Alright so I know that decisions are due today, although this may sway people’s opinions, I am mainly writing this to give my insight about Choate and why I picked Choate for people considering it for the next application cycle, and also for myself, to convince myself that I made the right decision.
Firstly the campus. Although they are building a new student center (completion expected in 2017) and a new auditorium (completion expected in 2018), the campus is still outstanding without these features. If one is coming in as a 9th grader, they will have the opportunity to experience both of these buildings in their Junior and Senior year. A main reason I picked Choate, although I will have graduated by the completion of the final building, is because I had my younger brother in mind who would have the opportunity to experience these buildings when he follows in my footsteps in a few years. Putting aside the construction, the campus was outstanding. There were great buildings throughout the campus, the library was outstanding, and the arts center was beyond what anyone could expect. The dorm rooms were pretty standard from what I have seen, but the actual buildings and common rooms were far superior to other schools. The dining hall was also among the best I have seen.
Secondly the courses and clubs. Choate by far had the most courses of all the schools I was considering. Although this is most likely due to their large size, it should by no means be disregarded. I am interested in economics and politics, Choate had separate departments for both of these, a Political Science Department and an Economics Department vs my second choice Deerfield which had only one economics course and only one political course, both of them tied into the Social Sciences Department. As far as the clubs, Choate also had the most active political clubs of the schools we visited, with the Republican Club and Democratic Club often debating about the topics at hand, both clubs had access to the newspaper to express their views. Even aside from the political clubs, there were so many clubs that I was interested in, more so than any other school.
The location is also an important factor as it is not only in a little town itself, it is very close to New Haven. This is far superior to the other schools which were virtually in the middle of nowhere.
As far as the people, everyone was incredibly nice, especially for a school this large. Although the community may not have been as strong as the community at a school like Middlesex, with a very small population, it is still existent. I really got a sense of friendship from the kids. As we are on the topic of people, Choate also had really small class sizes for a school so large. Some of the classes even had three people.
As far as sports, the crew team was pretty good and that’s my sport. The main reason I chose Choate was because they had a really solid debate team. Debate is very important to me and the debate team seemed skilled, especially in comparison to my second choice school Deerfield.
Overall, although all the schools I got accepted into were great, Choate was just the best fit for me.