Westtown School

Westtown is a Quaker school that inspires and educates its graduates to become stewards and leaders for a better world. It is a top boarding high school located in West Chester, Pennsylvania, 25 miles west of Philadelphia and 11 miles north of Wilmington, Delaware. The campus is beautiful and well-equipped.

School Advantages:

1. **Excellent STEAM program:** 27% of graduates major in STEM fields; mathematics curriculum uses Singapore Math; the advanced Westtown Science Institute (WSI) partners with science industry companies, universities, local community development programs, and innovative thought leaders in STEM.

2. **Outstanding Robotics:** The Metal Moose team has won 17 judges' awards in the past 15 years; the FIRST Robotics program has qualified for the World Championships five times.

3. **Strong Athletics:** In the past 20 years, Westtown School teams have won over 50 league championships. The school has 3 graduates who have gone on to play in the NBA.

4. **Excellent Art Program Outcomes:** Graduates have been accepted into prestigious institutions such as Rhode Island School of Design, Parsons School of Design, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, New York University/Tisch School of the Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Berklee College of Music, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Carnegie Mellon University, and more.

5. **Global Leadership Program:** Fosters students' global understanding through immersion in international curricula and communities, placing human relationships at the center of the student experience.

Westtown School is a century-old prestigious school located in Pennsylvania, USA. It boasts a beautiful campus environment and an academic atmosphere that is both rigorous and open. The school employs small-class teaching, emphasizing the development of critical thinking, writing skills, and leadership, while also valuing community spirit and social responsibility. Students come from diverse countries and backgrounds, learning and growing in a multicultural environment, laying a solid foundation for entry into world-class universities.

My name is Teacher Luo Li, and I have been engaged in international education and study abroad planning in China for over thirty-five years, specializing in serving high school graduates. Over the years, I have helped countless students devise their academic paths based on their unique characteristics, providing meticulous guidance throughout the entire process, from academic preparation and background enhancement to application planning. My philosophy is simple: it's not just about "studying abroad," but about enabling children to truly achieve skill enhancement and broaden their horizons.

If parents wish for their children to reach new heights in a safe, high-quality environment that prioritizes character development, Westtown School is an option worth exploring in depth. With my years of experience, I will also tailor the most suitable development path for each student.

Westtown School, established in 1799, is a top private high school with over 200 years of history. The campus covers 600 acres, roughly 5.5 times the size of Tiananmen Square, surrounded by beautiful scenery including forests, fields, and lakes. It's only a 20-minute drive from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania and 40 minutes from Philadelphia. Although the school offers lower grades, only grades 9-12 are open to international students. The boarding student ratio is 50%.

Westtown School is not an AP school because it wants teachers to focus their time on teaching, so students are not required to take AP exams. The school excels in STEM fields. The Metal Moose team has won 17 professional awards, big and small, in the past 15 years, and its First Robotics program has qualified for the World Championship five times. The school also spent $13 million to build the state-of-the-art Science Center for students, and annually 23%-27% of students choose STEM or Design & Engineering majors in college.

The upper grades average 100 students per grade. A unique feature of the school is that day students in grades 11 and 12 are required to live on campus for a period to get to know each other and foster independence. School dormitories are mainly double rooms, with policies for mobile phones. Facilities are relatively old but very welcoming.

First-hand information: This year, the ninth-grade intake for Chinese students will be three boys and three girls.

Westtown emphasizes collaborative and innovative processes in every discipline. The school's innovative arts curriculum provides students with opportunities for creative exploration, performance, and self-expression. The Science Center, a $13 million facility built by the school, features 9 classrooms equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, a design studio, an engineering lab, and a lecture hall, along with numerous advanced instruments such as spectrophotometers, 3D printers, and fluorescence microscopes.

The school's signature programs include:

Quaker Leadership Scholars Program: This program reflects the school's Quaker values, focusing on developing students' leadership skills and promoting social responsibility. It may involve service projects, ethical leadership discussions, and community engagement.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Westtown School may have programs that encourage students to explore innovation and entrepreneurship. This could include workshops, projects, and mentoring opportunities to help students develop creativity and problem-solving skills.

