<p>I noticed some others school's have their own threads...so I thought why not. I'll be here to answer any questions about the greatest school ever!</p>
<p>Oh gosh! Deerfield thread! score. I will be attending Deerfield next year…I’m wondering how rooming works for people coming in as 10th graders? and what dorm life is like at Deerfield? Any insight you have would be great to hear!</p>
<p>Do you have any info on the Deerfield diving team (DDD: Deerfield Diving Divas, right? aha!)? Such as: are they girls on the team nice? is it hard to get on?</p>
<p>Thanks! =)</p>
<p>I happen to know some girls on the team…they are like the nicest people!!!</p>
<p>Sophomores live in what is called an underclassmen hallway with 10-18 freshmen and other sophomores. Dorms are decent and well maintained. (You definitely can’t complain once you’ve lived in a college dorm) Upperclassmen dorms, like JL, are newer and therefore are considerably nicer. But in general, I’d say that dorms are great at DA. But that’s the exterior part of dorm life. Be sure you are outgoing and not afraid to make the initiative. You will likely become good friends with the people on your hallway. With a faculty living at the end of each hall who offers weekly feeds and semester eating-out trips as well as two senior proctors and lots of other people on your hallway coming and going, you will likely have a lot of fun simply by eating, chatting, and hanging out with them.</p>
<p>srry i meant trimester, not semester. Was thinking of college. lol</p>
<p>I think this article from the Deerfield Scroll gives a good idea of what it’s like there,</p>
<p>September 12, 2008. My first Friday night at Deerfield. At 8 o’clock, the girls in my dorm started getting ready––scrounging closets, applying makeup, blow-drying hair. This part felt familiar. I started to get excited, “Where are we going?” I asked. Newly-released movies, parties, and football games come to mind.</p>
<p>In reality, we were getting hyped up to visit some “cool hang out spot” called the Greer. The name sounded a little odd to me. I assumed the place went under the “party” category on my list. After we walked there, I soon dubbed the Greer the most absurd “party” I’d ever been to. Hoards of students from all grades packed into close circles—the epitome of an awkward situation, with nothing to help me relax.</p>
<p>Nine months later, I have begun to understand the Deerfield dynamics. Instead of football games (which I couldn’t believe are played in daylight!), student fans flock to hockey games or lacrosse games. I guess you could say hockey is basically the same entertainment: hanging out in the freezing cold, standing on a bleacher, and screaming while boys slam into each other.</p>
<p>However, Deerfield hockey fans possess the one thing my school always lacked—spirit. Walking with a hot chocolate in my hands, I could feel the energy radiating from the cheerleaders and students cheering on their feet for the players and actually watching the game. While set up in the same way, our football games at home were merely blurry foregrounds with social hour as the main event.</p>
<p>At home, our water polo team is nationally ranked. Along with this success came the “water polo bros” and their chlorine-bleached hair, Speedos, and bro sessions. With its lax-flow hair, pinnies, and brotherly love, I’ve found lacrosse at Deerfield to parallel water polo in California. Praised at school meeting for beating Hotchkiss, they all stood up together in the first two rows. Deerfield’s water polo team won New England Championships this year for the second time in a row; why doesn’t its presence on campus loom as large?</p>
<p>Along with Deerfield’s culture comes the list of strange vernaculars. When I heard some guy “sniped” a freshman at the Disco, I assumed he attempted to kidnap her. “Gaming” was a similar situation—I couldn’t grasp what kind of “game” all these guys liked to play. Someone once called my friend “dope.” How was that a compliment? Also, “brute” has been transformed to an adjective. Is it so hard to add one more syllable to make “brut-al”? I guess the West coast vernacular is composed similarly. At least our words make sense—“hella sweet.”</p>
<p>Dancing in New England is considered “grinding.” I imagine stiff sheets of sandpaper rubbing against each other. It makes sense, since students do cause a lot of friction during “Sandstorm.” In California terms, we call our dancing “freaking.” Not a very appealing name either, although California dances do possess a more insane and wild vibe.</p>
<p>With all of these adjustments to make, it’s been an exhausting year adapting to Deerfield culture. I attribute the large number of dances to the lack of off-campus activities available. Unless you are a day student, leaving campus requires effort and spending. Students at Deerfield can’t grab the keys and escape to the nearest Starbucks or country club hot tub.</p>
<p>Some resort to parietals on weekend nights. Parietals remain an obscure concept to me; 18-year-olds ask permission to be in a room with someone of the opposite sex during a specific time slot. Our school questions the strained relationships between genders while enforcing rules which automatically segregate us.</p>
<p>However, despite Deerfield’s restrictions, the boarding school life offers conformity and unity. Dorm life enhances the atmosphere of all relationships within the community. Constantly surrounded by friends, we adapt and grow increasingly aware of each other’s needs, habits, and routines. We willingly sacrifice time for those who become our second family.</p>
<p>At the same time, this pleasant harmony clashes with exclusiveness. Cliques are dominant. Take walk-through meals—most students consistently sit with close friends. I admit that, if it weren’t for sit-down meals, I wouldn’t have met nearly half the student body. </p>
<p>Yes, cliques are a natural result of spending time with those with whom you feel comfortable. At home, groups of friends are still prominent, but there are less distinct lines as to who belongs. During lunch, I would mingle with a range of groups. An advantage of not living in a dorm is greater independence—fewer separate groups and more chances to socialize outside of the boundaries.</p>
<p>It’s clear that dissimilar environments result in distinguishable social atmospheres. But no matter which U.S. coast, type of school, or sport, we are all teenagers growing up with plenty of hormones, social obligations, and “hella dope” friends.</p>
<p>My ‘D’ will apply to Deerfield. Wanna to know the field hockey there. Anyone can help?</p>