<p>(Posted here instead of hijacking another thread)</p>
<p>My son is attending Simon's Rock; he started there in August after having completed two years of high school.</p>
<p>On another thread, Kelowna asked me:
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Can you share more about the school, his experience, living there (dorms, food).
Do you have to pay tuition? How much? How difficult was the application process?
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</p>
<p>Answers are: yes, yes, lots, and depends on which part of the application process we're talking about. :D</p>
<p>The school</p>
<p>Simon's Rock, which started life in the mid-60s as a small independent school is now part of Bard. It is the only college in the country which serves its population exclusively: kids starting college early. The average age of the incoming freshman class is 16. Most of the students at the school have not graduated from high school when they start Simon's Rock. Students (referred to as Rockers) usually start at Simon's Rock after their sophomore or junior year of high school. </p>
<p>It is a small LAC, with ~ 450 students; it has a high acceptance rate, as the population which applies is self-selecting. The school's 245-acre campus is nestled in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts; it's quite pretty. (The lake near the college entrance: <a href="http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab178/owlice1/Simons%20Rock/PA090106.jpg%5B/url%5D">http://i861.photobucket.com/albums/ab178/owlice1/Simons%20Rock/PA090106.jpg</a>)</p>
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<p>About half the sophomores transfer out each year, having earned an associate's degree from SR. Students transfer out for myriad reasons; the school is expensive, doesn't offer everything, and is rural. Some kids leave for financial reasons, others to get a particular major, and still others to move to a different environment that isn't so insular. The school offers study abroad, a 3-2 engineering program with Columbia, and other opportunities. Top five schools for transfers are Bard, Stanford, Chicago, Brown and... and... somewhere else. Cornell? Reed? Don't remember. </p>
<p>Living there</p>
<p>Freshmen live in freshman dorms; there are three of them, one all boys, one all girls, and the third co-ed. These dorms are close to what one might consider the center of campus: the dining hall. :) My son's room -- he's in a double -- is tiny.</p>
<p>My Owlet is a pescetarian -- eats no animal flesh except seafood (because he likes sushi, so didn't give that up when he gave up other meats!) -- and complains about the cafeteria food, though I think it's actually okay. He probably gets a lot of pasta, pizza, salad, and gets tired of it. He has supplemental food, and I know this because we went grocery shopping when I was there for Family Weekend, and spent more on his groceries than I do on mine!</p>
<p>The school is a mile-and-a-half from downtown Great Barrington, which is a charming little place with a movie theater, bowling alley, shops and restaurants. Also an orthodontist, which I learned when my kid's retainers ($800 worth of retainers) were thrown out, so he tells me, when a friend was helping him clean his room. (Maybe wrapping them in tissues and plopping the wad on his desk wasn't such a great idea, hmmm?) Students mostly walk to and from town; some students have their bicycles at school, but I haven't seen any students riding up or down the hill to/from town.</p>
<p>Getting there/being there</p>
<p>Yes, we pay tuition, and lots of it! The COA is just over $53K this year; ours is probably a bit higher because of the travel costs. Owlet has some financial aid, merit and needs-based, but SR does not meet full-need and the gap is substantial (the gap itself is more than our EFC, so we pay EFC*2 + more). We are extremely grateful for the aid; it makes his attendance possible.</p>
<p>The school has a scholarship program called AEP; applications for the school have to be in by February 1 to be considered for this program. The regular deadline for apps is quite late, during the summer. Students have to write two or three essays for the application, and parents have to write FOUR! How unfair is THAT?!! :D The Owlet's dad and I were on the phone and emailed back and forth a LOT for these essays, as all the parental ones were joint projects. That part of the application process was painful!! (Our essays were fabulous, though, I'm sure of it! ;))</p>
<p>My son had to ask several teachers for recommendations; he needed three. It's not common for a sophomore to be asking for college recs, and two teachers turned him down. He did find two in his high school who would write recs, and then also asked the instructor from his most recent CTY session to write one. The CTY instructor was the only one of the three who had had him in a class that offered college-level material; she was very enthusiastic about writing the rec. (We did not see any of the recommendations.)</p>
<p>Owlet had already had a personal interview with the school during the Discovery Day we attended (covered in this post: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061785369-post160.html);%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061785369-post160.html);</a> personal interviews are required of all applicants (though I imagine some of these must be by phone). </p>
<p>He had good stats: ended his sophomore year with a 4.0 (weighted), and his high school career with an unweighted GPA of 3.8, 2350 SAT, two decent SAT subject tests (Math 2, 770; Eng. lit, 750), math through pre-calc, three years of Latin, and three AP exams (two 5s and a 4). He made NMSF on the basis of his sophomore PSAT, and his junior year would have had him taking mostly AP courses. </p>
<p>He was very unhappy in high school his sophomore year for a number of reasons, and his dad and I were unhappy with his high school, too. (Any school year in which you are meeting with education attorneys and consultants and the ACLU is likely not to be a smooth school year!) </p>
<p>We were not going to return the Owlet to his high school under any circumstances. We looked at private schools, considered homeschooling, online courses, and the local flagship U, but felt the best alternative was Simon's Rock. The ONLY option the Owlet wanted was Simon's Rock; he was very enthusiastic about it. When he got the acceptance letter, he called me on the phone and cried, "I got into Simon's Rock but I can't go!!! I didn't get enough [merit] money!!!" He knew aid was important and was absolutely heartbroken. I still baked a cake to celebrate his acceptance. :) </p>
<p>He thinks his school is "awesome." He likes all of his professors, and all but one of his classes, the required First Year Seminar; it's fashionable to dislike the course, however, so his feelings about the course are not uncommon. Classes are small; his largest is 18 students, and that is considered a big class. Students call professors by their first names. Attendance DOES matter for freshmen, and a kid can be suspended for missing too many classes. AP exams with a score of 5 can be considered for credit up to 10 credits; both of the Owlet's 5s got him credit. </p>
<p>Despite the food, First Year Seminar, students who drink to stupidity/take drugs, the "circle jerks" (cliques), and the rural nature of the campus, he is happy there. It's not a perfect place, but he likes it, did spectacularly on his midterms, and has grown a great deal in the few months he's been there. He's in a good place. </p>
<p>But he'd better learn to call his mother regularly, dangfraznabbit, if he wants to stay there, because the lack of communication is driving me crazy!!!</p>