Westtown School - Review #15

Westtown School was unique for being a school invested in social justice as well as preparing students to work for a global community. Many of the courses at Westtown delved into difficult topics such as racism, sexism and homophobia and critical ways of deconstructing those ideologies. Westtown also was unique for its "work job" system in which students did chores that benefited the school and made cleaning tasks easier for paid staff.

Going to Westtown helped the transition to college much easier. I did a lot of emotionally growing with my fellow classmates and living with college students was fairly unsurprising to me than it was to others come freshman year. I enjoyed a lot of courses I took and learned to be more independent and confident from a very young age.

Boarding school is a place where you are dealing with puberty and living with other people. I think that for those who come from lower-income backgrounds or are international, taking your time to adjust to school life and taking care of your mental health is important. That means being ok with how you may be different from your other peers but still valuable and lovely to get to know.

I really enjoyed the connections I made with people and how close we are until this day.

Try to explore the acres of Westtown, there are so many cool nature spots to see. We have a creek and an awesome mudhole where people like to slide. The farm is a great place to hang out and try ice cream and organic foods. There are many old buildings that are unused in the area that are cool to see.

I really enjoyed how the courses and diversity of topics we learned were comparable to courses one would take in college. The professors were very invested in improving our writing and critical thinking skills and the workload reflected that at times. There was a lot of emphasis on discussion so many of my classes were discussion based. Westtown was also unique in that it had comprehensive lab components to the science classes. Not only did we do experiments, we were expected to write lab reports and do independent projects for chemistry or biology.

What I enjoyed about the athletic department was that there were so many sports that students could try and different levels so even students who were not used to the intensities of working out had a place on the team. Coaches at Westtown were great. They care both about the physical and mental health of their students and many students loved their coaches outside of the court or field.

I really enjoyed the diversity of extracurriculars at Westtown, everyone had something they could participate. If you couldn't find a club you liked, it was fairly easy to start your own and to get funding.

What I liked about the dorm life at Westtown was the ability to pick your room and your roommate. It made enjoying living at school 24/7 more easy and fun.

We had a mixed dining set up at Pomona in which lunch and dinner was a combination of buffet or sit-down depending on the meal and the special occasion. The staff really took care to give us a variety of food and to accommodate to sensitive palettes. While some meals I didn't enjoy, other I really liked and made sure that I paid attention to the menu when they would appear. There were never any surprises, it was always posted up or emailed to us.

Westtown is placed in a semi-rural area. There is a lot of acres of land and you have to walk quite a bit to get to the town. Getting to the town required crossing some roads and fields. However, you are only 45 min away from the mall and Philly is not too much farther either. What I enjoyed about the campus itself was the acres we had and all the space was perfect for snowy days for sledding.

Since everyone lived with each other, I had a lot of close friends that I am still close with. We took the same classes, studied together, partied together and enjoyed each other's companies. We knew each for four or more years.