Thanks. Would you mind sending me a PM actually when you get a chance? I just tried to send you one and it says you are private. Appreciate it.
You can send pms to posters who have their profile set to private. Just go to the envelope icon in your account and generate the PM directly from there using the poster’s user name.
I agree with you.
I give them credit for getting the funding from Cognita and Needham Bank. And for somehow convincing USA Fencing to establish its training center there. The brothers must be good salesmen.
But now the Masters brothers are massively diluted, and Needham has first collateral position on the real estate. This will go through a number of financial restructurings over the next few years, and Cognita will be forced by Needham to kick in a lot more equity while the Masters brothers lose most of their equity and only work for salaries.
Pretty cognizant of the funding model of day private schools (and to a certain but lesser extent, boarding schools), and you cannot make a lot of money charging $65k for day and $80k for boarding (although there will be a ton of additional add on fees). Most high quality prep and boarding schools run deficits, and close these with fundraising and the endowment. Plus they have low cost legacy campus assets that would not be affordable if rebuilt today - but MAI will have an enormous debt load - principal and interest payments will be hard to cover in years 1-5. Probably around $20-$25k of tuition per student per year will go just to pay down interest and debt.
The entire MAI campus build out (for 200-300+ students) will cost around $85 mln. Both Deerfield and Hotchkiss just built new dining halls for over $40 mln. each. So which campuses do we think will be “nicer”?
We’ve known several kids head to IMG Florida, and weather was always an unmistakable selling point to partially justify the high cost and sacrifice, and knowing the classroom experience was an afterthought. Stow climate? Not so much. Also, the academics in FL aren’t great - just good enough. And the fencers in Stow will be highly academic. Will be an interesting cultural fit between the fencers and the hockey players.
Going to be very hard to ramp to 500 students, keep the athletes and demanding parents happy, and make financial stakeholders whole. Lots of reorganizations lie ahead.
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100% and you clearly are more in weeds of finances than I - but that makes total sense to me…
…and you pointing out the hard numbers makes me think– rebuilds of public high schools around Boston are now running in 400 (a few years ago) -660M range, which I have seen in news (way more kids admittedly) but that is w/o truly world-class sports facilities and nothing like posh dining halls at Deerfield or nice prep schools….
Anyway, I wish them no ill will…but hard road ahead.
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Sent you a PM, you should see a little green envelope in the upper right by your profile icon.
Indeed!
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What the goal for the student athletes here? A dining hall that looks like a 5 star restaurant at the Four Seasons? Is the whole ranking system of boarding schools based on how fancy it is? Maybe that’s what attracts certain people to a school. Hard working student athletes who are 14–18 are about to go off next step to live in old dorms with shared bathrooms at the most elite colleges Have you seen the dorms at USC? The dorms all over the northeast? What a student athlete cares about most is great coaching, facilities that are available when they need them and the classes to prepare them for the colleges they want to go. And anyone who thinks you need one of the top 3 boarding schools to go IVY is mistaken. You just have to be great athletics and academically and have coaches who believe in you. Id pass on the $40million dining room for all of that.
This sounds like a personal grudge. Very emotional. Almost unhinged.
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Different than a fencer and basketball/hockey player at Duke or any existing prep school? Or unique to this school.
Likely pronounced because of the small size of the school. Nothing like college.
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Different than it is at any other small boarding school in the northeast that offers both? Or uniquely different at this school? Theater kids go to school with football players. Different?
I’m not sure your point in asking these questions, but I have nothing else to say about the subject.
It was pointed out as a concern of culture and I’m trying to understand if there is a concern unique to this school as opposed to any other school. That’s all.
I haven’t seen the USC dorms, but I have seen one of its dining halls. Also those of Princeton, Notre Dame, and Boston College - schools with fencing and hockey programs these athletic kids aspire to. And yes, the dining halls are spectacular, even if the food isn’t on par with the Four Seasons.
This has a “Harrow International/Long Island campus” feel to it - another for profit education model, with an overseas majority owner operating schools around the world.
USC:
Princeton:
Boston College:
Notre Dame:
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Those dining halls are exquisite! I haven’t toured those schools. Only reports from students about the decrepit dorms at USC and NYU and others. But WOW. Gorgeous.
I have heard the best dorms are at High Point. And I think they have a 5 star restaurant on campus too.
I will look up Harrow. Personally my favorite boarding school campus is Avon Old Farms.
Harrow looks like a pretty campus with nice buildings. Masters is in an old office campus.
Everyone knows that the best dining hall is at Hogwarts. But since comparing dining halls isn’t the topic of the thread, let’s move on.
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Basketball and seems Huge right? Not my forte though
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Ideally to go to college, even if athletics don’t work out? What is the reputation of Cognita schools? The hires I’ve seen mentioned are coaches not teachers.
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