Featured: Grier SchoolAlumni Review #7, Class of 2002
About the Author:
College Enrolled
Tufts University
Home Town, State (Country)
Granby, CT
Years Attended Boarding School
4
Activities During Boarding School
Umm... I never put much effort into group stuff. I seemed to instinctively seek out those activities that allowed me to do what I wanted. I had a radio show, and did some other random stuff. I don't remember. I spent a lot of time in the woods.
1.) What do you think makes your school unique relative to other boarding schools?
Deerfield places all of its emphasis on history. The school motto is, "Be worthy of your heritage." Depending on who you are this can be either encouraging yet daunting, as it seemed to be to the cheer leaders and peer counselors, or as it was to me... annoying. Unless you somehow have some instinctive or preternatural understanding of the historical foundations of a privilidged boarding school education, it all just seems forced. One of my required readings for freshman year English was the biography of our most celebrated headmaster. Call me a hippy, but I think there might be more enlightening works of literature to spend a solid week or two of English class on. Of course the values employed as a result of this incredibly retrospective philosophy are undeniably worthwhile. Perhaps Deerfield is in this way unique. The system does not seem specifically tied to any one religion, and its values are all mostly logical and enduring. I guess I could have just done without the feeling that I needed to live out my Deerfield days as good as some dead guys did.
2.) What was the best thing that happened to you in boarding school?
My senior year I was able to design my own independent study for my spring term. I was allowed to drop two classes in my pursuit of this study, and found it to be one of my most rewarding boarding school experiences. I made a short film, and screened it a few days before graduation. It was a story about the ill effects that the deans had on the students' lives. It of course sounds fairly immature, but what surprised me was my freedom of expression. I could have said that the Deerfield deans were the root of all evil and no one would have stopped me. In fact, I was the only one to have seen the finished product before screening it in front of some three hundred people. I don't think you can find that many other places if any.
3.) What might you have done differently during your boarding school experience?
I suppose I would have been more cautious as to who I let know me, and who I didn't. Also, I would have been more unflinchingly outgoing and even though that might seem contradictory.... it's not.
4.) What would you never want to change about your school?
The campus and the plethora of incredible faculty and students.
5.) What things could be improved about your school?
I would take away the administration's power and distribute it amongst certain few faculty.
6.) Do you have any final words of wisdom for visiting or incoming students to your school?
-Bill Murray in Rushmore,
"Now, for some of you it doesn't matter. You were born rich and your going to stay rich. But here's my advice to the rest of you: Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything but they can't buy backbone. Don't let them forget it. Thank you."
Check out the view from the rock, don't sell yourselves for good grades or reputation, Universities don't look for what you think they do, and if they do, do you really need them to make your dreams reality? And by the way, wherever you go highschool is highschool, don't convince yourself that your depressing experience is unique.
1.) What did you like best about your school’s academics?
My teachers were everything that I liked about Deerfield's academics. Of course there were some bad ones here and there, but if you made an effort to find the right teachers and take the right classes you could end up learning things and seeing things in ways you never thought possible. No joke.
2.) What did you like least about the academics in your school?
There wasn't quite enough creativity in my curriculum. The only real imaginative workout offered came mostly from art classes, and well... I was somehow implanted with the notion that art classes made one look unworthy of a top ranked school. I'm pretty sure that's wrong. Also, the workload on several occasions made me want to cry.
1.) What did you like best about your school’s athletics?
For the few that could achieve athletic greatness at Deerfield, I'm sure it was an experience like no other. The school spirit that shows up at top level events is very impressive, and so is the level of play.
2.) What did you like least about the athletics in your school?
Post graduates, and recruits. Esssentially, Deerfield would take in students that should have been college freshmen (or older) that wanted to improve their academic appearance with Deerfield's name, and with them and pure athletic recruits form a tier that I called recruit-varsity. JV was of course non-recruit varsity. What I'm trying to say is that 95% of the kids who expected to be varsity athletes at one point or another were not. Then again, I could just be a bitter unathletic nerd.
