OUR DC has been accepted to Mercersburg, we plan to attend revist days.
All of the sudden we have some concerns if MBURG will be a pressure cooker – we avoided applications to many of the top New England schools for this reason.
Mercersburg seems to be a good spot for kids to grow into a strong academic environment without destroying them with tons of homework in 9th and 10th grades.
It comes across as the right balance of fun and work. The kids we have met seem happy, and very enthusiastic. I can’t say this was the same at some other schools.
If we get cold feet, any suggestions of schools where the atmosphere is the similar but perhaps less of a boiler room (if it is even one now).
HELP? Are we on the right path? DC goes to a top k-8 private school that is very academically honest (no grade inflation here) – and is a honor roll student, plays sports, but also enjoys about 45-60m of “chill time” each day.
I am curious what changed your initial perception? Many people suggest M’burg for the very reasons you liked it. Balance is used often to describe it. We were interested, but it did not offer my child’s sport. That was the only reason we did not apply. Can you share what changed your perception?
I can not point to any one single thing, perhaps reading too much about the NE schools here… Mercersburg gets compared to them a lot… perhaps it’s simply parental “cold feet”. Part of it seeing just how crazy fantastic some of these kiddos are and wondering if our DC is just an imposter. I know that sounds bad, but I would hate for them to goto school in the fall only to fall flat.
Mercersburg Academy is not in the same league as the intense New England boarding schools. And, somewhat surprisingly,neither is Lawrenceville even though L’ville is an excellent school with respect to academics.
Thanks for the page @cinnamon1212! @anonDad74 – I am indeed the perfect person to talk to about this! I have 3 daughters at MB (two are seniors now and one graduated last May). And one of them started at a NE pressure cooker school (Andover) and transferred, so she knows both well.
May I suggest – let’s hop on the phone or zoom? And let’s connect our kids? My daughter who transferred would be HAPPY to talk to your child very openly and frankly.
MB is definitely rigorous and will offer all the rigor a super academic kid could want. But there is also: SPACE. Truly. Space to explore new interests. Space to take a moment to breathe. Space to go hang out with friends at the student center. Space to take the weekend (mostly) off and just enjoy. Space to have a full 4 day weekend each term (3 terms a year) of just downtime, or a fun school trip sometimes. (or going home…we are from California so they rarely came home for long weekends).
And oh gosh…the activities available to them were such a gift because they had space to enjoy them, not resent them. My daughter did snowboarding, and went 6 times a week. love love love. and did several 4 day ski trips, heavily subsidized by the school. Two of my daughters did multiple theatre shows over their time there. All of my daughters tried sports teams that were brand new to them, just to explore (diving, soccer, track, squash, wrestling, for example). They also were able to lean into what they loved before even going off to high school. They have all done short study abroad programs. One of them did both a short program in Costa Rica (just got back last night in fact) and spent her entire junior year abroad in Rennes France. All thanks to MB. One daughter had an interest in cemeteries and grave restoration (super empath who loves history), and MB helped her create a service project around that, and it has morphed into a major interest. Things like this are super possible at MB.
Anyway – yes there is rigor, but it’s the level of rigor that leaves space to explore and become an engage human being. That space was frankly what was missing for my daughter at Andover – for her, she had 4 hours of homework a night, even on regular non-exam weeks, and it meant she had no interest in trying new things anymore. (And I’ll say: Andover is PERFECT for a very specific kind of student – we are still friends with our Andover people – so no bad feelings about that particular model of education – just not ideal for my explore-y super social girls.).
I will not cry when we leave Mercersburg at graduation this May; I will SOB. I will be so incredibly sad it is over. Mercersburg has been one of the most formative, wonderful decisions my daughters have made. (and note that they all decided independently to go to Mercersburg for different reasons…second daughter applied and interviewed while first daughter was still at Andover so we had no reason to think they might end up together as second daughter didn’t apply to any pressure cooker schools by choice).
Finally, I’ll say – no school is perfect. No school is right for all kids.
There are downsides. For example, my girls were volleyball players and honestly we didn’t love the volleyball program. Also, MB can be a little stricter than some schools. For example, there are nightly room checks and your room must be tidy. Lunches are required to attend, and Monday dinners too, with assigned seating and speaker programming. MB is a one strike school, so any drugs or alcohol means expulsion. Andover was much more lax on all those fronts. But honestly, my 14 year old kid did better when someone noticed whether she showed up to meals or not.
Anyway – please DM me and we can connect, or connect our kids. Also I’m happy to have my two kids there be available to connect with you at revisit day. (I’m out of town so will not be there.)
As I mentioned, we visited a LOT of schools and the girls considered over 20 offers, so I have lots of good things to say about a number of boarding schools!
anyway, reach out and let me know how I can be helpful!
