I cannot comment on the boarding school, though it's reputation is exceptional. My son spent two…read moreweeks here attending the Berkshire Summer Music camp in June, 2019. The campus is breathtakingly stunning! Beautiful buildings set against the backdrop of mountains. It's much like a small college campus, with several dorms, and buildings housing the different academic departments. Definitely an amazing setting for learning!

I have known the school for fifty years. Darrow gave me the space, support and opportunity to…read morediscover so many skills I never knew I had. Darrow taught me to think analytically, communicate effectively and collaborate as often as possible. There is a "safeness" that exists at Darrow that allows a student to try anything. If a student fails, he will be caught. To me there is more pride in failure than never having tried. I failed many times while at Darrow. Was I negatively judged? No. Did I try something else? I did. As a consequence, I am still trying new things. Some I'm good at. Others, not so much. But thanks to Darrow I keep on trying.

We lived in a town with one of the highest-ranked school systems nationally, yet our son was not…read moreengaged. Then we discovered Darrow: a stunningly beautiful setting in the Berkshire foothills, a warm and welcoming community, and a collaborative process that turns students into partners in the education process. It transformed our son into an outgoing, enthusiastic and accomplished student and it made his extra-curricular interests blossom. The "Mountainside" is more than a school - it's the foundation for a lifetime of achievement.

What a fantastic school! It is a joyful and nurturing place and such a gift for our family!…read more My son began as a PreK student and is now in Kindergarten. At the young age of 5, he has an independent spirit and it's been instilled in him that his opinion and voice matters. He is kind, considerate, and sensitive, and he is taught that those are values to celebrate. Each day, he is encouraged to be playful and creative, indoors and out, especially in the snow! He comes home exhausted from adventures in the fairy woods, or releasing tadpoles into the pond or sending butterflies he raised to Mexico, or building a plane and flying it to Africa. He is learning math and writing and reading, but it's so joyful and instills such pride, that it doesn't feel like work. One day, I was home sick and suggested he stay home and watch movies, but he said, "Mama, we are learning numbers 7 and 8 today, and a new poem, and I don't want to miss that!" Between the Spanish and French lessons, the intro to musical instruments and sign language and poetry and yoga and skiing and ceramics and book making and wood working and on and on, he is bursting with a love of learning. And not only does BCD know and value my son, but I feel as a family, we have been welcomed and engaged by a warm group of parents from all backgrounds. Berkshire Country Day School is one of the best decisions we ever made and if you are considering it, I say, YES, do it!

Berkshire Country Day School has been fundamentally transformative for our son. He started there…read moreat the end of 5th grade, and is now in 8th. I have such overwhelmingly positive things to say about his time there, that I barely know where to start. Many schools say they treat every student as an individual, and work to ensure each individual is known, understood and given what they specifically need to grow and fulfill their potential, but BCD actually truly does that. My son has grown in a way I hoped he would, that I knew he was capable of, because BCD allowed him to. His time there has been, and continues to be, utterly inspiring and fulfilling, and he is so, so happy. He loves school! The academics are really strong and challenging, but at the same time engaging and fun. The school is not at all preppy in the way I understand that word, and is definitely what I would call progressive. The relationship between teachers and students is one of mutual respect and teachers are part of their "team", on their side and always there for them. This relationship doesn't challenge the teachers position of authority, but interestingly seems to reinforce it in a meaningful way. Every teacher he has had there has been exceptional, approachable and welcoming, and he has loved, respected and relished learning from every one of them. He is now an amazing young man who LOVES learning. He is confident and kind and caring - everything that I knew was within him, and that has been nurtured and allowed to flourish at BCD. We were awarded financial aid, as many applicants are. Don't assume you can't afford it. We are by far what you might consider the private school profile, and without the financial aid we couldn't have given our son what I consider to be the best gift we could ever give. It has still been a struggle financially, but achievable and the struggle has already paid back in so many ways. Pay for this, and college will take care of itself!

St. Mary's school has been a great and nurturing school for our children, especially in the early…read moreyears of schooling. It has small class sizes, teachers who get to know and support your kids, and a positive upbeat culture (kid-wise), as well as a good group of parents.

To preface, I attended this school from grades 4-8 (2010-2014), so it may have changed since then,…read morehowever I still feel the need to disclose my experience to any potential students and parents. The education I received at this school was subpar at best. When I began attending a public high school, I was behind, especially in math. Many of the teachers at the school were cruel and short tempered, for example I remember the preschool teachers yelling at the toddlers when they grew impatient. The after school care program was under supervised and dangerous. I remember protecting young children from being hit in the head with flying basketballs, and keeping them out of the unsupervised trouble they would have gotten into. I remember in one instance a child around 4-5 fell and inverted his elbow. it took several minutes to attract the attention of the adult who was meant to be supervising him. Moving away from the negligence and back to the subpar education, the seventh and eighth grade teacher who taught at the school for many years was under qualified and should have been fired many, many times (to my knowledge she has recently retired). We were publicly embarrassed in front of the class for low grades on projects and essays, which lead to severe stress for my friends and me. I have not felt such severe stress doing anything as I did attending school every day for those last two years. Our grades did not depend on our skill level, but rather how much that teacher liked us. She frequently lashed out and screamed at students bringing them to the point of tears for trivial reasons. We were not "bad", nobody misbehaved because we were terrified of the embarrassment, it was always over something academic, which is ridiculous. You should not punish a kid for failing, you should teach them how to do better. Our lessons revolved heavily around religion most days, which may seem like a good thing to many religious folks out there, however, I feel that I was robbed of the education my parents payed thousands for. S

