I am trying to find some schools that would be a good fit for me. I am interested in Deerfield, but the reports about the incredibly hard grading scale and extremely intense culture are offputting. Hotchkiss’s facilities seem old and outdated from their pictures; is that a correct assumption? Besides these two schools, what others would fit the following;
Good athletics
Top college matriculation
Close to a town
Nice campus
this is a bit random but~considerable amount of students from NYC (I want to have friends from similar backgrounds)
No Saturday classes
More social reputation
Not sure how many/if any schools fit all of these requirements, all input/responses are appreciated though.
Yes, and is not “near a town” – i.e. you can’t walk in to town easily. However, with an endowment of over $1 million per student, no, it’s facilities are not “old and outdated”.
Hotchkiss facilities are amazing. The campus is beautiful but not close to a thriving town. Try Lawrenceville- it fits a lot of what you are looking for and they are moving away from Saturday classes.
Loomis and Choate do not have Saturday classes, and have a lot of NYC/Westchester/Fairfield kids. Easily walkable to town. Andover too, but proportionately fewer NYC students.
Hotchkiss and Deerfield both have great facilities and campuses. They are rural and remote (although DA is a stone’s throw from I-91), but still, very easy to get to nearby towns that are 1-3 miles away by shuttle, bike, etc. Deerfield has no Saturday classes and a big metro NYC student population. Greenfield is close by.
Some athletes prefer no Saturday classes - easier to get to competitions, offsite training, etc. - but if this isn’t your case, not all kids hate Saturday classes. Yes, they like sleeping in Saturday morning, but it can create a more vibrant on campus weekend experience. So potentially keep an open mind on this one point? If so, it brings more “walkable” schools into play for you - Taft, Middlesex, Exeter, among many others.
(Schools with Saturday classes - usually ends up occurring 50% of the time, or less.)
Best of luck!
(Sorry @LDNJ, didn’t mean to Reply directly to you.)
As a result of historical aspects related to founding dates and naming traditions, “schools” tend to be offset from their local towns while “academies” tend to be more integrated with their surroundings. Consider this only as a generalization, however, which should be subject to further research on particular schools of interest.
Peddie in NJ is a little more than a hidden gem. Yes, they have Saturday classes but many boarding schools “break a day in half” for travel athletics reasons as much as wanting to keep the students focused on Friday nights. You go to school on Saturday that ends before lunch and you have another 1/2 day during the week (usually Wednesday.) This school hits most of your other metrics.
Exactly. In another recent post on this page there was concern about a student not being included in weekend activities at a private day/boarding school, etc. It’s not perfect, but Saturday classes (i.e., making Wednesday and Saturday half-days) has the side effect of keeping the community closer together for six days a week. The “weekend” in those prep schools is just Saturday night.
Westy. There is a large hill involved but once you’re down the hill there is a lovely town with great restaurants, Starbucks, groceries, a concert venue etc etc. Makes it worth the walk back up the hill!
Williston-Northampton is right in the town of Easthampton – one of the reasons my son chose it is for the walkability to ice cream, bagels, restaurants, etc. And I think they only have Saturday classes every other Saturday.
Concord Academy is another one that is right in town (my son got waitlisted there).
Loomis has good athletics, right within Windsor CT, beautiful campus, NY is the second largest demographic to CT kids there, no Saturday classes, and when I went on my revisit days the kids called it somewhat of a “party school”.
but once you’re down the hill there is a lovely town with great restaurants, Starbucks, groceries, a concert venue etc etc. Makes it worth the walk back up the hill!