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|  | Graduates of Quaker schools are intellectually curious and thoughtful leaders, socially responsible and confident citizens,
collaborative and creative problem solvers. Thank you to Moses Brown’s Class of 2009 for the ways you upheld our mission.Click here for a look back at the Class of 2009Students, parents benefit from powerful new college search and application resource The College Counseling office is thrilled to offer the software Naviance as a resource for students and parents. This web-based tool represents a wonderful innovation for our upper school community. Through the “Family Connection” side, the technology allows seniors to test college matches and organize applications-–and parents to participate in doing the same. The "Counselor's Office" function provides sophisticated record-keeping for our staff relating to deadlines, trends, patterns and outcomes. Our ability to pull up information at our desks as we work with students and parents has also been extremely beneficial. Ninth, tenth and eleventh grade families will also appreciate the many dimensions of Naviance. Younger students can begin assembling a co-curricular resume as they complete both MB and outside activities. Parents may obtain advice about testing and course selection as the need arises. Those who want to begin researching colleges or exploring majors can also do so. We have also added a number of valuable links to the NCAA, SAT and ACT program and financial aid resources. |
A Look Back At The Class Of '09 Helen Scotte Gordon
Director
The Class of 2009 is full of bright and original individuals. There are many talented athletes, including an All-American swimmer, a nationally ranked lightweight rower and a track star who has broken multiple records at Moses Brown. Students who excel in the arts are also prominently represented including a superb percussionist, an All-State trumpet player, and an English Speaking Union Shakespeare competition honoree. The class possesses a unique global perspective, with students who have studied in Turkey, Costa Rica and Singapore, and others who have pursued summer opportunities in Kenya and India. One student chose to read the last Harry Potter novel entirely in Spanish, another collects American artifacts such as civil war mourning pins. Just to keep things interesting, we have a set of twins in the class, a “Gaia and a Kaia”, two students with the surname of “Jones”—and an M. Scott Gordon!
Statistically, this is also a strong group. There are 4 National Merit Finalists in the Class of 2009 and 12 Commended Students. The National Hispanic Recognition Program named two Scholars in the class and one received an Honorable Mention. The mean SAT’s scores are impressive: critical reading 644, math 646, and writing 652. These averages were the second highest in 10 years!
While the academic year began amidst economic uncertainty and anxiety for families, the college admission cycle progressed astonishingly well for Moses Brown seniors.
Early decision/Action and Early Decision
Exciting news began arriving quite early, thanks to several outstanding athletes in the class. During the month of October, our male lightweight rower received a preliminary letter of acceptance from Harvard and our female swimmer signed a letter of intent with Stanford.
Once we moved into the official early decision/early action season, the favorable returns continued. Our female pole vaulter was accepted early at Yale—another thrilling decision. In mid-December, when the majority of early responses arrived, a second student was accepted at Stanford, and two each at Georgetown and the University of Chicago. Seniors also received good news from Bennington, Bowdoin, Brown, Colby, Wake Forest, Tulane, Tufts and Vanderbilt.
Under Early Decision Round II, seniors were admitted at Bates, Wesleyan, Dickinson and Tufts, among others. Overall 60 seniors applied early to one or more colleges during the fall and winter; 82% received one or more acceptances.
Regular Decision
The regular decision season continued with the same degree of success and excitement. The most popular institutions in terms of applications this year were Northeastern (17), Boston University and Tufts (both with 16), Brown (14), and 13 each at George Washington, Johns Hopkins and the University of Rhode Island. In terms of actual enrollments, the “hot” colleges are as follows: Georgetown (5—all admitted will attend!), Boston University (4) and Tufts and Colby with (3) each. Numbers aside, there was also a lot more interest in Vanderbilt and Drexel this year.
While our overall acceptance rate was slightly higher this year (55% of the 611 applications filed by the Class of 2009 resulted in admission), the competition on the national level was certainly tough. Duke and Brown received the highest number of applications on record, Wesleyan topped 10,000 candidates, and Boston College reviewed almost 29,000! Within this demanding context, we experienced amazing success at a wide range of colleges. While Georgetown typically accepts 19% of the overall pool, 45% of the Moses Brown group received happy news. At Hopkins, 60% of our seniors were admitted. The University of Chicago accepted 4 of our 5 candidates, Tufts welcomed 7 of 16 applicants, and Stanford admitted half of our small group. We were thrilled that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reached out for 2 of our 3 applicants--one landed a prestigious instrumental music scholarship. During our phone calls to discuss MB candidates in February and March, admission officers complimented our seniors over and over. “Applicants from this school are impressive,” wrote one dean of admission. Referring to an outstanding young man in the Class of 2009, one representative exclaimed: “His application blew our socks off.”
Economic concerns
More than ever before, this class looked for good values in undergraduate education. No longer do our families, even the most affluent households, presume that they must undertake a $50,000 annual investment for their college bound child.
In part related to the unpredictable economic climate, more colleges employed their waitlists this year. Many, in fact, built this expectation into their enrollment model and accepted students more conservatively during the first wave in late March. This season our seniors were happily admitted from the waitlists at Bryant, Bentley, Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth, Hobart, Middlebury, Skidmore, St. Lawrence, Union and the University of Vermont. We love helping students pursue waitlists in order to reach for the very best match possible!
