<p>I’m curious to find out more about schools such as Westtown and Hill, that are less than 100% boarding, but still have mandatory boarding for some of their students. Westtown, for example, requires all 11th and 12th graders to board (and has had that policy since 1937). The Hill School apparently requires students to board for at least one year.</p>
<p>I though that perhaps the mandatory boarding programs were a response to reduced enrollment of boarding students, but that’s unlikely to be the case with Westtown, which has had the policy in place since before WWII. I don’t know the history of the Hill School policy at all.</p>
<p>I’m just wondering if anyone on this forum knows of other schools with this type of policy - a graduation requirement of one or two years of boarding. And are you familiar enough with the school to know the history of the policy?</p>
<p>Our DC is applying to Westtown. I’m not sure the history of the 11th and 12th grade boarding policy. But at interviews and tours, the benefits of the policy are made known. Smoother transition to college, camraderie amongst classmates, a strong sense of community on campus, etc. </p>
<p>Westtown is a really amazing school, DC really loves it and is hopeful it might work out!</p>
<p>I’m unaware of any other comparable policies for upperclassmen exclusively, but I know that St. Andrew’s is 100% boarding. I recall at least one other school is, but cannot remember which one(s).</p>
<p>stagemum - St. Paul’s School is the other well-known school that’s 100% boarding. But what I am wondering about are schools that are less than 100% boarding, but still have mandatory boarding for one or two years.</p>
<p>A number of schools have increased their numbers of day students over the years as a response to economic pressures and budget constraints. What I’m wondering is whether any school has ever used a one or two year boarding requirement as a way to tilt the balance back the other way and increase the number of boarding students on campus.</p>
<p>When I first heard about Westtown’s 2-year boarding requirement, I guessed that this was the motivation, given the large number of students who come from the immediate vicinity of the school, who would otherwise simply be day students. But given the date their program was implemented, I just don’t know.</p>
<p>I think Westtown was motivated by the Quaker ethos of community, in order to be sure that all the graduating students had a sense of belonging.</p>
<p>Hill has had the one year boarding requirement for about 20 years I believe. It is easy to think that the requirement is for economic reasons, but I am not sure. Hill instituted this requirement when it was still all boys.</p>
<p>I do think it can be a valuable thing, to help the students feel even more a part of the community. My D is a day student at Hill, and she finds that she wishes she were a boarder (in some ways) as they are more efficient with their time since they do not have to factor in commuting time, etc. Plus the camaraderie looks like lot of fun to her!</p>
<p>surfcity - 20 years would make sense, I think. If the school took in more day students in the 80s (which a lot of schools did), then this could have been an attempt to recover the school’s boarding persona.</p>
<p>No doubt it’s beneficial for the students . . . but it’s also undoubtedly beneficial for the school. By maintaining a constant number of boarding students, the school becomes more attractive as a boarding school, increasing geographic diversity. So even if the school starts with a majority of its students coming from the immediate vicinity, that would change as more students come from farther away to join the boarding community.</p>
<p>Mercersburg has mandatory boarding for all seniors. It is done in the name of class unity. My understanding is that the senior students who have been day students continue to pay the day student tuition, even as boarders.</p>
<p>zp</p>
<p>zuzus’petals - Thanks! So that’s another school I can add to the list!</p>
<p>That’s an expensive way of doing it, though . . . to simple waive the difference between the day tuition and the boarding tuition. Makes sense, but it’s expensive. I’d be more inclined to warn parents about the requirement before their kids start . . . and then have a generous financial aid budget available for the day families who need it.</p>
<p>I think it is the only way to do it. Mercersburg has a large endowment and are extraordinarily generous. Yes, we think it is an outstanding school for lots of solid reasons, but their generosity to my family tops the list. And we’re certainly not alone.</p>
<p>Similar to mandatory boarding, I think it is important to have a high boarder population for the BS to be a tight knit community. In our experience with a BS that has high day school population/lots of regional kids, while there is not a divisive feeling, it is a different experience than if it were 100% boarders. The day students bond together on weekends and in the summer, some know each other from before BS, and the boarders are not always a part of that world. They have the advantage of more parental involvement (if you consider that an advantage) and the school operates more on an assumption that there will be parents around. If you are going to have a boarder, look closely at where/how far away the students come from (and % of day).</p>
<p>To build on erlanger’s comment on where/how far the students come from:</p>
<p>Geographic diversity of the boarders was a priority for us. We did not want a situation where a significant portion of the boarders would go home on the weekends, along w the day students.</p>
<p>DS commented on the differences he observed between the nearby boarders and far-flung boarders. The parents of the nearby boarders are visiting their kids every weekend and helicoptering. </p>
<p>Makes me wonder how the dynamics work out for the seniors at Mercersburg who go from day to boarding status.</p>
<p>The 100% boarding schools were particularly attractive to our family during our search last year…I found the idea of “everybody being in the same boat” to be very appealing.</p>