Con
By Katie Fay

Any person who has the opportunity to be educated at Deerfield Academy is truly lucky. However, students who do not come to this school their freshmen year are at no disadvantage to those members of the "Four Year Club." There are many benefits to having an extra year or two at home before coming to Deerfield.

Deerfield is a tough school to attend, both academically and emotionally. The students here are bright and very mature. In fact, many people say that being at boarding school forces a person to mature much more quickly than an adolescent who stays at home. That extra year with one's parents and old friends allows a person to ease into the high school scene at a more comfortable pace. It lets a teenager have a longer period of time to mature before entering into Deerfield, rather than being thrown into a world of young adults as little freshmen.

Having a year at another high school or finishing up a day school also gives a person another perspective on life and education. Megan Adams '00 commented, "I loved coming as a sophomore because I was able to graduate with my ninth grade class." Cohn Shaw '00 also showed enthusiasm in being a new sophomore. "High school at home was fun because I had freedom to do whatever I wanted." Yet both agree that they love DA, and they appreciate the school more because of their experiences at home. As teenagers our minds are open to different ideas and practices, and the more perspectives we can see will help us decide the way we think and act. I feel that I have benefited from going to public high school for my freshmen year. I was able to meet new people and to participate in the stereotypical high school days. The experience also has let me appreciate Deerfield more than I might have if I had nothing with which to compare this wonderful place.

Perhaps members of the Four Year Club will argue that they liked coming when every person was new, therefore allowing them to form tight friendships. Still, when we walk around Deerfield today, we see that the young freshmen groups from the past no longer exist as an exclusive clique. They are friends with people who have come to Deerfield at all different times.

The decision of when to come to Deerfield is a personal one. There can be no generalizations made about when is the right time to enter into this institution. Come graduation, we will all be Deerfield alumni, regardless of the number of years we have spent here.

Pro
By Aurora Tower

Allowing me to enter freshman year was one of the best gifts Deerfield has given me. It provided the opportunity to start completely new. I was joining a group of students who were all in the same boat, nervous and eager to make new friends. The relatively small number of freshmen at Deerfield forges a kind of intimacy within the class that is impossible to replicate in a larger class of new and returning sophomores.

I have heard it said often through the years that the older you get at Deerfield, the fewer people you know. I believe this is certainly true. The small freshmen class bonds almost immediately leaving more room to look to upperclassmen for friendship and guidance. By the end of my freshmen year I knew just about everybody in the school by name or face, Arriving later at Deerfield requires an extra effort for students to break into the groups in their own class, let alone get to make friends in other classes.

Coming to Deerfield as a freshmen also has academic advantages. You have four years to think about how to organize your schedule so that by your junior and senior years you can focus primarily on your interests rather than panicking to fulfill requirements. The longer you are at Deerfield the more academic input you will have from upperclassmen and the more confident you will be that you took full advantage of the many gifted teachers and interesting classes Deerfield has to offer.

Whether you arrive at Deerfield as a freshmen or as a postgraduate, the Deerfield experience is what you make of it. Coming as a freshmen offers a stable base for the rest of your Deerfield days, but in the end it really doesn't matter how long you attend Deerfield as long as you come away feeling satisfied that you did the most you could to take advantage of the resources here. Being a member of the Four Year Club gives you all the time, opportunity and attention you need to take full advantage of what Deerfield has to offer.