Concord Academy - Review #9

One of my favorite things about Concord Academy was that the school was based on what we called "common trust." Common trust helped me to feel more like a member of the community, and as a boarder common trust helped to make school feel more like my home than anything else. Common trust not only meant that I could leave my stuff lying around campus and not having to worry if it would be there when I got back or not, it also meant that I could be myself and trust that the other members of my community would be accepting to my beliefs and ideals.Another great part about Concord Academy was its location. The school really uses it to its advantage. At a lot of boarding schools, you're stuck in the middle of nowhere; not only does Concord Academy have a town that students are allowed to wander through whenever they want, but there's a train that goes straight into Boston, giving you full access to the city. There are also signups on weekends so that you can be driven to Alewife, a stop that puts you right on the red line so that you can go directly to places like Harvard Square.

Going to CA really helped me to mature. I was a Head of House at CA (the equivalent of being a Residential Advisor in college). So the girls in my house turned to me when they had any problems. As the youngest child, I was the one always taken care of when I was little, so being a Head of House helped me to be responsible for other people.

Even though I was a local boarder, I wish I had gone into Boston with my friends more. I spent a lot of time studying, and I wish I had spent more time having fun with my friends.

Honestly, I can't pick one specific thing. I loved all of the options I had with academics and the strong relationships I had with my teachers. I loved getting involved with theatre. I loved being a boarder and being a Head of House. There isn't one thing that I liked the most, and I think that's why I loved Concord.

If you end up going to CA, get to know the faculty - they've all lead really interesting lives.

I loved the options and freedom that I had. There are requirements to graduation, but they are really easy to do and not restricting on what you want to do. My senior year I didn't take math because I had already fulfilled the requirements, so instead I doubled up in English in the fall and History in the spring.

To be honest I'm not a very athletic person, but that was okay at CA because our athletics made it so that if you wanted to be on a team you could be. We might not be the type of school that wins a lot of championships or has undefeated seasons, but we are a school who has a lot of sportsmanship awards.

We have a lot of arts classes, anything from music and jazz ensembles to fiber arts, to painting, to theatre, to set design, to architecture - there are so many options. That's what CA is known for - our arts.

One great thing is that you can basically create any club you want to at CA. That being said, you have to figure out which clubs are more legitimate than others. Some clubs meet every week and have all of these events, and then some clubs never meet and don't have any fundraisers and/or events at all.

I loved being a boarder. You got to meet people from across the U.S. and from around the world, which was pretty cool. I had a lot of day student friends and a lot of boarder friends, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I felt closer to my boarder friends. You really get to know so much more about a person and become so much closer with them when you live with them.

The food in the Stu-Fac (the dining hall) varied from day to day. Sometimes the food would be good, and other times it would be pretty awful. But the thing is, is when it is bad, you can go out to dinner if you want. The food on the weekends was pretty good during brunch though.

You're surrounded by a town with CVS, Starbuck's, Dunkin Donuts, pizza/sub shops, a bookstore, a toyshop, a sports store, Crosby's, and other stores too. Then if you want to get out of town (like I already said) there is a train stop too.

There were a lot of great options to do on weekends. There were trips into Boston, trips to go apple picking, trips to go to the movies, paintballing, and mall trips. On campus there are different plays that are out up, movies always on in the common room, SHAC Student centers (when boarding council takes over the gym and has different themed nights), open houses (when different houses on campus have a themed party), and other stuff too. Sometimes it can get slow on campus, but as long as you're creative you can find something to do.