Private School to Boarding School

CanadaDad
Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:40:49 +0000

These are all really great insights and very helpful for a parent in evaluating various options. I guess I did take for granted that everyone will be between the ages of 14 and 18 and will be trying to fit in and just be one of “guys/gals”.

I took a look at Boardingschoolreview.com and did notice that the international student body of the most selective schools was much lower than I was hoping it would be. Having said all that I do want my son to have the information available to him to make a good decision for him.

2prepmom had made a comment about “going to a reach or staying home” and that seems like good advice given that we aren’t trying to escape a bad situation, just trying to see if there is an even better situation out there. Son hasn’t expressed a whole-hearted desire to go to BS, just want to show him what’s out there and if it seems better for him than he can go.

Do people have views on places like Exeter, Andover, Lawrenceville, Choate, Hotchkiss - children who are currently there, or recently there? What their kids thought of the place, especially as compared to where they were previously (even better if they were in a private school setting previously)? Son is currently at an all-boys school, so that will clearly be one big change. What are the rules like at these places? I was looking at the Deerfield website and it seems to be incredibly strict, with very little tolerance for missteps. Is this the common approach, is Deerfield viewed generally as more or less strict?

Perhaps my views of this would be different if I knew for a certainty that my child was going away, but looking at it now it seems very harsh and very restrictive.