<p>Westminster</p>
<p>The website was impressive along with the faculty bios. The college matriculation list was not that bad. Looking for some personal insight, positives and/or negatives. Please, no ranking.
Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>My information about Westie comes second hand from the parents of some very good friends of the two SmilePups (so, you might want to take what I say with a slab of salt since none of it is first hand):</p>
<p>Westie seems on the more formal and traditional (what some people would call "preppie") end of the spectrum. It is smaller than the average which means that kids get to know every other student in the school (for better or worse) and very likely every single faculty member (which is never a bad thing). </p>
<p>There is a significant emphasis on sports, and some of the teams are quite accomplished, which will translate into a larger percentage of kids recruited to play those sports and, if your student is not at the top in terms of performance in those "hot" sports, fewer varsity opportunities.</p>
<p>The families we know who have sent a student to Westie have had some fabulous and some not so fabulous educational and sporting experiences, but that is probably the case wherever you look. Overall, each of the kids we know who has attended has really enjoyed his (they all happen to be boys) time there, loved the people he got to know, and appreciated where Westminster has enabled him to go upon graduation. So...good things on the whole.</p>
<p>We visited Westminster last year when my son was deciding where to apply. My son liked the school and the coaches that he spoke with. To me it seemed to be the most structured of the schools. They require students periodically (I think every other night) to attend a study hall that is not in their dorm. They do wear a suit/tie. The school has a good reputation academically and has some very strong athletic teams.</p>
<p>It wasn't a good match for my son, but we were impressed with the school.</p>
<p>We liked Westie as well (actually visited on the same day warriorboy did!). I have to agree with all that was said. One faculty member described themselves at a "mini-Deerfield" about half the students and 1/10 the endowment! But they are, as smiledog said, on the "preppy" side - even compared to some of the other dress-code schools we visited.<br>
They are strong in Hockey.<br>
Hard to get into - recent years have seen greater yeild than they projected, which made subsequent years harder as they are trying to reduce thier enrollment by a few students, plus the normal 10th grade openings just weren't there.
I have known a few students that got excellent FA packages offered to them.</p>
<p>I know 2 alums, and they are still very preppy!</p>
<p>This was the only coat & tie school we visited. Son decided he could not see himself in a coat & tie. </p>
<p>Based on the what I've heard and seen, the above is correct. When we went on the tour, they did not include the student center which I thought was strange. Perhaps the students need an area without being in a fishbowl. If I remember correctly, every Sunday night the boarders go to the chapel and sing hymns, even though they do not have a religious affiliation. I heard that the faculty watches over the students carefully. Perhaps this is because it is a smaller school. </p>
<p>For a student who would benefit from a structured and somewhat conservative school with close faculty ties and good academics, this would be a great school.</p>
<p>I heard that Westy has a nurturing environment...</p>
<p>haha, we had a few people accepted into westminster in our school this year. if people here applied to it, there's some signal that it's a relatively good school.</p>
<p>great academics, small close school, pretty good athletics, all the good stuff. it's not famous like groton is(im referring to non-TSAO schools) because its matriculations aren't supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. but they did get a lot of people into harvard. and duke. i forget the rest.
they're getting better in the past few years, like many of the lesser known schools. acceptance rates dwindled to like 27 or so this year. it's crazy.</p>
<p>but overall, definitely worth taking a shot :)</p>