<p>Does anyone have any insights on Woodberry an Episcopal? How are they academically, and how do they compare to some of the top schools in NE?</p>
<p>I know several graduates from both and they are both well thought of in academic circles. Woodberry Forest is a strong feeder school to top VA universities (don’t know as much about this for Episcopal). Episcopal HS is very strong in sports in addition to emphasis on academics. </p>
<p>Woodberry Forest is more rural, Episcopal HS is in a pretty busy suburban area. Also Georgetown Prep is very well known and recommended. </p>
<p>I believe it fair to say that the top NE Prep schools are better known academically and by name, but please refer to true educational experts on this. Good luck.</p>
<p>My friends who teach at Episcopal who are familiar with NE boarding schools say it’s academically in the Loomis-Chaffee/St. George’s/St. Mark’s/ arena, but that’s a hard thing to guage. Because it’s outside of the NE competitive admissions frenzy, there’s a wider range of kids, and students tend not to be competitive with each other about grades and academics. (This couple loves teaching there and reports that they have a lot of students who are really invested in school and a few who struggle or are less interested–it’s not Andover, but it’s not trying to be.) Top kids go on to the Ivys; but many very bright kids choose UVA and Chapel Hill where New England kids would gravitate to the NESCAC schools. I thought the best thing is how Episcopal makes the most of their close proximity to Washington DC. Their academic schedule is arranged to allow as many classes as possible chances to take field trips into the capitol every week, and students are allowed to take cabs, bus or the Metro into DC on the weekends. (I think that detail surprised me the most.) School is 100% boarding, which helps the close-knit community feeling.
When I visited my friends there I was very impressed with the school, but maybe that’s because I teach in a geographically isolated location…</p>
<p>Does anyone know how rural Woodberry is? What is the nearest city?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the information. Do any of you guys know how their facilities compare to some of the top schools in the north east?</p>
<p>I thought that the Episcopal facilities were much nicer and newer than some of the NE schools I know, love, and teach at. Most major buildings (Sceince center, arts center, gym, library) were built in the last 10 years, and they break ground (this year? not sure) on new humanities classroom building. I didn’t get much of a look inside the dorms, but I get the sense that upkeep and maintenence are taken very seriously, and they have the nicest faculty housing I’ve ever witnessed. Again, I thought it was a beautiful campus, and I’m a biased New Englander at heart.</p>
<p>WFS is pretty rural…largest town of any size is Charlottesville (U.Va.), about 40 minutes away. But D.C. is only a little further…maybe 75 minutes–and I’m sure they offer trips there regularly. They also–literally–import girls from around the South for social events. I can’t speak to Episcopal, but I can tell you with pretty strong assurance that WFS remains a “southern gentlemen’s school.” It is probably THE top notch school of its kind and the facilities and endowment per student ratio are top notch, but it is distinctly Southern, so better to know that up front.</p>
<p>I’m a Woodberry parent, native New Englander, and New England BS alum. I have another child at BS in New England, and still another is a day student at a Virginia BS. </p>
<p>I could not be more pleased with WFS for our son; it’s just the right fit for him. WFS is 100% boarding. PelicanDad has pegged Woodberry’s character accurately as a southern gentlemen’s school, and viewed from the Woodberry perspective, that’s a point of pride. </p>
<p>I would be delighted to address any particulars via PM, or here on the boards. </p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>Oops: forgot to add an important point: academics at WFS are top tier, both in terms of faculty, facilities, and student body.</p>
<p>Would I be able to stretch myself academically at Woodberry? The school, and facillities seem outstanding, but how come they have such a high acceptance rate, and how competitive are the students amongst each other?</p>
<p>@Portal: Your premise seems to be that if a school accepts a high number of applicants, it can’t place them into better known colleges. Look at the school’s profile: </p>
<p><a href=“https://www.woodberry.org/ftpimages/51/download/Woodberry%20Profile%202010-2011%20-%20color%20logo.pdf[/url]”>https://www.woodberry.org/ftpimages/51/download/Woodberry%20Profile%202010-2011%20-%20color%20logo.pdf</a></p>
<p>Kids accepted to Harvard, Amherst, Yale, Williams, Princeton, etc, yet they chose not to matriculate there. Bold text shows where they went; UNC & UVA remain the most popular choices for college. My son’s football teammates–probably not representative of the highest GPA on campus–are attending Stanford, Amherst, Brown, UCLA, Johns Hopkins, et al. Current teammates (he’s a senior) have already signed with Stanford (again) and Notre Dame; Bowdoin, Georgetown, and Yale are in the mix for some other boys. Still, most kids aim for southern schools, with Davidson & Vanderbilt perennial favorites behind UVA & UNC, plus a coterie of small southern schools always in the mix, such as Wofford, Guilford, Rhodes, and Sewanee.</p>
