<p>What make Deerfield so special?
Is there anyone could answer this?
Thank you.</p>
<p>Factually, </p>
<p>It is the oldest BS in America.</p>
<p>[Boarding</a> Schools with the Oldest Founding Date - Boarding School Review](<a href=“http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/oldest_founding_date/sort/1]Boarding”>Boarding Schools with the Oldest Founding Date (2023))</p>
<p>Deerfield is actually the 13th oldest, if boarding school review is acurate.</p>
<p>Old doesn’t make something special, unless it’s wine.</p>
<p>Deerfield being special is such a personal question. While we toured, on each campus student could tell me why their school was so special.</p>
<p>I dont think Deerfield is really anymore special than any other school except to those who choose it after they are offered a spot.</p>
<p>My d, a DA students says, " I was selected by many schools, I chose Deerfield". Of course she feels it special for her.</p>
<p>DA has a beautiful campus! :)</p>
<p>For me, one of the things would be the environment since Deerfield is located in a place surrounded by trees and mountains. There aren’t many cities near Deerfield.</p>
<p>Yonga-you are correct, there arent a lot of cities around DA, but for some that is part of the beauty. </p>
<p>My d is from a big urban city, Chicago, thus she totally loved the idea of “historic deerfield”.
She loves the beauty of the valley, even when the snow has taken over.</p>
<p>On my recent visit, my d spoke of accepting and living with the “cons” of any situation. Yes they are not close to a big city, but she feels safe and when I visit we do tons of shopping.</p>
<p>Deerfield maintains an online system through which you can monitor the status of your applicationand ensure that we’ve received all the parts. Login information for this system is emailed to candidates beginning in mid-Januaryonce all application materials have been received and documented in our system. </p>
<p>If you already have your login information, you may login to check your application status.</p>
<p>We ask that you refrain from asking us for an early decision. As part of the Ten Schools Organization, we have agreed not to provide them.</p>
<p>DI ANY APPLICANT RECEIVE THIS EMAIL !?!?!?!?!?!!?!</p>
<p>^^^ - wrong thread.</p>
<p>I am somewhat suprised that for a school such as Deerfield, that is, undoubtedly, one of the very best boarding schools in this country – and possibly the entire world – the question of what makes it special garners such bland responses.</p>
<p>Surely there is more to say about it. Anybody care to have a go at it?</p>
<p>I know a lot of lax players who want to play there 
</p>
<p>Okay, here goes:</p>
<p>Deerfield, like dozens of other schools, has a large, verdant campus, many handsome buildings devoted to specific purposes, and acre upon acre of playing fields. To compare schools on these merits will not really address that special quality which makes a school unique.</p>
<p>The fact that Deerfield is in a historic town is not unique to boarding schools, but what is unique is that the town (of which the campus is woven into) was and is purposely preserving its identity as the quintessential New England town. What the town, and, by extension, the academy, strives to represent is the ideal of a time when America was young and the new nation was all focused on democracy and the egalitarianism that such a system implied. What better place for a seat of learning?!</p>
<p>Whether the reality of life then (and now) ever lived up to that ideal is not the point. The point is that it is a vision worth striving for. There is something awfully attractive about being on an equal footing with your fellow.</p>
<p>I think Frank Boyden, Deerfield’s legendary headmaster for sixty-six years, sensed that special quality he found there. Interestingly, when he started rebuilding the campus, he tore down the victorian/gothic building (not the original academy building which has since become a town museum and still stands) that served as the school, not because it was in disrepair – it was found to be perfectly sound! – but because he felt it didn’t fit in with his vision for the school. In its place he built the present Academy Building in a style befitting a democratic model (though he, himself was somewhat of a benevolent dictator!), of which the Ancient Greeks would approve! Buildings that followed were also built on the same basis. Hmmm, I wonder what he would have thought of the new Koch math and science building…</p>
<p>Deerfield can’t help but have an emotional appeal to the democratic aesthetic (its beauty seems to embody that very thing) – a very American and, one hopes, still relevant paradigm. William and Mary may be its collegiate counterpart, as part of Williamsburg, but one difference between the two is that while both towns are living museums, Williamsburg’s buildings and houses were mostly reconstructed, while Deerfield’s are restored originals!</p>
<p>Since we’re in the cafe, I’ll venture to say DA was no big deal until it went coed in 1995 (?). So, it must be the those DA girls!</p>
<p>ops,</p>
<p>It actually returned to coeducation in 1989, but let me compliment you on the importance and depth of your observations, they expose mine as totally frivolous and shallow!</p>
<p><<deerfield can’t=“” help=“” but=“” have=“” an=“” emotional=“” appeal=“” to=“” the=“” democratic=“” aesthetic=“” (its=“” beauty=“” seems=“” embody=“” that=“” very=“” thing)=“” --=“” a=“” american=“” and,=“” one=“” hopes,=“” still=“” relevant=“” paradigm.=“” william=“” and=“” mary=“” may=“” be=“” its=“” collegiate=“” counterpart=“”>></deerfield></p>
<p>I don’t know. You know the saying, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder?” We just didn’t get that aesthetic when we visited in the height of summer, all sunshiney and everything when things in NE typically look their best.</p>
<p>At any rate, we saw it as pretty run down with a hodgepodge of architecture including dorms which spanned the centuries, many in disrepair. To each his own I guess. I also thought Deerfield/Greenfield was similar to Framingham/Worcester as sort of the undesirable…but not nearby Northhampton of course.</p>
<p>Red,</p>
<p>Was it after an overly long car trip? Sometimes anything can look bad one is when exhausted. </p>
<p>I have seen most of the other schools and can say that Deerfield is no more “run down” than any of them.</p>
<p>“hodgepodge of architecture”?</p>
<p>not overly long, 2 hours, same as some other prep schools we looked at.</p>
<p>Not to be overly critical, yeh, you had your colonial type buildings (bookstore?), then there were some dorms that looked like they were built or remodeled in the 60s and 70s. The day student lounge looked like it needed a lot of work (though our student would have been a boarder).</p>
<p>I can say that the staff in Admissions and Alumni Relations (where we went first due to some confusion) were unparralled in their niceness, but we just didn’t get the same vibes re the aesthetic as you did. We also thought it a little odd to make so much out of a door (the mascot/logo) if you will. But as I said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We loved Choate and Exeters’ campuses. Some others here were dissuaded by the parking garage feel of Exeter’s library and Choate’s too “spread out” campus. We were enamoured. I’m glad we all don’t like the same schools.</p>
<p>Yes, there are newer dorms, built from the 80’s onward that are less than true to the spirit championed by Frank Boyden. You will remember that he retired in 1968. I doubt he would have allowed the (not so?) subtle change in character that the new dorms have brought.</p>
<p>But, that’s the way it goes.</p>
<p>To me, the whole place still does evoke an all but lost atmosphere of early America…</p>
<p>Daniel, Enough about bricks and mortars. 
Can we talk about the teachers, academic rigor, student clubs, any special research and international programs, the meat and the potatoes please? I think that’s what maketh a school.</p>
<p>“Daniel”?! - ROFL</p>
<p>If you think that my username is an anagram you are mistaken. :)</p>
<p>By the way, is yours? Hmmm…let’s see. Oh, I know – Aslurp!</p>
<p>By the way, the “bricks and mortar” are there, yes, but they are not the essence. I thought that was clear</p>