Our older three children attended Catholic and public high schools but our youngest was recruited to play a sport at a MA boarding / prep school. Do colleges look at these students any differently than those who attend public? I have heard many different things and as a new parent to these types of schools I was curious.
Colleges admit applicants, not high schools.
A top boarding school will have strong academics, opportunities to learn and grow as a person, develop leadership skills, have solid college counseling, amongst other things. But so can some other schools that aren’t boarding schools.
And when looking at college matriculation, keep in mind that this data from boarding schools is skewed by heavily hooked applicants - recruited athletes, legacy, fac brat.
Which choice is right for your kid, though, will depend on a lot more factors not listed.
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But, many colleges are familiar with the academic intensity of the top boarding schools and that may help.
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I do know that for athletes schools appreciate those who have successfully boarded as that is one less, big thing that coaches do not need to worry about for a first year student to become accustomed to. Some new college students can’t hack being away from home or rooming with another student. A BS student has already mastered this which is a plus.
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Yes - looking at stats approximately 40% of the students who attend Dartmouth, Princeton, Harvard, Brown and a few others have attended boarding school. So while “colleges admit students, not schools” These top schools certainly skew it a bit! Data taken from a WSJ article from 2023 so I feel comfortable with the stats.
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Also, the college advising at a boarding school will be much better than most public schools.
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Prep schools are not synonymous with boarding schools. All boarding schools are prep schools, but not all prep schools are boarding schools. These universities might have 40% enrollment from prep and/or private (including parochial) schools, but I’d challenge that it’s 40% boarding schools.
Regardless of the HS breakdown of the entering class, I’m unaware of any of these colleges providing acceptance rates by HS type, and certainly not extracting hooked applicants. Which brings me back to my initial statement: Colleges admit applicants, not high schools. What school is right for DS is something your family needs to decide; there’s too little info provided for us to be much help.
I will add that I’m of the opinion that one shouldn’t choose a HS solely with an eye on a particular university, or tier of universities. At each and every one of these top prep schools, fully 50% of the graduates will be in the bottom half of the class. While all graduates will attend a good college, with limited exceptions, these students in the bottom of the class won’t be attending “Dartmouth, Princeton, Harvard, Brown and a few others.”
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Not looking to argue - just the facts of the article - it says “Prep Schools” I certainly understand the difference between a Private/Boarding/Public - especially after having all my kids in each one 
Now I am just looking for any other opinions / facts on my first question asked.
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Does it help is the question… Maybe? Maybe not? Here is what I am learning- a generalization: kid applies to college, the admissions office at the school to which they are applying will read the application with the rest of the applications of from your kid’s school- comparing like with like- reading the application in context, not lumping it in randomly with an applicant from a public school in Arkansas. This seems to be true for most schools based on what I have read and been told by admissions offices and college counselors are both of the boarding schools my children attend. Of course there may be exceptions, isn’t that life?
Now does prep school help with college admissions- depends on your kid. I think of it more broadly in the context of the kid and fit. Prep school/boarding school has been a huge fit advantage for their own development, education and personal growth. I have two class of 2025 kids- one started at a local private school in 7th grade, by the time 9th grade rolled around it was clear that maybe the fit wasn’t what it needed to be for him, nothing wrong with the school itself. The boarding school he ultimately has been at for 10th/11th and next year for 12th is a better fit and that will make a difference in his college application process. Will the outcome be better? No Idea… but I do feel certain he will be better prepared for whatever college choice he makes.
Just my two cents and sharing experience, yours will be unique to your kid and I hope it works out the best it can for them and your family!
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Without reading the article myself, I find this data hard to believe. This, from the Princeton admissions page, says 8 percent attended boarding school.
That’s only about 110 students. Easy to see at least half of these coming from Lawrenceville and another group of 15-20 of the well known US boarding schools. So yes, 8% seems reasonable.
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This category includes private day schools.
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We have met and spoken to a lot of college coaches across various sports. It may depend on the sport, but we still haven’t met a coach that cares about boarding school vs. parochial vs. independent day vs. public, or thinks that BS is superior. They care about talent, upside, fit with the team, if a kid will stay on the team for 4 years, and whether a kid can pass the pre-read/admissions. Admissions may care about/prefer BS in the context of rigor of classes, but they usually need “enough” rigor, not “maximum” rigor, and this can usually be achieved outside of the BS route. I don’t think coaches go as far as to ruminate if a kid has experience living away from home.
So if the sport is a very big deal with your kid, often the important issue is continued athletic development in high school, which may at times be best achieved by staying home. As others have pointed out, there are many other good reasons to attend BS, but sometimes (increasingly?) BS is not the best athletic route.
In our mind, BS can be a great “hedge” if athletics/recruiting doesn’t work out for some reason.
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And to muddy the waters further, there are also public schools that are prep schools. The term prep school fits any high school with a college preparatory curriculum. Not at all limited to private or boarding schools.
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I think there are some verifiable ways the feederish boarding and independent day schools can help with college admissions, but they are all more about providing opportunities than doing anything automatic. Things like more opportunities for students to really distinguish themselves through courses/grades, more opportunities for leadership positions in important activities, more opportunities to really develop meaningful teacher relationships that lead to great recommendations, more opportunities to develop a very personalized application strategy, and so on.
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It’s hard to generalize to the full universe of “prep schools” but based on my experience there are definitely private schools whose students have an easier time with college applications. In addition to the increased opportunities that such schools provide (as already mentioned), colleges also know these schools and trust their curricula. Now, that does not mean that half the class will end up at an Ivy. But about a quarter may. And there are kids from S24’s class who have been admitted to very highly ranked LACs (for example) with somewhat checkered academic records and spotty attendance (and no hooks).
Another advantage that may or may not be specific to our particular school is that the kids have a very relaxed high school experience compared to the typical high-performing student. The school days are on the long side (due to extensive elective and extracurricular offerings) but homework is minimal and there are no AP exams with the corresponding pressure. For reasons that are a little too specific to our school for me to discuss on this forum, there is no competition for grades either.
To be clear, given that these private schools come at a VERY steep price tag, none of this is fair. And assessing the success of a private school’s college placement is complex: These schools are also more likely to have students who are legacies or the children of donors at top colleges. And prep schools that are high school only get to select high-performing students at an age at which many academic skills and habits are in place.
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At least a few times now my S24 has commented something to the effect that he thinks he and his friends have had a relatively well-balanced HS life compared to what he hears about online–they obviously do some homework and studying and such, and have been spending hours and trips and such on various organized activities, but they also have lots of time for fun and socializing. And they are doing well with college admissions (although they are also not necessarily gunning for some specific colleges or T-whatevers, but everyone is ending up at some sort of very selective college they really like). He also thinks some of the girls (his core friends are boys) might be grinding a bit more, although I can’t verify that.
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At many top prep schools, students are doing college level work so admissions officers can feel confident about that student’s ability to succeed at college academics.
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In my limited experience I find this to be true. While our DD had a top level public high school she attended - our state is usually in the top one or two in the nation and our hometown in the top 10% in state, I find some of this is due to the parents and their involvement in the child’s education rather than just the teachers. When DS moved to a prep school she had teachers with PHDs from Columbia, Penn and many other top schools who moved back to teach in a prep school after their younger years in the “real world”. One told me they liked living on the campus of a prep with his young family. So perhaps caliber of teachers and what they are teaching certainly comes into play,
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