Environmental Stewardship: Driven by a commitment to sustainability, Westtown School may offer programs that emphasize environmental education, conservation, and sustainable practices. This could involve hands-on projects, outdoor education, and environmental advocacy.

Social Justice Initiatives: Westtown School may develop programs aimed at fostering understanding, empathy, and advocacy for marginalized communities, reflecting Quaker values of social justice and equity. This could include discussions, workshops, and projects related to social justice issues.

Data for Xicheng High School: 694 students, student-to-teacher ratio 1:8, international students 12%, boarding rate 70%, teachers with advanced degrees 64%, students of color 33%. Founded in 1799, it is a top private high school with over 200 years of history. The campus spans 600 acres, boasting beautiful scenery, including a 14-acre lake with its own beach and boathouse, as well as a botanical garden, natural forests, and an organic farm. The school aims to cultivate students with a strong sense of social responsibility, an adventurous spirit, and a broad perspective, and provides a powerful academic team to support their pursuit of higher education. Here, students can discover their strengths and talents, enhance their social responsibility and pioneering spirit, and learn and live in an egalitarian and diverse community. The arts program is exceptionally strong, especially in music, offering one-on-one private lessons for credit, taught by professional musicians. The school's fine arts curriculum is also very comprehensive, with dedicated ceramics and digital art studios, where instructors are all professional-level. Graduates are often admitted to top art institutions such as Rhode Island School of Design and Parsons School of Design.

Westtown School is a welcoming community for learning enthusiasts. As a school, Westtown aims to cultivate future well-rounded leaders. The school is highly inclusive and respects student diversity; children of any race, color, nationality or ethnicity, citizenship, religion, ancestry, gender, age, or sexual orientation are treated with respect and equality here. Westtown School is full of love and warmth, and students develop a strong sense of belonging in such a community. For students from China, they will quickly adapt and find their place here. Our previously admitted students to Westtown had TOEFL scores of 110+.

Westtown School is a Quaker, pre-K through 12th grade, co-educational, private college preparatory day and boarding school located in Pennsylvania. It offers a challenging and diverse curriculum that emphasizes action-based learning, critical thinking, collaboration, service, and social action.

Since 1799, Westtown has been dedicated to character innovation, inspiring and nurturing graduates to become stewards and leaders for a better world.

Westtown School emphasizes collaboration and innovative processes in every discipline. The school's innovative arts curriculum provides students with opportunities for creative exploration, performance, and self-expression. The Science Center is a $13 million science facility built by the school, featuring 9 classrooms equipped with state-of-the-art technology, a design studio, an engineering lab, and a lecture hall, along with numerous advanced instruments such as spectrophotometers, 3D printers, and fluorescence microscopes. The school values science and technology: 23% of its students pursue STEM, design, and engineering majors in college.

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About Teaching

Admissions Officer:
A major highlight of Westtown School is that teachers have very high expectations for students and strictly require them to review, preview, and study course material. During class, teachers highly value every student's viewpoint. Teachers believe that every student has their own unique perspective, and teachers need to integrate each student's views, rather than simply imparting everything the teacher knows to students. Teachers will synthesize each student's perspectives into a whole during discussions and exchanges, forming a more objective and comprehensive knowledge system. This is a very good point.

The school's inclusivity is excellent; no matter which country or region students come from, everyone at Westtown School helps and embraces each other.

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About the Dormitories

Admissions Officer:
The dormitories for ninth-grade girls are all double rooms with a common area. Many girls prepare their own cakes and breakfasts in the common area, which is very convenient. From 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM is evening self-study time, and some students also study in the common area; it's very quiet, and students can also discuss and exchange ideas on academic issues with each other. The ninth-grade girls' dormitory in our school is a standalone building, and there are a total of seven dormitory administrators in this building. The head administrator lives with their family in the student dormitory.
(During the visit, the admissions officer showed Ms. Lu the dormitory rooms. The dorms were tidy and spacious, and the common area was also very large.)

