Boarding School "Fit" Assessment

GMTplus7
Tue, 21 Oct 2014 10:48:45 +0000

“Fit” is a very personal & subjective thing. But you can shorten the list quickly & objectively w a few considerations.

Specialized EC or academic offerings:
If you child is a swimmer, rower, etc or wants to study Arabic, u can immediately nix the schools that don’t have pools, crew or don’t offer that subject. Be advised that there are quite a number of schools w pools that have no swim team.

Airport access for int’l boarders & west coast residents
JFK Airport is king if u are int’l. Other airports (BOS, BDL, IAD, BWI, PHL) may call themselves “int’l” but nothing beats JFK for number of destinations, schedule, frequency. All boarding schools organize transportation to airports during breaks, but it is a hassle if u are more than 2 hr driving radius from your key airport.

For breaks, many schools dismiss at noon, then kids have to be back on campus by 7pm. Check the flight options from your country of residence or from west coast-- you’ll save yourself from 4 years of heartburn.