Chapter 9: Boarding Schools

C h a p t e r 9

BOARDING SCHOOLS

Boarding schools are “sleep-away” schools. Your child will sleep, eat, and live at school. Boarding school students go home on the occasional weekend and have much longer vacations--about a month in December and again in March, as well as a three-month summer---to allow them to spend lots of time at home with their families. Boarding schools offer an exceptional opportunity for a young person to develop academic, artistic and athletic skills. They have no commute. They have no chores to speak of. They are able to spend their entire time developing their abilities, interests and independence. Because they live with their classmates, boarding school students develop unusually close and deep bonds that often last a lifetime.

CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

333 Christian Street Wallingford, CT 06492 URL: www.choate.edu

Twenty-five reasons to attend Choate!

Just the right size. We are a boarding and day school of approximately 864 students and 131 teaching faculty. The average class size is 12. Our student /faculty ratio is 6:1.

A rich curriculum. We offer 260 courses with honors sections in all disciplines; we have advanced placement in 25 areas.

Talented faculty. The majority of our faculty hold advanced degrees; 90 percent live on campus. Faculty get to know you not just in the classroom but on the playing fields and through the many club activities they advise.

Centers of learning. Our 458-acre campus has separate centers of learning for the humanities, sciences, languages, mathematics, and the arts.

Opportunities to get involved. Our students care. Each term, more than one-third of our students do community service from Big Brothers/Big Sisters to Adaptive Swim Program to tutoring in local elementary schools.

See the world. Approximately one-fourth of our students study abroad in France, Spain, Italy, Jordan, Japan or China at some time during their years at Choate.

Become fluent in a language. Choate offers instruction 7 foreign languages with in-depth study in: Arabic, Chinese, French, Latin, and Spanish. We offer courses in Intensive Beginning Greek and Italian. Steele Hall, our languages building, has a 32-station digital language laboratory featuring the Virtuoso System by Sony. Last spring we had 12 medalists in the annual COLT Foreign Language Poetry Recitation Contest.

The Right Stuff. A traditional powerhouse, Choate’s Fed Challenge economics team has won the New England District Championship in 11 of the past 12 years. In 2009, Choate’s team won the national title. We also have a State and New England Championship Math Team and an award-winning Robotics Team that captured First Place in the 2011 VEX FUTURE Foundation Design Challenge.

Shining Stars. The Class of 2012 had 9 students advance as Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Competition. One student was named a Semifinalist in the 2012 Intel Science Talent Search Competition. In the last five years Choate has had four Semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search, two of whom were named Finalists. And in 2012, Choate had another Presidential Scholar (for a total of 5) and its first Google Scholar. Annually, more than 83 percent of students score a 4 or 5 on the college-level Advanced Placement Examinations.

Finding the perfect match. We have six full-time college counselors who work with our students to help shape the best possible college match. The most popular colleges from 2008-2012: Georgetown University, 48; New York University, 40; Yale University, 38; Boston University, 32; Columbia University, The George Washington University, 31; Boston College, 30; Wesleyan University, 29; Cornell University, 24; Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, 21; Brown University, Trinity College, 20.

Capstone program. Finish your Choate career with a Capstone project. Seniors may create an individualized program, which typically includes two related courses in both the fall and winter terms and an independent project (the “capstone”) in the spring term. Some recent capstones include international economics, historical trends in American foreign policy, China/U.S. Relations and creative writing.

State-of-the-art Fitness Center. The Johnson Athletic Center has been renovated and expanded to include a fitness center, an aerobics/dance studio, athletic training and rehabilitation facilities, additional international squash courts, and more.

Try a new sport. Including football, soccer, and ice hockey, we offer 80 interscholastic teams and opportunities to play at every level. Most have varsity, JV, and thirds teams; sports choices include crew (rowing), lacrosse, squash, archery, water polo, and more.

Golden Opportunities. Bob McVey ’54 was the School’s first Olympic medalist as a member of the 1960 U.S. Hockey Team which brought home the United States' first Olympic Hockey Gold Medal. Since then four more female graduates have played Olympic Hockey. Four-time Olympian Angela Ruggiero ’98, three-time Olympian Julie Chu ’01 and Olympians Kim Insalaco ’99 and Hilary Knight ’07. Ruggiero brought home the Gold Medal from the 1998 Nagano Olympics while she was still a Choate senior.

A Green Learning Environment. The Kohler Environmental Center, opened in fall 2012 , is a one-of-a kind LEED-Platinum residential facility dedicated to interdisciplinary environmental study and research. Study at the academic center provides the opportunity for students to pursue environmental science in preparation for further study at the post–secondary level.

Good food and conversation. Hill House Dining Hall with its round oak tables is more than a place to eat our great food; it’s where students and faculty gather to discuss the day’s events and life in general.

Learn about journalism. Besides The News (published continuously since 1907), we have weekly student publications ranging from The Press, a twice-weekly summary of team results, to Horizons, an academic review of student essays. Our graduates have gone on to write for: The Yale Daily News, the nation’s oldest college daily, and professionally for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker.

