@vwlizard, just FYI, that user has been banned.
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If you are going to visit Middlesex, I recommend at least walking around Concord Academyâs campus. Based on your descriptions, I would think that it could be a good fit. And in any case, youâll likely be driving right by it in order to get to Middlesex. The schools are only a mile or two apart, I think.They do have a pretty different vibe.
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Thanks - we had looked at it, but thought it might have too many day students and seems to not be as sports friendly as our daughter wanted. Do you know if we have the wrong impression and itâs more sports-friendly/has a very strong boarding program?
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The school doesnât revolve around sports if that is what you mean, and kids are less likely to be cut or cutthroat than some other schools. But most kids like sports there and some love sports. There is lots of school spirit --people come out for games and meets. And everyone that I know who has run on the XC team loved it. Like adores the team and adores the coaches. It is loved by both the serious runners who competed in middle school and also the kids who had never tried running before their freshman or sophmore or even senior year.
The boarding community is fun and warm with lots of friendly students and teachers. You are right that there are more day students than boarders. But not that many more and boarding students come from all over the world and US. My impression was that Concord had a harder time with COVID than some of the mostly boarding schools because they couldnât bubble in the same way. But other than that year (2020-2021 school year), boarders and day students tend to form a very tight knit and warm school with lots of day students arriving for breakfast and staying into the evening and come back on the weekend.
It is definitely worth a look if you are going to be in Concord anyway.
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I totally agree! Concord and Middlesex are right next to each other! You might like one or the other more, or maybe even both. They are great options and super easy to work into an itinerary together. You could see one, then the other, then have lunch in Concord âdowntownâ to discuss/compare. Another school might be a lot in the same day, but you could always do a late lunch then make a long drive West or something to settle in at your hotel before your next tour. If thereâs a school on the way where you canât tour but can drive by, it still might be nice to get a sense of the area, but obviously a tour would be preferred where you can if itâs a school you are serious about.
I did a few campus drive-byes last summer and didnât find them useful. Google street view can tell you plenty. However, tours during the summer, tours during school, and revisit days were helpful.
My DC area kid was looking at NE schools primarily. So she and I had very little knowledge of the schools, other than CC!
Remind us how you are judging your daughters sports level? I ask because if she loves sports but isnât playing high level club sports she will not be a varsity player at schools like Tabor until senior year. If she just loves to play then a school like concord academy, that has much more accessible teams, might be better. If may be more fun to make a varsity team and get meaningful playing time.
Went back and saw that your daughters sport is track. I believe you can look up isl times. Have you done that? CA plays in the eil and I assume those times are available as well.
Isl:
https://www.islsports.org/page/hot_news/2932/view/133
Eil:
https://eilathletics.com/
The websites are terrible but will give you some idea and if you search around and do some googling I think youâll be able to find times, etc.
Hi - yes, we have looked at the times for each school individually as well as the overall NEPSAC/NEPSTA championship races from the past year. Itâs hard with XC because you never know if they are running on a flat/hilly/rocky/muddy course which can affect times, but track is much easier because aside from the weather, itâs always flat so you can compare much better.
For most of the schools on her list, she would be in the top 1-3 (or already the number 1) runners for her events and for XC as well (even given the caveat above that it is hard to compare XC times simply due to the fact that her 5k time as a 10-year-old was already at/beyond many of the times from these girls). The main outlier is Middlesex where she would still have varsity times (and she would score for them, which means being in their top 5 runners), but would not be an immediate âimpactâ person.
As far as club teams go, yes, when we lived in the US she was on a club XC/track team and qualified for the Junior Olympic Nationals both as a team member in XC and as an individual qualifier in track (2021 season). We lived in a highly competitive region so being an individual qualifier was a big deal. There is no club team here and even this past fall, the school team didnât meet to practice due to Covid regulations as they were still doing mostly online schooling. It has been a rough few years, but we are hopeful that they will have in-person competitions this coming school year.
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I know some folks donât think the drive bys are valuable, but for us, they still provided some helpful info (with my first kid; my second kid was a virtual visit only covid applicant, but I was grateful for having seen schools the first time around, even the drive bys). We were surprised when a campus looked larger or smaller than envisioned from the photos and we did get a more real picture of what it would be like to be in that space. I think when the drive bys really can help most, though, is when you normally live quite far. Not only were we unfamiliar with the âfeelâ of the different areas, for us, it brought home how close a campus was to âcivilizationâ when we needed to grab lunch somewhere or just fit it into the schedule. If it was hard to fit a school into our itinerary, we began to really think about what the logistics would be like for breaks. Is there a major airport and how far is it, is there a choice of airlines, how many flights, what are the options for getting to that airport? Somehow, these elements were hard for us to really sense until we had to really fly in and get on the road. Being two-three hours from a major airport might seem manageable in the abstract but may come to life more vividly when you actually have to get there. Likewise our kid reacted to some campuses/locations more positively than others. Was it as helpful as having a tour, esp. with students there? Heck no, but in our case it was better than web-only views and did help us re-prioritize some things over others. Since the OP is coming from far away, and this may be the only chance to visit, it might be worthwhile if they are on the road and passing pretty close to a school on the bubble of consideration to get a sense of it. Iâm not suggesting driving hours out of the way to do it, though, and maybe not for a lot of schools, but if one or two make sense and are super close/on the way, Iâd consider it!
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So then you are probably right that eil schools will be a bit meh for her in terms of sports. But concord academy would be an easy to school to add to your list and it is absolutely lovely. You do have other schools on the list that donât excel in the sports department so not sure how off base CA would be for you.
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We have finished eight schools (nine if you count a walk around the grounds of Concord Academy) in five days. Two more schools to visit next week. We have extensive notes and thoughts on each and have told our daughter that her opinions may change after information sessions and panels this fall, but here are her preferences so far:
Tied at the top:
Proctor/Porterâs/Pomfret
A bit lower:
Emma Willard
Then:
Suffield/Millbrook
Lower still:
Berkshire
Dropped off the list as she really didnât like:
Middlesex
Will continue to research, but unranked for now:
Concord Academy
She is getting SO excited at the prospect of potentially attending one of these schools and the visits have definitely solidified in her mind some of the more nebulous ideas she had about what was important.
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I love this post! It highlights what is so terrific about doing a BS search based on fit. When we were looking, over adecade ago(!), the HOS at George said at an open house for prospective/curious families that the students were lucky to have someone in their lives who cared enough about their education to give up the half day to explore an alternative with them. AND that they were lucky to be able to think about who they were, who they wanted to be, and what kind of place would be best for transforming the former to the latter. She noted that visits that yielded a âblech!â were every bit as valuable as the ones that made a student swoon.
That really stuck with me â so few young people get to invest that time in themselves and choose a course so intentionally. Iâm excited for your D, @RoonilWazlib99 , for the personal journey sheâs embarked on. Very exciting indeed!
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Visited the final two this week. The list stands as:
Tied at the top:
Proctor/Porterâs/Pomfret
A bit lower:
Emma Willard
Then:
Suffield/Millbrook
Lower still:
Berkshire
Tabor
Dropped off the list as she really didnât like:
Middlesex and St. Markâs (although I will say St. Markâs looked like a fantastic school for a day student or local boarder)
Will continue to research, but unranked for now:
Concord Academy
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Going to throw two out there because of the schools it seems youâre gravitating toward. Northfield Mount Herman and New Hampton.
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Thanks! She researched both NMH and New Hampton, but decided to remove them from consideration for various reasons.
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Would you mind sending me a DM with the contact info on your consultant? Iâm trying to send you a message, but it isnât going through. (sorry, Iâm new - thanks!)