Mercersburg Academy

School rating ★★★★ 4.2 out of 5 by Columbia University student

300 East Seminary Street Mercersburg PA 17236 United States
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Mercersburg Academy review by Columbia University student: First and foremost let me emphasize the engagement of the faculty. Mercersburg faculty (a majority of whom live on or within walking distance of campus) are there for the benefit of their students entirely. Expect to find them for any extra help you may need, for any questions about the school in general, or for a place to hang out, cook dinner, or watch the Oscars. At college now, I still keep in touch with 7 of my teachers/advisers/coaches regularly. I can still go to them with questions about course selection, for references, and for ideas about summer internships. Enthusiasm for teaching, I found, translated into enthusiasm for learning many of the courses I took. The largest class I took while at Mercersburg consisted of 17 students (an intermediate acting class). The smallest I took with one other student. The school is in the process of adding more courses to the curriculum, but already offers a number of AP courses unfamiliar to my current colleagues at college. Without ranking (except for Valedictorian and Salutatorian at the end of Senior Year) the environment is certainly collegial. Students are there to do well, but not to do better than each other. I wouldn't say that Mercersburg has a weak department to speak of. The arts are certainly advancing with the construction of the Burgin Center for the Arts, but I found every other department enthusiastic and more than qualified to be teaching high school students. In my first semester at Columbia University I have found myself excited to reenter the fast-paced environment I remember from Mercersburg, and missing the personal connections I made there.

College Counseling

Mercersburg Academy employs a number of.…Get the real inside story on college couseling at Mercersburg Academy, LOGIN or SIGN UP

Sample insights on college counseling
  • “They have contacts at most of the major universities and feel perfectly comfortable picking up the phone and advocating for a student to get accepted somewhere they feel is a good fit for that student. However, these counselors are certainly not magic bullets. They cannot guarantee that a student will get into an Ivy League university...”
  • “For those wishing to move on to Oxford or Cambridge, the provision is second-to-none. In the months running up to application and interview, every subject faculty offers classes (often run by former Oxbridge tutors) exploring further areas of their subject as well as offering advice on personal statements, interview technique and more...”
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Admissions Process

There has been a great deal of turnover.…Get insider advice on admissions to Mercersburg Academy, LOGIN or SIGN UP

Sample insights on admissions
  • “Most younger siblings have an easy time in the admissions process. I can only think of one case of a younger sibling not being admitted. About half of the students who entered with me had come from public schools. The remainder came from private K-6 schools, or had transfered from other New York private schools. The Elizabeth Morrow School and St. Bernard's were two of the larger feeder schools...”
  • “For the interview, dress conservatively. Try to be very clean and put together. Also, I was a tour guide for two years and at the end of every tour, we were asked to evaluate the candidate so if you think the tour is not apart of the process, you are very wrong. Ask questions and be interested. Also, tip for the parents* let the kids speak on the tour. Don't ask their questions for them because their evaluation will be affected by the fact that the guides didn't hear a thing from the kid...”
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Extracurricular Activities

By my Senior year I had involved myself in every aspect of extracurricular activities at Mercersburg except dance and voice. Although you do have to, essentially, choose between sports/drama/dance for each season, I managed to play Varsity Soccer and Squash and still participate actively in the Stony Batter theater group. The weekly student newspaper (The Mercersburg NEWS) is a particularly strong publication which sends its editors to Indiana University's summer training camp each year. The Model United Nations program regularly garners top awards at conferences in New York and Philadelphia. The student Writing Center is open each weeknight for any student to get help with any piece of written work. And the Burgin Center for the Arts provides a stunning setting for artists with two theaters, two recital halls, two dance studios, two computer labs, and labs for sculpting, drawing, painting, and ceramics.

Quality of School Life

For a small-town boarding school in rural Pennsylvania, Mercersburg still manages to impress students with various on- and off-campus activities. The outdoor education program (MOE) takes students into the beautiful habitat surrounding the school for activities ranging from whitewater rafting to rock-climbing. A particular highlight of the year is the Irving-Marshal competition held in the last week of the winter term (in place of exams). The entire school is divided into two literary societies for a week of Harry Potteresque competitions ranging from swimming to poker to Declamation. That final speaking contest is one of the school's greatest traditions and usually determines the winning society. The dorms range from your standard order to high-ceilinged, hardwood-floored rooms. For girls there is also Culbertson House, home to 12 students each year. All dorms are close to the heart of campus, although the gym can be a bit of a hike for those living on front campus. While the student body was probably not the most diverse among boarding schools, it certainly played host to students from most every background. Generous financial aid allowed many students to attend who would not have been able to do so otherwise. Exchange programs and recruiting efforts abroad bring in large numbers of students from Eastern Asia, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe. Apart from the large day-student population there was little connection to the surrounding communities unless one sought it out through community service opportunities. Such programs were certainly available, but not tremendously popular.


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300+ school reviews by MIT Ivy League
Oxbridge educated insiders
BUYNOW
  • Mercersburg Academy
  • Boarding and day students
  • 9th to 11th
  • 9th to PG
  • 7 day boarding
  • 1893
  • None
  • 300 East Seminary Street Mercersburg PA 17236 United States
  • The school data may contain typographical errors, incomplete, and out dated information. Please contact the schools directly for more up to date and accurate information.
  • The views expressed in this review are the writer's honestly held opinions of the school at the time he/she was in attendance. It should be borne in mind that the facts that founded any of these bona fide opinions might have changed since that time.
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