<p>anyone? Does anyone know anything about these schools? pls…</p>
<p>My daughter applied last year and was accepted at both those schools and I would have been happy had she decided to attend either one, although she is enrolled elsewhere.</p>
<p>Westtown has such a beautiful campus, both the 600 acres of rolling hills and the very attractive old buildings, and such a warm feeling, it was the place I could most imagine calling home. One thing that set this school apart from the others is that it is a Pre-K to 12th grade school, so there are younger children everywhere. You might like this or not, depending on your personality. I think it gave the HS kids a chance to do mentoring and feel connected to a larger community than just 14-18 year olds. On the down side, some of your classmates in High School may have been together since they were 3 years old. </p>
<p>The Academics seemed very rigorous, but I would say they don’t have the course offering range of Exeter or Andover, because it’s smaller and has a larger range of student abilities. A top student would still be challenged at Westtown.</p>
<p>Like George School, there is a large emphasis on community, trust, and giving back to the community. I liked the Quaker meeting house on campus as the spiritual center of the community and the religion class offerings.</p>
<p>George School has a smaller campus, but access to Newtown which is a cute town. It has an atmosphere that I have a hard time describing, but perhaps it’s a bit bohemian (in a good way!) The kids are relaxed and down to earth, the dress is casual, the buildings have a somewhat worn but well loved look. From the main building you can see the stables below, and the terrain is hilly with curved paths lined with rhododendrons. They have an emphasis on global understanding, cultural exchange, and the Quaker tradition of looking for ways to bring Peace to the world through service. The top students there might enroll in their IB program, which would certainly be challenging. Many students travel during their time at the school.</p>
<p>My impressions of both these schools are just from researching and visiting them. I can’t speak from the point of view of a parent or student who has actually attended the schools and seen how these initial impressions are put into action.</p>
<p>I heard George is a little too laid back… a lot of the kids there are kinda hippyish if you know what I mean. But I guess it’s a pretty decent school academically and so if you stay in the right crowd you’ll succeed.</p>
<p>One of our children investigated both George & Westtown and was accepted to both. She liked especially the liberal ethos at W. She also liked G, especially for the IB program, with which she was already familiar. Both schools were impressive in their own way. What I could not reconcile, as a parent, was the possibility of having a child board at a school that was predominantly for day students (George). This is not a problem for some folks, but I wanted my child to be in a boarding community; that is , where boarders are the school’s core. In the end, G gave us no financial aid (although acknowledging that we qualified for it). W gave us aid and then upped it on appeal, but the revisit did W no favors, so that was the end of that.</p>
<p>At first my dad had was concerned about the GS day student population but we learned during revisit that out of 530 students 55% are boarders. Students come from 32 countries and 21 states. The population of boarders is about 300 kids. This is the size of some schools’ entire population. The students assn has so many weekend activities, I wonder how students actually get work done on Saturdays and Sundays. Many day students spend a lot of their free time on campus and the students really don’t make a distinction between who is day and who is boarder. I visited GS twice and I knew that I would love going there. We visited a LOT of boarding schools but the feeling I got from GS was far better for me. Many of the other schools say they’re diverse but they still felt pretty homogeneous to me. I am biracial (Asian/Caucasian) and being around many different types of people and all those people being truly respected for who they are is very important to me. GS students are very eclectic. I don’t know about any hippies or what ever because I did not see any when I visited. Ha. Maybe they were all hiding in the dorms.</p>
<p>I’m from DC metro and I love the idea that $5 vans will take us to the Amtrak every Friday if we want as long as it’s not a closed weekend. I can be home in 2 hours if just want to get away for a weekend and decompress.</p>
<p>Even though hoped for some FA we realized that we may not receive any so my dad will pay. My tour guide from Vietnam was a junior transfer student from the one of the most popular schools on ccHe said transferring was the best decision he ever made. I’m not sure if these thoughts are helpful to anyone. I just know that I can’t wait until August 29th .</p>
<p>as my second week at GS draws to a close, i have a few things to say:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>i love it here. on the 3rd or 4th night, a group of my friends and i were in marshall (technically the day student lounge, but everyone hangs out there) playing foosball/pool/ping pong before study hall (i’ll go into that later) and 3 of us starte to sing disney songs at the top of our lungs just for kicks. no one even looked up, becasue being yourself is totally normal</p></li>
<li><p>study hall is incredibly helpful. for the 1st 3 weeks of the school year, all new students have out of dorm study hall which is proctored, so that you ac actually do your work. after that, your teachers have to sign a slip that says you are doing your homework, and you can have study hall in your dorm. also ANYONE can hace odsh if they think it helps them all through the year. whether you are in or out of the dorm, for two hours every school night you are sitting at a desk (supposedly) doing your homework. this is super helpful for me, as procrastination is a bit of an olympic sport for me.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>so yeah, george is awesome.</p>
<p>Dare, glad your enjoying your experience and yeah, I agree, George is awesome! Son is busy adjusting to White Week/Green Week scheduling. It’s clear to me that the academics are very rigorous (something all parents obsess about) and the measurement of rigor is not simply piles and piles of work but more importantly, the extent to which the work affords students the necessary critical thinking, creative, communicative and technical skill sets needed to succeed at the next level, in college and beyond. I reviewed the course syllabi, I can clearly see where George does this and the educational experience my son is on track for.
And yes, It is true, the school has the most unusual and eclectic student body that we saw during our school tours. It’s unwavering stance and commitment to progressive and social justice issues, it’s ability to not only pay lip service to global issues but also, infuse them directly into the schools culture as evidenced by the large amount of int’l students (33 countries), opportunities for international service and learning and the sophistication of many of the school clubs and organizations are the keys which attracted us to the school.</p>
<p>The flip side is of course, the incredible social scene. And the craziness. Son forwarded me some items posted on community news and I swear, the level of activities, extracurriculars, etc. rivals a small liberal-arts college! Also, the willingness of others to simply “give away” things that someone else can use (free binders, come get ‘em, I have plenty… anyone want a new rug for you dorm, free… free stroller (?) lol) is a small peek into the window of GS’ community values. So yea, belt out your Disney songs to the top of your lungs, enjoy!!! I’ll pray the rain lets up so you can have the Friday Night party in the Pit lol. And of course, enjoy the first game under the lights Saturday night…I wholeheartedly agree, GS is awesome!</p>