At lville, students are sent math and language placement tests to send back to the school. They fill out what math they have studied and take the corresponding tests. It is low stress as you are already accepted it is about finding the best level for learning and success. Placement is based on those, transcript, grades and I think SSAT Math (not sure re that part). They seem to do a pretty good job placing the students at the right levels, but there is time to move up or down at the beginning of the term if needed. Additionally, being a trimester school, there is movement at the beginning of new terms as well.
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Will boarding student be allowed to leave the campus for like 2hrs after school for their club sports practice during the weekday? Is it different for 9th vs 10/11/12 graders?
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usually in season- no. out of season, it is strict and school events take priority
thank you for responding. So no leave the campus after the class during the weekday for all (9,10,11,12) students?
This is misleading, as there are plenty of ways to get around the restrictions.
All Lawrenceville students (with a few exceptions—I will get to them) are required to take part in an afternoon activity, typically from 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM on weekdays. For many students, this takes the form of being on a varsity or JV sports team (daily practices + games on weekends), but one can also do House sports or lifetime (i.e. conditioning), both of which take place twice a week.
If you want to play a club sport, you have a few options. The first is to get an athletic exemption. According to page 38 of the student handbook,
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Form students may apply for a one-term exemption from the Lawrenceville athletics requirement in order to pursue an adult supervised, high-level, on- or off-campus endeavor. Students are required to play an interscholastic sport for the other two terms (with the exception of the Fifth Form). This exemption must be approved in the spring of the previous year. Exemption forms are emailed to the student body each spring. Each of the following criteria must be satisfied in order for students to be eligible to request an Athletic Exemption:
- They must be in the Third, Fourth, or Fifth Form.
- They must have earned a Major L in the sport of interest, and have aspirations of competing at the highest athletic level (e.g., collegiate, Olympic, professional).
- They must participate on the corresponding School interscholastic team during the academic year of the exemption request.
Note: you earn a Major L if you have been on a Lawrenceville varsity team for that sport.
I have attached here the version of the exemption form I had to fill out when I was applying for one in my senior year (2022-23):
This covers two of the three terms of the academic year. If you’re athletic enough to get an exemption for your sport, you can definitely figure out a way to sneak onto a random JV team for the third term. I will note that for boarding students, it can be somewhat annoying to a. get the requisite off campus permissions and b. figure out transportation to your club, but I have friends who were still able to do so nonetheless.
For freshmen, it’s a bit more complicated. I had a boarder friend who did his sport at an outside club during freshman year; he signed up for the lowest-commitment lifetime activity (the best one is Big Red Sports Network, which meets once a week for half an hour, but he was in a more typical 2 hours 2x/week activity), and then would go to his practices in the evening, typically leaving around 5:00 and returning around 7:30. I believe he needed to get specific permission from our Head of House to do this, as underformers typically cannot leave campus on most weekdays, but it is possible (albeit frustrating).
Seniors can leave campus whenever they want, no special permission needed. Also, Main Street is considered part of campus. Here’s the specific policy, from pages 7-8 of the student handbook:
Off-campus permission refers to day trips with a planned return to campus for the evening. Rules regarding off-campus permissions are taken very seriously. Lower School, Circle, and Crescent House residents may leave campus after classes on Wednesday and Saturday or during the day on Sunday provided the trip does not conflict with any School obligations. They must receive specific Head of House approval for each trip, sign out in Reach, and return no later than 7 p.m. Special exceptions may be granted by the Head of House. Friday afternoons are not times for Underform students to be leaving campus.
Fifth Formers may go to shops and restaurants in the Princeton/Trenton area any day of the week until 7 p.m., provided the trip does not conflict with any School obligations. Fifth Formers must receive specific Head of House approval for each trip and sign out in Reach. Travel beyond the Princeton/Trenton area and any returns after 7 p.m. must be cleared with the Head of House in advance of departure.
Note: receiving “specific Head of House approval” boils down to getting a sticker on your student I.D. detailing what permissions you have, showing your I.D. to your Head of House, and asking them “Hey, can I go to xyz with abc.” It’s a very simple process.
Underform boarding students may not travel in automobiles except with parents. Fifth Formers may travel with licensed drivers subject to the rules outlined under the “Motor Vehicles” policy (page 38). Boarding students may not keep or operate a car, motorcycle, or other motor vehicle at Lawrenceville or in its environs.
Note: I’ve taken Ubers with underform boarding students before (as an underform day student myself at the time), so I don’t think this is enforced.
Off-campus permissions for other times, destinations, or means of transportation not covered by Principal Expectations must be specifically requested to the Head of House, who may grant them at the Head of House’s discretion. On Monday through Friday nights, the School does NOT grant permissions for attending concerts or sporting events.
Note: I’m pretty sure this is what my friend’s club sports practices fell under (“sporting events” refers to watching sports games, not playing in them).
I hope this helps!
Thanks for clarifying! My friends experience in BS was that they were not allowed to compete in club when they were in season (so hockey for ex, they couldn’t leave in winter for club)
Now this wasn’t at Lville- and OP did ask about Lville. I just assumed they were similar policies. This is also a question to ask at revisit days- I’m not sure of this at Lville but some schools have different policies for different sports.
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Hi,
Need some guidance on Lawrenceville School. My daughter got accepted in Peddie and Lawrenceville and we need to make decision in next couple of weeks. She is interested in STEM and looks like Lawrenceville may not have a relatively stronger STEM program as compared to Peddie based on the detailed feedback given above. I just want to revisit this topic again to check if anything changed in last one year?
