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Alumni
Review #6, Class of 2002 |
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| College
Enrolled |
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Smith College |
| Home
Town, State (Country) |
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Francestown,NH |
| Years
Attended Boarding School |
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4 |
| Activities
During Boarding School |
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I was on the cross-country running and track teams as well as the cross-country ski team.
I was also co-editor for the school newspaper.
I sang it choir, worked on the tech team for the theatre, and participated in Big Brother/Big Sister.
In my dorm, I was an RA my junior year and a Student Leader my senior year. |
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| 1.) What do you think makes your school unique relative
to other boarding schools?
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| There were opportunities to do many different things all at the same time. Coming to college, I have realized that when small liberal arts colleges tell students that they can be both artists and athletes or take a variety of classes from various departments, they are lying. But at NMH the faculty members work really hard to allow you to pursue all of your interests.
NMH's strongest characteristic is their faculty members. Both in class and in the dorms, I always found adults who would talk to me honestly and treat me fairly. I found several truly inspirational and dedicated mentors. |
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| 2.) What was the best thing that happened to you in boarding school? |
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| Boarding school was very good at helping me grow more confident in myself. Honestly, I remember very little of the academics, but I have felt very well prepared for college. The things I do remember are the many friends that I met and the faculty members who I still talk to. |
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| 3.) What would you have done differently during your boarding school experience? |
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| I was homeschooled before I attended boarding school so just the idea of going away was a big change for me. Since I spent a lot of my time at NMH with international students, I sometimes wonder whether I should I have looked to go abroad myself.
There is no other school in America that I wish I would have attended. |
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| 4.) What would you never want to change about your school? |
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| Actually, some of the things I would never want to change about my school are already starting to change. I would never want the dorms to be separated by classes, which has started since I graduated. I would also never want them to decrease their international student population, which I think they have begun to do.
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| 5.) What things could be improved about your school? |
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| They hold lots of campus meetings during which they talk for a long long time about how diverse they are and they really try to make us into a community by telling us to become a community. They should realize that the most lasting and supportive communities develop spontaneously without being told to occur. |
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| 6.) Do you have any final words of wisdom for visiting or incoming students
to your school? |
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| Don't be scared of talking to the adults. The other students are great, but NMH has great faculty members. If you are scared, talk to them anyway until you are not scared anymore. |
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| 1.)
What did you like best about your school’s academics? |
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| I really liked the block schedule. I found that it was long enough to engage in the material and terms would end just in time to prevent boredom.
My teachers really seemed to want to cultivate oringinal thought maintain students' interests in the material. Most of my classes were straitforward but challenging. For the most part the teachers seemed to be in very good control of the material. There were very few times when a teacher would not know or would not know how to find answers to students' questions.
Taking English classes from some the intimidating teachers is scary, but taught me more about good writing than college has.
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| 2.)
What did you like least about the academics in your school? |
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| I had a couple classes that I never really felt caught up in. Because of the block schedule, if you miss one class, you miss a lot of material. AP classes taught in the block schedule are probably the worst classes taught at NMH because the teachers are forced to cover material for the exams. There was always a rush at the end of the term to cover the remaining material. |
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| 1.)
What did you like best about your school’s athletics? |
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| I liked the break they provided during the day. There was always a time that you would be able to forget about any other distractions and just run (or swim, or ski). |
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What did you like least about the athletics in your school? |
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| Most team have a structured hierarchy based on talent. A lot of team captains will be the most talented athletes and not the best leader.
Many teams also don't take themselves to seriously. Most teams will emphasize effort instead of success and forget to mention that success is still a good thing to strive for. |
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| 1.)
What did you like best about your school’s art program? |
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| The performance groups were excellent. Choir was a lot of fun and Vespers, the main performance of the year, is beautiful. I can't sing at all, and so I really liked that there were no try-outs.
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| 2.)
What did you like least about your school’s art program? |
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| The art classes that I took were not as great as the groups I was in. I think art is probably the weekest department at NMH in terms of the classes that are taught. |
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| 1.)
What did you like most about the extracurricular activities offered
at your school? |
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| There was a lot to do. Almost everyone has some activity that they find they really enjoy. |
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| 2.)
What did you like least about the extracurricular activities offered
at your school? |
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| While performance groups are well-organized, clubs are not. Clubs like the environmental club are only really active for about an hour on Earth Day. |
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| 1.)
What was the best thing about dorm life in your school? |
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| I had, and still have, a great relationship with my roommate from sophomore year and many of the girls in my dorm. They make you have dorm meetings and all sorts of bonding activities, but it's really late nights in the hallways eating cookies that are the most fun. |
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| 2.)
What did you like least about dorm life? |
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| Freshman year roommates can be sooooo scary. |
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What was the best thing about your dining arrangements? |
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| There was always at least one really nice cook in each dining hall that would say hello to you. |
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What did you like least about your dining arrangements? |
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| Dining halls in general are not around to provide delicious food. After a week or two it all starts tasting the same. |
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| 1.) How welcome did you feel by the other students when you first
arrived at the school? |
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| I had a student leader and another girl on my hall immediately welcome me. Once they found out that I ran, they took me along to cross-country practice with them. I was really fortunate to find people who had the same interests as I did. NMH is not a place to go to and pretend you are interested in everything to try to fit in everywhere. If you trust yourself and remain true to your interests, you will find people who you will like to be around. |
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| 2.)
Describe the level of diversity and integration of students in your
school: |
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| The large population of international students was the best thing about NMH. The faculty members are always worried that the Korean (or Japanese, Taiwanese etc.) kids hang out with each other too much. But it's an important part of the "community" that NMH emphasizes is such an asset to the school. |
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| 3.)
Describe typical fun activities you did on a weekend: |
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| I did sports year round so I always had competitions on the weekends. Weekends were nice and quiet. You could find someone to watch a movie with on a Sunday afternoon or take a walk with. The student affairs people try really hard to get good performers to come to NMH. Some of them are awful, but once or twice a month you will find something you want to go see. |
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| 4.)
What was the town like? |
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| You could do laundry in town and there was one restaurant. If you like to take walks in the woods, there are a lot of woods around. If you like to do anything else in town, you will be taking the taxi to Greenfield a lot. |
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| 6:30 AM | Wake up, stumble to shower. | | 7:00 AM | Walk to dining hall for breakfast. | | 7:45 AM | Catch bus to other campus. | | 8:00 AM | First Class. | | 9:45 AM | Class ends, either return to home campus for next class or sit with friends for break. | | 10:30 AM | Second Class | | 12:15 PM | Catch bus back to home campus. | | 12:30 AM | Lunch | | 1:30 PM | Head to newspaper office. | | 4:15 PM | Sports Practice | | 6:00 PM | Dinner | | 7:45 PM | Choir rehearsal or theatre rehearsal. Or in dorm for study hall. | | 10:00 PM | Return to dorm, hang around at sign in. Talk to dorm head, friends. | | 10:30 PM | Finish homework that hasn't been done throughout the day. | | 12:00 PM | Lights out. | |
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| 8:00 AM | Wake up, shower. Free time to study, watch tv, or go back to bed for a few more hours. | | 11:00 AM | Brunch | | 11:45 AM | Visit friends, go play pool in Tracy. | | 2:00 PM | Theatre work call. | | 5:00 PM | Dinner | | 6:00 PM | Watch movie with friends, go for a walk. | | 7:30 PM | House meeting followed by study hall. | | 11:30 PM | Sleep once work is done. | |
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