Amid a schedule overhaul and a new iPad initiative, another change coming next year is in fifth and sixth form dorms. Four dorms — Lewis, Pierce, Woodhouse, and Lowndes — will be switching the forms they house. Lewis is replacing Pierce and becoming a fifth form girls dorm, and Pierce is returning to a sixth form girls dorm. Woodhouse is becoming a fourth and fifth form boys dorm, and Lowndes is going to be a sixth form boys dorm again.
All of these changes are occurring because the class of 2018, the current junior class, is somewhat smaller than both the class of 2017 and the class of 2019. More beds are needed for next year’s sophomores and juniors, and less are needed for the future seniors.
These changes are also occurring because the school has approximately 640 boarding students every year and only around 643 beds. Mr. Will Morris, the Director of Residential Life, said, “We pretty much fill every single space, which means that we have to be very careful about getting it all planned out so that everybody has some place to come back to.”
In order to decide the housing pattern for each year, Mr. Morris first accounts for the number of boarding students who are returning the next year. Next, the admissions team tell him how many new boarders they accepted into the school, and they give a rough estimate of how many of those they think will, in fact, enroll at Choate. Mr. Morris said, “From a planning perspective, the time to really figure out housing patterns would be after we hear back from all the newly admitted students, so that we actually know how many students we have. But that doesn’t line up with the prefect selection process.”
The possible dorms are decided on before future prefects come back for the spring term. This way, the juniors who applied have an idea of where they will be living next year, and those reviewing the prefect applications know how many prefects the school will need for the upcoming year. Mr. Morris said, “Last year we wound up in a situation where the numbers for the junior class were so small that we had two small fifth form dorms, Pierce and Lowndes, that didn’t have any prefects.” When possible, prefects are always preferred.
Woodhouse and Lewis house were chosen because they are slightly larger and therefore have the space for prefects and the additional sophomores and juniors who will live there. Ms. Sorrells, a math teacher and the Lewis house adviser, has never advised in an under-form dorm. She said, “I’ve also never had a prefect before; it will be fun to have someone to work with, someone to help me get to know the girls better, decorate the dorm and that sort of fun stuff.”
Since the new houses are decided on so early, they have potential to change because the admissions committee cannot be certain on how many people will chose to attend Choate next year. Mr. Morris says, “It’s a big puzzle. It’s a lot of fun to sit down and figure it all out, but we know that there are going to be other changes that we have to make even this spring.”
