SCRMOM

We are looking forward to embarking upon our journey to look at and consider various boarding schools. I wonder whether there are questions you/your child wished you would have asked during the admissions cycle but did not learn until you enrolled and/or arrived at boarding school. Any thoughts you can share would be appreciated.

2kidsnoanswers

Well, we asked lots of questions LOL, probably left no stone unturned. However, my advice is to take some time to sit back, listen, and watch. How do the kids interact amongst each other? What is the vibe on campus? Talk to some random kids, however briefly. You and DC will begin to sense whether this is the right environment for your particular child.

Also, we have learned that ours does best when he is happy, and so we've learned to listen to his radar. Sometimes kids know whether it is the right place or wrong place for them, but can't articulate exactly why they feel as they do.

girlgeekmom

Like 2kids, we probably asked more questions than we though we would, and definitely looked under rocks! In addition to asking questions, I would say take a good look at how students seem to be with each other. We were on tours during quite a few class-time transitions, and it was interesting to see how the kids looked and interacted with each other as they moved along the paths (it gives a good picture of various schools' dress codes IRL, too ;-)). If there's a student center or a grill, take a few minutes to grab a snack and just "hang out" a little, if you have the opportunity and time in your schedule.