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Asheville School

School rating 4 / 5 by

360 Ashville School Road Asheville NC 28806 United States
Boarding
9th to 12th
Day
9th to 12th
Gender
Coed

Academic

Asheville School review by .

The academics at Asheville School are easily comparable to those at the college level. Freshman year of high school, the teachers at Asheville School expected the students to form their own thought provoking and unique perspectives on the texts we read and translate these into articulate papers. Fast forward to freshman year of college and I was paces ahead of the other students in terms of my analytical skills and writing style. Needless to say, Asheville School's academic strength lies in the Humanities department, which does an excellent job of fusing literature and history. In doing so, students are forced to make connections between disciplines and this skill proved to be invaluable in the college setting, where classes often times overlap. I never had a humanities course which was lecture based and even the classes I took in the maths and sciences found ways to foster class discussions, exemplifying the importance of the subject beyond the four walls of the classroom. The teachers usually had the class participate in weekly or bi-weekly harkness discussions, where the teacher would position the students in the circle, sit back, and observe the conversation that flourished without a teacher's guidance. Students were always very polite in listening to a person's argument and calmly agreeing or disagreeing. Occasionally, debates would get heated, but it was never in a vicious manner. Regardless of whether two people were friends, in the classroom they would talk and learn from one another during class time. I never felt like I was competing in order to beat someone else, I always just wanted to do better to prove something to my teachers.

College Counseling

I did not find the college counseling that I got to be especially life changing.....

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...

Admissions - Getting Accepted

When I applied to Asheville School the application process consisted of taking the SSAT, writing....

Sample insights on admissions

  • 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: the kids speak on the tour. Do not ask their questions for them...
  • 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 transferred from other New York private schools The Elizabeth Morrow School and St. Bernard were two of the larger feeder schools...

School Life

I was a day-student at Asheville School so I am not exactly an expert in this field. I did eat basically all my meals at the school and I would occasionally spend the night with one of my friends so I was on campus quite a bit. The campus was pretty diverse in terms of political views. Asheville is a unique place in that it is a liberal city surrounded by a conservative state. During my time there both the Young Republicans and Young Democrats clubs were formed. Community service was really emphasized by the school's faculty and freshman and....

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