Woodberry Forent School?

[Anonymous]

Can anyone tell me anything about Woodberry Forest School? Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

Graduate who is still very involved. It's a fabulous place with unmatched resources, a beautiful campus and amazing faculty. But you have to buy into the single-sex boarding plan and also not care about sports specialization. I recruited two kids who just finished junior year and both have loved it. Relatively new headmaster is fabulous. You have to see the campus to really understand the place.

[Anonymous]

Good place if you're looking to ditch your kid for the rest of his childhood, and don't mind risking the chance that he could end up a little bit rednecky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good place if you're looking to ditch your kid for the rest of his childhood, and don't mind risking the chance that he could end up a little bit rednecky.

+1 on rednecky warning.

[Anonymous]

What do you mean by rednecky - into guns and intolerant or just saying y'all? How academic is it and how good is their college admittance? Also, how often do they get to come home since they have Saturday classes? I get the sense that the school is not as good as it used be academically.

[Anonymous]

Your 8th grader can do an overnight stay there. After doing that, DC decided not to attend. I thought the school looked pretty fantastic, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good place if you're looking to ditch your kid for the rest of his childhood, and don't mind risking the chance that he could end up a little bit rednecky.

+1 on rednecky warning.

?? I find this an amazing comment. The 3 guys I know who've gone there recently are from the Chapel Hill area and about as "old family," moneyed, and non-rednecky as you can get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good place if you're looking to ditch your kid for the rest of his childhood, and don't mind risking the chance that he could end up a little bit rednecky.

+1 on rednecky warning.

?? I find this an amazing comment. The 3 guys I know who've gone there recently are from the Chapel Hill area and about as "old family," moneyed, and non-rednecky as you can get.

What’s the culture like at the school? Any drugs? Partying? Truancy? Cheating?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good place if you're looking to ditch your kid for the rest of his childhood, and don't mind risking the chance that he could end up a little bit rednecky.

+1 on rednecky warning.

?? I find this an amazing comment. The 3 guys I know who've gone there recently are from the Chapel Hill area and about as "old family," moneyed, and non-rednecky as you can get.

What’s the culture like at the school? Any drugs? Partying? Truancy? Cheating?

They're obsessed with sex, since there are no women around.

[Anonymous]

Seems weird. I don't get bording schools why do people ship off kids in those few precious years you can be together?

[Anonymous]

It's a diverse mix of traditional Southerners, Texans, and groups from NYC, California, Denver, and a lot from Northern Virginia. More diverse than you might think, incl around 10% intl (mostly China but smattering elsewhere). Single sanction honor code and basically same for discipline means booze and drugs are very under the radar.

Extremely loyal alumni - around 70% give annually - so they have funds to invest in almost everything.

Colleges tend Southern (UVA, UNC, Davidson, etc.) but probably 30% attend selective schools in NE or otherwise outside the south.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by rednecky - into guns and intolerant or just saying y'all? How academic is it and how good is their college admittance? Also, how often do they get to come home since they have Saturday classes? I get the sense that the school is not as good as it used be academically.

That the irony of this statement obviously goes over your head, PP, is my best laugh of the evening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a diverse mix of traditional Southerners, Texans, and groups from NYC, California, Denver, and a lot from Northern Virginia. More diverse than you might think, incl around 10% intl (mostly China but smattering elsewhere). Single sanction honor code and basically same for discipline means booze and drugs are very under the radar.

Extremely loyal alumni - around 70% give annually - so they have funds to invest in almost everything.

Colleges tend Southern (UVA, UNC, Davidson, etc.) but probably 30% attend selective schools in NE or otherwise outside the south.

I'm an alum with pretty mixed feelings about the place. For starters, it is far from rednecky but it is very Good Ol' Boy with extreme affluence. Which means white boys who love SEC football, wearing ball caps and using smokeless tobacco. But their vehicles are Tahoes and Grand Cherokees, not pickup trucks, their hunting is at exclusive game preserves or luxurious duck blinds, not tree stands in the local forest, and their Alabama fandom is demonstrated by watching the national championship game from club level suites, not in a sports bar.

