Deerfield Academy - Review #1

I met some great friends who I know I will keep in touch with forever. With such a close environment, it's possible to meet many people and become good friends. Coming from a family where boarding school was unheard of, I think the experience of living away from home has helped me to mature and be more responsible. The transition into college was an easy one but without the experience of living away from home for three years before I got to college, it would have been extremely difficult.

I would have looked at other schools just to have a choice, although Deerfield was the greatest place and I know I wouldn't have chosen another one.

The dress code.

More teachers reinforcing the traditions and dresss code. When I go back with my children, I hope it looks similar to when I was a student.

Definitely try the chicken cutlet when you come to the dining hall, although I would love to have any of their food right now. And take a walk around enjoying the scenery and beautiful architecture the school has to offer.

Coming from a public school, I didn't realize that teachers actually cared about your improvement in and outside of the classroom. But with the small class sizes it was evident how much they cared. They were always willing to out of their way to help, either in the classroom or not. There was such a range of classes to choose from, Greek to Astronomy. And although there were required classes, there was enough time to take classes for fun such as ceramics.

Coming from a public school, I wasn't used to the hours of homework when I first arrived at Deerfield. But there were people to help with time management which helped in finishing my work early and being able to get some sleep.

My main sport is ice hockey and it is a fairly new sport for girls, so one of the few places to play competitively at the high school level is in prep schools. The competition was great and prepared me to play in college. There are tournaments, especially the New England Championship tournament, where college coaches come to watch. Also, my sophomore year, our team took a trip to Finland and Sweeded to play some teams over there. I even met Wayne Gretzky's dad while he was coaching a team playing in the same area as us. There is such a range of talent in the sports that no matter if you just want to play for fun or want to continue on at the college level, you will be able to play the sport.

It was such a good experience but I did have one coach who didn't teach us about the game which didn't help me to improve. My captain did a good job compensating and helping the team.

The plays and dance performances were amazing. The facilities they used made the environment great for the audience and performers alike. The effort the teachers and students put into making the shows was great to see for it paid off during the performances. The facilities for classes was amazing too. I took ceramics and photography and was able to produce art which I know at some schools the students aren't able to do because of lack of funding.

I have nothing to dislike about the program and they are improving it to make it even better.

There was such a wide variety of activities to choose from and the faculty worked hard organizing and getting students involved. I was in the Big Brother Big Sister program and the faculty did such a great job organizing to get the kids on campus to hang out with the 'Bigs'.

Although there were so many to choose from, there were just not enough hours in the day to do as many as I would have liked. There were so many community service opportunities, but playing varsity sports made it difficult to join all the clubs I would have liked.

Living with a group of girls from different backgrounds was such a great way to be able to learn about others. I became friends with such different personalities that I know if I didn't live with them, I probably would have never attempted to become friends. Also it's such a nice feeling to have a faculty member on each hall because you are able to talk to them whenever you want. They kind of play the role of your parents.

Some of the rules seemed bad at the time, although they were made to protect us, like not having the opposite sex in your rooms unless given permission. Also the cerfews were annoying at the time, but I know I wouldn't have gotten any work done if I didn't have them.

I loved the sit down meals. With one faculty member and nine students we were assigned to a different table every 3 or 4 weeks. It was such a great way to get to know more students and faculty members. I also loved the food. Turkey dinners every once in a while was another way the school made us feel at home.

Although having to either set the table and bring the food out, or clear the table was hard at the time, it gave each of us the feeling of belonging.

There were presents in my room from my proctors when I got there which made me feel welcomed as soon as I entered me room. When I headed down to the soccer field, everyone was so welcoming.

There were so many different people and backgrounds. Students were always integrating-- either in the dorms, or at the dining hall or on teams and in clubs.

A lot of weekend time is spent in the school store watching tv, eating, and hanging out with friends. It's a great way to relax and not worry about work or anything else. Also there were dances once in a while. Even just watching a movie in the common room was always a good time.

There was a local theater which kids took cabs into town to go to on the weekends. Also, there were some restaurants in town but most kids stayed on campus to eat, or had pizza or Chinese delivered.