The Cate School Thread (Carpinteria, CA)

<p>Many thanks – will be in touch via PM.</p>

<p>ThacherParent - thank you for putting nelumbo in contact with me. I have not been following CC as diligently as I once did and have missed several threads. </p>

<p>If anyone has questions about Cate, please feel free to PM me. I will do my best to help!</p>

<p>Hi I am a student at Cate right now and I love it here. Like every school, there are many people that love it and a few that does not seem to enjoy it very much. That’s not just Cate though, I think every school has the same problem and I believe Cate is actually happier than preppy NE boarding schools. I think Athena444 is over exaggerating. And as for disciplinary stuff, yes, there are people who are expelled or suspended a two or three times a year, but compared to NE schools, that is very little. I know that Choate had many girls expelled/suspended last year because they were cyberbullying. Well, Cate has no-tolerance rule for bullying. I know that Choate had some students that took their own lives as well, but my teacher, who has been teaching Cate for 30 years, said that so far of his time here, no one has committed suicide at Cate. I think if your son is super positive, come to Cate. It will definitely be a great fit. It is beautiful, small, supportive community.</p>

<p>Just emailed my acceptance of the acceptance (see what I did there?). Anyway, I am excited and this winter is REALLY making me happy it’s on the southern west coast :D</p>

<p>oh, @nelumbo- We just talked to a Cate parent who has had two kids go to Cate. If the admin. office hasn’t already set one up, I recommend calling about it. I’m sure they’d be happy to get one for you.</p>

<p>Thanks ThisOneKid, got an email a few days ago from current parents, so following up with them as well. Congratulations on making your decision!! – Cate seems like a very special school. Will let you know what our DD ends up deciding in due course…</p>

<p>I am currently a student at Cate, and I think Athena44 makes a really disturbing assumption/guess. I don’t know where he/she got that 20% of students feel ostracized and are actively angry at Cate. I think Athena44 falls into the category of the 5% of students that actively “dislike” Cate because of what one might coing “first class problems.” What I’m referring to is this. Cate only requires students to play three team sports (one per season) during their freshman year. Sophomore year, they only have to play two, junior year one sport, and none their senior year. Of course, Athena44 conveniently fails to mention this and the fact that there are thirds AND JV levels for close to all sports. This means that if you’re a beginner in a sport, you can totally play without feeling pressured to be athletic. I also know a lot of freshman who have bypassed the sports requirement and only done two.
Frutsun, I think the reason the Tuesday Talks you have heard have seem so negative is because the six seniors that “actively dislike” Cate just happened to go one right after the other this year. I’d recommend listening to other ones; Cate students have other interesting things to say.
Now I’d like to go back to the “first world problems” these students complain about. When walking around campus, you’ll hear them complaining about things like, “Oh my God, we have chicken again for dinner. I hate my life.” The food at Cate is DELICIOUS, FRESH, and HEALTHY compared to other schools I’ve visited. You can also hear them say, “Oh my God, the administration hates me.” No, the administration doesn’t hate you. What happens is that when you smoke weed and do drugs on campus, you can expect to have disciplinary action taken. They also complain about the bus times. Seriously, NOTHING can please these people.
As you can probably tell, I’m very disconcerted with these type of people at Cate. Why? Because EVERYONE ELSE is having a jolly time, and these 5% of students have to come around and ruin it with their petty, little arguments. It’s funny those, because these people won’t stop running their tongue, yet they don’t do ANYTHING about it. They just sit back, enjoy the quality education, food, facilities, and complain.
I do, however, agree with Athena44 on the lack of specialization. Because we’re such a small school, there aren’t A LOT of opportunities to specialize, but there is a fair amount of them—enough to make you feel like your course load is leaning more towards one subject area.
On a more positive note, I have loved my time here at Cate, and I’m not going to lie; I have had my moments when I feel Cate is a bubble. (After all, you’re on top of a hill, five days a week.) But then I remember the smiles, the teachers, and the AMAZING opportunities I have had because of Cate. Cate only has 285 students—the perfect size for me, at least. You know everyone’s name, but you don’t “know-know” everyone, if you get what I’m saying. I definitely FEEL ready for college, but I won’t know until I’m actually there.</p>

<p>Thank you Flyingthrough for giving another perspective! After our “Spend the Day at Cate,” we definitely decided that Cate was the perfect fit for our son. He is really excited about the fall. Because he is a very positive person, I really don’t worry that he’ll have the problems of that 5% you mentioned. You are right, in every community, there are always some that constantly complain. Thank you for your very insightful and specific commentary. I really appreciate it.</p>

<p>Frutsun – see you on the Mesa! : ) My daughter will definitely be part of the 95% as well.</p>

<p>Delighted to hear the good news! I hope your families enjoy the Cate experience as much as we have.</p>

<p>More good news - The college admission office at Cate reports a banner year for its seniors. Of the 76 seniors, 5 were admitted to Stanford, 4 to the University of Chicago, 7 to Johns Hopkins, 4 to U Penn, 5 to Cornell, and 11 to USC. Others were admitted to MIT, Williams, Yale, Swarthmore, Harvard, Berkeley, UCLA, Colorado College, Duke, Northwestern, etc. <a href=“http://www.cate.org/news/detail/?id=2326[/url]”>http://www.cate.org/news/detail/?id=2326&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>That is great CateParent. The seniors must be so relieved and elated. By the way, will you continue being the Go-To person on this board next year as well? And STLmom23, I look forward to meeting you next year at parents weekend.</p>

<p>I am always happy to answer questions related to Cate, although I am probably not the ideal Go-To person because I don’t read the posts on this board as often as I would like. Parents weekend on the Mesa is a treat!</p>

<p>I just dropped my son off at Cate yesterday. Even though it was SO hard to leave him, being there reinforced that this was a wonderful choice and I am thrilled for him. The teachers and coaches were so warm and welcoming, the classes he will be taking are going to be an exciting challenge, and he is so excited about the Outdoor Program, as well as that his football coach was a former NFL trainer. This is going to be such a great experience for him!</p>