<p>I'm trying to decide between these schools for next year- I would be going either as a repeat jr or as a sr- how snobby/rich/waspy are these schools? Opinions for any would be fabulous</p>
<p>Concord Academy is NOT waspy. It used to be an all girls school historically, and it's got a very strong art program. Relatively speaking, it's more artsy and off-beat than other boarding schools.</p>
<p>Look at the post Kafkareborn made there about Hotchkiss.</p>
<p>hotchkiss still sounds intimidating! idk, kafkareborn makes it seem too good to be true for all the middle-class kids</p>
<p>Are you trying to choose the snobbiest or avoid it?</p>
<p>I have a son at Hotchkiss and I must say that I largely agree with the portrayal Kafkareborn made of Hotchkiss. My son tells me that he started showing off about my job and his fellow students confronted him about it - he has since learned his lesson. Showing off in any way or appearing pretentious is a huge no-no at Hotchkiss. Furthermore the students are so down to earth that its hard to distinguish between the kids as in who is the billionaire, who is the middle calss kid, and who is the full scholarship kid. </p>
<p>I can also attest to the sense of community at Hotchkiss. My son tells me that it really does feel like family, everyone is so close he says "it really is my second family" and the alumni are particularly generous - for instance 100 Hotchkiss students and 16 faculty are on their way to an all expense paid trip financed by Mr Mars to Antarctica ! They will be stopping by in Chile on the way. They will be making their way there on a huge vessel along with 100 scientists. It is very very rare to find such a thing at a prep school but i suppose that is the advantages Hotchkiss has with so many billionaire alumni.</p>
<p>So yes the community is very tight and having billionaire alumni is advantageous sometimes. So yes it may seem surreal but that's Hotchkiss. I also found the students very down to earth - perhaps its because they are confident of who they are they do not need to put on airs as such. It really is an amazing school and an amazing community to be a part of. I am often told that its the community that helps some student choose Hotchkiss over the other HADES schools - that's why my son made his decision anyways. To be concise: Its a small school with a tight community. </p>
<p>Here is Kafkareborn's post just in case the rest of you were wondering what it was.
Hotchkiss is preppy in a sense, but not in the way you think.</p>
<p>Yes I do admit that Hotchkiss people like looking great, they do love their classic preppy clothes and all that, and some of them at least are filthy rich (as in my great-great grandfather is Henry Ford the 7th richest person of all time rich or my Grandfather is Mr.Mars the 20th richest person in America rich - billionaires basically).</p>
<p>Yeah they are quite a few billionaire kids/grand kids around but you would never know who they are because they are so down to earth its freaky. I thought that the ford guy was some farmer kid from Iowa or somewhere like that! But yeah you really he sense that your studying with the richest are brushing shoulders with the richest people in the world. As has been repeated over and over and over again "Hotchkiss has produced the most billionaires out of any school in the world" now that is probably whats giving it its rep as an ultra preppy place in my opinion but its not this cut throat caste system of sorts at all like you see in the movies. The rich kids are treated just the same as everyone else.</p>
<p>The low down is they do like dressing nice, they are incredibly good at sports, and the are really smart etc. but they aren't arrogant at all. Which is cool. They are all very down to earth. If you are a show off think twice about coming to Hotchkiss you will be assassinated very quickly if there is one thing Hotchkiss people hate its pretentiousness.</p>
<p>Plus don't forget that still around 40% of folks are on financial aid so you do get your poor types as well. Everyone is really warm and welcoming the sense of community at Hotchkiss is very very strong it really is a huge family.</p>
<p>The hotness of the student body really is just a bonus, I'm there for the killer debate and business program/connections. I suck at sports ... but then again I am the exception.</p>
<p>I don't think I white washed things just for the sake of it ...</p>
<p>idk why, but when I toured Exeter, the kids there seemed more distant but those at andover seemed preppier</p>
<p>glitters246, that's exactly the way I felt. The Exeter kids did feel a little distant as if they were being oppressed (and I automatically assumed oppressed by workload) and the Andover kids did seem preppier, but not preppy, if that makes sense. There were people wearing popped-collar polos, but they were hardly the likes of the preps one sees at, say, Hotchkiss.</p>
<p>I might be making this up but it seems like Exeter is more accepting of kids who aren't magazine quality 24/7</p>
<p>la_voile, not every accepted applicant needs to be magazine quality when they arrive at their school. The school still needs something to improve their students in ;-) but in any case, the work that Exeter gets out of its students is truly outstanding. Their average SAT scores are out of this world and other basic stats are just as outstanding.</p>
<p>To me, Andover students seemed out of it. They all seemed rushed and were drinking tons of coffee (almost every Andover student I saw had a cup of coffee!). Exeter, on the other hand, did seem slightly out of it, as if the students were thinking of something deeply, but didn't look rushed or tired.</p>
<p>I'd rather rushed people with coffee and feel like im in college, than stressed people always thinking.</p>
<p>LOL, its the quiet ones we should be worried about .... normally if you pent up your stress it builds and builds and builds to the point of suicide. I am happy to announce that i have not drunk a single cup of coffee at hotchkiss ever.</p>
<p>I just don't like coffee, therefore I'll never drink it lol. Maybe some hot chocolate or something...</p>
<p>the preppyness of school all really depends
a one day tour is definitely not going to show the full specturm or the quality of the school</p>
<p>maybe Hotchkiss is more preppy than other, but not everyone is like that, as people said.
for me, I love Hotchkiss. i don't care if there are preppy ppl, those are things we just have to bear with when attending a presitigious boarding school such as hotchkiss. i really hop i get into hotchkiss this year.</p>
<p>hey as long as we don't act snobbish or cocky, that's what matters.</p>
<p>I don't know about snobbishness, but I was concerned when I saw a post about hazing at St. Andrew's School in Delaware this fall. Are these incidents common? Is St Andrew's particularly known for hazing and bullying? We didn't get that impression when we visited the School, but naturally expect you only hear the positives when you visit. (My son is applying to BS this year, for 9th grade entry)</p>
<p>I go to one of the schools, I don't want to mention it here but I can tell you lots about it if you PM me, I'd love to help :D</p>
<p>About hte hazing at SAS, no, it is not a common thing. In fact, it is so rare that when the headmaster found out about this he was deeply moved. He has tried, and succeeded, to instill in us the need for honesty and kindness. The discipline committee here worked for over 4 hours trying to come up with a reasonable punishment for the people involved. The only thing they could unanimously come up with was expulsion. That is how big of an offense hazing is here. </p>
<p>PM me if you have any questions.</p>