Highbrow, lowbrow. We have a 97-year-old literary magazine called, what else, The Lit. But if DJ-ing is more your thing, our FCC-licensed, student-operated radio station, WWEB, has been on the air since 1969.

Bruce Springsteen sang at the PMAC. Our I.M. Pei-designed Paul Mellon Arts Center has a 775-seat theater with proscenium stage, an experimental theater, a recital hall, music practice and production studios, art studios and art gallery, and dance and film studios. You can study digital video, playwriting, directing, and technical theater as well as acting.

If music’s your thing . . . We have a Festival Chorus, male and female a cappella groups, ensembles, chamber chorus and chamber orchestra, and jazz band. You’ll find them all among our many arts extracurriculars. Just in the past two years, our chorus and orchestra have toured throughout Europe and the chamber orchestra performed at a Christmas celebration at The White House.

Students Help Students. The Student Council, Judicial Committee, Peer Educators, and Prefects are opportunities for student government and leadership. We even have a club called Students Helping Students, which raises money for financial aid.

Speaking of which, the School awarded more than $10 million in need-based financial aid for 2012-13.

About 33 percent of our students receive financial assistance.

Great location. We are located in Wallingford, Connecticut, just two hours from Boston and New York. New Haven, only 12 miles away, is a major stop for AMTRAK (including the new high-speed Acela train) on the New York- Washington, DC-Boston run. A major airport is just 45 minutes away. New Haven and Hartford also offer concerts, theaters, museums, and restaurants.

Feel at home. Our students come from 44 countries and 37 states; 35% identify themselves as students of color. Our student body represents the great religious traditions of the world. Our Campus Ministry includes Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Catholic chaplains as well as student worship groups, Buddhist Meditation, Christian Fellowship, and Hillel.

Deerfield Day. The Wild Boars get to strut their stuff against rival Deerfield Academy. It is one of our great traditions. We have many more!

POMFRET SCHOOL

398 Pomfret Street Pomfret, CT 06258 URL: www.pomfretschool.org

Founded in 1894, Pomfret School is an independent coeducational college preparatory boarding and day school for 350 students in grades 9 through 12 and postgraduates. Set on a stunning 500-acre campus in Northeastern Connecticut and brought to life by an exceptional faculty, Pomfret offers a rich and rewarding experience for students from various cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. Through a rigorous and engaging education, a commitment to service beyond self, and numerous opportunities for personal growth in academic, athletic, artistic, and residential settings, students emerge as ethical and active citizens of the world.

The school offers 19 AP courses and 16 Honors Courses. This school offers a sound education and a warm and friendly school community with many opportunties for personal growth and development in sports, academics and the arts. Class sizes are small with an average of 10 students.

A well-rounded education

At Pomfret participation in the athletic program is important, for it contributes to the total growth of students. Pomfret requires all students to participate in the athletic program at a level consistent with ability. Its rigorous program strives to teach students how to work well with others, to test themselves mentally and physically, and to exhibit sportsmanship and fair play. All athletic practices and games are considered school obligations. Sports offered include: Cross Country, Field Hockey, Football, Soccer, Volleyball, Basketball, Ice Hockey, Squash, Wrestling, Baseball, Crew, Lacrosse, Softball, Tennis and Track and Field.

Tuition is $64,000. Financial aid is available.

JUNIOR BOARDING SCHOOL: EAGLEBROOK SCHOOL

271 Pine Nook Road Deerfield, MA 01342 URL: www.eaglebrook.org

This all-boys school is an excellent option for a promising young man who is still “getting himself together.” Perhaps he is in a middle school slump. Perhaps his grades do not reflect his academic potential. By opting to send him to a junior boarding school to repeat grade 8 and complete grade 9, he may have the time and support to mature and develop academic, athletic and artistic skills. The result may be that he will be able to attend a more rigorous high school than he would currently get into---and be better prepared to succeed in high school.

Eaglebrook is a school for boys in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. In a warm, caring, structured atmosphere boys learn more than they ever thought possible, discover inner resources, develop self-confidence, and have fun along the way. Eaglebrook welcomes boys of any race, color, nation, or creed, and all share the same privileges and duties.

Eaglebrook has astonishing athletic facilities: its own ski hill, an ice hockey rink, two swimming pools, tennis courts and countless fields for sports. It also has wonderful faculty who teach students in extremely small classes, usually no larger than 8 students.

It is a world leader in the education of middle-school boys. Faculty know how to motivate, encourage and challenge young men in this critical stage of life.

The result is a young man who has come into his own and is ready to bring the best of himself to the challenge of high school.

Tuition is over $60,000. Financial Aid is available.

HOW TO APPLY TO BOARDING SCHOOL

1.Visit the school’s website for specific information but the general process is as follows: 2.Visit the school. Tour the campus. Interview with the Admissions team. 3.Send a hand-written thank you note to the person who interviewed you. 4. Register for and take the ISEE or the SSAT. These are standardized exams. 5.Print out the forms from the school’s website and ask your school to complete teacher recommendations and to send your transcript. 6.You will have to write a personal essay and complete the application. 7. Apply for Financial Aid if you need it. The school's website and admissions team will show you how to do this. 8.Be sure to submit all materials by the deadline. 9.Typically the decisions are announced in March or April.