Westtown School - Review #21

One of the parts of the Westtown curriculum that I loved was their focus on community service. There were whole school community service days and there were options for you to do service work instead of an afternoon sport. This spouted my love for helping out in the community and is something that I continued to do throughout college and now.I also loved the senior projects. I got to go to Spain with an amazing group of students and staff for 3 weeks. I got to practice my Spanish and build relationships that I never would have built. This project pushed me to be better, to be more loving and accepting, to challenge my Spanish abilities and it cultivated my love of travel and learning about other countries.

The best thing that happened to me is finding my best friend. I know that we will be friends forever. Although, we live far apart now, we are always close to each other. I grew into the woman that I am today at Westtown. I entered Westtown as a scared little girl who was trying to fill the shoes of my cool older brother (he was a senior at Westtown). I lived in his shadow but I slowly found myself and started my journey of self love.

My advice is to live. Take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. Push your boundaries. Have fun.

the community

Bladerston ( the freshman dorms) are the nicest. They will probably be better than any others that you live in at Westtown or at college.

The academics are like no other here. I was challenged, inspired and motivated by my teachers. The teachers are real and love what they do. They engage in unique and engaging practices to help all of their students learn. They want you to be successful and they are always willing to offer extra help if a subject is challenging. The rigor of academics is high here. You are expected to do a lot but I can tell you now, it defiantly prepared me for the work load in college.The great thing is that since many of your teachers live on campus, your bond with them becomes much stronger. I stay in touch with about 5 or so teachers and I have been out of westtown for 5+ years. They care about you and they take the time to find out how you learn best and what you are interested in, in order to help you.The variety of classes is also great! I found there were actually more options and more interesting topics than college. I was able to take photography (or some art) every semester, world religions, baseball literature (as an elective), an easier alternative to pre-calc that helped me with real world math, and lots more!

The athletics at Westtown are amazing :) You do have to do some afternoon activity, but if you don't love playing sports there are other options. I feel like westtown has the perfect mix of sports. We have teams that are really good, where the players are most likely going to play that sport in college and then we have the teams that are just there to have fun. I feel like anyone could find one activity that they would like. As a lover of watching sports, there are times when Westtown will send spirit buses to basketball games and the support for athletics is great.

I really enjoyed the arts program at Westtown. I was able to take 2 years of dark room photography, which I loved! There seems to be a good selection of classes offered. I also remember taking an improve class, which was always a blast. I never took advantage of the musical opportunities, but the performances always blew me away. Westtown is filled with such talented students and staff. I recommend doing the senior play! It is not something that you want to miss out on.

I have already touched upon the community service aspect of this school but other parts I want to mention are the ropes course and the outdoor education team. Westtown has an awesome ropes course on campus that is full of obstacles for team building and overcoming your fears. Our outdoor education program would have trips on the weekend that students could go on as well.

Dorm life is great at Westtown. We always had great dorm parents that lived on the dorms. They were strict but supportive and you could go to them for anything. The rooms are small but they get you ready for college. I was lucky in always having a good roommate. The first year is a gamble but after that you get to choose who your roommate is. All the rooms are similar in size so even if you get a bad number for room selection, you will still be ok. Lights out is early so be prepared to go to bed early or watch movies under your blankets. There really isn't anything for late night food. You can have snacks and a fridge in your room,

I liked the family style dining at Westtown. The food was not great when I was there, but I have heard that it has gotten better. You sit at tables of 8 and we have students come and serve us. Something unique about Westtown, is our work program. All students are assigned jobs on a rotating schedule, including gardening, washing dishes, setting tables, clearing tables, food prep and more.

West Chester, the mall, and Philly are fun places to visit. Westtown takes vans out on the weekends and brings us to these places. I went to concerts in Philly too! The mall is HUGE so be prepared to get lost. West Chester is a cute college town, a good place to take the parents for dinner when they are visiting.

The friends that I made at Westtown are still my best friends. Living in such close quarters makes it easy to become great friends. We did sports together, showered together, brushed our teethe together, watched movies on the weekend, and had small classes. Wesstown focusing on community building and that is evident. It has been 5 years since I graduated and my best friend is still the girl who lived in a room down the hall from me freshman year. There are also occasional dances and events to keep boarding life fun.