Middlesex School - Review #6

My favorite Middlesex tradition is the end of the year dorm dinner. It is a time students come together to be grateful for others in their dorm and show their gratitude for each other. My senior year, the juniors prepared songs, music, videos, dances, and poems for the seniors. One of my favorite spots on campus is the chapel. Although not used often by students, the chapel is an incredibly quiet space. During exams, I studied in that space instead of my room or the library. There is a room in the back of the chapel which has the most amazing views of sunsets.

I will forever cherish the friendships I made at Middlesex. I met a great group of people on the first day of freshmen year orientation and they have been my friends since. The teachers are candid, caring, and, for some reason, all of them are hilarious people. The community is overall very supportive of each other. Teachers and students interact as individuals and not just partners.

Throughout my time here, I grew very comfortable with the people I became friends with. If I could re-do my experience, I would branch out to other people more often. There are amazing people in all the grades and I just wish I took the time to get to know everyone more.

The students and teachers made Middlesex a great place for me. The teachers have been some of the best I have had so far. The students are some of the most interesting I've encountered.

Before you leave Middlesex, you should check out the bench across the boathouse. It is in Estabrook and is my favorite place on campus.

The classes average around 12 people. Underclassmen tend to have these bigger classes, but as an upperclassman, classes get significantly smaller. My senior year, three out of six of my classes had less than four people in them. Small settings made for more individualized learning but having the bigger classrooms made class interesting. The workload can prove to be a lot, but there are free blocks and other time-spaces when students can work before study hours.

Although I am not very sports inclined, I am supportive of the mandatory sports requirement. It keeps students in shape, creates smaller communities within the school, and introduces students to new things. My freshman year I tried volleyball, squash, and rowing and absolutely loved playing these sports. I continued to play squash and volleyball my sophomore year because of the great experience I had freshmen year. My junior year I made the decision to join the wrestling team and that has been one of the best decisions I have made while at Middlesex. The team was welcoming, funny, and won a lot! I had a great time during the season and forever will cherish my time with them.

On your first two years as a student, you will take four art classes-- art history, drawing, theatre, and music. Although I enjoyed all of these classes, they were introductory courses and not very intriguing. They can, however, introduce students to a certain art path. My junior year I decided to take photography and continued to take classes until the end of my senior year. Whenever I could, I would do homework in the art studio since it was always a quiet space. The photography room was my little haven at Middlesex. The teachers are absolutely amazing! They are all experts in their fields and always willing to help students with their work.

There are a few volunteer opportunities-- Open Table, Heading Home, and community service day-- but I wish there were more options. Being in Concord can be a little hindering since we're not near a lot of non-profit organizations. However, the school still places an emphasizes on volunteering and all students do so on community service day. Students run clubs with the help of advisors. Since students do more of the work for clubs, they often don't meet consistently. The ones that do are always a big part of the community, however (for example GSA, Pottery Club, Finance Club, and Campuses Against Cancer). Students are also encouraged to start their own clubs if they wish to do so. The process is very easy and makes it so that we have loads of clubs.

Dorms are another small community formed at Middlesex. I have been extremely lucky these last four years and have resided in some great dorms. In my four years here I lived in a single, a double, a triple, and a quad. I made these requests on our rooming selection process and always got what I requested. My senior year dorm takes the cake, however. I was a proctor, so that helped me get to know the students. My dorm became a second family on campus. All the girls were supportive friends, attentive, clean, and friendly. The dorm parents were understanding of us, allowed us to have fun in the dorm without reprimanding us, but also kept a clean, safe dorm. There aren't many delivery options around, but Domino's is always great.

The food is not the best. The food quality starts to decline the older you get since you're used to everything Flik puts out. However, you learn how to best use the panini and stir-fry machine to make your own food. There is always a salad, sandwich, and soup bar. The desserts are amazing, though. The cookies, when soft, are a real treat. Six days of the week there are three meals and on Sunday there is brunch instead of breakfast and lunch. There isn't assigned seating, although grades sit together. There is a senior stage that is used by seniors or teams for dinners.

Concord is a quaint, small town, but you can always find something to do. There are a couple of coffee shops students do work in, restaurants we frequent, and a god-send-- CVS. The cheese shop is personally my favorite shop in town. Students often visit Walden Pond, either via walking or Uber. Some venture into West Concord or other nearby towns with shopping malls.

Because we are such busy students, there isn't much to do socially during the weekday. However, on weekends, there is always something happening. Students receive a weekend activity sheet in which they can sign up for different activities. During longer weekends, the school sometimes finances these trips for those that could not make it home.