<p>@MamaBug
We faced the same choice last year. Each family is different, but we chose a boarding school with a challenging four-year college-level curriculum in math and science, rather than early entrance to college. </p>
<p>My daughter enjoyed sports as well as academics, and the boarding schools better integrated those interests and allowed her to grow as an athlete as well as an academic.</p>
<p>The early-entrance boarding colleges are often not satisfing after a few years, especially the choices open for those beginning at 14. Then later transfer to a selective college as a transfer student can be complicated. We picked up that tip from Davidson.</p>
<p>The boarding schools have more supervision than early boarding college, and for a 14 year old the probability of boarding college failure is about 50%, mainly due to social immaturity (playing video games all night commonly cited). Once your child is 16, early boarding college has a much higher chance of success. The above concerns probably don’t apply if your child will be living at home and you are transporting them to the local college.</p>
<p>Our choice has worked out very well for my daughter and she is happy and challenged academically, enjoying sports, surrounded by other bright students her age, and thoroughly enjoying fitting in with them rather than being “different” as she was in middle school.</p>