Thank you so much for this color. I just joined this platform, as my 8th grade daughter is looking at boarding schools for next year. I went to Taft and loved it, but have no instinct to pressure / point her there. That said, I do have a certain ‘vision’ for what I’d like her experience to be. She’s looking at Masters, Choate, Kent, Hotchkiss, Deerfield, Taft, and a few other similar schools. While she’s only visited two of the campuses so far (the rest are in coming weeks), she really likes Masters the most so far…My issue is this: I don’t have anything against Masters, but it just, to me, doesn’t feel like the ‘NE Boarding School experience’. I don’t mean that I want her wearing tweed jackets and talking about Nantucket all day, but rather the more ‘traditional boarding school experience’, etc. (full time boarders, etc.) Anyway, longwinded way of asking you: Is there any more color you can provide on Masters, esp given your daughter’s experience? Any thoughts greatly appreciated!
Calling @SevenDad.
@ProspectiveDad2023: SevenDad is not on the board much these days, so he may not respond or not right away.
Just a thought. If your daughter likes Simsbury CT (where Masters is located), is she also considering Westminster?
@thumper1: The Masters that my daughter attended is in Dobbs Ferry, NY. Hence its nickname, “Dobbs” in the same way Miss Porter’s is called “Farmington”.
Ah…more than one Masters School. Who knew?
Thank you!
Well…another school to consider would be Westminster in CT.
@ProspectiveDad2023:
If you are in fact referring to the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, NY…based on our experience with/my knowledge of the school it does not feel like the NE Boarding School Experience…at least in part because it isn’t in New England.
Masters’ proximity to NYC (the closest boarding school to the city, I think?) definitely contributes to it having a different vibe than the NE schools…at least the ones we visited, and we visited a lot of them. Also, as I may have noted in other threads, it is less of a boarding school (keep in mind one of my kids went to a 100% boarding school, SAS) than a day school with a boarding program. They seem to now offer a 5-day boarding option…which I don’t think they did when my daughter attended, though many local-ish kids still went home on the weekends. And this also affects the vibe, especially for the true 7-day boarders.
My younger daughter applied to a very short list of schools, partially (mostly?) based on how they would accomodate/support her fencing (she ended up a D1 scholarship athlete, so not the craziest idea). She chose Masters over the other schools where she was admitted primarily because of its proximity to NYC (where she was able to train with a national team coach) and its interscholastic fencing team (helmed by the Captain of the national team). And for that aspect, it was amazing, TBH. School was also very accommodating to her travel/competition schedule.
The academics were strong, and teachers by and large very good. I think the arts at Masters are particularly good (again, possibly due in part to its proximity to NYC). A higher percentage of celebrity/wealthy kids attend Masters than other school…like in my daughter’s class there was…well I won’t name names, because that’s tacky. But yeah.
In hindsight, I probably liked it more than she did!
I do think that its location can have a negative impact though, and that’s something to consider. I wouldn’t say that my daughter found it to be a “kinder, gentler” place. Which is how I WOULD characterize the school she graduated from, George.
As I have noted, while it didn’t ultimately work out for my kids, that’s not to say that for the right kid it wouldn’t be an amazing place. TBH, I think I would have LOVED going there.
Thank you so much for the thoughtful reply! Yes, indeed I was referring to ‘this Masters School’, as I honestly wasn’t aware of the one in Simsbury…Anyway, thank you so much for the helpful comments here, all make sense! It is greatly appreciated!