Hundreds of Prospective Students Flood Campus for Spring Second Visits
By Eli August ‘08
News Staff Reporter
Approximately 236 prospective Choate Rosemary Hall students and their parents stormed the Choate campus for this year’s Spring Visits, according to Anne Nations of the Admissions Departments. Spring visits, which this year occurred on four separate days in late March and early April, allowed visitors to catch a glimpse of what life at Choate Rosemary Hall is all about.
This year’s Spring Visits started out with visiting students and parents attending the “Why Choate” seminar in the main theater of the Paul Mellon Arts Center. To jumpstart the seminar, Choate’s Step Squad danced to the delighted whoops and hollers of the visitors. Following the Step Squad’s performance, School President Jeff Rosen ’07 congratulated prospective students on their gaining admittance to Choate, and informed the visitors, “We’re sure that today you’ll find Choate as rewarding a school as we’ve found it to be.”
The “Why Choate” seminar continued with a series of videos and speakers who outlined different aspects of life at Choate. For the “Residential Life” clip, Chelsea Laverack ’07 and Daniel Cohen ’07, both of whom will be prefects next year, described their personal experiences as boarding students. A.J. Meyer ’06 then addressed the crowd in person, reflecting on how his time at Choate “has been awesome. It’s been a really good time.”
After the prospective Choate students had learned about residential life, Katie Hartsoe ’06 appeared on stage to inform visitors about Choate’s arts program. In describing the arts program, she emphasized that “one of the best things about the arts program here is that the community is very supportive and the work eclectic.” Following Katie, Gray Sanders ’06 and Chelsea Laverack ’07 performed a scene from this year’s upcoming spring musical, “The Sound of Music.”
The student led section of the seminar capped off with speakers on behalf of both Choate athletics and academics. In the “Athletics” video, Eliot Jia ’06 spoke of his athletic career at Choate, and Varsity Tennis’ recent trip to China. Ashley Bairos ’06 explained that “the one thing [she likes] about Choate athletics is the family that you come to be a part of.” Lena Gayraud ’06 spoke to the crowd following the video, recounting that while she may not remember individual matches, “I definitely will remember the amazing spirit, camaraderie and friendship that I’ve gotten from Choate athletics.” Justin Mitchell ’06 then emphasized how “athletics at Choate are not one dimensional,” highlighting the Choate student-athlete.
The last leg of student led speeches describing Choate life detailed Choate academics. Sydney Lapeyrolerie ’06 informed the visitors how “I came to Choate because here I’ve been able to pursue all of my academic interests.” She continued, “The Choate academic program is so versatile and multi-dimensional that there really is something for everyone.” Finally, Kiran Pendri ’06 detailed his work in chemistry and his success in the Siemens-Westinghouse science competition. He recounted how, as a young freshman, he had desired to be a Hollywood actor. Pendri explained, “Academics are the lifeblood of any school, and that certainly is the case here at Choate.”
Assistant Headmaster and Dean of Academic Affairs Kathleen Wallace then spoke to the prospective Choate parents and students about the academic side of Choate. Mrs. Wallace detailed Choate’s “top notch [academic] programs.” She provided thorough outlines of the Choate economics program, Science Research Program, the math team, the international term programs, and finally the option that Choate students have for a directed study with a faculty member.
Finally, Choate Headmaster Mr. Edward J. Shanahan spoke to the throng of visitors. He congratulated the admitted students, saying, “Your talent, your tenacity, your hard work, and your vision have gotten you where you are today. You deserve high fives absolutely from everybody.” Mr. Shanahan stressed that “this is a school that prides itself on the quality, and yes, the quantity of hard work that students accomplish here every day.” Headmaster Shanahan continued by highlighting the fact that “academic rigor and individual respect and support are all essential parts of living and learning.” Following Headmaster Shanahan’s address to the crowd, the “Why Choate” seminar concluded with a question and answer session with Dean of Faculty Mr. Farrell, Mrs. Wallace, Dean of Students Mr. John Ford, and the student speakers who had spoken with the visitors earlier in the meeting.
Following the seminar, each prospective student attended classes and ate lunch with a current student host. At this time parents had the choice of either attending a class or information session of their choice. Classes from each department were open for visiting, while the information sessions included programs like “Academic Planning and College Counseling.” To culminate the Spring Visits, prospective students rejoined their parents in the Mellon Library Reading Room to hear from school officials including Reverend Marc J. Trister, Mr. Jim Yanelli, and Dr. Ben Gardner about the different aspects of life at Choate.
“Spring Visits serve a couple of different purposes. For those students who have already chosen Choate, it gives them an opportunity to become that much more familiar with the campus and the people who will be part of their lives in the future,” said Diffley. For prospective students who have not yet made a decision about where they will attend high school, “the goal is to give them a comfort level with the [Choate] community so that they can make that decision,” he added.
Mrs. Mary Verselli, director of the Communications Department at Choate, which worked alongside the Admissions Department in the Spring Visits process, hopes that after Spring Visits, prospective students will feel that “Choate is the perfect place for them to go to school.” Mrs. Verselli emphasized that one of the things that makes Choate great is that “the students here are phenomenal...the students are the greatest selling point for the school.”
This year the Admissions and Communications departments instituted a number of changes in the Spring Visits program. Mrs. Verselli explained that one of the reasons that the schedule was changed is that “the day was a little too long for families. We wanted to provide more impact and shorten the day.” This year’s morning program, instead of beginning with a student panel as it has in the past, was divided into different sections about Choate, including residential and day student life, the arts, and academics.
“What we try to do with the morning program is feature different aspects of life at Choate that we thought students would have questions about,” said Verselli.
Another major change for this year’s Spring Visits was the schedule for prospective parents. In previous years, visiting parents all attended one program for the entire day. This year, however, parents had more choice in determining the structure of their day at Choate; they were given the option of attending various classes and/or information sessions. Mr. Diffley stated that the changes in parents’ schedules have been instituted because “[the Admissions Department] got the sense that the classroom experience would be something the parents would enjoy.”
Overall, Mr. Diffley felt that “so far [Spring Visits] have gone pretty well. This campus community always seems to rally and respond in a great way when people visit campus, and typically that comes through when families are visiting.”
