<p>Not so, pulsar. According to CAPE (Council for American Private Education) 11% of all students in America in Pre-K through grade 12 were enrolled in private schools in 2009, and private schools made up 25% of the schools in the US in the same year.</p>
<p>[CAPE</a> | Private School Facts](<a href=“Home - Council for American Private Education”>Home - Council for American Private Education)</p>
<p>I absolutely agree with redbluegoldgreen about the impetus for attending a boarding school. I didn’t come to boarding school with hopes to get into Harvard - I came because I had exhausted my old school’s academic offerings and was also looking for more extracurricular activities plus exposure to some seriously gifted, motivated, and, most importantly, interesting, students. These are things that were hard to come by at my old school, but I found them in bulk at boarding school. Moreover, my exposure to these amazing kids and amazing adults has raised my level of discourse and writing, and I’ve been able to grow uninhibited thanks to a complete lack of stigma against achievement and intellect. I don’t care that I’m not going to an Ivy. I care about who boarding school has helped me to become and about the goals that I’ve achieved and the new goals that I have my sights set on.</p>
<p>Wanna know one of the most valuable things that Andover taught me? It taught me that I have physical limitations. In fact, I worked myself to the point of immune system exhaustion and contracted mono after my very first term here. I wasn’t willing to admit physical limitations, so I pushed through the mono and continued to stay up late to get all my work done, and it was fruitful - I scored high grades, skipped right over AB calculus into BC calculus after pre-cal, and was elected president of the largest club on campus and elected to the board of two other clubs. I never gave myself a break, and I tried to have my cake and eat it too. My achievements were strong, but my body wasn’t. I lost 40 pounds and was prescribed antidepressants, and my mono continued through June. I had contracted it in January.</p>
<p>Fall term this year and I still hadn’t quite learned. I lost more weight when my appendix exploded in October but I was still so addicted to work that I had a phone conversation with my club co-head about organizing our upcoming weekend events - while I was in the back of an ambulance with its sirens blaring on the way to Lawrence General Hospital. After my surgeries, my house counselor finally stepped in. He forced me to take a hiatus from ALL of my extracurriculars until the beginning of winter term. I thought it was the end of the world, but it was actually a great thing. I started watching hulu with my “extra” time. I took naps. I walked slower, and stopped to smell the flowers (okay, it was late fall. There were no flowers).</p>
<p>So it was that boarding school taught me to work with my body and not against it, to make healthy decisions, and to take time out for fun. I’ve learned not to spread myself too thin, and I think that my academic work and achievements in my clubs speak to that fact. I might not have learned these lessons until college if I had stayed at my old school. I adopted an attitude that I think many people do not associate with boarding school: that work should be and is only a fraction of the experience. If it gets late, I go to bed now instead of staying up to finish. It’s healthier. I’ve learned to ask people for help when my personal tasks become too much. And I’ve learned to talk out my problems - better out than in.</p>
<p>In that way, Andover’s biggest gift to me has been the realization that I’m a person like anyone else. I don’t think many people enter boarding school wanting to hear that, but it’s true. I think that there are a lot of people that just need to embrace their humanity and learn to work with it, and I learned that here. That, to me at least, means a lot more than going to Princeton, and I’m glad to have learned these lessons sooner rather than later. I plan on being genuinely happy in life, and I want to feel fulfilled. To that end, I know that absolutely spending myself might not be the way to do that. I plan on doing what I love and loving what I do.</p>
<p>I’ve been humbled by the people at boarding school, and while I may not have made my own contribution to mathematics like my classmate Wenyu Cao, I know for certain that I’ve never taken this place for granted and that I’ve taken advantage of every opportunity that’s been offered, and that Oscar Tang’s scholarship fund was not wasted on me. I’m not going to Yale, his alma mater, but I think he knows I’m happy anyway.</p>