The classes were small, and the teachers really cared about students’ progress. Classes were very challenging, and therefore provided me with not only knowledge, but also with an appreciation for hard work and good study skills. Loomis has an excellent writing program, which ensures competence in students from even the lower level classes. The sheer difficulty of many of the courses offered at Loomis helped me to determine my academic strengths and weaknesses, lending a hand in the decisions I have made regarding my academic path at Brown University.

The only weakness in Loomis’ academic program is the language program. Loomis strives to employ mostly native speakers as language teachers, and this tactic often backfires. The teachers are, obviously, masters of their subjects; however, they lack adequate teaching skills to pass that knowledge on to their students.

The coaching and facilities for Loomis athletics are superb. Biggest complaint? The school is sandwiched between two rivers yet has no crew team.

Some of the more popular sports recruited a lot of athletes, and as a result, it was very difficult for average students to make varsity teams. The post-graduates dominated the boys’ varsity lacrosse team, making for a very good team but restricting the opportunities available to younger, less-experienced players.

The facilities for the visual arts at Loomis are superb. The art gallery hosts renowned artists frequently, and stages students’ art often as well. This is really the only contact I had with the visual arts program, but it seemed a wonderful set of opportunities for students with such interests. The best part of the music program is, without question, the challenges it poses to orchestral and choir students each winter when they put together a joint concert. Singing and playing an entire mass or similar piece, along with several pieces focused on international musical culture, the orchestra and choir put on quite a show.

Loomis’ music and theatre facilities are the worst part of the arts program, but that is set to change with the pending construction of a music and performing arts center.

If you cared about an activity and wanted to get involved, it was easy to become a part of most any group, and even to obtain a leadership position by your junior or senior year. Also, each group had a faculty advisor, and teachers are usually very willing to volunteer as club advisors.

The same core group of students seem to be involved in many similar activities. For example, the newspaper, debate, student council, and the foreign policy association were almost all the same group of students. Furthermore, while I was very involved with extracurriculars, there were too many students who never got involved with anything. Worse yet, many students did extracurricular activities solely for the purpose of listing them on college applications.

The cohesiveness and familiarity among students and dorm faculty was the best part of dorm life. Faculty were always there for homework or personal help, or just to hang out with and actually have fun with.

The rules in general were too strict. Forced breakfast attendance, very limiting co-ed visiting hours, curfews, permission to go off-campus, and rules regarding allowed appliances (i.e. tvs) made dorm life a constant struggle against getting in trouble.

The variety and the openness to suggestions. The hot meals may not have been the best, but there was always the option of pasta, the deli bar, or a really good salad bar. I miss that at college!

The actual hot meals offered were never very good, and the dining hall hours were too limited. Also, Loomis has a special “family style” meal, twice a week fall and spring, at which students sit with their dorms and faculty. This is a hassle because we had to dress up, and felt forced to be at dinner for a certain time period.

Loomis has a pretty good orientation program, and at first students are very friendly and welcoming. Everyone wants to meet everyone else, and pretty soon you know everyone. Pretty soon, however, cliques are formed and it is harder to fit in and meet new people.

There’s a decent amount of diversity at Loomis, however integration is a problem. The Korean students, mostly from Seoul, form the tightest clique, practically refusing to speak English except in class. The black and latino students also have a clique, so there are often “multicultural” and “asian” tables in the dining hall. A little disappointeing.

On the weekends we went to the mall or a movie, watched or participated in sports games, went to parties at day students’ houses, or just hung out in each other’s rooms.

Windsor, CT, has little to do, but Loomis provides busses and vans to nearby towns with malls, movie theatres, and the like.