It has been a few weeks since the new school year started, and with a new year comes new students. As usual, most new students arrive with the rest of their class as freshmen. Others, meanwhile, can be seen joining in part-way either sophomore or junior year.
Considering how unique George School is, many new students are bound to have notable first impressions throughout their first weeks here. In order to learn about some of these initial takes, I interviewed a handful of the freshman class.
Curious about the background of these students , I asked about whether they had experience going to a private school before, and a majority of students said that George School was their first private school. Additionally, many students claimed that the diverse and inclusive community that GS fosters sets it apart from their previous schools. This was typically in the context of comparing it to previously attended public schools, but it also applied to a new student who had been going to Catholic school:
“It’s a lot different than my previous private school because it was all boys, so that stuff made a big difference, and it was also a Catholic school. I used to go to public school before that, so it differed from that in a bunch of ways, especially the campus.”
This leads well into the things that a lot of the new students found to stick out for them at George School. Many said that the campus was very unique due to its expansive size. Additionally, other students noted that the community and social life really shined in their eyes. From what I’ve seen around the school and in interviews, the freshmen and general new students have been quickly making friends and finding buddies. This was especially reinforced to me by one student in particular:
“I guess it’s so easy to find new people, and make new connections with other people. You know so many people in the first weeks already, and that’s probably the best thing.”
Despite the prospect of new friends, the idea of being a newbie at a unique, diverse school still has the possibility of creating anxiety, especially as a lower classman; it did for me when I was a freshman. So, I wanted to know if some of the new students had this same problem, but to my surprise, none of the people I interviewed seemed to. I even inquired whether they would feel different being a lower classman at a school they were more familiar with. In response to this, a new freshman, who held a negative view of his public school experiences, stated the following:
“I feel like I’d be in a worse situation at another school, especially if I kept going through public school. I feel like freshmen get treated badly in public schools, and I don’t know if it’s a joke or not, but here, I actually get treated okay.”
Overall, George School offers an exceptionally welcoming environment and community, and lets people open up socially. Besides, I know it did for me.
