Thacher

<p>From the warm and sunny Ojai (Chumash for "Nest" or "Valley of the Moon"), Thacher's admission's season was it's most competitive ever: applications up 8%, an admit rate south of 20%, and the expected yield once again at >80%. To those who ran this gauntlet successfully, congrats! Enjoy your revisits!</p>

<p>Most of us parents look at all you kids who are being admitted to these wonderful boarding schools around the country and shake our heads in amazement. There are plenty of us who'd never make it past the front door if we had to apply today! It's so darn tough. What an amazing group.</p>

<p>hey its 89 degrees and Ojai right now and im lovin’ the sun!!!</p>

<p>I looked for a thread that might be appropriate to add to, and this seemed as likely as any.</p>

<p>While our family still has a year or so to go before my younger daughter starts exploring boarding schools in earnest, we happened to be in California for a wedding recently and made arrangements to tour Thacher…which we had ruled out for my older daughter because we felt it was literally a bridge too far. </p>

<p>I was VERY impressed with our tour of Thacher and the people we met there.</p>

<p>IMO, if you feel that a school’s campus and setting can have an impact on the student experience (and yes, I do), and you are open to a school in California (and the travel/costs that come with it), Thacher should definitely be on your list.</p>

<p>I’ve heard that St. George’s has a breathtaking setting on the Atlantic, and that Cate has similarly breathtaking views of the Pacific, but I would find it hard to top the desert mountain setting of Thacher for sheer inspiration. I was already stoked by the drive to Ojai! Throw in the horse program (all freshmen learn how to ride western-style and have to take care of a horse) and great academics and I think you have a winner.</p>

<p>I think Thacher requires that you interview on campus, so prospects should keep that in mind.</p>

<p>I believe that international students are not required to interview on campus, but are allowed to interview via Skype.</p>

<p>If you are considering Thacher, I would urge you to plan ahead and book your interview early. Applications have gone up year after year, as more people are finding this “hidden gem.” I believe the admissions office was pretty pressed this year, especially in January, to fit in interviews/tours for all the kids who wanted to visit Thacher.</p>

<p>From the Thacher website - Admissions:</p>

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<p>I’m not sure when visits start - I expect in September. There is definitely a reason for this requirement - you really have to get on campus and see the school “in action” to appreciate how great it is. After his visit, Thacher was our son’s first choice school, and that didn’t change throughout the entire admissions process. He definitely could see himself at the other schools he ultimately applied to, and would have been happy to enroll at any of them, but he felt the most “at home” at Thacher from the start.</p>

<p>He will be a freshman this coming fall, and I will be glad to join ThacherParent as a resource for any student/parent who would like more information about the school or our experiences.</p>

<p>And here’s admissions data for this year, from the Thacher News Feed:</p>

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<p>Here are some stats from this admission cycle:</p>

<p>13% acceptance rate
82% yield rate
Students enrolling from 25 states and 11 countries
36% students of color</p>

<p>Source: Thacher Admissions Office mailing.</p>

<p>Go Thach!!!</p>

<p>Wow, so they received like 600+ applications? Is the admit rate based on preliminary apps or completed apps? Either way, for a small school like it, it’s impressive. Thacher remains an unpopular choice for CC’ers though. If you look at the “master list”, it has been mentioned only 3 times whether it’s for admit, wl or reject. Compared with schools of similar size - Groton 19 times, St. Andrews 9, and even St. Marks, 4 or 5 times. I wonder if more CC’ers are from the east, or CC attracts people who are less interested in the west…?</p>

<p>If Thacher’s practice is the same this year as previous years, it’s completed apps. The density of top tier boarding schools and their audience has been (and will likely continue to be) on the East Coast. I cannot imagine seeing Thacher “mentioned” on the CC “master list” more often than Groton or SAS etc. But, as boarding schools go, Thacher’s alchemy is unique and you’re likely to see ever-greater competition to be admitted and more record setting yields. For us East Coasters, the School is definitely a “road less traveled,” accounting for the additional sacrifices of distance some of us are willing to make for the different experience the School offers.</p>

<p>“Thacher’s unique combination of rigor and achievement with what we believe is the most healthy and positive peer culture in the country.” </p>

<p>Can anyone help specify what the writer might mean by “healthy and positive peer culture?” I’ve seen other CC references to the “non-competitive” nature of Thatcher, but I tend to associate “competitive” with a positive attitude toward academic success. If Thatcher has less of a social pecking order, why might this be the case? Does Cate have a similar peer culture? Note that I have no experience with boarding schools.</p>

