<p>My son has been accepted to both. He would do fine at either. Any thoughts? I realize that this was an earlier thread but I'd be interested in newer replies. Thanks!</p>
<p>Hello boston01</p>
<p>I am a current student at Belmont Hill and have had a wonderful experience here. I have also met many RL students, and I do not hesitate to say that they are great people. Both schools are similar in some regards in that they favor tradition and are strong in the humanities. IMO it all depends on asking which school best fits your son’s personality. What are your son’s interests? Those will determine at which school he will fit best.</p>
<p>Additional things to consider:
RL is very competitive (everyone I know from RL is incredibly smart) that being said they are in no way all nerds
Belmont Hill (IMO) is stronger in sports
Belmont Hill offers a 5day boarding program in case you live farther away from the school</p>
<p>Congrats on getting into both schools! Hope I’ll see him walking around campus one day</p>
<p>bhwestler,
What a nice reply! i think that my son would be happy at either school. He is athletic though not in the more popular sports i.e. football, hockey, basketball. He loves the choices at BH. I’ll let him decide after visit day. A big problem has been that your school has been on vacation for two weeks and his visit is not until this coming week. This year, this leaves very little time (about 1 week) before decisions are made. It has been an unfortunate timing of school vacation because we have been waiting 3 weeks! Thank you for your reply.</p>
<p>i’m at another isl school but i have good friends at bh and know some people at rl. my friends at bh like it fine but the school is pretty strict. apparently this year the middle school has been through a lot of weird incidents with kids getting expelled and suspended for bullying and other weird stuff i shouldnt say on a public forum. a lot of teachers and kids are leaving i guess.</p>
<p>id say the schools are pretty close in terms of the experience and what you get out of it, both all boys/jacket and tie thing… bh is more into sports and RLs got better academics and more prestige.</p>
<p>I concur with the previous post, but Belmont Hill is definitely a school on the rise. In 5 years I expect it to be a top 10 school nationally. The problem is, RL already is. Look at the matriculation list and you will see that. There is a big dichotomy between the middle school and upper school at BH or so I hear. RL has the prestige, but BH is the “hotter” school that many headmasters are talking about, for good reasons.</p>
<p>if there are good reasons that bh is supposedly on the rise, you should elaborate… the school is solid for what it is but it cant compare to the top tier of the isl and other NE boarding schools. id go there over like st sebs and rivers because its got good academics, good sports, and gets kids into decent colleges, but the school has pretty much no diversity and not a lot of culture other than the white kid-jock thing, and even thats pretty weird. bh used to (and still does) get insulted a lot about being “gay”, mostly unwarranted and made up, but like i said earlier, theres recently been pretty messed up locker room disciplinary cases and other stuff like that thats gotten kids in a lot of trouble.</p>
<p>the hs at belmont hill is much better than the middle school, but apparently its still pretty rigid and strict. my friend says the hs head is kinda a dick and the headmaster is boring and makes a lot of bad decisions.</p>
<p>I’m a student at Belmont Hill right now so I can probably be helpful here - try to be as honest as possible</p>
<p>BH is sister schools with Winsor but the relationship doesn’t really exist except in the newspaper (which is pretty terrible to be honest - the school doesn’t have the greatest extracurricular/music/art programs but I won’t go into that now) and plays. The BH administration tried to force a program on the seniors involving Winsor but it didn’t go well - the senior class just recently got in trouble for allegedly being sexist and rude at a recent event - Winsor actually pulled out of the program because they were so offended.</p>
<p>That should give you at least an idea of what the culture at Belmont Hill is actually like. If you’re looking for diversity I’d definitely look elsewhere - islstudent96 had it right with the “white kid-jock” thing. It definitely fluctuates but there’s probably an average of 5 black kids per classes with 70+ kids (there’s probably a grade without any black kids - I know the senior class has no Asian kids). </p>
<p>islstudent brought up some of the recent disciplinary cases - there was pretty much one problem after another in the 9th grade for a while. 2 kids got kicked out this year (both black - though that’s neither here nor there) and at least another few have been suspended. There was some serious physical/sexual harassment in the locker room and various other hazing issues - some “cyber bullying” too apparently. BH has been doing major damage control with that</p>
