Ian MacKensie
5/5
This is not like other boarding schools. The kids go to all the same colleges (Ivies, Stanford, MIT, well known LACs) as the Andovers and Exeters and Deerfields, but there are two big differences in my opinion.
First, Thacher integrates the outdoors (Southern California) into its education. This means a one-of-its-kind horse program plus intensive camping and outdoors activities. By the time the kids graduate, they not only love and respect the natural world, they are able to completely handle themselves in the elements. It's amazing. Second, most schools talk a big game about honor codes and mottos, but Thacher's code "Honor, Fairness, Kindness and Truth" permeates the campus in so many tangible ways. There may be better boarding school communities out there, but I've never seen one. If you want to give your kid a great education and send them off to a Stanford or a Dartmouth etc BUT you also want them to graduate with a really strong moral compass, one of those people that can be relied on in a pinch, then Thacher is the right path.
It's hard as hell to get into (under 14%) because you have to be extremely smart and motivated as well as be one of those kids who naturally gravitates toward helping others. Because it's small, about 250 kids, the admission's team is very good at getting the mix right.
What a place!
