Choate Rosemary Hall - Review #10

Choate should be considered a top academic school, no doubt, because of the degree to which it prepares you to handle future academic pursuits. It is a place where you are not only challenged in the classroom, but also supported by a great environment of teachers that care about your individual pursuits. They help you develop your interests and I believe that it is unique to have the opportunity to pursue high-level study of specific areas of interest. Similarly, I now think very highly of the opportunities that were available in the arts at Choate, given the opportunities for people of all ability levels.

I feel that boarding school has made me a lot more independent and responsible. I got to meet great friends that I'll have forever and was challenged to learn and try new things. I competed in the Harvard Economics challenge and placed 6th among contestants and got to work in a wet lab studying mutations that lead to cancer in a stem cell laboratory.

I would have lived on campus all 4 years. I was a day student at first and didn't get to enjoy as much of the boarding school life. Also I would have been more involved in clubs if I could again.

The caring environment that Choate created was special because it pushed its students to try new things and embrace the opportunities available there. In addition, the tight knit community that grew as a result of the boarding style stands out as my favorite part about Choate.

Definitely explore the newer buildings - a lot has changed in recent years. If you like tennis check out the tennis center and make sure to swing by the Arts Center for an idea of what resources are available there.

I liked most that the academics were flexible to my interests - I particularly wanted to do more in economics and science and those were available to me through the economics independent study that I designed and the Science Research Program. It was relatively competitive and the workload was heavy in the challenging classes, but they were very well taught, even in classes that I was less interested in. Junior Year was notably difficult, but it was the year in which I got to study the most interesting items.

The athletics at Choate were very competitive - I love sports and wish I could have done better individually, but it was awesome to have teams that were very good. We were always competitive against every school. The facilities were great, especially when you compare them to what you see at different colleges and at some different prep schools.

There were a lot of opportunities at all levels in the Arts. The teachers were very passionate and I specifically enjoyed those that taught voice/choir/theater.

There was something for everyone. What was cool is that if you wanted to do it, it was there, but you never had to do too much. There was mock trial, economics team, math team, language clubs, different sports clubs, culture clubs (lots of cool ones here), and many others.

I liked that the dorms made a tight-knit community. I was a day student my freshman year and life was better once I started boarding. There was no late night food access, rooms were selected via lottery, and most rooms were doubles.

Food was good, but it was only open during main hours - it was hard to find free food if you ate very late or in the mid afternoon. It's hard to do good cafeteria food, but they did a good job. Lots of options for allergies and other diets.

Wallingford was nice, because there was pretty much everything within a medium walk or short uber - wallmart, movie theater, lots of restaurant and fast food options.

The best part about the social life was that all of your friends were always around. The best days were the snow days when you were basically trapped with all of your friends.