<p>BH is a school where a lot of kids say they hate the school, the headmaster, and some of the administration but it seems a lot will come back years later and talk about how much of a “brotherhood” it was and how it “shaped” them. If you want an experience like that - which you’ll probably get if you’re good at a sport, party hard, and don’t get into too much trouble - then BH is probably fine for you. It won’t really be that much fun and it gets pretty boring and depressing without any girls and with the rigid schedule/Orwellian micromanagement - you have pretty much no personal freedom to do what you want until you’re a senior - and even then you still have to put up with a lot of arbitrary activities and requirements. </p>
<p>A lot of kids think the headmaster isn’t really “Belmont Hill” enough - he’s a somewhat effete and insipid guy who’s a big fundraiser and has really propelled the school in the last couple decades. The middle school head recently changed which has been a little controversial with all of the recent incidents from that part of the school. The upper school head runs the place with a tight fist but most people would probably say he’s fair enough. The teachers are probably one of the school’s best assets but there’s a good amount of just plain awful teachers too - carefully selecting classes with the minimal freedom you have is the one of the most important and challenging things you can do.</p>
<p>That’s a bit much and all I’ll write for now - hopefully that was balanced enough - any further questions or anything and I’ll be happy to follow up</p>
<p>Amazing, what you describe is the pretty much the same BHS culture as it was 25 yrs ago. I had to make this same choice and chose…Nobles. Couldn’t imagine 6 years without girls in the classroom. After 3 years I outgrew it and went off to a HADES.</p>
<p>Belmont Hill has some serious problems…there are a lot of kids exiting this year following stories of crazy behavior, not only of the kids, but also of the teachers.</p>
<p>Do a lot of research before putting your child into this place…ask a few of the kids leaving. They know the truth and the school does everything it can to bury it it.</p>
<p>Maybe 20 kids in 9th and 10th grade leaving…7percent of the upper school</p>
<p>Thank you all for your frank responses. My son chose RL! In the end, there were a number of factors-- academic and cultural. It’s important to realize (and I didn’t until pretty late in the decision-making process) that an incoming ninth grader has fewer options for classes than an incoming seventh grader. He just liked the classical curriculum at RL better. I wish you all the best.</p>
<p>Be glad your son went to RL! Terrible things happened at Bel Hill last year; Head swept it under the carpet. Two grade 9 boys were expelled; others suspended. Another two grade 9 boys left abruptly mid-year for public school; one was the son of a faculty member and the other had been bullied. Other grade 9 boys were victims of bullying, hazing (see other posts) and other awful things I am not allowed to mention on this board. As a result, about 8-9 more grade 9 boys left Bel Hill end of last year. (Google 2012 Belmont Hill High Honors–you’ll see where Belmont Hill deleted the names of Honor Roll boys in Forms III and II who left school…unless they change it again after seeing this post.)</p>
<p>Bel Hill Head sent out a series of long, ranbling emails to grade 9 parents stating that they were installing a camera on the bus to monitor boys behavior, reconfiguring the “gang” shower, and they had counseling in-house available for the boys. Head had a “highly scripted” meeting with grade 9 parents. He said what happened at Bel Hill was serious bullying. What really happened can’t be discussed on this forum because of the nature of the offenses. Shameful.</p>
<p>Not sure if you will see this but our son is entering Belmont Hill this fall (9th grade). When I asked other parents about the bullying I was told the school was very proactive about it and that the boys in question were all either dealt with or expelled. We chose BHS bc it was close to home and also bc it was one of the few day schools that had the language my son was looking to study. RL did not have it.</p>
<p>I was wondering whether your post referred to 2011-2012 or to 2012-2013. I am wondering whether this happened again in 2012-2013. Thanks</p>
<p>Our son had the same (lucky) choice. We left it to him and he decided on RL. He intrinsically felt that he fit in there instantly and very much has felt “at home” for many years. </p>
<p>RL was a better fit for him:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>he enjoys sports but isn’t that talented. RL is a school where the BMOCs are not necessarily athletes. The social currency at RL is not sports since a “successful” season for a RL team is winning 1/2 of their games. They just don’t have the student body size to field star teams, and the smallness is by design (more below).</p></li>