1.) What did you like best about your school’s art program?
All of the facilities were excellent, and so were the teachers. My drawing teacher would often show us what to do for the first five minutes then spend the rest of class walking from desk to desk telling his philosophical and artsy stories all while giving individual attention to each and every student.
2.) What did you like least about your school’s art program?
As I mentioned before there was a general preconception that art classes were not seen as respectable by top level universities, and thus frowned upon at Deerfield.
1.) What did you like most about the extracurricular activities offered at your school?
Once again the facilities and funds were there for anyone to use. You just had to take the initiative. If you've ever seen Wes Anderson's movie Rushmore, he wasn't exagerating about the opportunites boarding school's offer (in fact, Deerfield probably offered even more).
2.) What did you like least about the extracurricular activities offered at your school?
There just wasn't any time to take advantage of the extra curriculars for those of an average energy-level.
1.) What was the best thing about dorm life in your school?
Throughout my time at Deerfield I heard again and again that the friends I made would be some of the best of my life, and now that I am removed from them I realize that this is true. As irresponsible as I feel that admissions may be, some truly amazing people seem to end up at Deerfield no matter what.
2.) What did you like least about dorm life?
Sometimes the faculty residents could take their responsibilties as "parents away from home" too far. I could almost count on my sophomore resident to show up and want to "have a talk" at the exact moments when he was the last person in the world that I wanted to talk to.
1.) What was the best thing about your dining arrangements?
Sunday brunch. The good food was always on Sundays.
2.) What did you like least about your dining arrangements?
Everything other than Sunday brunch. The school I attend now makes Deerfield food seem like spam. Wait, wait, that's not true. Deerfield had really good apple crisp and chicken cutlets.
1.) How welcome did you feel by the other students when you first arrived at the school
I felt welcome by the other students at first. Within a week or so I discovered what I would later realize was a prevalent group of up-tight and judgemental city boys. Their common garb includes plaid pink golf shorts with pastel sweaters over similarly pastel polo golf shirts. I originally assumed these guys were the harmless ones, but they turned out to be the popular guys who scoffed at those who weren't like them. There are of course girls to compliment these guys, who seem even more shallow. Together they create a very pressured social environment, which is unfortunate because they are actually a minority among a group of otherwise great people.
2.) Describe the level of diversity and integration of students in your school:
There are many different ethnicicities represented in the student body, but diversity is still undeniably lacking.
3.) Describe typical fun activities you did on a weekend:
Explore the extremely rich surrounding environs of Deerfield, Mass. Other than that we watched a lot of movies, and more or less just hung out all night.
4.) What was the town like?
People went into to town every now and again. I mostly just went when I wanted food. Greenfield is one of the strangest places I've ever been. I heard from enough day students that Greenfield has the highest percentage of inbreeding in America to take it as fact. Also, Greenfield residents hate Deerfield students. I always remembered not to wear Deerfield shirts into town.
Weekday
| 7:00 AM | Wake up and shower and stuff. |
| 8:00 AM | math |
| 9:00 AM | spanish |
| 10:00 AM | free period |
| 11:00 AM | photography |
| 12:00 AM | lunch |
| 1:00 PM | environmental science |
| 2:00 PM | free period |
| 3:00 PM | u.s. history |
| 4:00 PM | off time |
| 4:45 PM | sports |
| 6:15 PM | dinner |
| 8:00 PM | start studying |
| 9:30 PM | convince myself i'm still studying but actually do nothing for two hours... |
| 11:30 PM | start studying again until i finish |
| 1:00 AM | chill with the brosefs |
| 2:00 AM | sleep |
Weekend
| 11:00 AM | shower and then sit on my couch and contemplate my existence for three straight hours. |
| 2:00 PM | lunch |
| 3:00 PM | just chill... maybe go to the river or shack hill or something until... |
| 6:15 PM | sit down dinner |
| 8:00 PM | do more of whatever |
| 3:00 AM | sleep |
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