MB is strong with respect to teaching life skills such as cleaning one’s rooms & table manners. Friendly school. Students are not on the same level academically as Groton, Andover, Exeter, St. Paul’s, Hotchkiss, and a few others, but still solid academically.
FWIW, I hear what you are saying Publisher, but it doesn’t really ring true for my experience – I don’t particularly feel like MB taught my kids table manners and life skills as a meaningful part of the value prop of MB. I mean, sure, they ate at tables with people, but I’m pretty sure they would have done that at all boarding schools. :).
And I would agree that the cross section of students was broader at MB than at my daughter’s previous school. I would say that honestly the kids who truly are Nobel-prize-winning level of smart would find more their tribe at Andover. But the kids who are just “regular-level-super smart” like a couple years ahead in math kind of smart – they will absolutely find plenty of rigor and challenge and their people at MB. The MIT kid who went to Andover and the MIT kid who went to Andover were both very challenged in high school I think.
This has been very informative. Our DC Really needs their space sometimes – some downtime to just to process everything that happened in the day. Their K-8 school was formal attire, and formal “family” lunches and advisory lunches so that is not a big change. They are pretty academically advanced in the math and science area, strong with language arts and history when pressed… Struggle with foreign languages… Typically makes fast friends. I know every boarding school has to have structure to control a bunch of crazy hormone driven teens, I just want to make sure that things are reasonable – that teens get to be teens and sometimes need to feel like they got away with something… it appears from the traditions shared that there is ample opportunity for this in a safe environment. We are going to stand in the shadows a little while longer… there are other options on the table including LPS (I know). Thank you for the offer…
I have two kids at Mercersburg who are very happy! I think the homework escalates each year, but it is never a pressure cooker (we were actively looking to avoid that scenario) and I think if your kid chooses to take the most rigorous classes, they will find themselves adequately challenged. The community is kind and I think all kinds of kids can thrive at Mercersburg. As a bonus, I think if your kid might fall to the middle at a pressure cooker school, they can rise to the top and shine at Mercersburg. My daughter was recently accepted ED to University of Pennsylvania in a major with a 4% admit rate and her classmates seem to be having equally impressive success in college admissions.
I don’t think the school “teaches” life skills, I think they just expect the kids to follow rules and behave with manners and civility towards one another and staff, which I think is an important expectation for all teens. I wouldn’t say that this puts them in a lower academic category. I promise there are many extremely smart kids at Mercersburg, just as there are probably some drugged up students at the Gladchemms schools.
It seems an odd (and I hope not revealing) choice of words when coming on a public forum as a representative of any school. One of the things our family placed a high value on in our search? Kindness.
I was working with an education consultant who told me Lawrenceville is indeed VERY rigorous with academics….the reason we did not apply. She indicated that Mercersburg had a range of learners…including kids who needed accommodations etc. So it has your over achievers, as well as kids who might need a little extra hand holding.
Also important to note that a range of learning styles doesn’t mean that those kids aren’t smart, they just need extra time, etc. I had a daughter at another boarding school which is considered “elite” on here and she had accommodations for dyslexia, but did very well in school.
Indeed many children with learning differences are very bright and just learn differently. Others are working the system and capitalizing on the extra time. Mercerburg caters significantly to children with learning differences, in fact some classes allow students to retake some tests, even those without the need as they care more about the learning than the speed. For some this is a great model of teaching differently. For us it was too heavy handed on the learning differences. That being said, tons of students go off to great colleges and the shiny pennies really do raise to the top. It is a lovely campus with a great headmaster. You have to find what fits your students needs and learning styles.
This is not an accurate description of how retake opportunities work. In some
Select courses students can retake a test on the same material (new test) after they’ve met with the teacher to prove they’ve worked to learn the material better. They then get an average of the tests that maxes out at a B+, it’s not unlimited opportunities for a perfect score.
Another Mercersburg ‘25 parent happy to chime in about academics. My son is on the “academic overachiever” side, if we’re being forced to categorize students in such a way. There are plenty of others like him… and he enjoys his classes and has certainly been challenged. He has loved his time at Mercersburg and the community is the reason why he has thrived.
Learning differences are a dime a dozen now at every school. I don’t think Mercersburg does it any differently than the other boarding or competitive day schools- maybe their goal is to treat each student with compassion and that gives the sense that they cater more to learning differences? Whatever the methodology, the community has blossomed as a result.
The class of ‘25, who applied during Covid and many weren’t even able to visit campus before committing, are an incredible bunch of kids. My son was accepted to a HYP as an unhooked applicant- there’s simply no way he would have had such a successful college application experience at a school with 30+ legacy kids like an Andover or Groton. There will be a lot of tears on campus next month and we will greatly miss this very special place.
Our DS will be joining MBURG (class of 28) in the fall. We’ve been impressed. He is excited. I have another thread were we are looking for schools for our DD, she was with us at revisit day and really loves the school as well – but I think as many parents know, you have to have options when it comes to admissions!