All of these schools are great ?. Hotchkiss has been a great fit for my son; there definitely isn’t a drinking culture with their no chance policy. The kids are not competitive with each other; there’s a lot of diversity and everyone mixes well. They have a film Festival of student-produced short videos, a radio station, no idea about TV.
As I said, all the schools you are considering are fantastic. But if you have any Hotchkiss questions, I’ll do my best to answer!
To echo @vegas1, most schools have a FA pool for middle class students. This is often a challenging demographic for BS…
Many middle class parents assume they won’t be eligible, live where they have decent public schools (and have funds to augment their kids’ experiences, whether academic, athletic, arts, etc), and are keeping their powder dry for college. The upshot is that most BS tend to get lots of applications from wealthy families and lots from families with full (or close to it) need because they really need an option that’s not available locally. Notably absent are the kids from the middle.
It’s good that you are expanding your search, but I mention this so you don’t despair!
Mercersburg states that the “middle families”, the ones for whom BS is a reach, are a priority in their fin aid program, which is robust, and includes not just tuition costs but also extends to aid for travel programs over spring break and summer. They have a very large endowment and are generous with aid. It is a great community and I encourage you to take that second look. Happy to answer any Qs…
Oh my gosh your daughter sounds like she would be happy at a lot of schools but NMH ticks off everything on your wishlist. My daughter was class of 2016 and at that time the Volley Ball coach was known for being particularly warm and wonderful and while the team is competitive, you do not need to be a recruit to play (unlike hockey and some other sports). It is the size you are looking for, more progressive, friendly and relaxed than many of the schools frequently mentioned here, and it is 30% international. Very little pretension in marked contrast to some of the others you listed. In fact, Northfield was founded many moons ago as a place for indigent students who could not afford boarding schools. NMH also recently started a special program for social entrepreneurs and they have wonderful social justicey type programs. My daughter who was very involved with diversity and LGBTQ issues at NMH got what I would consider comparable to a college education in these topics. The kids were involved in very meaningful work way beyond typical key club stuff. While not every student at NMH is a stem whiz, they can certainly challenge the mathletes etc. among them and they are in the process of creating a state of the art new math/science center (not sure if it is under construction yet) My daughter is a senior in college now but I still miss NMH. Truly a wonderful school (and I am a Taft grad) and they regularly churn out wonderful writers. They do not have as much FA to offer as PEA but they are generous with what they have.
To circle back — we added George, NMH, MB and Kent to the list!
So she is at 11 schools but we needed to keep the met wide since she had that verbal SSAT snag. (Oops)
OP: Is Episcopal still on your list ?
It got nudged out. We felt like 12 was just too much. We were a bit hesitant about the money culture, which is why it was #12.
Why do you ask?
Pretty much for the reasons that you stated.
P.S. @Calliemomofgirls : Could you please post an updated list of the schools on your list.
I am a bit confused as to whether you have one or two lists as the second list has a lot of academically demanding, fairly high pressure schools, yet you wrote that you wanted to avoid that type of environment.
I’ll second Mercersburg Academy. Great school with lots of caring faculty & administrators. Lots os sit down meals which are very important to building a sense of community.
@Publisher sorry for confusion. We did have two lists — first set that might be considered more academically stressful and then we added four more schools that were less so to round them out and widen the net.
I went to Mercersburg and loved it, my daughter is applying this year. Happy to answer questions.
@comtnmom My daughter absolutely loved her interview there! And one thing I loved: their catalog or website said that they have a limit to how much homework they target for the first two years — It sounded like healthy rigor.
I loved Mercersburg. Some of the nicest admissions folks around and a gorgeous campus. Kid thought it felt “too White.”?
I went to Cornell and thought I was very well prepared!