School life, between the linesBy Admissions Diary
School stories, admissions adventures, and the things parents talk about on the way home.
School stories · New Hampshire
Schools test Archimedes' principle by putting students in cardboard boats. At St. Paul's in 2022, a coxswain who had never had to row took the helm, and the oars failed her.
School life · Los Angeles
In June 2020 Harvard-Westlake graduated 281 seniors by drive-through. A middle school dean took two one-hour shifts and could not find a moment to leave.
Traditions & rivalries · Connecticut
Taft Day 2019 ended 6-6 in Lakeville. The deciding points were earned in another state by a JV cross-country team finishing fourth.
Traditions & rivalries · Massachusetts
For years Groton's teams were the Zebras with no official zebra. In 2018 a committee code-named Operation Zebra fixed that, one eye at a time.
School stories · California · Utah
In 2009 a Webb Schools fossil expedition in Utah crossed ground the professionals had already searched. A teenager looked under a rock anyway.
Rivalries & rituals · New York City · Boston
In 1984 a Manhattan boys' school moved its founding date back a decade, past Harvard's. The oldest-school argument has no referee, and everybody knows it.
Rivalries & rituals · New England
In November 2025 the student papers at two rival New England boarding schools published a joint issue. The editors' letters explain what it cost them.
The admissions files · Beyond New York
In the winter of 2015, boarding-school parents on a forum argued about first-choice letters. One family had two children to get through it, and one school.
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.