The dormitory building for other boarding students in the school is located at the heart of the entire campus. The first floor of this building consists of classrooms, the second floor is for 12th-grade student dormitories, the third floor is for 11th grade, and so on, in increasing order. The 12th-grade student dormitories are on the same floor, with boys and girls each occupying half, separated by a locked door to ensure student safety.

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About the Campus

Admissions Officer:
Our school is located near a lake and a forest, and the campus is surrounded by trees, making it ideal for students to engage in outdoor sports. This geographical location offers many advantages for students' choices of outdoor activities and for fostering their leadership skills. The school's medical center has doctors on duty and nurses on duty 24 hours a day, so if a student has an emergency, a doctor can arrive promptly after being contacted by phone, ensuring great safety.

At Westtown School, students need to swipe their cards to enter any building, which ensures very high security. Another feature of Westtown School is that the classroom desks have wheels and can be moved freely, providing great flexibility in space utilization. Teachers can arrange the desks and chairs as they deem fit based on the day's class situation and content.

The school's dining hall is a very important aspect for every student. The school designs meals to accommodate the dietary habits of students from various countries, including vegetarians. Therefore, the school offers a wide variety of food that is also very delicious. To cultivate and strengthen students' concept of community service, the school arranges for some students to volunteer in the dining hall on a weekly rotation, which is also very helpful for developing student leadership.

Xicheng has invested significant resources to provide first-class STEAM education. The success of the program is reflected in the subject choices made by Xicheng graduates when they attend university. 27% of the school's graduates major in STEAM subjects (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Engineering, Technology, Mathematics). In response to students' growing interest, the flourishing development of STEAM careers, and our commitment to innovation, we have a dedicated Science Center. The Science Center is home to the Xicheng Institute of Science. The school has expanded its academic offerings, adopting new curricula in STEAM subjects from elementary school to 12th grade. New courses, including engineering, robotics, digital art, linear algebra, and independent mathematics study, prepare students for an ever-evolving world.

Westside High School, founded in 1799, is a top private high school with over 200 years of history. Westside High School is a Quaker school, aiming to cultivate students with a strong sense of social responsibility, a spirit of exploration, and a broad perspective, while also providing a strong academic team to prepare them for advanced studies in higher education institutions. The campus boasts beautiful scenery, including ancient osmanthus trees, and is fully equipped with facilities, allowing students to engage in various art and sports activities. Here, students can discover their strengths and talents, enhance their sense of social responsibility and pioneering spirit, and learn and live in an equal, diverse community.

Westtown emphasizes collaboration and innovation processes in every subject. The school's innovative arts curriculum offers students opportunities for the joy of creative exploration, performance, and self-expression. The Science Center is a $13 million science center built by the school, featuring 9 classrooms equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, a design and engineering lab, and a lecture hall, along with numerous advanced instruments such as spectrophotometers, 3D printers, and fluorescence microscopes. Emphasis on STEM: 23% of students choose STEM majors in college, with the implementation of design and engineering programs.

Westtown School is located in West Chester, a small town in southeastern Pennsylvania, just over 20 minutes' drive from the renowned University of Pennsylvania and only 40 minutes' drive from Philadelphia. Academically, the school's Deep Dive Certificate Program offers students interdisciplinary learning opportunities at the high school level, such as credit courses related to Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Leadership, Global Leadership, Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice, and Data-Driven Change. Admitted students' standardized test scores are in the 95-105 range; SSAT 90%.

Westtown School is located 25 miles west of Philadelphia, 21.9 miles from Philadelphia International Airport, approximately a half-hour drive away. The campus boasts beautiful scenery, including ancient osmanthus trees, and is well-equipped with facilities, allowing students to engage in a wide variety of art and sports activities on campus. The school aims to cultivate students with a strong sense of social responsibility, a spirit of exploration, and a broad perspective. Academically, Westtown offers AP courses, honors courses, and more challenging advanced courses, focusing on nurturing students in STEAM fields, with one in four graduates choosing a STEM-related major in college. Extracurricular activities are abundant, with 24 sports teams and 57 clubs. The school has 80 full-time teachers and 22 part-time teachers; 79 of them hold advanced degrees, and 85% of the teachers reside on campus.