<p>Pretty sure part of the “healthy and positive” peer culture is related to D&A usage/attitudes as well as how the school’s young women are treated/feel about the culture. </p>

<p>I recall a whitepaper on a study about the latter that came with the view book — and as the father of two daughters, it was a nice data point to know.</p>

<p>Sorry, I’m not familiar with D&A. Do you know if the whitepaper is online?</p>

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I agree. And I wonder what segments of applicant pool have driven Thacher’s admission stats in recent years. International applicants? Applicants from the west, south and mid-west?.. Meanwhile, I see many Californians are more adventurous and willing to travel to the east for schooling, making CA - couterintuitively - an over-represented state in the top BS of the east.</p>

<p>D&A= Drugs & Alcohol</p>

<p>Here’s a link to a page on the Thacher site that describes one study (from 2009):
[The</a> Thacher School ~ The Examined School: Surveys Give Thacher High Marks](<a href=“http://www.thacher.org/podium/default.aspx?t=204&id=551000]The”>The Thacher School | The Examined School: Surveys Give Thacher High Marks)</p>

<p>An excerpt:</p>

<p>Freshman girls gave Thacher the highest scores of any school for their level of comfort, their perceptions of equity, their lack of stress, and their ratings of Thacher as a respectful community that values diversity and does not tolerate harassment. In addition, they report healthier eating behaviors and attitudes about their bodies than most ninth grade girls in independent schools…Likewise, Thacher’s senior girls were notable in exceeding the national average, reporting behaviors and attitudes that make Thacher unique in fostering a positive body image in senior girls. Of all schools, Thacher received the highest ratings from senior girls on the “respect” subscale.</p>

<p>@DAndrew – I don’t think that the spike in candidates comes from any one geography. I do know that the school decided a couple of years ago to be more aggressive in getting the word out. What had been a “word of mouth” approach has been supplemented by a more public, energetic campaign. CA will never displace New England as the epicenter of great boarding schools and for those relatively few Californians with a boarding school sensibility, the East Coast strikes me as the ideal choice for many of the same reasons Thacher was ideal for us: the chance to expose your child to the cultural differences of the other coast.</p>

<p>@Miguel – SevenDad answered the question well. I would only add that Thacher’s honor code is ingrained in the community (“honor, fairness, kindness and truth”) and is key to understanding the school’s “peer culture.” The code animates the School and the students/faculty are energetic in its observance and in their support of the larger community outside the School. Your other questions: Thacher kids are highly competitive, but it’s less “beat the other guy” and more “do the best you can.” For the reasons I noted above, “social pecking orders” don’t really have the soil to take root. While there are certainly groups of friends, everybody swims happily with everybody else. Your last question about Cate should be directed to CateParent. He’s an excellent resource on the School.</p>

<p>Bump for goforprep (can you tell I’m procrastinating for doing actual paying work?)</p>

<p>How does this thread only have 1600 views?</p>

<p>BTW, Thacher Parent is super nice and very generous with time in answering questions/correspondence. Not on the forum as frequently as I think child is now graduated.</p>

<p>I’m the parent of a new 9th grader, and would be glad to answer any questions about Thacher - either through PM, or on the board.</p>

<p>My daughter feels a very strong connection to Thacher. The surroundings, the community, the values, and the respect for the outdoors were a big draw. Does the classroom experience parallel these other wonderful traits? Is a high achiever who enjoys intellectual stimulation going to be happy at Thacher?</p>

<p>Chalet - If your daughter were not a high academic achiever, Thacher would not be the right place for her. It’s very rigorous and there’s no way to get lost in the shuffle. The ideal applicant has the following characteristics:</p>

<ol>
<li>Academically superior skills with an equally strong and innate love of learning</li>
<li>Deep appreciation for the outdoors, what it can teach you, how to care for it</li>
<li>A natural joy in helping other kids, faculty and the community - “we first” not “me first”</li>
<li>Instinctive honor code characteristics: “honor, fairness, kindness and truth.”</li>
<li>A willingness to try new things, take calibrated risks, and be ok with dusting yourself and getting back on that horse when you fall off (literally and metaphorically)!</li>
</ol>

<p>Thacher is a very tight community where people enjoy and support one another. There’s no place like it.</p>

<p>Good luck!!!</p>