Are schools consistently listed top tier academically such as Andover, Exeter, St. Pauls, Deerfield considered less fun than schools consistently listed second tier such as Kent, Westminster, or Tabor?
Well, I think that depends on what you define as “fun”… do you define fun as more relaxed, free time? Close to a town/city? Good afternoon sports? More freedom? In your opinion (in what type of school you’re looking for) what do you mean by “fun”?
More relaxed. Students are active. Students are not overstressed. Students go to each others athletic games and have fun while they are there. The dorms are fun and not over restricted.
I think fun is available to all kids at all the schools mentioned on this site and that it’s really a matter of the individual student and their priorities. My kids at Hotchkiss seem to have as much fun as my kid who went to Kent. That said, my kid from Kent is in many ways a more serious student than are my kids at Hotchkiss. He had to work hard to do well and he put a great deal of pressure on himself to excel academically so while I’d say he had a great deal of fun overall, he’d say that the pressure that comes with Junior and Senior year put a damper on that. Kids at all of these schools lead fairly scheduled lives so “relaxed” is a relative term. If your kid finds his peeps, dorm life can be one of the more fun and enriching experiences to be had at boarding school. That said, all dorms have restrictions. These are teens after all. I think that a longstanding rivalry with another school and/or a sport that the school has historically excelled in can help build pride and school spirit so that’s a good sign.