<p>20k? That would be a bargain. 
My school technically cost more than 30k a year. And my boyfriend attended one of the major prep day schools in a major East Coast city, which cost his parents nearly as much as my boarding school cost my scholarship fund. (I think about a third of prep school students are on financial aid like I was, at least at boarding school. At many schools with good endowments the average grant is the full cost of tuition, which means that a significant plurality of students don’t pay a cent. I was fortunate enough to be one of those students.) I have another friend who took out loans herself (as a high school student) to attend the National Cathedral School. We’re in our mid-20s now and she has a fantastic job that takes her around the world and pays well. She’s still paying off her loans from high school, and plans to be doing so for at least another few years.</p>
<p>Why do some parents and students make so many sacrifices just to go to a prep school? Because going to a school where you’re happy and challenged makes a difference, not just for your high school education but for your entire life. And while some people feel that way in regular high schools, many do not. The right prep school can provide an intellectual and emotional community, greater opportunities to interact with faculty, a cohort that is more focused on academics, and (in the case of many boarding schools) the chance to expand your horizons by living with people from a more diverse collection of backgrounds. When I was a freshman in high school I wanted to go into research medicine, travel to developing countries, work in Africa, go to a top college, learn languages. I used to read books on infectious disease and epidemiology in my spare time, and started an AIDS peer education network in my area. At my regular school this made me an outsider–someone who cared too much about learning and about volunteering. At my prep school this made me just another passionate student.</p>
<p>Be aware that by ‘prep school’ I don’t necessarily mean private school. There are many terrible private schools out there, and there are many very good public prep schools out there. Two of my siblings attended IMSA (a public magnet boarding school) and had a wonderful experience there. Now that I go to Duke I am acquainted with a number of people who attended NCSSM, most of whom speak glowingly about their experience there in the same way many people who attended private boarding schools talk about theirs.</p>