Hello Everyone, We need help in narrowing down which middle and high schools in the New England or NY areas would be the best fit for my 2 DS before applying. We have visited a few schools in Massachusetts only so far but still don’t have a good sense of what the schools are really like. Schools visited so far are RL, Milton, BB&N, Deerfield, Groton but we would like to also consider to PA, PEA, Hotchkiss, Choate, Belmont Hill, Noble etc.
So would you please provide your feedback on schools based on the following factors?
Academic Rigor: Challenging and provides a lot of feedback to students on their work; teaches strong executive functioning skills (time management, organization)
VERY RIGOROUS (AS ARE ALL THE SCHOOLS YOU LIST). DOES NOT TEACH EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING SKILLS, EXPECTS THE STUDENT TO HAVE THEM, FOR THE MOST PART, ALREADY. MILD ADHD (WEAK EXEC. FUNCTION) IS OK, THOUGH THE STUDENT WILL HAVE A HARD TIME, BUT VERY WEAK EXEC. FUNCTION WOULD BE A BAD FIT FOR THE SCHOOL. (2 OF MY 3 SONS HAVE ADHD SO I HAVE SOME EXPERIENCE WITH THIS)
STEM Focus: Both DS are math and science oriented, and enjoy doing hands-on or lab-based experiments. Also if there are schools that expose kids to Finance/Investing.
ALL THE SCHOOLS DO HANDS ON LAB BASED EXPERIMENTS. HOTCHKISS HAS ITS INVESTMENT CLUB WHICH IN THE PAST HAS BEEN VERY ACTIVE AND HAD CORRELATED WITH KIDS PURSUING CAREERS IN FINANCE. (IT COULD STILL BE VERY ACTIVE BUT I AM NOT UP ON IT CURRENTLY). ONE OF MY SONS WAS VERY ACTIVE IN THE CLUB; THEY WOULD TAKE FIELD TRIPS, TO THE STOCK EXCHANGE, OR A HEDGE FUND, OR A LOCAL BUSINESS EACH SEMESTER, AND PARTICIPATED IN AN INVESTING COMPETITION BETWEEN SCHOOLS AMONG OTHER THINGS.
Strong Mentorship by Teachers and Guidance Counselors: Teachers and staff genuinely care about the students’ welfare in academics, sports and personality/character development
YES (AGAIN, EXPECT THIS IS TRUE FOR ALL THE SCHOOLS)
Inclusion/Diversity Teaching: (If taught) Taught organically based on teaching respect and tolerance (versus encouraging students to label themselves according to differences in race, religion, sex, family type etc.)
SUPER DIVERSE AND TOLERANT OF ALL DIFFERENCES. COULD GIVE MANY EXAMPLES.
Sex Education Teaching: (If taught) Taught from a science perspective (versus some schools which seem to dive deep into feelings, various methods etc.)
IT’S TAUGHT. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (HD) IS REQUIRED IN 9TH AND 10TH GRADE, TAUGHT BY FACULTY IN 9TH GRADE AND A COMBINATION OF FACULTY AND OLDER STUDENTS IN 10TH GRADE. BOTH THE SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE AND EMOTIONAL PERSPECTIVES TAUGHT.
Behavior: Isn’t tolerant of bullying or other bad behavior and teaches good manners and public speaking; heard that some of the prep schools give preferential treatment to the rich kids but don’t know how true this is.
ABSOLUTELY INTOLERANT OF BULLYING, GOOD MANNERS AND GOOD PUBLIC SPEAKING EMPHASIZED. NO PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT FOR THE SUPER RICH OR SUPER WELL CONNECTED.
It seems to me (I don’t really know the ISL schools) that you are only looking in a narrow band of schools – any one of which will provide an excellent education. I don’t think you can really cross any off your list, or move any to the #1 position using your list of questions without visiting. They are all excellent schools and there honestly isn’t a vast amount of difference between them. I’m really only familiar with Hotchkiss in your list of schools, so I’ve put my comments above in caps as they apply to Hotchkiss (at least in my opinion).