i've been here for summer camp. It is an all girls summer camp and it's absolutely amazing. They…read morehave different electives that you can sign up for and you can request to be with different friends that you wanna be with. They have showcase every two weeks on a Friday the last day and the dancers and singers perform and much more!

My mom went here and she really loved it! Beautiful campus to visit! Emma Willard is in a great…read morelocation and so easy to access. I am glad to see the places where my mom used to utilize daily.

My alma mater is one of the other 4 colleges in the area but I did take a class her as part of the…read more5 college consortium. My oldest followed 2 generations and went to that school as well but my middle son marches to the beat of a different drum. So I was not too surprised when he applied to Hampshire College. My son was very carrot and stick orientated so very focused on grades and he was accepted to 9 of the 10 schools he applied for ... RPI being one of his top two choices with Hampshire being the other. I was intrigued how he would deal with a evaluation based classes. He has adjusted pretty well. So far I am thrilled with his experience and he seems to be fitting right in.

I attended Hampshire from Fall 94-98. Bridging the years where Hampshire went from the grads who…read moretook 10 years to get a diploma (LOTS of "student sabbaticals" which weren't allowed after some school changes) and the "new kids" who fell under stricter guidelines. Pre-2000, a lot of Hampshire students were left with a "sink or swim" style of education. The faculty were amazing (Marion was excellent with Tai Chi and other classes and the outdoor programs were excellent, David Kerr and others were supportive and definitely helped me stay on track. Being one of a small number of financial aid students, the feeling at the beginning of each year was incredibly stressful (if you couldn't prove you had the funds, sometimes making the difference up in cash before matriculation, you couldn't start the school year). Financial stresses aside, it was one of the best times of my life. Hampshire College gave me insights into the way I work and strengthened my belief in self worth and my ability to achieve whatever I set myself up to do. Hampshire is a direct reason why I was able to take more risks after college, pay off a tremendous amount of debt in just a few years (yeah business consulting!) and achieve a lot of the successes I have now. I learned the undergrad education wasn't so much about what I studied, but how I set goals, researched, learned, and achieved whatever I set out to do. Those lessons have given me more than any piece of lambskin was worth. Yes - there were Hipsters at Hamp before Hipsters were a "thing" and there will continue to be the trust-fund babies who opt to float through four years of f-ing around and not really doing anything but spend money and get high. There are more, way more, motivated students who are pushing themselves to be more than what most colleges and universities expect. I'd argue there are more alumni from Hampshire (graduates or drop outs) who've succeeded because they were real examples of what a Hampshire student is - motivated, dedicated, self-assertive, risk-taking, and willing to fail several times to achieve success at whatever they're doing than there are from other more "normal" schools. I loved Hampshire and while it still definitely needs to improve its alumni relations, it's a constant work in progress and it's great to see awesome kids coming and going from there still...

One of the best schools in NYS....do I need to say any further!!…read more The school was founded in 1950, serving close to 10,000 kids on a 250 acre campus running on a $177 million annual budget.

Miss Porter's School is an all girls college prep school that was founded in 1843 by local…read moreFarmington girl Sarah Porter. It is sometimes referred to as just "Farmington" or "The Farmington." The school's main building is housed in the original Union Hotel. The architecture is in the traditional federal style seen often in this area. Famous alumni include: Jacqueline Kennedy, Julia Child, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Bushes, etc. You get the picture. Students pay on average between $35,000 - $45,000. depending on if they are boarding or day students.

Miss Porter's School is a boarding school for girls, grade 9 through 12, located in Farmington,…read moreConnecticut. It is ranked number 1 all-girls school in the US. There are only about 89 students per grade, with the class average of 11 students and student teacher ratio of 1:8. It has one of the highest average SAT scores throughout high schools. Notable alumni include Jacqueline Kennedy, Gloria Vanderbilt, Dorothy Bush(Former-President Bush's sister), Dorothy Walker Bush(President bush's mother), Mamie Gummer(Meryl Streep's daughter) and Alice Hamilton. The school is very well-respected and famous donators include Oprah Winfrey. Miss Porter's School has sent many of its students to Ivy League colleges. It is difficult to get accepted to attend there. The acceptance rate of 2011 was very low according to the admissions office.

Never send your children here. They will come out depressed and suicidal. They don't care about…read moreyour feelings unless you're a "normal, unproblematic" person. They do have good arts I can't lie but its not worth the struggle

A great school, with amazing exposure to the arts! The school is 7-12th grade and has an amazing…read moreculture. Students and teachers are nice and caring