Loomis vs. St. Andrew's (DE)

new_england
Fri, 22 Mar 2019 15:12:40 +0000

I can only comment Loomis since I don’t have any experience with SAS.

The culture on the campus is quite something. The head of school, Shiela Culbert sets a fantastic tone on campus. IMO her personal views lean heavily towards liberal. However her personal views do not drive the schools agenda. The campus has had a wide range of external speakers from very liberal to very conservative. She encourages an open and honest dialogue among students and staff (a rare find in this heavily stratified world). It is not uncommon to hear people of very different views discussing topics in a thoughtful and respectful manner.

The majority of my sons teachers have between 5 and 15 years of experience. Teacher turn over in the last few years has been very low. He has had some excellent teachers who he has really connected with at the school. Academics are challenging. Students are competitive but mostly with themselves. He went to Loomis a self proclaimed STEM kid but has also really found a love of Latin and Ceramics (not in a million years would I have predicted that!).

The school really pushes the students to advocate for themselves. When he became a boarding student last year at the age of 14, I was naturally worried about the transition. Within 3 months he was advocating for himself, setting up meetings with teachers, fellow students and coaches all independent of my help!

Sports can be played at any level. He has played club level soccer (really an after school activity IMO), ran JV cross country and joined wrestling this year (made Varsity) having never wrestled prior. Typical wide array of options and skill levels.

I hope this helps.