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Alumni
Review #1, Class of 2002 |
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| College
Enrolled |
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Brown University |
| Home
Town, State (Country) |
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-,- |
| Years
Attended Boarding School |
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4 |
| Activities
During Boarding School |
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Newspaper, editor in chief
Debate, vice president
Choir / Chamber Singers
Spanish Club, president
Volleyball, JV captain
Track & Field
Swimming
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| 1.) What was the best thing that happened to you in boarding school? |
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| - |
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| 2.) What would you have done differently during your boarding school experience? |
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| If anything, I would have worried less my freshman year about college. Colleges really don’t care about freshman year. I wouldn’t do anything differently in the application progress. |
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| 3.) What would you never want to change about your school? |
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| The faculty. I had 3 teachers in four years that I wasn’t crazy about. Somehow Loomis finds teachers who are brilliant and care about teaching high school kids. |
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| 4.) What things could be improved about your school? |
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| The integration among boarders and day students is weak and should be improved. |
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| 5.) Do you have any final words of wisdom for visiting or incoming students
to your school? |
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| If you’re at all athletic, try out for lacrosse. It’s the “cool” sport, so even if you start out on IIIrds and make your way up, you’re setting yourself up for coolness. |
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| 1.)
What did you like best about your schools academics? |
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| 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. |
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| 2.)
What did you like least about the academics in your school? |
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| 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. |
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| 1.)
What did you like best about your schools athletics? |
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| The coaching and facilities for Loomis athletics are superb. Biggest complaint? The school is sandwiched between two rivers yet has no crew team. |
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| 2.)
What did you like least about the athletics in your school? |
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| 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. |
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| 1.)
What did you like best about your schools art program? |
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| 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. |
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| 2.)
What did you like least about your schools art program? |
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| 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. |
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| 1.)
What did you like most about the extracurricular activities offered
at your school? |
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| 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. |
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| 2.)
What did you like least about the extracurricular activities offered
at your school? |
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| 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. |
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| 1.)
What was the best thing about dorm life in your school? |
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| 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. |
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| 2.)
What did you like least about dorm life? |
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| 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. |
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What was the best thing about your dining arrangements? |
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| 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!
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| 2.)
What did you like least about your dining arrangements? |
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| 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. |
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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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| 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. |
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| 2.)
Describe the level of diversity and integration of students in your
school: |
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| 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. |
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| 3.)
Describe typical fun activities you did on a weekend: |
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| 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. |
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| 4.)
What was the town like? |
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| Windsor, CT, has little to do, but Loomis provides busses and vans to nearby towns with malls, movie theatres, and the like. |
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| 6:45 AM | Wakeup and breakfast | | 9:15 AM | AP English Seminar class | | 10:00 AM | All-school Convocation | | 11:00 AM | AP Calculus AB class | | 11:45 AM | Lunch | | 12:30 AM | Study/hang out in library or student center | | 1:45 PM | AP Economics Double | | 3:00 PM | Free time (hang out, get ready for sports) | | 3:30 PM | Track practice | | 5:30 PM | Shower, relax | | 6:00 PM | Dinner, free time | | 7:30 PM | Study hall | | 9:00 PM | Study hall ends, but still doing work | | 1:00 AM | bed | |
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| 6:45 AM | Wakeup and breakfast | | 6:45 AM | Wakeup and breakfast | | 8:15 AM | European history class | | 9:15 AM | AP Econ class | | 10:00 AM | Chamber Singers | | 11:00 AM | AP Spanish 4 class | | 11:45 AM | AP English Seminar class | | 12:30 AM | lunch | | 1:00 PM | Board bus for track meet @ Choate | | 7:30 PM | Get back on campus, get a snack at the SNUG | | 8:00 PM | Shower | | 8:30 PM | Movie in social room, hanging out | | 12:30 PM | bed | |
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