In my experience, revisit day was crucial in deciding what school felt right to me. I was deciding between Lawrenceville and another central NJ boarding school. While Lawrenceville was objectively far superior (based on rankings compared to other schools) than my other option, I didn’t think I would get into lville so I had imagined myself at the other school while I was applying. When I got in, I was leaning toward Lawrenceville, but I wanted to revisit at the other school because I wanted to be really sure I knew where I belonged.
At Lawrenceville, my revisit day honestly was not picture perfect, but it was great, and there were no red flags. The campus was beautiful and the food and classes were great, but my revisit day “buddy” was not the best. She was nice and all but we were both kind of awkward and nervous. That was my only issue, though, and I honestly take some responsibility. I was so awkward that she probably didn’t know how to talk to me.
At the other school (the revisit day there was the day after Lville’s), I had a very energetic and fun revisit day “buddy,” and the school did a great job of trying to sell the {insert school name here} experience. An interviewer in admissions and the coaches for my sport were also very interested in me, so they were going out of their way to talk to me about how they’d love me at their school. It really made me feel special, but not enough for me to ignore that their school, and more specifically, the people in it, was sub-par. The classes there were barely better than the classes at my public school. They didn’t use the Harkness method much, and when they did, it was ineffective. The major red flag was the students though. During the revisit day, my “buddy” and her friends openly talked about how much they hated Lawrenceville (sounds like they got rejected to me, but idk) right after I told them I was considering going there. Then they were all talking about how one of their friends, who was also a revisit day buddy, cut classes that day WITH his buddy.
I am so glad I trusted my gut on those red flags. Though the attention from school #2 made me feel great while I was there, I could tell that the community there was not strong and that the people weren’t people I would want to surround myself with. Now I’ve been at Lawrenceville and I love it. Sure, I hear about some drug use from time to time (because when you put hundreds of teenagers with each other for four years, some of them are gonna make bad choices) and such, but I hear about that because I go there. I had not heard anything about any drug use before going. I’ve heard stuff from lots of people (even people who don’t have any connection to that school) about drugs being a p big problem at the school I turned down, so I feel I made the right choice. On top of that, at my athletic competitions, I have not seen Lawrenceville have any bad sportsmanship, while the school I turned down frequently has issues with this.
I can honestly say that even in the moments my freshman year when I had no friends and was extremely unhappy, I knew I would never want to leave Lawrenceville. You can be lonely, struggling in classes, etc. but there will always be someone there for you- advisors, housemates, school psychologists, house masters, teachers, etc. Especially with the house system.
so those are some (pretty biased, not gonna lie) thoughts on my experience with choosing between schools based on how the people act. hope this helps!
