Midland School

PO BOX 8

Los Olivos, CA 93441

7 Reviews

School District
Grade

9-12
Type

private

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Reviews

Submitted by other on December 03, 2020

Midland is a place unlike any other. A rigorous school on a gorgeous campus. Midland gives students real responsibility, teaches self-advocacy, self-reliance, and working as a team. To see the growth in a student from 9th grade to 12th is incredible. Everyone at Midland is known, seen, and heard. Class sizes allow for every teacher to help support students and with teachers living on campus, students can seek help whenever needed. While Midland is not a truly completive school when it comes to athletics, the extra-curriculars are phenomenal. Natural Horsemanship and Outdoor Leadership are favorites of mine. Where else can you saddle up your horse or pack an overnight pack and head out onto 35 miles of trails right outside your cabin door. And the food! Midland's 10-acre organic garden provides ingredients for the best homemade meals in Stillman Dining Hall. They also raise their own meat, but always have vegetarian and vegan options for those who wish. Midland is a place you really have to see for yourself to experience the magic of the community and campus. You will not regret it!
Submitted by parent on October 06, 2020

My daughter attended Midland for one year, and I’m sorry to say it was an awful experience. During our application process, we double-checked with the school that our daughter’s learning disability was something they could handle. We didn’t want to set our child up for failure, obviously! They assured us that she was welcome. We sent her, and right away she started experiencing problems. The teaching staff seemed unaware of my daughter’s learning disability, and the learning specialist was no help. We drove down to Midland on multiple occasions to meet with the Dean, who couldn’t have cared less. My daughter was relentlessly bullied by the other girls in her class, to the point she didn’t even want to shower (the showers are communal). The adults refused to get involved. We decided to pull our child out of the school because she had become suicidal. Nobody at the school reached out to ask why we unenrolled. On the plus side, the food was good and the horse program is exemplary.
Submitted by parent on February 27, 2020

Midland put my son on a trajectory to be a leader in anything he does, specifically supporting and advancing those around him to be happier and more successful in their own endeavors.
Submitted by principal on February 27, 2020

Midland provides the most incredible academic and community experience of any school I've come across. The intentional stance on technology use blends beautifully with the rustic, nature-focused campus.
Submitted by other on July 24, 2019

I hated it here. The headmaster only cares about money and has no personal connection to any of the students, despite living on the same campus. The dean of prefects is sexist, narcissistic, and power hungry. He is a hypocrite. He will say he is open for a discussion when something controversial happens (like him changing sleepover rules day of) but when students politely try to talk to him, he will wave his finger in their face, interrupt them, and is quicker to shut down girls and even is female colleagues.
Submitted by other on January 16, 2017

Few schools empower you the way Midland does. The school's experiential learning coupled with its student run maintenance program gives students the skillset to pursue and build their own projects. For instance, learning how to weld opened a whole world of opportunities for tinkering and building objects whether artistic or utilitarian. These skills engage the body with the mind and make you a resourceful individual.To further build confidence, the school organized several week long backpacking trips. These journeys into the wild helped me find peace in an often-chaotic world filled with digital media and its associated distractions. The experiences gave joy and fun from the simple company of friends and the outdoors, without the superfluous world of consumer goods. It also empowered me, as I new I could survive on my own. As a junior in high school I became very interested in organic farming. It was the mid nineties and the movement was starting to find a resurgence, albeit, not the commercial success it is today. So I began by growing my own little vegetable garden by my cabin. Over the course of the year, I further pursued this interest and spent the following summer working on an organic farm. When I returned my senior year, I was the founding student for the school’s organic garden, which is in operation to this day.
Submitted by other on January 13, 2017

Attending Midland was one of the best decisions I ever made. Midland lives its philosophy of needs not wants every day. Students live in wood cabins. There is no custodial service. I learned to chop wood and make a fire, in order to heat the shower water. I learned how to use a router, which a teacher taught me to use and I created a sign for the Midland Radio Station. I learned to hike--high in the mountains--for a week with only a pack on my back. But I also gained an excellent education. The small community and low student-teacher ratio meant that I got to know my teachers. I sought them out. They helped me where I needed assistance and they pushed me to excel where I could push ahead. When I arrived at Stanford, I felt prepared academically. And I felt prepared to get to know my professors. More importantly, though when I became an adult, I felt prepared to be one. Because Midland taught me to be self-reliant and it taught me how to be a good citizen and how to live in a community.
Submitted by student on October 19, 2011

It's much more than just a high school. To this day, I still think I owe more of my formation to Midland than to the much more prestigious undergraduate or graduate institions. The school has a very healthy mix of student body. Not everyone is obsessed with the academics and not everyone strolls down the walk of glamour before or afterwards. But that's what makes one appreciate the wholistic view of the very distinct echelons in the society, which becomes much harder to grasp once you are locked into a settled demography in the university. The sense of community and collegial kinship takes precendence over any preconceived notion of success. As a student at midland, it's all what you make out of it. Sure, it doesn't have all the upper level science courses like those being offered at schools like Thomas Jefferson or even at Exeter, yet all the resources do stay at the students' disposal. In a realistic way, no one is shielded from failure, which also happens aplenty. And yet no one is left untransformed. You should definitely talk to the current teachers, cuz with the exception of the Mungers and the Cummings, most do not stay long and the culture tends to evolve rather quickly.