ASMS is a school for mentally gifted students who want to persue a learning experience more advanced than a typical high school. Considering most of Arkansas, moving to ASMS can mean a drastic difference in how much and what you learn. The school is located in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which is a bit southwest of Little Rock. The building used to be the St. Joseph's Hospital, but that organization moved to a recently constructed building. Thus, ASMS is contained inside a hollowed out hospital building. The portion of the building that houses students, also known as the Residential Life Building (RLB), used to be the old hospital rooms. Also contained in the RLB is the residential library, cafeteria, computer lab, and mail room. A glass walkway spans from the second floor of the RLB to the Administration Building (ADMIN). This building used to be operation rooms and doctors offices; now, it serves as classrooms, offices, and the ASMS headquarters. So, students can attend weeks worth of classes without even going outside.

Life at ASMS can be trying at times. Since, students are living away from home, and no one is the "college age" yet, the administration must play "parent" and keep eyes and restrictions on the students. Many are tiresome and annoying, but each have a "practical" purpose. For instance, the dorms are separated into males and females, according to floor and wing of the building. Being so, males are not allowed on the "female" designated floors and females are not allowed on the "male" designated floors, unless in the company of a parental or RLB escort. Other students may not direct those of opposite gender to their rooms, not under any circumstances. Survailence cameras update the security personel of any infractions upon the above and other codes.

At 10:30pm and midnight, there are room checks to make sure the students have returned to their dorm rooms. Between 10:30pm and 6:30am (or about that), all the double doors in the building are magnetically sealed to prevent accessing "restricted" elevators and moving from a boys floor to a girls floor. Also, students are not allowed to leave the campus during regular school hours or after 9:30pm. To leave, a student must check out at the front entrance. Also, a student must leave in the company of another student, unless it's dark, in which groups leave on in parties of greater than four. Annoying? Yes.

Each room has a phone access, but no ethernet or separate internet line. There is an internal network set up already, but it must be powered and monitored by the computers in the server room (next to the computer lab, and off limits to students). The higher ups don't feel that this feature is necessary, so the internal network remains down. Also, the rooms are organized as suites, with two students sharing one room, a sink, and a toilet, and two rooms sharing a bath. Ironically, all boys have bathtubs, but only one girl's room has a bath. Oftentimes, girls complain about having to shave in the shower. It makes me laugh sometimes.

Cars are allowed, but can only be driven on weekends. During the week, keys are turned in to the front desk and are kept until Friday afternoon. Keys can then be requested and taken for any driving over the weekend. On Sunday, they are returned. I didn't use a car at ASMS. I wanted a computer instead.

Pretty much, ASMS serves as a pre-college. Dorm life, mealtime, and class scheduling is all similar, plus the fact that you live away from home. Transition to college, therefore, is a big nothing after living at ASMS. Sure, there are less restrictions on what you do, and greater freedom with arranging classes (ASMS still uses a modified block schedule), but a lot can be adapted from life at ASMS. It's a pretty neat experience, and there are various other advanced learning high schools around the US. Yes, the school caters to 11-12th graders only, and applicants are only accepted for the 11th grade. Once you're in, you in... unless you get really bad grades, or a 4th level violation. If you miss 11th grade registration, too bad.

I hope this helps a bit with understanding my story more. If you need or want to, check out the ASMS homepage for more information and images.

Back to My Fanfiction