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Taft School

School rating 4 / 5 by

110 Woodbury Road Watertown CT 06795 United States
Boarding
9th to PG
Day
9th to PG
Gender
Coed

Academic

Taft School review by .

You will meet some amazing teachers who are very dedicated and are knowledgeable in their field; a lot of them of Ivy graduates. Great English and Science department, Math and Language departments not so great. Academic rigor depends on the classes one is taking, but most people's workloads will be challenging, especially during Junior and Senior year. However, the rigor has prepared me well for college. English courses (especially AP courses) really improved my analytical & writing skills.

College Counseling

Taft has a decent matriculation rate into Ivies and highly ranked colleges. The college counseling....

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

Be involved and passionate in extracurricular activities, but also show a "nice" personality in interviews....

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

The school tries to improve upon the facilities every year, with recent renovations ranging from the lowerclassmen girls' dorm to the Health Center, etc. Taft is considered to have one of the best food among boarding schools. With the new administration, school rules tend to be more restrictive and unreasonable, which is one of the biggest negatives; however, the close relationships between students and faculty make up for it. The school is dominated by a large number of upper middle class students, making the school sometimes too preppy and exclusive. However, students are nice and supportive of each other. ...

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