<li><p>small grade size of 40 to 50 boys means that everyone has to get along. my son says he is friends with everyone in his grade and he also has friendships with many boys older and younger. As one boy told me, “There really aren’t cliques since the grade is so small.”</p></li>
<li><p>mid-way through his first year, I asked my son about what was his favorite trait about RL. He said: “Everyone in the school knows who I am. I’m not just a kid in the first year class. They know me as an individual.” RL can do this because of its massive endowment, which translates to about $500,000 of principal capital per student. As a result, it doesn’t have to grow the student body to increase revenue. There’s a famous saying, to which the faculty firmly adhere: at RL “every boy is known and loved.” I at first thought that was marketing, but I’ve found it to be very, very true.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Regarding bullying, I’ve never heard of it happening. I know that it is very much against the culture of RL. Everyone is expected to get along. Mutual respect is absolutely required and expected. A the beginning of each school year, each grade takes a few days to go through the entire student Handbook, which articulates the school’s rules and expectations. It takes about a week. They do this EVERY year, I think, to inform new boys of what is acceptable, and to remind experienced boys, yet again, of the school’s culture.</p>
<p>After reading this post, I signed up on CC so as to give some feedback about Belmont Hill. My son also entered in the fall of 2013 as a freshman and his experience is vastly different than that of the student who posted above. He’s a super serious student who chose BHS in spite of it’s “jock school” reputation - but he also enjoys sports and didn’t want to give it up completely. While there is definitely a strong streak of the “jock school” identity which is well deserved (and of which the school takes pride), I would encourage prospective families be open to a more nuanced perspective.</p>
<p>Although the teaching at BHS is definitely old school, and they are rather shameless about teaching toward the AP test, the teachers are organized, kind and responsive. The Headmaster is incredibly intelligent and articulate - to call him “effete and insipid” is just completely off base and offensive. (He is thoughtful and soft spoken - so perhaps some of those "jock"students would prefer a louder, more jocular leadership style). One of the teachers told me that of all the places she has taught, she loves Belmont Hill the most because she has such high regard for her fellow teachers and their “humanity.” The curriculum is not particularly innovative, but the school seems to be working very hard to move into the 21st century with programs such as their Advanced Science Research program which supports a 2 year student internship in local labs. My son’s class has a healthy number of strong, academically motivated boys. </p>
<p>As a parent, it does seem like their extracurricular/arts programs are rather weak (the boys don’t seem to take much initiative or pursue them intensely/deeply) and this may indeed be due to the overall interest in team sports which are a significant time commitment. </p>
<p>We did hear a bit about the 2012-2013 and that the 9th grade class that year was “tough” - my son has not witnessed any bullying in the least and one of the things he likes the most about the school is that (in his experience) the boys are surprisingly civil and respectful to each other, even when they are not close friends. (being boys, though, they can be very blunt with their feedback when they think someone is too full of themselves). </p>
<p>I do think that entering as a freshman has a different flavor from entering as a 7th grader - the 9th grade is technically part of the middle, or lower school, which is just weird and for some kids will feel like a deceleration if they went to a challenging middle school. Also, my sense is that the families/parents bond in 7th grade but there is much less of that by 9th grade. It definitely took a year and 3 months of 10th grade fall for him/us to feel connected and settled into the school. </p>
<p>One of the learning points that I’ve taken from the prep school application process and the subsequent launching into high school, is that no school is perfect, and certainly different kids can have vastly different experiences depending on the lens through which they view their life. </p>
<p>This is longer than initially planned - but I thought other might find another perspective helpful on BHS. </p>
<p>Roxbury Latin is a wonderful school. It’s the clear choice. “Bullying” is what the Head of Belmont Hill called happened to 9th grade, Class of 2015. Do you call hazing, cyberbullying,and sexual assault bullying? Perhaps that’s why the Belmont Hill student posted what he did above. Kids have a right to expect more integrity from their school.</p>