Hi, I’m entering lville as a new sophomore next year and have a few questions.
Course selection: For math/language placement, am I able to take a course that offers credit over the summer to skip a math/language level? If that is an option, would I just take the placement test again b4 the school year starts? For example, I’m conversational in Chinese but despite that I’d likely have to start at Chinese 1 due the my poor reading/writing skills.
Clubs/extracurriculars: How often do clubs meet? How does leadership in these clubs work?
AP exams: As most boarding/prep schools don’t offer APs, the students are to self-study if they’d like to take the AP exam. How often to students follow this option (taking AP exams)? Do most students take AP exams at lville?
Homework: How much homework is assigned per night, specifically students who may decide to take on more rigorous courses? Considering the new schedule next year, to what degree will the workload change?
What are the CS+coding opportunities at Lville like?
Those are some of my questions as of now (apologies if it’s a lot). If anyone would be able to answer them that’d be great!
Hi - You will be entering my daughter’s grade. Welcome to Lville! I hope you love it as much as she does. You will need to call the school regarding #1, but I believe summer school programs do not count. Pls check though. You will however be able to take the placement test for both language and Math soon. Your placement will be based on your previous studies, grades, this placement test and I think the SSAT (so I have heard). The school does a very good job placing students in the appropriate level. You are able to move up or down once school starts if needed. I suggest doing the placement test to the best of your ability without additionally studying as it will only making it harder once you place into your level. You can add a note for consideration onto your placement test.
Next year’s schedule is changing with no more then 3 classes meeting a day hopefully making it easier for students to manage the course load better and have more opportunities for ECs. Club meetings seem to vary based on the club and leadership. Some meet more often than others. Older students seem to have more of the leadership positions understandably, but again it depends on the club. E.g., There was an amazing freshman leading the Kpop group this year.
I will let someone else answer re: APs and coding.
The recommended Homework assigned per night will be detailed in the handbook depending on the level. Of course this really varies from student to student. You will fill most students are pretty focused on their studies. While I cannot speak to next year’s schedule, I can say you cannot expect to get all of your work done in study hall (boarders 2 hours). Most find pockets of time throughout the day as well.
I am happy to try to answer whatever I can here or you can Dm me.
Hi, I am a '23 Lawrenceville grad and was a four-year student.
You can, but a. you shouldn’t, and b. Lawrenceville explicitly recommends against doing it. To quote an email I received late in my freshman year:
The math department is receiving inquiries about the possibility of taking summer math courses with the intention of “skipping past” one of our courses: Math 2, Math 3, or Precalculus. As a general rule, this is not something we promote or encourage. Many summer courses lack the rigor, depth of thought, workload, and seriousness of purpose of a Lawrenceville mathematics course. It’s very hard to cram a year’s worth of content into five or six weeks with five-hour days, especially if the audience of students is not extremely motivated to learn.
From that same email, it also seems as if it is only an option available to returning students:
As in previous years, any student who proposes to “skip past” Math 2, Math 3, or Precalculus via summer study must complete the attached form. As the form indicates, we will review individual student requests carefully. The student’s current teacher will provide insight about a student’s readiness to “skip ahead” and ability to master content at an accelerated pace. The deadline for submitting a summer study application is March 30th.
Students who gain approval to take a summer course to “move ahead” in the program may be required to take a challenge exam in August to confirm the adequacy of the learning that has taken place, and to finalize their schedules for next year.
I personally agree with the department’s perspective here. Rushing through is far worse for you in the long run, and no, it does not have any impact on your college apps.
For the language department, I imagine it’s much of the same, but I encourage you to contact the department chair. (If you cannot find their information, I can provide it for you via DM).
They vary a lot. I would say the most common meeting pattern is 1 hour once or twice a week, which you’ll see for clubs like debate, MUN, or mock trial. Some clubs, like the student newspaper or theater, are incredibly intense, with 6-8 hour minimum commitments each week, while others, like the once-yearly publications (i.e. Lawrenceville History Review or Lawrencium, the science journal), can literally be one hour every two months. It all depends on how intense the club’s goal is.
In terms of leadership, it can be a mix. Most clubs have applications for leadership, and the following year’s leaders are then chosen by the faculty advisor, previous leaders, or a mix of both. The intensity of said applications can vary quite a bit. None of the clubs I was involved in had elections, but there are probably some that do.
So some classes at Lawrenceville do require the AP exam (notably Calculus AB/BC, Statistics, and Economics), while others heavily encourage it (Calculus-Based Stats, Chemistry, Calculus-Based Physics); in those classes, you are pretty explicitly prepared for the AP exams and do not need to self-study at all. Most APs taken by Lawrenceville students tend to be in STEM fields, as the college credit you get is more consistent for those subjects (I personally dropped one of my AP exams senior year after I realized that the college I was attending did not give credit for it).
I would say that the typical number of APs taken by ambitious students is somewhere around 5 or 6, and everyone takes at least one or two because of math. I personally took 6, and I have not heard of anyone taking more than 8. No, taking 15 APs will not improve your college admissions outcomes.
I have no idea what the new schedule will be like, but by junior/senior year, I was averaging 2.5~3 hours of homework each night. The technical limits during my time were 35 minutes per class session for 200-level classes, 45 minutes for 300-level classes, and 55 minutes for 400- and 500-level classes, and I felt that almost all of my classes met those requirements.
There’s a few programming classes and a programming club, but nothing too extensive. CS isn’t very popular at Lawrenceville, as most ambitious students tend to eventually sell their souls to Wall Street instead of Big Tech.
Thanks for answering my questions! I saw in your posts that you’re a college debater. Did you debate when you were at Lawrenceville? If you did what is the debate team there like (tournaments, expectations, etc.)?
Thank you for the help! I’m unfortunately not able to DM yet due to the post limit, but I had another question if you don’t mind. For students entering as a third-former, what is the transition like? Is there anything that I am required to do/take since I was not at Lville as a freshmen?
I started debating in college. While I was at Lawrenceville, the debate team wasn’t particularly active, but according to a friend, it’s amping up now; some students made states this year.
Hi, current Lawrenceville sophomore here! In terms of debate, we have a new debate coach who has created an extremely active program (which wasn’t the case in past years). My grade has a lot of students active in debate, and students are always joining!
In terms of CS, I would refer you to the course catalog, where you can take a look at some of the course options. In terms of CS research, the Big Data AI club is extremely active and publishes papers yearly in peer reviewed journals.
