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Hill School

School rating 4 / 5 by

860 Beech St. Pottstown PA 19464 United States
Boarding
9th to PG
Day
9th to PG
Gender
Coed

Academic

Hill School review by .

The faculty at Hill School, in my opinion, was exceptional. The majority of the teachers lived on campus, which made extra help very easy to get. With small classes, it was easy to become very close to the teachers, and I still keep in touch with a few of them and use them as references. The students themselves were divided into three very separate groups: the athletes, the rich kids, and the studiers. While Hill forces these groups to mix to some extent (after-school sports requirements, for example), in my experience, the groups were very stalwart. If you don't fall into one of these groups, don't bother attending. A huge divide was also present between boarding students and day students. Much more emphasis needs to placed on the arts at Hill. Only recently have I heard that they've started encouraging after-school arts programs in place of the sports requirements. Their theater is incredible, and being part of the tech crew was one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. Their theater is actually much better than my current college one. The average work load at Hill is rather impossible at times. Running 6 days a week wears down most of the student population, and around January, a good chunk of the campus comes down with mono, or other intense sicknesses. Breaks are nicely long in size, yet at the end of your term at Hill, you'll wonder how you ever survived at all. Classes at Johns Hopkins seemed like a joke compared to high school. The main problem Hill needs to address is their treatment of in-coming students. I moved back to the US my junior year of high school...and found a relatively unfriendly environment. It took me nearly the 2 full years I attended to feel comfortable and accepted at Hill, yet there was always bias aimed at me. My college counselor honestly told college representatives that I shouldn't be accepted because I hadn't attended boarding school for the full 4 years. I understand that Hill's monetary advancements rely on generation after generation attending Hill, but they need to work on accepting new faces otherwise attendance will wither in the coming decades.

College Counseling

Hill has a special "college prep" class they make all juniors go through, however their....

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

Attending the Hill's feeder-school (Wyndcroft School, Pottstown, PA) basically guarantees your spot in the in-coming....

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

Quality of life is definitely better as a boarding student than a day student. I boarded my senior year at Hill and found it to be a much better experience than the year before. It's great having friends living next door, and most of the teachers are in the dorms as well. It's a bit odd not having co-ed dorms, or even being allowed in the dorms of the opposite sex, but Hill is a bit old-fashioned that way. Meals are excellent, though required. The food is superb, and is served in a family-style atmosphere, with tables assigned to each....

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