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Middlesex School

School rating 4 / 5 by

1400 Lowell Road Concord MA 01742 United States
Boarding
9th to 12th
Day
9th to 12th
Gender
Coed

Academic

Middlesex School review by .

Overall, I have been amazed by how well Middlesex prepared me for college. The intensity of discussion, the difficulty of grading and the amount of course work are all very similar to that which I've experienced in college. Middlesex has very strong faculty across all departments. The one area where I found that their faculty was not entirely up to par was in history, in which they seemed to have a number of individuals hired to staff positions (administrators, coaches) teaching. While some of them where on part with the rest of the department (which is very talented), some fell short. However, besides these few sub-par history teachers, I had very positive experiences with every department. The student body can, at times, be extremely competitive. However, at the end of the day students would much rather help their peers than surpass them academically. Classes in humanities are almost all discussion based and math and sciences classes are almost all lecture based. Classes are invariably small. The largest class I was in had 15 students, the smallest had 4. Small class sizes are an essential part of the Middlesex experience as they allow a close bond with both other students in the class and faculty. Faculty members are universally accessible. All faculty members are accessible at all times via email, many can be found in their classrooms or residences on campus, and many even give out their personal phone numbers to students. Faculty are always willing to make themselves available to help students with difficulties. For particularly advanced students, middlesex offers one of the most advanced curriculums I've heard of at a high school, with math classes up to vector and multivariable calculus, numerous AP courses, and a general intelligence of student body which makes even regular courses advanced. The work load can be daunting at times. Living in a residential community where it is not unheard of to be scheduled from 8am to 7:30pm on a given day and then having several hours of course work can make middlesex exhausting at times. However, the faculty understands how demanding the school is, and all students are in the same demanding situation and help one another through it.

College Counseling

I had an extremely positive experience with Middlesex's college office. They begin the college....

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

Middlesex's admission policy is very similar to many peer schools. Perhaps the only notable....

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

While the stresses of academics and multiple extra-curricular activities can be many, quality of life is generally very good. Students find a way to establish an equilibrium between their work and their social life and their own leisure. With the sheer amount of work required of students and classes six days a week, it is almost impossible to have a perfect quality of life, but the feeling of accomplishment provided by achieving at a very high level as Middlesex demands makes up for what at times are very long weeks. Their is ample support for students as the faculty....

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