<p>@neato: not at all! I’m having quit a lot of fun, actually! I did thirds soccer/dance/jv crew. 3rds soccer is fairly non-competitive (less competitive than JV and Varsity, anyway) and more of a learning team (thought there are several girls who would fit right in on JV but didn’t make it because there simply weren’t enough spots). Dance is purely non-competitive (except for the culminating event, the dance concert, which I like to call “our one and only game- us versus gravity!”. Crew is fun so far: it’s very tiring but it looks like it will be loads of fun (I’m rather petite as well, which is a disadvantage and technically speaking i should cox, but I don’t want to and it’s my choice).
overall, there are lots of options for more nonatletic people (there are quite a few, it’s no problem really). There are plenty of thirds teams, dance in the winter, and JV in the spring is more of a learning team as well (there aren’t any thirds teams in the spring). Almost no one has done crew before.</p>
<p>Basically, there are no problems being nonathletic, so don’t worry!</p>
<p>the that was i think the original root of the word but i could be wrong and of course all of the schools give a great education to their students this was when andover, exeter were viewed as to “polluted” with non-WASP boys and girls but obviously the term no-longer means that st. grottlesex simply refers to the best ISL boarding schools (note that i said this so no RL parents/students will jump on me) haha</p>
<p>Why not just ditch the acronyms entirely? One can always say “St. Grottlesex”, or “one of the er, tippity top Academies”…or “a very very nice school” or whatever, just something more creative that a bunch of letters - and possibly less defining…or does that defeat the purpose? HADES and so forth are just terrible…and it gives the wrong impression I think as there are hundreds of fine schools never mentioned on here…</p>
<p>Glad to see there are some enthusiasts for GLADCHEMMS, penned by yours truly.</p>
<p>Actually, I’ve amended it slightly to: GLADCHUMS, dropping the E for a U because it just sounds more, well, chummy. No slight to Exeter, of course, as it will always be at home in that stalwart group.</p>
<p>I was going to add Peddie but then it would be GLADCHUMPS…</p>
<p>technically it’s GLAD CHEMMS which was changed to GLADCHUMS which i’d like to change to GLAD CHIMPS… throw in peddie. besides, chimps are extremely fascinating creatures, are they not?</p>
<p>no one answered my question about the groton religion class is it actually mandatory?</p>
<p>does anyone know l’villes acceptance rate this year i havnt heard much on the forums? and do does anyone know the differences between l’ville and hun? other than the fact that hun has less boarders?</p>
<p>I was thinking of applying for the postgraduate program but i dont know how competitive it is to get in? I was also looking into st. marks. ANyone know why st. marks has scuh a high acceptance rate of 40 percent compared to other grottlesex schools?</p>
<p>Last year, it was very unusual. Usually the acceptance rate has been between upper 20’s and lower30’s. It’s never been that high. This year their Number of application’s record high.</p>
<p>@divealive: My son attends St Marks. He has two short chapel talks a week, non denominational, although it is an episcopal school. He came in as a junior so he has to do one term only of religion but if you come in earlier, you have to do a full year. The choices for religion class however are VERY interesting. I would not call it a religious school at all, but rather that they strongly focus on being a good citizen of the world and a kind person. The headmaster speaks of the importance of kindness very often.</p>
<p>My D joined SMS as a freshman, Now she is a Sphomore(IV form) and she is completing 1 year(two half year courses) religion requirements. But as cdnhockeymom said, there are many various choices to take as religion class. If you join as a freshman, you have to take Introduction to religious Studies(half year course) first and pick one of the several choices. The introduction to religion is a class that introduces the general concept of religions such as Buddhism, Christianism, Muslem, etc. After that my D took Ethics and Morality that discusses the nature of Jewish and Christian ethics, the dynamics of moral decision-making, social ethics, etc. It is not really a specific religion oriented class. Those classes are regarded as a social science and they trurns out to be an excelelnt subject for kids.</p>
<p>DiveAlive-On the Groton website it says that in 3rd form, the class Sacred Texts and Ancient Peoples is required. For the Upper School, I get the impression that the class is only a choice to fill up your credits, if you have not taken the class before. Personally, I don’t think it’s so bad–not preaching a certain religion but learning about several, I guess.</p>
<p>I’m planning on attending SMS as a 5th former (junior) next year. As a 10th grader, you need to take an entire year of a religion class (one semester of intro to religious studies and another semester of either slavery and shoah, eastern religious thought, studies in sacred scripture, religion and science, ethics and morality, buddhist meditation and christian contemplation, the bible, literature, and the arts, introductions to islam, or the modern middle east: politics, passions, and religions). As you can see, there are several choices to choose from. If your coming in as a 5th former, you only need to do a semester of a religion class. But, I don’t know about Groton.</p>
<p>I don’t quite understand the opposition some people seem to have to studying religion. Nobody is trying to convert anybody. You can’t really hope to have any kind of real understanding of history or literature or art without an understanding of the religions that so very often were the inspirations for such things. I would assume that this is the reason schools (nearly all of them, by the way) have some kind of religious studies requirement.</p>
is it actually mandatory?</p>