Wayland Academy

Great School. Highly recommend, helped me get into a great college and was a great experience!

Mostly rich kids from Chicago and Milwaukee areas whose parents either want to ditch the kid(s) or put them in Wayland because they have disciplinary or drug/alcohol problems. As a result, Wayland is packed with drugs and alcohol and rowdy, spoiled rich kids - so they have to run it like a prison. My first week in Wayland Hall dormitory we had one kid from Chicago overdose and the EMTs came to pick him up and we never saw him again. Two days later, another of the residents of The Pit (the basement rooms in Wayland Hall) was kicked out for having heroin and needleworks. That same autumn, a faculty member was caught at the BD YMCA accosting underage boys in the sauna/steam room and he was fired and shipped off campus that weekend. Another faculty member, who was the drama coach, was also having illegal interactions with underage boys. It's a co-ed school, but the girl's dorm (Warren Cottage) for several decades had an openly lesbian supervisor (and coach/PE teacher). The teaching staff get paid squat as most of them are unaccredited (uncredentialed) recent college graduates - some of whom are working on a Master's or Ph.D. at UW-Madison and are just teaching at Wayland temporarily to pay their tuition and living expenses. Wayland gives them a free apartment in the student dorms in exchange for supervising the kids - older faculty are allowed to live in old houses that surround the campus. All faculty eat free too - including their dependents - because they get paid squat. On the plus side, the food is very good for institutional food. The Fieldhouse is magnificent. And, as a boarder, drugs and booze are easier to get than in any public high school - and you can party all night and just flop in your own bed - and every night there's a party somewhere. In Glen Dye dorm, the basement rec room is always a total party on a Friday or weekend night. Used to have a 4 foot Graphix bong down there. We smoked excellent weed, hash, opium - blotter acid, coke, MDMA/ecstasy, and mushrooms are widely available and in good quality, as the rich kids bring them back from their visits to Chicago or Milwaukee and for them price is no object. One kid had his parents give him $25,000 spending money in his own checking account every year - that's over and above tuition and room-and-board. If you want to see what Wayland cranks out, just google 'Jensen Buchanan DUI'.

I had a tremendous experience at Wayland as a student and later as a teacher and administrator. Wayland's dedicated teachers provide their students with a stellar college preparatory academic experience and a variety of character building extracurricular activities within a supportive, caring community setting. The vast, vast majority of the schools' alumni I have talked with over the years credit Wayland as a strong contributing factor in their later academic, career and community success. Mick Maier '64

I love scho

After 1 semester at Wayland, I will never go back. I would describe myself as a self-starter, individualistic and self-motivating, and now a successful professional and homeowner in Chicago at the age of 23. The rigorous structure and lack of student liberties left me very depressed. Students are required to sign in/ out of buildings as to be monitored at all times, students have very little say in what classes they want to take, and receive very little leeway from the staff regarding any matter. It felt to me like the staff saw themselves as shepherds herding a group of mindless sheep. The biggest discrepancy happened when I was enrolled by default into an Algebra 2 class against my request because Statistics was full; I had already passed Algebra 2 at my previous high school. After uselessly protesting to the dean of students, I went to the Algebra teacher and told him I've already successfully learned the material and would like to take Statistics instead. This teacher took my request somewhat personally. He began to fail my tests time after time, regardless of the fact that my answers were correct- he failed me b/c I found the answer using methods taught to me at my previous school instead of his methods. I again protested to the dean, but to no avail. His answer was along the lines of if I don't like it, I can transfer back to public school. I ended up getting my parents involved, who agreed I should not be retaking a class I already passed and that a failing grade could only stem from a personal vendetta. The Dean again denied our request. I now have an F on my high school transcript, which undoubtedly limited my options when applying to colleges regardless of an ACT score of 29. I do, however, have a friend who was able to successfully switch out of this class after reporting to the dean that she was sexually harassed by the same teacher. The fact that he wasn't fired immediately shows complete incompetence in the management system. A few years later I learned that the Algebra teacher had finally been let go.