<p>When I went to NMH '80 we probably had an equally high acceptance rate (maybe higher). Still, I went to one of the Little Three, as did a fellow Woodberry father and classmate of mine from NMH, and the most popular college choices among my classmates were Brown (head and shoulders above the rest), Wesleyan, and Oberlin; I also had classmates at the usual suspects, including HYP. Of course, NMH had kids also going to many less competitive schools. </p>
<p>Woodberry boys are astonishingly non-competitive with one another, in the most pleasant of ways.</p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>So how religious would you say Episcopal High School is (I mean, there IS the name, but…). I ask because I am not religious–my parents are of different faiths–and mainly looking at non denominational schools, but EHS school has a LOT of qualities I love. A parent I know said that anyone who isn’t religious should just not even bother visiting because it is a HUGE part of the culture. Anyone?</p>
<p>@#10: a propos my earlier comment on the culture of the Southern gentleman: it is not considered good form to demonstrate intellectual competitiveness. On the other hand, athletic competitiveness is just fine, so WFS is commonly misunderstood as a “jock school” because that’s the part of the picture the culture chooses to highlight (“on the ground” at least, if not in the profile). It’s the same at the southern colleges WFS feeds: plenty of really bright guys who rarely (if ever) let on that they are.</p>
<p>RE: selectivity, any single sex school automatically becomes somewhat “self selecting”; it’s clear from the numbers the majority cultural preference these days is for coed education, so single sex schools lose a significant portion of the applicant pool. Add to that that WFS is pretty much the only top 20 BS South of the Mason-Dixon and you observe another interesting demographic of BS families: while there are more than a few Southern families willing to send their sons and daughters North for an education, far fewer Northerners are willing to consider a Southern school. So WFS’ potential candidate pool is rather smaller than for a comparable coed New England BS. i.e., don’t let the #s fool you.</p>
<p>With WFS, I’d say you really HAVE to visit, meet faculty & students, and ideally, try to stick around for a home sports weekend to get a sense of the culture and whether or not it’s a fit for you. For some–as Klements attests–a perfect fit; for others (including a couple of graduates I have known) an awful fit. </p>
<p>Finally, while its only an opinion, if you lean conservative, WFS may well be the school for you. Most NE BS are anything but (at least in terms of dominant discourse; student population may be another thing). WFS offers an excellent education in a conservative and traditional environment.</p>
<p>@chukkerhead:
To answer your question about religion at Episcopal,
They have chapel 3X a week; one day is apparently mostly meditation, another day is student music and readings, the final is a more typical religious service. They also say grace before sit-down meals. Church is not mandatory on the weekends. The current pastor seems to relate well to teenagers.</p>
<p>I would say that if the idea of even sitting in a short church service makes you uncomfortable, it’s not going to be a good fit, but many of the kids at the school are not religious, and my (non-religious) teaching friends are very happy there. It might be worth writing to the admissions office and seeing if there’s a current student who will talk frankly with you about religion at the school. </p>
<p>It’s a great school, and the kids who love it there really seem to thrive.</p>
<p>At my school now, we have a blessing before meals and assembly once a week, which is fine and nice. I wouldn’t change that, and I’m not anti-religion, but I don’t want to be the only person at a school who isn’t episcopalian or particularly religious, so I appreciate your giving me that background on the kids/teachers there now. I’m not southern but I know there are some areas in the mid atlantic and south where religion is a big, big part of the culture. BTW the parent who told me “not to bother even looking” really, really wants her child to go to the school. I guess my issue would be if the services are really long (more than an hour) or if everyone is going up for communion or something it might be uncomfortable to be sitting there all by myself. But like I said, EHS has a lot of things I am looking for and our placement advisor seems to think it would be a great fit, so I suppose we’ll see when I visit. LMK if services are what I described though.</p>
<p>My son applied to, and was accepted by, both EHS and WFS in the spring of '09. Although he attended neither school (he is now a senior at a HADES school), he visited both but much preferred EHS over WFS because, among other reasons, EHS (a) was co-ed, (b) is set in an urban area, and (c) offered a language (German) that he was then, and is now, studying. After four years total at a middle school and high school of an all-boys day school located in the South, my son wasn’t inclined to attend more years in high school with all boys. Although my son currently plays and starts on three varsity sports (football, wrestling and baseball), he thought that WFS was just too much like his all-boys day school…but on steroids!</p>
<p>That said, my brother (who is also from the South) graduated from WFS, and he has a son who now attends WFS. They both love the school; however, my nephew is 6’3", 272 lbs and a starting tackle on the football team. He is a a great fit for WFS in many ways.</p>