Deerfield’s campus smells like manure. It’s a nice cozy touch. 
Thank you, @SevenDad . In Photoland we like to call it : Tavern on the Green Syndrome.
That said, PhotographerMom, the new Tavern is worth a visit.
I’ll take your word for it… but no 
I strongly encourage you to go to the Revisit Day. We went last year and thought it was wonderful! My son ultimately didn’t end up choosing Deerfield, but I was deeply impressed with the facilities, the faculty and the strength of the athletic programs.
Four of my friends from Deerfield got into Harvard and 2 into MIT this year so far. So I would say they should have a good Science program.
@rhapsody17 deerfield does have an impressive college matriculation! My sister used to visit deerfield and she was envious of the Koch center!
@sgopal2 - I’ll try my best to squeeze it into my insane school schedule! If you don’t mind me asking where did your son end up going?
@Ehphant - Oh I have another question I forgot to mention! I’m quite concerned about the rural setting, having lived in a big city all my life! What are the interesting places off campus? Is the 1 and a half hour drive to Boston as tiring as it sounds? How are weekends - busy with tons of homework or are you left with ample time to relax and breathe?
A lot of freshmen will have doubles next year at Deerfield— to encourage bonding. They’re also doing more small social spaces to get boys and girls to get to know one another better (for hanging out, not actual dating). THEN everyone will get singles (if they want). Rural setting…well, Milton is much more urban, and Deerfield much more beautiful. A few things are walking distance at Deerfield(besides beautiful river and mountain walks): a general store, a maple sugar shack that serves pancake breakfasts in the spring, a sandwich/snack place, a very good candy and ice cream place. You can walk to any of these without signing out. Greenfield is the closest real town, 10 minutes away. Free buses go there most Fridays and Saturdays. There are restaaurants, stores, coffee place, movie theater. Northampton, Amherst and Hadley are all about 20-25 minutes away. This is the 5 college area (Amherst College, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Hampshire, UMass), so ther is LOTS to do-- galleries, restaurants, coffee places, movie theaters, lots of live music, shops, some theater, bookstores,etc. Deerfield sends some buses here, but not every weekend. You can take a cab, go with a day student, etc., or some weekends school will send kids by bus. Occasional outings for specific events happen as well-- a trip to an art museum in Boston or north Adams, a play or concert in Hartford, etc.
For weekends, there is certainly a lot of homework (as with most top BS), but there’s definitely time to have fun. Deerfield does not have Saturday classes. There are Saturday games for sports. Lots of kids go into Greenfield on Friday nights and go out to dinner. Some people go out Saturday’s, and there’s usually social stuff on campus-- lots of dances, movies, some music, occasional shows (hypnotist, etc.). There is a lot of outdoor stuff available if you like that as well.
@eighteenohfive as a new sophomore you’d probably have a single (like 99%). The new housing model creates “quad space” for the dorms, so if you’re a girl your dorm would be right across from a sophomore boys dorm. It seems like it’s going to be really great and encourage class bonding. But the dorm rooms are sized very generously. I never find myself wishing my room were bigger. This year i live in the newest upperclassman dorm, which will be sophomores next year. It has under bed storage built in, a long built in desk, and a whole shelve and drawer unit. It’s really spectacular. The other dorm I lived in was older and more traditional, but it was fun to be able to move the furniture around. It was also sized nicely. I’m an athlete and I’ve always been able to do little workouts and stretches on the floor of my room.
The weekends are described pretty well above. Boston is closer to 2 hours, and you won’t be bopping into boston every weekend! The campus is kind of a small city in itself most of the time. I’m from relatively close by, but I’ve never gone home on a weekend because it’s fun to watch games and hang out with friends. Typically friday after dinner I do 1 subject of homework and then watch a movie with friends or go to an event. Saturday I do 2 subjects of homework and then go to my game or watch a friend’s game. If my game is away i bring homework for the bus! In the evening, I sometimes take a quiet night watching netflix, but I may go to an event or hang with friends. Sunday is a late brunch and then homework and gym in the afternoon, followed by the remaining two subjects of homework. So basically, my weekends are pretty equally social and studious.
Going down to Noho (Northampton) doesn’t happen a ton, maybe once a month, if that. It’s a really great college town and a ton of fun with friends! It’s definitely the best place to go off campus in my opinion. It’s an expensive cab ride, though, so I always wait until when the bus takes students. Greenfield has restaurants, but nothing amazing and it isn’t really a fun place to walk and window shop. It’s good to have access to a place like Greenfield, though.
I actually really love how rural DA is (it could be MUCH more rural). Students are for the most part on campus all weekend with friends, but you can still order pizza or go to a movie and dinner!
@Daykidmom thank you for the elaborate response! That was very helpful! The packages they sent me hardly contained any information about Deerfield’s surroundings, so I assumed it might be so rural they had nothing to say about it.
@ehphant Again, thank you for that! It really cleared my doubts I suppose homework and campus events will keep me busy enough on the weekends.
@Ehphant is the dress code as strict for girls as it seems?
@eighteenohfive Schools like Exeter and Andover do not offer enrollments to anyone in the wait list. They are both fantastic schools, but they do over enrollment and send out more acceptances than they can offer, which makes an offer to the wait listed students slim-to-none. I would be really happy of getting accepted to Deerfield and Milton, because those are both fantastic schools as well. 
@eighteenohfive The dress code isn’t actually that strict…you get used to it. Basically it’s just always be wearing a sweater, cardigan or pullover, unless your dress has sleeves. Teachers won’t make you go back and change unless you’ve made a habit of forgetting a second layer or your skirt up your bum. In the winter I wear corduroys and a pullover sweater everyday and so do many of the girls. I’m so used to the dress code at this point that I barely think about it! The girls dress code actually is rather relaxed in practice compared to the boys.
^^^^ There was a bit of a kerfluffle about this this year. The perception is (by both boys and girls) that the dress code is enforced much more strictly for the boys than the girls. I have to say, even on parents weekend, I see a LOT of girls out of dress code in all kinds of ways, but boys are generally in dress code. Mostly, everyone gets used to it and it dosn’t seem to bother anyone, but they tried making the the boys’ dress code even stricter this winter (I can’t quite remember what it was – maybe that boys couldn’t wear turtlenecks and no ties in the winter anymore?) anyway, everyone blew up, and even the girls agreed the boys code is stricter, so they backed off and left the boys’ dress code the way it was before. I’ve definitely seen girls in jeans, short dresses, and no layers-- they don’t look sloppy or trashy, but they definitely push the dress code.
And, one more word on weekends: as Ehphant says, Sunday really seems to be a sleep-late-but-then-study day. Just as an aside, I know they send lots of busses to Greenfield because it’s so close, but I wonder if students requested more trips to Northampton if they would do it? It IS much more fun, and not really all that far. Just a thought.
I’d say Deerfield suits you best. It’s closer to P&E in academic reputation (although Milton is fantastic) and campus culture. The biggest difference between Milton and the other 3 schools is the K-8 aspect. Naturally many of these students feed into the 9-12. Andover does have a relatively high % of day students but I’d say Milton has by far the most.