We are a west coast family exploring east coast boarding schools for my child who will be entering in 9th grade. She will be 14 YO during her 9th grade year and will need to travel back and forth occasionally on her own. Any knowledge out there on what schools are most easily accessible from larger airports. I know there are often schools with smaller airports close to them but they would then not have direct flights. Andover seems the most obvious – 30 minutes from Boston/Logan airport. Any others? Thank you in advance as we are not that familiar with the East Coast.
Look at the CT prep schools. Not Hotchkiss…but there are others closer to either Bradley or New Haven.
Switching planes is a life skill, and really it’s not a huge issue.
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Whether you can get to Phillips Academy in Andover from Logan Airport in 30 minutes might depend upon the time of day, but it does look like a relatively straight shot north out of Logan.
Concord Academy in Concord Massachusetts comes to mind as another option. It seems to be about the same distance from Logan.
One issue with switching planes is that rarely, but sometimes, a traveler can get stuck in the middle. I have had this happen a few times, but as an adult. I think that I would tend to prefer a place that a student can get to in one flight from wherever you are.
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Peddie and Lawrenceville are as easy as it gets. 10-15 minutes from the train station and a 40 minute ride that takes you directly to Newark Airport. The trains are frequent and safe. The drive is similar ~40 to Peddie, closer to 1hr to Lawrenceville but it is generally a straight shot an rarely affected by traffic.
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I second this. Even if no issue a connection is always a drag and makes an otherwise easy trip quite the long ordeal.
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How about Loomis Chaffee? It’s less than 20 minutes from Bradley. You would need to check to see if there are direct flights.
Ds went to George. They are closest to Philadelphia, but they also organized transportation to JFK and Newark for students who needed it. My guess is most schools do this.
In other words, this may not be such a limiting screen.
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Our son traveled to and from Choate (Bradley airport) from Arizona, always with a connection, with no issues. There is a nearby train station for students opting to fly out of Newark/NY. The school also organized transpo to those airports as well. Most (all?) schools do this, so I don’t think it’s wise to limit choices by airport proximity if it narrows the list to the most selective schools. As @thumper stated, though, Hotchkiss is a bit of an outlier in terms of airport distance.
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Our school, Milton Academy is very easy to get to from Boston Logan Airport!
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Hotchkiss isn’t that much of an oulier. It is 1 hour from Bradley (and White Plains airport), and the school runs shuttles. To me, the issue isn’t a 30 minute difference in distance to the airport, the issue is whether there are direct flights.
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Loomis, Porters, Williston, and Suffield are all close to Bradley (Hartford) (within 20-40 mins).
Like others have said, Boston has more traffic than the Hartford area, so drive time really varies more there. But Andover, Milton, Concord, Middlesex, Groton, Lawrence, St Marks, should all be under an hour to Logan. Milton is the closest for sure and you could probably do that one on public transportation if you didn’t have a lot of luggage. Concord and Middlesex would also be doable with public transportation - commuter rail and then switch lines in Boston to get to Logan.
(I grew up in Boston, live in CT now, my son goes to Williston and we drive right by Bradley on our way there).
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Find schools of interest, then ask about school run shuttle vans to the nearest major airport during breaks.
St. Andrews in Delaware, St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, Andover, Exeter, Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, etc.
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I would second this point. To us, the issue has been the number of direct flights per day and the timing of those direct flights.
When you are counting up those plane tickets, don’t undercount how many times the parents and siblings may need or want to travel. There are many long weekends, parent weekends, and event you will want to attend. Whatever your kid is into will have events and shows or special things. Sometimes you will want to be there and sometimes your kid won’t be at school and it will add up in terms of dollars and planning.
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This is a sobering thread. Qantas opens nonstop JFK/Sydney service 2026.
Kid is Yr 9 in northern autumn 2025.
Hmmmm….
Keep in mind that only Southwest, I believe, allows minors age 12 and up to fly alone within the US, without paying for an unaccompanied minor minder fee. I’ve heard a few stories of kids whose parents paid the unaccompanied minor minder fee, and yet their kids missed connections because the minder didn’t do their job escorting the kid from one gate to the next.
Point is, until kid turns 15, they might be flying Southwest with a connection, anyways. Jetblue allows them to fly without a minder from age 14, and they do have an occasional non-stop from BDL to LAX, but not enough to depend upon.
BTW, you might want to add Ethel Walker to your list, if your daughter is willing to look at all girls’ boarding schools, and if she’s into horseback riding. It’s quite close to Bradley airport near Hartford, CT.
Just keep in mind…there could be non-stop flights when your student starts prep school…or college…that are discontinued. Ask me how I know!
And whatever prices you are seeing now…could easily double.
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Anything within the I95 loop should be obvious.
Anything within the 495 loop (like Andover) should be highly likely.
Note: Schools are aware that students have transportation needs. How well they work with students and families to coordinate these needs is well worth asking about at an interview.
I know that when my child was at BS that dorm parents frequently helped students get to/from the airport and bus stations.
How comfortable your child will be travelling will change as time goes on.
This is particularly good information. It’s important to understand how willing schools might be to work with families on transportation needs. I would ask during interviews/visits/revisits and speak with current parents.
We’ve also found that our child often travels with the same kids and we coordinate with those parents about schedules. They are able to help one another, when needed (e.g., reminder not to leave headphones in seat back pocket).
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I underestimated the travel aspect when we were looking. It has been really great to have direct flights as an option. My expert flier missed her connection coming back from a camp, and that was a whole ordeal.
Alaska has been great from the West Coast to Boston and the kids can fly at 13+ without the unaccompanied minor service. From SFO, there’s typically a morning flight that gets into Logan in the afternoon that works well. Our kids’ school runs shuttles at the longer breaks (Thanksgiving, etc.)-- for long weekends, you can arrange a van service or use a taxi/Uber. For move-in/move-out, I’m usually going out there, but this past year she moved out by herself and took an Uber to the airport…and for move in, her day student friend picked her up at the airport!
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