How far is too far?

GMTplus7
Sat, 02 Nov 2013 21:55:43 +0000

Will I regret choosing that school 16 hours away instead of 8 hours away?

Just the fact that boarding schools sport students hailing from 30+ states and 30+ countries demonstrates that plenty of families successfully cope w long distance boarding. The schools are very experienced w managing the logistics at break time to get students to airports & train stations. That said, I won’t lie to you. Long distance commuting does add considerable strain in terms of travel time, expense, time zone inconvenience & headache.

The travel occasions for boarding:

1. 3 breaks when it is mandatory for students to vacate the dorms: Thanksgiving, Xmas, & Spring Break.

2. 2 parent weekends: Fall & Spring. The parent weekends are occasions to sit in on classes and engage in face-to-face parent-teacher conferences. This will involve hotel stays when the hotels are at peak occupancy.

3. drop off at start of school year and pick up at the end. This could be a major logistical event if the boarder is a girl (the volume of clothes & furniture girls can shoe-horn into a dorm room defies Newtonian laws of physics).

If you are applying for FA, the school will consider transportation costs as part of the expense of enrolling.

We are an ultra-long distance boarding family-- we’ve learned that no matter which way we fly (over the Atlantic or over the Pacific), it’s a wash at nearly 30 hours one way, so we pretty much define the physical limit of how far is too far. But now S2 is applying to BS, and we’re OK w him choosing a different boarding school than his presently enrolled older brother. That will add a whole new dimension to our family’s logistics at Parent Weekends.

I’ve resigned myself to using most of my annual vacation leave to travel to see my kids at school. Bring it on…