It is unapologetically conservative, as embodied by the one strike and you're out policy on the Honor Code and alcohol/drugs. The resources there are virtually unlimited - it is one of the richest schools in the country on an endowment per student basis, which is north of $500,000 per student and climbing toward one million. My hope for Woodberry is that it will use those resources to become more like Davidson and less like Hamden-Sydney - a bastion of learning in the south, rather than a manifestation of traditional southern culture. But I haven't really seen much movement in that direction.

Also, the idea that one-third of the student body goes to school outside the south is way off base. Here's the 2016 matriculation list: https://bbk12e1-cdn.myschoolcdn.com/ftpimages/51/misc/misc_134834.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a diverse mix of traditional Southerners, Texans, and groups from NYC, California, Denver, and a lot from Northern Virginia. More diverse than you might think, incl around 10% intl (mostly China but smattering elsewhere). Single sanction honor code and basically same for discipline means booze and drugs are very under the radar.

Extremely loyal alumni - around 70% give annually - so they have funds to invest in almost everything.

Colleges tend Southern (UVA, UNC, Davidson, etc.) but probably 30% attend selective schools in NE or otherwise outside the south.

I'm an alum with pretty mixed feelings about the place. For starters, it is far from rednecky but it is very Good Ol' Boy with extreme affluence. Which means white boys who love SEC football, wearing ball caps and using smokeless tobacco. But their vehicles are Tahoes and Grand Cherokees, not pickup trucks, their hunting is at exclusive game preserves or luxurious duck blinds, not tree stands in the local forest, and their Alabama fandom is demonstrated by watching the national championship game from club level suites, not in a sports bar.

It is unapologetically conservative, as embodied by the one strike and you're out policy on the Honor Code and alcohol/drugs. The resources there are virtually unlimited - it is one of the richest schools in the country on an endowment per student basis, which is north of $500,000 per student and climbing toward one million. My hope for Woodberry is that it will use those resources to become more like Davidson and less like Hamden-Sydney - a bastion of learning in the south, rather than a manifestation of traditional southern culture. But I haven't really seen much movement in that direction.

Also, the idea that one-third of the student body goes to school outside the south is way off base. Here's the 2016 matriculation list: https://bbk12e1-cdn.myschoolcdn.com/ftpimages/51/misc/misc_134834.pdf

And what, exactly, is wrong with the manifestation of Southern culture. It beats Northern “culture,” such as it is, any day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a diverse mix of traditional Southerners, Texans, and groups from NYC, California, Denver, and a lot from Northern Virginia. More diverse than you might think, incl around 10% intl (mostly China but smattering elsewhere). Single sanction honor code and basically same for discipline means booze and drugs are very under the radar.

Extremely loyal alumni - around 70% give annually - so they have funds to invest in almost everything.

Colleges tend Southern (UVA, UNC, Davidson, etc.) but probably 30% attend selective schools in NE or otherwise outside the south.

I'm an alum with pretty mixed feelings about the place. For starters, it is far from rednecky but it is very Good Ol' Boy with extreme affluence. Which means white boys who love SEC football, wearing ball caps and using smokeless tobacco. But their vehicles are Tahoes and Grand Cherokees, not pickup trucks, their hunting is at exclusive game preserves or luxurious duck blinds, not tree stands in the local forest, and their Alabama fandom is demonstrated by watching the national championship game from club level suites, not in a sports bar.

It is unapologetically conservative, as embodied by the one strike and you're out policy on the Honor Code and alcohol/drugs. The resources there are virtually unlimited - it is one of the richest schools in the country on an endowment per student basis, which is north of $500,000 per student and climbing toward one million. My hope for Woodberry is that it will use those resources to become more like Davidson and less like Hamden-Sydney - a bastion of learning in the south, rather than a manifestation of traditional southern culture. But I haven't really seen much movement in that direction.

Also, the idea that one-third of the student body goes to school outside the south is way off base. Here's the 2016 matriculation list: https://bbk12e1-cdn.myschoolcdn.com/ftpimages/51/misc/misc_134834.pdf

And what, exactly, is wrong with the manifestation of Southern culture.

For me, as a WFS student in the 80s, it was primarily the reflexive casual racism, unquestioned homophobia, and resistance to engaging with new ideas.

But also all the cups full of dip spit.