What would it be like to attend Choate? Would you have liked to go to school there? Would you send your kids there?
Obviously, I didn’t go there :smack:
My college roommate went there. He was a snob. He also complained all the time about the cocaine transporting scandal they had a few years before (this was the 80’s). Some of those guys were friends of his.
Other than that, I know nothing.
My mother-in-law taught English and theater arts there for about 15 years until her retirement. My sister-in-law attended grades 10-12 there. It looks and feels like a small New England college campus but the kids are 4 years younger. It’s quite insular (the town of Wallingford is fairly blue-collar and has had some racial issues–KKK if I recall correctly) and the majority of students are from white, well-to-do families. Not the kind of place I would feel comfortable in, but it does have excellent academics and a certain cachet. If you are looking for a prestige prep school with the homogeneous feel of a small liberal arts college (think Bowdoin or Amherst), Choate/Rosemary Hall is your place. IMHO, obviously.
I just moved from Connecticut to Arizona with my wife. However, I routinely saw kids from Choate coming to the college I taught at. Essentially, if you are looking for great academics with not a lot of diversity, Choate is the school for you. However, there are others like Prout , Pomfret and Concord Academy that have more diversity with the same elitist values. As for straight academics, I’d say 6 of one half dozen of the other, they are all relatively the same.
Out of curiosity why do you ask?
I was reading my American Presidents book and I saw JFK attended Choate. I always wondered what it would be like to attend an exclusive school like Choate. When I graduated from high school I actually sent and application to Brown, knowing I wouldn’t be accepted, but just for the thrill of applying. I have traveled all around the USA and I have a strange fascination with visiting universities just to feel their vibes.
I understand exactly what you mean. Having taught at a top New England private college, I understand the esoteric value oild colleges and universities have. The rock walls, granite buildings, ivy covered halls…I love it too.
Many universities are just blah 70s and 80s type architecture with a couple modern art sculptures tossed in the middle, but others are truly fascinating. The fist time I saw the U of Chicago I was dumbfounded (rightfully so), it looks like a medieval fortress rose up in the middle of city neighborhood. U of Colorado is interesting too, most of the buildings are made using a rough stone architecture, very nice. Then there’s the U of Wisconsin with it’s hills and lakes. OK, that’s it, new thread time. 
I’ll weigh in, I guess. I attended Deerfield Academy, just down the road from Choate. In fact, we were rivals, and had several all-day events where all of our athletic teams faced off against each other. I got to see the campus several times, and while it was less ‘quaint’ than Deerfield (a lot more modern looking), from all I understand, it is an excellent school.
I assume they used the same model we did (common throughout New England prep schools) for their curriculum- it was very much a renaissance man system, wherein athletics and oratory were very much integrated into academic life. We were expected to be able to run 5 miles, recite poetry, debate philosophy, solve for x, critique art, draw a still life, set a formal table, all without getting our sportcoats wrinkled.
While a lot of people are turned off by the culture of these schools, I can say that it was probably the best environment for me to have grown to adulthood in.
A young friend of mine attended Choate. He can not spell to save his life, and he is socially stunted.
They made a lot of effort to make it sound better than it really is.
New Report Reveals Decades of Sexual Abuse at Elite Connecticut Boarding School
If that scandal is what I’m thinking of, I saw a movie dramatizing it last year.
As for the sexual abuse scandal, Choate is only the latest in a string of private schools that have had them recently.