Seeking info. Good school?
Talk to some current parents. I’ve heard one that was unhappy with current admin, but that could be a complete one off. We visited. I had mixed feelings. Definitely the best food though.
I was awhile ago, so the memories aren’t fresh, but what stood out to me was when we were touring we were sitting in the art room and for some reason we got there before other visitors. The art teacher was meeting privately with a student beause her class didn’t fit into the student’s schedule. She met with the student at a different time so that she could take the class 1:1 when they were both available. I felt like that probably wasn’t too uncommon there. The teachers seemed to really know the students.
We were interested in academic support and there wasn’t anyone there that could tell us the details we needed to hear about the program (which I found odd on an open house day) and we had schools that we liked better, so it kind of dropped from out list.
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Thank you. I’m the parent of an athlete, but I’m worried about academics being sacrificed for sports. Any vibe on that? Our current situation is a very good public school. Going to VA would be about the sport (hockey) almost entirely. So that makes me nervous.
Also, any input on the science programs?
The only experience we have with VA is from attending a virtual open house and asking questions. We had looked up their class offerings in advance and asked questions about how many students typically take class X, is there a minimum number of students required to run class Y, etc and then evaluated whether that met our expectations. I’m certain an AO could get you answers outside of an open house as well.
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My child will graduate from VA this year. My kid has a rigorous schedule with 4 APs and 1 Honors class, and have applied ED to Dartmouth. My child is also a multi-sport varsity athlete. I think there is a misconception that athletics dominate everything at VA. It is a small school with strong athletic programs, but it also has strong academics and arts offerings. My middle kid is a sophomore at VA and is not at all a team sports person. That child found their passion in the Wilderness Exploration team and is currently loving spending 6 days a week snowboarding as their afternoon activity. That child is also an actor and a writer and has found a wonderful group of friends who share their interests.
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