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5. The school's art graduates have very promising pathways, with students going to institutions like Rhode Island School of Design, Parsons School of Design, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Berklee College of Music, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Carnegie Mellon University, etc.

6. The arts program is excellent.

Drama offers winter musicals, with clubs participating in theatrical performances on evenings and weekends;

Dance includes Hiphop, Jazz, Modern, and Ballet;

The Fine Arts Department manages an art gallery where professional and student artists' exhibits can be displayed. Recent exhibitions have included installation sculptures, graffiti art, medical art, and interactive graphic design, as well as abstract and traditional painting;

Music holds four large student concerts annually at the Barton-Test Theater, also offers private music lessons, and students participate in several major statewide performances each year.

Westtown is a Quaker school that inspires and empowers its graduates to become stewards and leaders for a better world. The school is located in West Chester, Pennsylvania, 25 miles west of Philadelphia and 11 miles north of Wilmington, Delaware. Applications require a Vericant interview.

School Features

1. STEAM Program: 27% of graduates major in STEM fields; mathematics curriculum uses Singapore Math; the advanced Science Institute (WSI) has partnerships with science industry companies, universities, local community development programs, and innovative thought leaders in STEM.

2. Outstanding Robotics: The Metal Moose team has won 17 judges' awards in the past 15 years; the FIRST Robotics program has qualified for the World Championships five times.

3. Global Leadership Program: Fosters students' global understanding through immersion in international curricula and communities, placing human relationships at the center of the student experience, and equipping students to navigate an interconnected world.

4. Deep Dive Certificate Program: Includes Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Leadership, Global Leadership, Data-Driven Change projects, and more. All students who meet graduation requirements will complete this program. In junior and senior years, students will build a portfolio. Working with project advisors, students will create and complete a Capstone project to earn a certificate.

The educational value inherent in the belief 'Heaven bestows talent for a purpose' not only inspires students to discover and believe in their own abilities, but, more importantly, encourages them to champion the real-world issues they care about. The school encourages students to identify one 'world problem' among many that they wish to change, such as gender or racial pay inequality, or air pollution caused by industrial processes. To ensure the holistic shaping of students' values, the admissions director told me that during interviews, he asks students more profound questions than traditional interview questions. For instance, 'What real-world issue do you find most concerning?' He doesn't expect all students to answer with a specific world problem, but from their responses, he can infer their intellectual scope and judge their ability for independent thought. Through conversations with Chinese students and after visiting China multiple times with his wife and adopted Chinese daughter over the past decade, he has come to realize that children in the Chinese education system often find it difficult to expand micro-academic thinking into macro-social thinking. Furthermore, during the questioning segment, he pays special attention to the student's understanding of the Quaker School. Although Westtown School is a Quaker school, like most other private American schools, it does not impose specific religious requirements on students. A student's focus can reflect their thoughts, while their initiative is demonstrated through their extracurricular interests and activities. Genuine enthusiasm for a hobby isn't just talk; the effort invested is the most convincing proof. Therefore, he emphasized that while filling the interest section, it's even more crucial to ensure these hobbies are substantiated by meaningful actions.

At Westtown, students' responsibilities extend beyond academics to include participation in clubs, sports, extracurricular activities, leadership, service, and social events. Both inside and outside the classroom, the school helps children develop a deeper sense of the world than just academics. Building healthy relationships—becoming not only good students but also good friends and good citizens—is as important for children as their classroom learning. All students participate in a work program, taking turns to complete various tasks that support everything from dining in the refectory to ensuring the correct materials are sent for recycling. All students will experience this at every step of their school career. While we engage in meaningful and authentic learning experiences, we also bring fun and enjoyment – because happiness is a vital component of every student's experience.