School life, between the linesBy Admissions Diary
School stories, admissions adventures, and the things parents talk about on the way home.
School portraits · New York City
A Chapin gym class turned foam into javelins and a line on the floor into law. We tried it in the backyard.
The admissions files · New York & beyond
Private school applications ask parents to describe their child. Two parents on a forum explained what worked: skip the adjectives, tell one story. One story involved a vacuum cleaner.
Parent life · Boarding-school families
On a boarding-school parents' forum, one mother explained her family's position on the laundry service. It changed every year, and every year it was correct.
The school archives · Andover, Massachusetts
At Andover, the head of school announces a surprise holiday by walking into dinner with a field-hockey stick. In January 2007 the announcement came by email instead, at 8:19 p.m. It was a hoax.
Rivalries & rituals · New Jersey & Pennsylvania
For more than a century, Lawrenceville's football captains wore an unwashed red shirt before the Hill game. The rule covered winning and losing. In 1932 the game ended 7-7.
School portraits · San Francisco Bay Area
Nueva's Quest project asks seniors to start with a vague idea. One pianist decided everyone played piano and took up the loudest instrument she could think of. In college, people call her the bagpipe girl.
School portraits · New York City
Dalton builds one-to-one Lab time into teachers' and students' schedules. Two alumni remembered what it was good for, and where they went to escape the rest.
School portraits · New York City
A St. Bernard's teacher told his eighth-grade actors to play to an imaginary listener in the back of the balcony. Twelve years later he came to his student's Broadway show to check.
School portraits · Exeter, New Hampshire
In a 2014 English class, students recited the alphabet as a group with one rule: never two voices at once. They stalled on purpose, and the reason was a kindness.
School portraits · Boston
A Boston senior's friends call him pretentious for liking coffee. He has a counterargument about spoons. Then the whole school goes to camp and the students cook.
School portraits · Ojai, California
Every ninth grader at Thacher gets a horse and a stall to clean before class. In 2013 a parent told the school what that word had meant to her family.
School portraits · New York City
At a Manhattan girls' school, the class of 2024 turned the lobby into a red carpet on senior prank day. Everyone posed, before first period.
