Athol Murray College of Notre Dame
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Anonymous
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I've recently stumbled upon a hidden gem in Canada; especially for anyone who plays ice hockey. This school is called Athol Murray College of Notre Dame. It's over 100 years old and has had over 200 hockey players who've signed or been drafted by NHL teams go through its hockey programs. Apparently, they also have very strong academics and multiple other sports. We're going to go for an in-person tour this summer, as we've considered several New England-based private schools for our son, but the costs were astronomical compared to this school, where it's just $43,000.00 Canadian (so with our dollar, far better) for tuition/room/board. We've called Admissions and they said that they have over 20 other American students in their dorms, which is nice to hear as well. I don't know if they usually do visits during summer, but here is their admissions page on their website. https://www.notredame.ca/admissions/welcome-to-notre-dame
I'll let you all know more after our visit later this month. |
Anonymous
| Knew a guy that played hockey there in the 80's, total hockey factory and VERY Canadian, at least back then. |
Anonymous
Well if anything, Canadians are supposed to be friendly, so that's... good? Haha. I don't know anyone who went there, but again, I didn't know of this place until a week ago or so when we were at the CCM Showcase and saw the booth. |
Anonymous
| Totally OT, but Murray of Athol is a major Scottish clan. |
Anonymous
Apparently Athol Murray was of Scottish descent, so makes sense. |
Anonymous
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OP here. We recently went for our tour/visit at this school and as promised, I'm back to provide an update.
Athol Murray College of Notre Dame. It's rural. Very rural. The community it is located in (Wilcox) has about 200 residents, so more than twice as much when school is on. I'll give you some point form information on this place. Affordable - $43,000.00 Canadian for the full year for a kid that plays ice hockey (just over $33,000.00 USD with today's exchange rate). Even less for those that don't play ice hockey at $37,000.00 Canadian (28,500.00 USD). Catholic, but welcoming of all belief systems. Have a cool building on campus called Tower of God with Catholic, Jewish and Islam religions represented equally. Mainly boarding - 90% of students live on campus in the dorms. Athletic - Nearly everyone plays hockey (Canada, go figure), but they encourage multisport athletes and offer many other sports. Rugby teams (male and female) both just won provincial (basically, State) championships again. Great Workout Gym - Honestly, it's incredible. It's better equipped than the gym I pay to use (or should I say, pay to mostly ignore?). Small classroom sizes - They said average of 16-to-1 for students-to-teachers. Better than the 30+ we see currently. Academically strong - students going to Brown and Princeton among other schools from this grad class alone. Last year nearly 80% of students were Honors students. Lots of extra help available before/after school and on weekends. Ice Hockey - Someone said it's a hockey factory earlier. They were not wrong. I don't think anywhere compares to the hockey facilities and history (Shattuck's included). Over 200 former students played or signed with NHL teams, which leads me to believe many more played minor pro or in Europe. Lots of scholarships earned, etc. One of the biggest things though, it's friendly. Everyone we met went out of their way to make us comfortable. We toured the dorms, classrooms, hockey facilities, etc., and everyone was very welcoming. As for the dorms, they're larger than expected. They're not the fanciest, but they have what you need - bed, locker and storage space, study desk. Four people per room, two sets of bunk beds. They ask for a clean room daily, do checks, chores, work hours. Seems like a straight forward approach to things. Cell Phone Policy - no cell phones during school hours or over night. Apparently, the kids get them after school until curfew and hand them in nightly. They also get them all weekend. They did say that if someone needs to call home they just ask and it's fine. All in all, very great tour. I hope I covered everything. Rolling Admissions, so still accepting applications, unlike most of the East Coast schools (we missed the boat on this, unfortunately). |
Anonymous
That's boarding costs and everything at $28,500.00? It's nearly 70 grand where we're sending our son out east! |
Anonymous
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Be careful! This school is like a trade school. It prepares your son for professional hockey, either in the North American Junior Leagues or foreign Junior Leagues
If you expect your son to be able to attend and play college hockey as a fallback, he will have very few/if any transferrable high school credits for NCAA eligibility. There are differences between the US and Canadian educational systems. |
Anonymous
Obviously. |
Anonymous
This school actually follows the NCAA eligibility requirements and has 6 or 7 kids with NCAA scholarships this year to Princeton, Brown, Maine, Umass-Lowell, Merrimack, etc. All credits are transferable. I don't know where you got your information from. |
Anonymous
| Transparent marketing. |
Anonymous
I'm not the parent of a trans student, nor am I marketing. We sent our girl to Shattuck's in Minnesota, but we considered this school as well. We just wanted to keep her within the US as it was easier to travel back and forth. |