Winsor and Concord Academy for high school

Boarding schools, in my opinion, have a social life that is much more student-driven than parent-driven. Not specific to CA, but we found that boarding cut out a lot of the parental social engineering and parents trying to use their influence with specific teachers/coaches. Yes, the big contributors might still be doing that, but for the most part, it’s not a day to day thing. Believe me, the last thing you want is for some parent to box your kid out of all the afterschool off-campus social stuff because they see them as “competition” (it’s usually “girl moms” doing this). You won’t get that at CA.
Will your daughter be boarding if she goes to CA? Does your daughter have a preference for either school?

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As someone who went to prep school as a day student, the boarding component expanded geographically who I’d have as classmates, both among domestic and international students.

CA’s CARE program facilitates pairing up local day student families with boarding students - I don’t know if this is something you would be interested in as a day student parent.

As a current parent of a boarding student, I will agree with @vwlizard for the most part with a caveat: CA, like my child’s school (CSW), is not majority boarding. My kid’s school is 30% boarding, CA is 40% boarding. Day student parents are more likely to have a louder voice on campus issues than boarding parents. Because my child started boarding in the fall of 2020, when all parent meetings were by necessity virtual, my perspective is perhaps different than it would be if my child has started in any other year.

My impression is that there is less of the parent-driven social engineering at CA than we experienced in public school, but I feel that’s due more to the school’s culture than boarding per se.

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Former Winsor parent: If you are looking to avoid toxic pressure and competition, I agree that you should take the issues raised above about Winsor seriously. There’s plenty of rigor, but it comes at a steep cost. I would ask around to find current families in the Upper School (Lower School is very different), and if possible have your daughter talk candidly with the student about what their school life is like, homework load, how much they sleep and have time for friends, etc. Some parents are fine with their kids being unhappy if the rigor/college acceptances are there and will still endorse the school. Girls leave Winsor in Upper School to go to CA. I can’t imagine the reverse happening.

Both schools are more diverse than peer schools. As for APs, colleges only expect students to take the most rigorous curriculum offered at their school. Winsor only offers a few APs in a few subjects as well. I personally would not worry about this.

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Thank you. I did not think of these angles of a boarding school.

My daughter will be a day student. She had been leaning towards Winsor all along because she has heard a lot about the school from family friends in the past, and because they put on a very impressive tour. Yesterday for the first time she spoke to a current Winsor student whom she personally knows, and changed her mind about going to the school after hearing what the social atmosphere is like in her friend’s opinion.

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Hi Parents - It sounds like there is concern about the culture at Winsor. For those familiar with the school, what would you attribute this to? Is it the nature of being an all-girls school? The nature of it being small? The pressure of a top college admittance? The type of parent culture at the school?

Thank you - just trying to get a better understanding!

When cultures like this persist and (for some) become a feature rather than a bug, I tend to attribute the issue to governance and leadership. Which makes it a nearly intractable issue to solve because it takes a collective effort for the board to solve. There’s often social and personal downside to being the squeaky wheel, especially when a person in a governance position has a kid at the school. So like many collective action problems, it will continue to get worse until it gets better, forced by some hard to ignore signal like a decline in enrollment and/or donations. Signed, btdt!

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Just curious where your daughter ended up going? We are interested in CA particularly. Thanks