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| Overview
As our retiring head of school likes to emphasize, “It’s all about the students.” This year there were many fun and interesting stories about our seniors in the college process. Some students will carry on wonderful traditions in their families. One young woman, for example, will be the fifth member of her immediate family to earn a degree from Johns Hopkins. Another will be the last of three daughters to attend Connecticut College. Several students will pursue unusual fields of study, including one young woman who will major in forestry at the University of Montana Honors College, another who will major in physical therapy at Northeastern and a young man who will explore the digital arts at Clarkson. We are proud that seniors in the process follow their own hearts and minds. Our student body president weighed Tufts and Davidson carefully—and decided to venture south. Another member of the class, a traveler and adventurer at heart, will attend Warren Wilson, also in North Carolina. (A member of the “Work College Consortium” this institution elevates equal proportions of academic study, manual labor on-campus, and service off-campus for every graduate.) Once again our kids wrote great college essays; a favorite focused on tales of exploring the United States in the family Winnebago.
Summary
In summary, we feel the list of college enrollments is wonderfully diverse. Our Quaker school students have found their best “matches”. The traditionalists within our community will be pleased to track several Ivies on the list (Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale), as well as Stanford (2), Georgetown (5), and the University of Chicago (2). Members of the New England Small College Athletic Association (NEASCAC) are well-represented with Bates (2), Bowdoin, Colby (3), Connecticut, Tufts, and Wesleyan. Seniors are also off to colleges on the West Coast, including The Claremont Consortium’s Pomona, Pitzer, and Scripps, Reed and Stanford (2). They are heading to the midwest in larger numbers, including Carleton, Northwestern and Washington University in St. Louis. The southeast region is also prominent, with enrollments at Vanderbilt, Tulane, Roanoke and Oglethorpe (named after the founder of Georgia) among others. One percussionist is heading to the conservatory at Eastman School of Music, and another creative student will study graphic arts at URI. Two graduates will attend women’s colleges.
Transitions
Helen Montague, our associate director of college counseling, has completed her first year on our staff—and tremendously enjoys being part of the MB community. She has a far-ranging knowledge of admissions and financial aid, possesses an incredible work ethic, never loses her cool, and likes to celebrate every holiday with office treats. With nearly three decades of experience in college advising, she is a true pro and an integral member of our team. We are very proud to announce that Helen received the 2009 Harry R. Carroll Distinguished Service Award at the annual meeting of the New England Association for College Admission Counseling in late May. This honor attests to her dedicated work with students and commitment to ethical standards within our profession.
Much as we celebrate Joanne Hoffman’s retirement, it is hard to see her depart. Some of you know that for fifteen years, she has reviewed every portrait that we write for each senior. (This is a substantial workload—mine, I’m a little embarrassed to admit—often run two pages single spaced!) Over the course of Joanne’s tenure, she has read 1500 of these statements. She has greeted dozens of college reps who arrive in the fall at the front door. Years ago, she was also the inspiration for our Saturday morning junior class college event. We thank Joanne for the generous support she has lent our office over the years; she has helped create a strong and vital college counseling program.
Finale
In the end, the downturn in the economy had a considerable influence on the college bound, although not a jarring or dramatic one. Similar to Moses Brown, most universities reallocated funds to their financial aid budgets to assist students and their families. All of our graduates have found a terrific match, whether it happens to be a college with a $51,000 price tag or a more reasonably priced $28,000. We sense that our students and parents are happy, our enrollment list is a diverse and textured one, and Moses Brown remains supremely well-regarded in the undergraduate world. |
| | Class of 2009 college destinations Good Luck, Moses Brown Class of 2009 as you continue the next phase of your education this fall
Bates College (2), Bennington College (1), Boston College (1), Boston University (3), Bowdoin College (1), University of British Columbia (1), Brown University (1), Bryant University (2), Carleton College (1), Carnegie Mellon University (1),
Case Western Reserve University (1), University of Chicago (2), Clarkson University (1), Colby College (3), College Prep Year (The Gunnery, Worcester Academy) (2), University of Colorado at Boulder (1), Connecticut College (1), Davidson College (1), Dartmouth College (1), University of Delaware (1), Denison University (1), University of Denver (1), Dickinson College (1), Drew University (1), Eastman School of Music of the U of Rochester (1), Franklin and Marshall College (1), The George Washington University (1), Georgetown University (5), Harvard University (1), Hobart and William Smith Colleges (1), Indian River State College (1), Johns Hopkins University (2), University of King's College (1), McGill University (1), Michigan State University (1), The University of Montana, Missoula (1), Mount Holyoke College (1), Muhlenberg College (1), The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1), Northeastern University (2), Northwestern University (1), Oglethorpe University (1), Ohio Wesleyan University (1), University of Pittsburgh (2), Pitzer College (1), Pomona College (1), Reed College (1), University of Rhode Island (1), Roanoke College (1), Roger Williams University (1), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (1), Saint Michael's College (1), Sarah Lawrence College (1), Scripps College (1), Seton Hall University (1), Skidmore College (1), Stanford University (2), Syracuse University (1), The University of Texas, Austin (1), Tufts University (3), Tulane University (1), Union College (1), Vanderbilt University (1), University of Vermont (2), Wake Forest University (1), Warren Wilson College (1), Washington University in St. Louis (1), Wesleyan University (1), Wheaton College (1), Wheelock College (1), Yale University (1)
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