Deerfield/Taft/Tabor/Berkshire

Chelsea1
Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:45:04 +0000

My son was a B student (private school), strong athlete with above average SSAT and interviewed well. We looked a Taft, Westminster, Berkshire, Deerfield and some others not on your list last year. He wanted a small to medium school with a great hockey program. Last fall, we decided to add an all boys school to our list of tours just to show him what was out there. He ended up choosing it over a coed school and is very happy; especially with hockey season starting.

Our impressions on the schools you are interested in:
Taft - We know several students there now, and they seem very happy. It is a good school. The “one building” campus turned my son off. What I liked about Taft was it seemed easy to get extra help if one needed it. They have a learning center open during study hall each night. I didn’t like they way our interview was set up. The interview was 1st and the tour was second. It left us with a lot of unanswered questions. I have heard they put a lot of emphasis on SSAT scores.
Westminster - We also know several students here. They love it, and their parents have wonderful things to say. It seems to be a nuturing environment. The number of day students is high which turned us off a bit. It is a small school and almost half of the 9th grade class is made up of day students so it appears it might be harder to get into 9th grade vs. 10th grade as a boarder. They only have maybe 20 slots for 9th grade boarding boys. I think they had overall around 900-1000 applications last year.
Berkshire - We do not know anyone currently attending. The campus is beautiful and hockey facility amazing. It seems it would be a good match for your son given his grades and interests. We had a great tour and left with a good overall feeling about the school.
Deerfield - amazing. My son loved it, but didn’t have a chance at getting in with B’s.

As I look back on the whole process I could not be happier with the outcome. Another school my son really liked was Kent. Good luck!