<p>What are 5 things that made you happy that you chose YOUR boarding school?</p>
<p>Please include which BS you attend(ed), or just be vague if you’d rather not. </p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Phillips Exeter Academy</p>
<p>1- Wonderful science program, the observatory, various clubs about astronomy and physics </p>
<p>2-The math. Zuming Feng is the USA IMO team coach… and the Math olympiad club head at Exeter …duhh… As a mathie, I’d be thrilled to even be able to participate in that</p>
<p>3- Really generous with FA</p>
<p>4- Strong academics, a lot of courses and clubs that are offered nowhere else. Combined with strong athletics programs and arts. </p>
<p>5-Harkness in every subject. I love it. I absolutely love it. </p>
<p>There are a lot of other things but only these came in mind…</p>
<p>Oh and also, I like the little town it is situated in, so it is not in some secluded place. Not to mention, the campus is simply gorgeous. </p>
<p>Can it be a school you are planing on attending?</p>
<p>Go for it. That’s what @RockComet did.</p>
<p>Saint James School:</p>
<p>1 - Young teachers but are really passionate about teaching. I noticed this on campus, that the teachers were either young or had been at the school for a long time, but everyone clearly loved their students and what they were teaching</p>
<p>2- The people. There’s no doubt about it that I found every single person I met on campus to be welcoming and incredibly humble. </p>
<p>3 - English Department. My cousin (and what I guess you could call a step-cousin?) went to Saint James, and both spoke of the English department (my favorite) really highly. </p>
<p>4 - Campus and Location. It’s only an hour or so away from where I live so my mom is happy about that. The Campus is gorgeous as well, very well kept.</p>
<p>5 - The people again! I cannot express how wonderful the faculty and students are! The director of admissions and I talked about surfing for 30 minutes! The students constantly came up and introduced themselves to me. </p>
<p>Love this thread! Even though I am a mom, I’m going to post about Andover</p>
<p>1) Gorgeous 500 acre campus with proximity to a cute town and also to Boston for an occassional excursion</p>
<p>2) Engaged and connected faculty who facilitate huge course offerings with real deapth</p>
<p>3) SMART kids but not pretentious about it</p>
<p>4) Amazing and vast options for arts and athletics</p>
<p>5) Connected and involved alumni and alumni relations so you can extend the experience even after you graduate</p>
<p>Lawrenceville </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Abundance of clubs and new opportunities</p></li>
<li><p>Gorgeous campus</p></li>
<li><p>Friendly faculty</p></li>
<li><p>Wonderful House System</p></li>
<li><p>HARKNESS </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Exeter:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Opportunities - Exeter offers so many different clubs, courses, service opportunities, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Harkness- Every class is taught in the Harkness format, which is pretty cool. I really like how you are able to discuss an subject, from literature to algebra.</p></li>
<li><p>Diversity - 50% of the entire Exeter student body are students of color. These numbers are so rare for any private school, which provides a refreshing look at prep school and the atmosphere. Exeter also has a large range in socioeconomic classes represented, which was appealing to me.</p></li>
<li><p>Campus - I love Exeter’s integration with the town of Exeter, NH and I really didn’t see that at any other boarding school.</p></li>
<li><p>Rigor - Exeter is very rigorous and that is very encouraging, for someone like me. I really like their emphasis on learning</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Can it only be 5? I want to list off more…</p>
<p>Lawrenceville</p>
<ol>
<li> The way the name rolls off the tongue. Law-rence-ville. So cool.</li>
<li> The fact that I get to call myself a Lawrentian. That’s also very, very cool.</li>
<li> Beating our historic rivals pretty much on an annual basis. Winning is a tradition.</li>
<li> The Bath House. Also known as the student café starting 2014.</li>
<li> New math & science building coming in 2016.</li>
</ol>
<p>Now for the others:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>House system. Unique to Lawrenceville among prevalent prep schools in the East Coast, it provides a sense of community and bonding in a very family-like atmosphere. And Harry Potterish.</p></li>
<li><p>Extracurricular Activities. MUN conferences in the actual NYC building? Yes please. Don’t forget Mock Trial, Speech & Debate, as well as the other clubs that I can join anytime I want to.</p></li>
<li><p>Princeton Relations. I get to take math class at Princeton senior year, not to mention the Bunn Library gets to ship over any book in the Princeton library at anytime.</p></li>
<li><p>Flexibility. Switch out of class if you feel it’s not right for you, move up, move down, the no more than three big projects per day rule, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Educational System. Teachers live on campus (at least, most of them do) and some may even be your housemaster. So if my math teacher was my housemaster, I could just walk over to their room down the hallway and ask for some help in that particular subject area.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Lesson to be learned: GO LAWRENCEVILLE!!</p>
<p>The Webb School (Bell Buckle):</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It’s located in a really beautiful, tiny town in the middle of nowhere. It’s less than an hour from Nashville, too, so that’s awesome.</p></li>
<li><p>The campus is amazing. As soon as I stepped foot onto it, I knew it was the place I wanted to be. </p></li>
<li><p>The student body is around 310 students in grades 6-12. My eighth grade class was over 400 students, so this is really cool!</p></li>
<li><p>The academic program looks challenging but not too challenging. </p></li>
<li><p>Even though I don’t have a credit in Algebra 1, I’m likely going to start with Geometry, and I will have the ability to move to honors or down to Algebra 1 if it isn’t working out for me. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The Hotchkiss School:</p>
<ol>
<li>The 800 acre campus is beautiful and the academic and athletics buildings rival many college campuses</li>
<li>Everyone (for the most part) is very accepting of racial, sexual orientation, and gender differences </li>
<li>There are so many different options for sports/activities (the farm, club squash, etc.)</li>
<li>Our school spirit for everything whether it be sports or debates or recitals is pretty amazing </li>
<li>Close relationships with the teachers ( for example, I went over my track coach and english teacher’s houses to have dinner and just hang out) </li>
</ol>
<p>[ @confusedonhades OMG it’s great to see you back on the boards! Sounds like your first year at Hotchkiss went wonderfully!]</p>
<p>The Loomis Chaffee School</p>
<ol>
<li>Amazing teachers. Like most of the top prep schools, teachers live on campus, which is a huge +.</li>
<li>Nearby towns (Windsors a decent sized town, with a mall in walking distance. Hartford, the capital of CT, is only 10 miles away.)</li>
<li>Athletics. sponsored by adidas and free clothes? I THINK YES.</li>
<li>Debate. One of the stronger clubs in NE debate league (not exactly sure how it works; anyone help?)</li>
<li>no more than 2 tests/day rule. AMAZING. </li>
</ol>
<p>Some others:
- Nice celluar coverage (unlike Hotchkiss. in the middle of nowhere, no coverage for data at all, 1 bar reception for cell.)
- The SNUG (most schools have this, but still)'s food is amazing.
- half days on WED and SAT for athletics. I think thats pretty smart. and school gets out a full 3 weeks earlier than my current school, and starts half a week later! amazing!</p>
<p>^^^Most, if not all New England boarding schools have half days on SAT and WED</p>
<p>A lot of BS have moved away or are moving away from Saturday classes. The websites will tell you. They still have half days on Wednesdays for sports, but often have double-length classes a couple times a week to make up for it, rather than Saturdays.</p>
<p>The Saturday classes only take place about 6-8 times in the school year.</p>
<p>Which school are you talking about?</p>