I liked best the one on one attention I got from teachers. It was not uncommon to see teacher's loong after school hours working with one or two students. When I was not doing well in Advanced Placement French, my teacher was always willing to help and offer encouragement. Although I played sports and did various activities, academics were always palced first by the school. As an athlete, madatory study hours were monitored by the school. Every day Monday - Thurday, after practice athletes often had study hours for 2 + hours in the library. Attendance was neccessary to participate in upcoming games, events and stay on the team. If grades did drop low, athletic participation was susupended until grades were raised. The focus of Culver Academies was never distorted, academics was and continues to be the main focus.

The academics were HARD! When I say hard I do not mean impossible, just studying was a must. There is no sidestepping on tests or papers, teachers taught alot and expected alot, especially the Advanced Placment classes which I took quite a few of. Homework was regular and expected to be on time, no excuses. It was important to stay on top of studying and not fall behind because then the infomation was almost insurmountable. But, the good side of all of this is that I was SO prepared for college. Most of my peers had a very difficult time adjusting to the amount of work and perceived difficulty. For me it was jsut a minor transition. The work load tended to be the same as Culver and in some classes even less. The Advanced Placement classes I had taken at Culver allowed me to skip alot of the classes my peers had to take. I actually tested out of French altogether for my Bachelor's of Arts degrees and I did not have to take the two required classes. So although the classes were difficult and required work, in the long run, I benefited from it a great deal.

I liked most the variety and the support students gave. There were so many sports to choose from. With Lake Maxinkukee right there, it gave alot more options. One could take sailing, waterskiing etc. There was also a hockey rink for that, basketball, baseball, 2 tracks, indoor and outdoor for both, huge stable for equestrians and so much more. There was almost too much to do. The students and faculty gave support to school athletics through atendance and participation. Our sports were well participated in and well attended. It was not uncommon to see teachers coaching either. At hockey and basketball events, the stands were often packed with students, cheering on their friends, faculty, cheeringon their students and colleagues and even locals.

I liked least that some sports were more competitive than others. Hockey was a really big deal and very competitive but other sports were not perhaps due to the skill level. Track was also pretty competitive but I did not hear mcuh about other sports if you did not look into it like soccer for instance. I jsut wish all sports were given equal attention.

I was not really involved in that at all

I did not get involved in that

I liked once again, the sheer variety of things to get involved in. It gave me great leadership and management experience for college participating in clubs like Amnesty International and even a club that facilitated all the tours on campus. I learned how to talk in public by talking to prospecitive students and parents and talking to large groups of people.

The amount of resources for clubs were sometimes very limited. Fro instance I was very inot a volunteering club that was dedciated to helping the poor. Culver is in a rural town and about 45 minutes away from the next biggest town, definitely not a city, of South Bend. So we wanted to reach out to large amounts of homeless, poor people which usually reside in big ciites. So we were somewhat limited. Oftentimes, we had to raise money and then send it to organizations.

The best thing about dorm life was the flexibility and they really made you feel like a family. They were dorm meetings every week, there were parties and sometimes even competitions against other dorms. If you were nt getting along with your dorm mate, you could swtich quite easily after talking to the dorm mother and finding someone to switch with you. The dorm mothers are also GREAT!! I had the best one, she lived with us and just monitored to make sure everything was okay. She was like a mother away from home. If we were sick she would be the one to go with us to the health center. If there were any problems, she would be the one to talk to about it. My own mother used to call her to check up on me if she could not get a hold of me.

I liked least sometimes the dorms could be very cliquish within themselves. As far as the prefect situation went in the dorms I felt it was very cliquish and sometimes it felt as if counselors (not dorm mothers) would play favorites as far as leaderhsip roles go and not giving all the girls a chance to exercise their possible leadership potential. I feel if you do not give someone a chance how do you really know what they are capapble of?

There was always alot to choose from, if you did not like the food that night, there was salad, cereal and other food to eat. There was also a restauraunt downstairs from the dining hall called The Shack which had hamburgers, chicken stips, french fries, pizza etc. that you could go eat at too. There was also a jukebox and pool table there too.

About 30% of the time, the food was not good to me!! Not the diversity because there was always something to fall back on but the food just was not good at times!!

I felt welcome because there were a lot of new students that came in with me, I do not remember having a hard time fitting in at all. Everyone was nice and the school tries to make the transition as smooth as possible. They give you a big sister to help you out. I did not really do much with mine but we did spend some time getting to know each other.

There was alot of diversity at the school, every ethnicity was represented and quite a few foreign coutries. Intgration could have used some work, the students, from South America often kept to themselves, African Americans and Caucasians the same. But everyone integrated as well, everyone had friends and azquainatances of different races and ethnicities, it wa sdifficult not to in such close living proximity and in a small rural town there was not a plethora of other things to do. I appreicate the integration we did have because when I got to college it was much worse, people kept to themselves. At Culver, I had so many different friends and acquaintances of all races, Culver was my melting pot.

They had activities on campus so they might have a movie or a dance. We would also go down to the Shack and play pool or just socialize. We could watch television or attend one of the many sporting events. We might catch a movie in town or go eat at Cafe max. Or sometimes, my friends that lived around the school might sign me out and we could go to South Bend or Indianapolis.

Students did venture into town quite frequently but there really was not much to do, there was a good cafe for Saturday brunch , Cafe Max and a movie theatre that sometimes played movies that had been out for awhile. There was a Rite-Aid and some other good restaurants like Papa's Pizza and an elegant hotel that seemed out of place on the lake called The Cove. Quite honestly, Culver Academies seemed out of place in Culver, Indiana. The town was very rural and most of the students at Culver were not from that environment myself included. There was definitely a charm to the city. But there was little to no diversity and there was some scorn from the locals about the "rich, snobby" students from Culver Academies. But I never had a problem with anyone. I just got really antsy for a city and signed for any shopping or theter trip out of Culver to the nearby South Bend, sometimes Indianapolis and the best was Chicago.