I keep wondering if there could have been a “marriage” between NEIA and Masters. NEIA loses out on kids because they don’t have competitive sports, and I”m assuming Masters will lose out because they don’t have competitive academics. They are very far apart on educational philosophy, but maybe they could have tapped into NEIA’s educational expertise. Instead, it looks like they are going with a canned international program. Or at least that’s what I want to think. I think in reality, Masters will be kept afloat by those who were never considering boarding school for academics, but think that their kids will be the next (name the star of whatever sport they play). The fencers and skaters may drive some more competitive academics that they can later use to boost their matriculation stats. Those already tapped for international competition have been hobbling together online, home and private schooling for years and are probably happy if they can make everything work in one place.
Depending on the curriculum. The figure skaters and fencers we know (admittedly small sample set) are taking Calc BC as juniors if not earlier. Not sure MAI will have that caliber academics especially once students hit 12th grade.
The selling point of most competitive boarding schools (those that also happen to have an admission process that goes beyond “sign the check and we’ll make your kid a great athlete”) is that the quaterback also starred in the school play. Or, that everyone plays a sport and does x,y,z. Or, that they have to have exceptional academics to get in, but the ALSO play a sport. These schools are often considered because they offer academics beyond what are available at LPS. This will be a school (like IMG) where people are going soley to play a sport. I think that does make the interactions different than other boarding schools. However, there will be a common bond of wanting to become a better athlete.
Other than the basketball player any other kids announced they’re going?
Or hockey and esports
I assume they will have them do it online with academic coaches, as needed.
Curious, do you know this to be true or just assume? I ask as I know plenty of kids who want schools w/o lots of competitive sports. I know PLENTY of kids who refuse to apply to Middlesex as they have too much in terms of sports requirements (especially Middlesex with its 3 terms of interscholastic sports! and are turned off by Belmont Hill or a Dexter or places with big sports cultures… I always felt there was room for more places with fewer hard-core sports vibes (even if they have some sports - not sure anyone is looking for ZERO sports).
There’s a school for everyone. Some are more well rounded, like a traditional prep and that’s what some people want. Some are solely arts focused like Interlochen Arts Academy. Some are exclusively sports like IMG and Masters. And the crazy thing is students matriculate to big state schools, Ivies, Nescac etc from every single one of the schools I just listed. If the kid finds the fit, the can succeed better than trying to fit a round kid into a square school.
I would think if they have fencers and skaters and other smart academically motivated kids they will find a way to accommodate the academics. Look at Stanford online… online isn’t bad, if it’s good.
Also, search Alpha schools out of Austin Texas which is now starting to pop up all over the place with 2 hour AI school and kids are matriculating well from there and getting 1500+ on SAT.
High academics aren’t exclusive to a handful of elite traditional schools.
But this is a boarding school not online and will cost 80k. Online is fine but it’s a little odd for a boarding school marketing itself as high academic to do online outsourced classes
It sounds like any outsourced online classes would be the outlier. I know kids at boarding schools who choose to take online foreign language course if the course isn’t offered at their school. Same for test prep. Kids sign up and do sessions with Wyzant online tutors as needed. However I would think the high academic demands of high academic athletes especially PG will require high level math beyond the AP BC to be brought onsite. If a teacher can teach BC they can probably add a section for multilinear. Why not?
If the school offers HL math, you are right - it’s likely that they have the capacity to keep a high achieving math kid fully occupied. (My kid went to a BS with both IB and AP classes, and the HL route was configured to accommodate the most math-y kids, with AP BC as part of the 2-year curriculum. Based on comments when I have said this before, not every school does it this way, but it seems that flexibility is there for the kids who need/want it.)
Oh I totally agree, I just think more schools have MORE sports than fewer, so I though idea NEIA when it opened was a nice niche – more hands-on STEM and project-based stuff.. making it more classic seems to dilute its attractiveness to me and all schools have something to turn off some kids, I was wondering if it was really struggling because it had weaker sports.
Off topic a bit so I will leave it!
Student Work- NuVu Innovation School (not a boarding school - but these kids do some of their classes online - or did a few years ago)
Note, I am GUESSING it might be online if a kid is an extreme, they could also just do independent studies, which sounds better, but I’m not sure it is better in all cases (depends on teachers and students and structure) than some of the good online programs, and if the school really grows, it will be a non-issue I assume and they will have real classes.
Almost all these problems are start up problems.
Quite possibly not, as all academic classes these kids take have to be NCAA approved if they want to be NCAA eligible immediately upon college enrollment. The NCAA approved curriculum/classes is MAI’s primary limitation on the academic side, and likely a big reason they partnered with the Newman School.
EXCELLENT point! thanks for that.
I think any AP class is NCAA approved and any supplemental online AP class through a source like languagebird or Stanford online or Dwight global would also be NCAA approved. The independent study research courses would have to be more of an elective I would think and would be for kids already finished with NCAA requirements. How many of each core class is required to meet NCAA requirements?
Generally 16 core courses are required for D1/D2 eligibility, all must be NCAA approved. It’s important to note that even if a given class is ‘NCAA approved’, HSs must still submit to the NCAA all courses in their curriculum that they want approved by the NCAA. (it’s a not-insignificant administrative burden to stay on top of this, especially for less resourced HSs)
The question is whether they can offer these levels at Masters, not what other established schools do