Paging @confusedaboutFA and @sgopal2 to see if they are still available to answer and share their point of view on Peddie vs Lawrenceville along with STEM program at Lawrenceville. We are finding it extremely hard to decide and any help will be highly appreciated.
I think Peddie may have the edge but at the end of the day it’s about fit between these two schools IMO.
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I was also accepted to Peddie 5 years ago. Although I was not a STEM-leaning student when I entered Lawrenceville (and honestly even throughout most of the time I spent there), I am now a STEM major in college. Peddie definitely has a reputation for better STEM programs, but I wouldn’t call Lawrenceville’s STEM bad by any sense, especially if your child is ambitious enough to take the honors classes. I had a wonderful experience in most of my classes, as well as some phenomenal teachers.
Have you not gone to the admitted students days? I will always shill for my alma mater, but I personally believe that in this case, the two schools are so close that this shouldn’t be what you choose it on. Community- and diversity-wise, I definitely believe that Lawrenceville is stronger; it has a larger proportion of boarders without making day students feel too marginalized, and day students are very well integrated into the campus community as a result of the House system—I say this as a day student myself. Also, Lawrenceville is significantly larger, which I appreciated a lot because it made it feel at least a little less insular.
In my opinion, choose on which place’s vibe you prefer. You can’t go wrong either way.
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I don’t think this is a fair representation of Peddie. The culture of the schools is different, but Peddie community and school spirit is very strong. If anything, Peddie is less hierarchical.
There is definitely more room for life outside of Peddie for those who choose it but day students definitely don’t feel marginalized.
Thank you for the response here. We are scheduled to go to discovery day on Wednesday. Our admitted student revisit for Peddie already happened and quite frankly we all enjoyed it a lot given Peddie’s vibe. I am hoping we get the same experience at Lawrenceville too.
Lawrenceville is definitely tilted towards the liberal arts (writing, reading, social studies, languages). This is what the Harkness method excels at. But for some subjects like math, science, it is not the best teaching style.
Compared to the STEM based magnet schools (High Technology High, Bergen Academies, Biotech High, etc) then Lawrenceville definitely is not in the same league. My son asked to use the lab space for a science fair project and was denied by the faculty. Was told that it was only for the senior students, and those in the Hutchins Scholars program. He eventually found space and mentorship elsewhere. The upper math level courses at Lawrenceville are good, but the CS/programming courses were weak (according to my son).
But having said all of this, high school is not the place to do advanced doctoral dissertation work. Its the place to learn how to read, write and make cogent arguments. Most scientists and engineers are horrible at writing. You can always learn the STEM stuff later.
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I have/had two stem students at Lawrenceville and one is now studying engineering in college at an T10 Engineering school and is excelling there due to what I believe was instilled in her at Lawrenceville regarding resourcefulness among other study skills. Studying stem still requires high level reading/writing skills. They have both had amazing opportunities at Lville - Rocketry, robotics etc. Can’t compare it to Peddie as I don’t have firsthand knowledge there, but mine have had everything they needed and more Stem wise at Lville if that helps.
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While I cannot comment about Peddie, I can tell you a bit about lville. Most of the students seem to be challenged and enjoying Form II science. My DD science class uses a lot of the harkness method which lville is so well known for. Many have said it is one of their hardest classes first year and the one most were least prepared for coming from their previous schools.
Math is by placement level and while not the harkness method, my DD has felt that the small size of the class and solving problem sets together in mini groups feels like mini harkness collaboration.
My dd loves science and feels there are enough science focused classes and activities to keep her thriving. There are some classes and opportunities she is particularly looking forward to, but they are very competitive to get into.
So time will tell about that. She also loves the farm.
Many of her senior friends were just admitted to top schools with stem focus. So the well-rounded education and science are a strong combination.
The robotics team has done very well and can be done as a sport. My DD enjoys rocketry, writing for science journal, science speakers, and is joining a medical club. I cannot comment on computer science as my DD is not interested in that area.
Lville is not positioned as a science focused school, but I think it holds its own. I am dubious about rankings esp. from niche, but if you use that as one data input -re stem ranking: lville is ranked 33 and peddle 10. So all I would glean from that is that peddie is probably considered a bit stronger, but both are great. But if you are going to give some credence to the rankings then look at all of the categories across the board.
Glad you loved peddie as at least you have one great school that you can see your child at. I hope you love lville as much as we do, but I think it comes down to fit. Revisit days are a great way to get a feel for the schools. Enjoy!
Hello Everybody - Thank you for all the responses and appreciate timely help. Our discovery day at Lawrenceville went equally well and quite frankly there is nothing much to differentiate between both the schools based on my comparison. My daughter liked harkness style of learning where she feels she can develop strong analytical and communication skills especially in a group discussion environment. We would go ahead with Lawrenceville but the offerings , faculty , facilities etc appeared to be top notch at both the schools. We can only decide based on time spent in both the schools during respective discovery days and hope this experience at Lville will help her in future. I never realized it would be such a tough decision for high school and I am glad I reached out to this forum.
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As tough as it is to make a decision, you can’t make a bad choice!
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Welcome!!! Feel free to reach out with questions at any time; I’m always happy to help!
No way to edit this post - I inadvertently misread and listed incorrect information. Peddie is ranked #94 nationally (#10 in NJ) stem compared to Lawrenceville ranked 33 nationally (on niche). So that is a larger difference for consideration, but again, I personally think niche is just 1 data point to consider.
@Sroo I think Lawrenceville is ranked #8 in America and Peddie #19 according to niche. At least that is what I see if you search “best boarding schools in America”. In any event, both are amazing schools and niche (and other rankings) are not perfect!
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