Considering Elite NE Boarding Schools for Son (Taft, Choate, Hotchkiss, Deerfield, etc.) Any advice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I attended one of the schools in your list. When you go look at them, you'll walk away with 1000X more info than anything you'll find here.

But I'll say this - it’s going to be hard to get there more than once or twice a year from DC. You might look at Lawrenceville, St. Andrews (Delaware), and other slightly more southern schools if going to see your kids sports games, or them coming home for long weekends, etc. are important to you.

Schools aren’t advertising their shortcomings and you won’t find them on a school tour. I went to one of these schools and most of my K-9 classmates did, too. I loved boarding. That said, every single boarding school has ample drugs and alcohol, sexual misconduct, academic dishonesty, and other issues. Are you confident in your 14 year old handling this environment? Is it worth it to you? It was for me, but for many it was certainly not.

Based on my college experience I ended up feeling like boarding school kids were better prepared for college because they already had experience experimenting with hard drugs, group sex, etc. at boarding school so they had gotten that out of the way and could focus on classes 😂

Partially true. They also are used to independence and time management. If they got through four years of boarding they’re less likely to fall to pieces going to college.

To PP, every single boarding school has tons of drugs and alcohol like every other school in America. The difference is the absence of parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

FA depends on the year. Sometimes the institutional priorities dictate that they take more full pay students than usual.

Financial aid goes to URMs and hockey players. It doesn’t go to high achieving whites

Are 40%-50% of the schools URM and hockey players?

It goes to whomever they accept and their income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

FA depends on the year. Sometimes the institutional priorities dictate that they take more full pay students than usual.

Financial aid goes to URMs and hockey players. It doesn’t go to high achieving whites

Are 40%-50% of the schools URM and hockey players?

It goes to whomever they accept and their income.

Actually, yea, about 40% of these schools are Latino/black/play hockey at this point, especially at smaller schools where you need a ton of players within a smaller student body.

Yes, financial aid goes to who they accept. And they accept hockey players and URMs. That poster with the 99th percentile child is not a hockey player or URM, guaranteed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

NP. Illogical conclusion. Does not boost your attempt to argue that you got a superior education at your boarding school.

Parents making 250k in the DMV don’t send their children to boarding school. Students from the DMV have rich parents or are from the inner city and use pipeline programs. People making 250k don’t get enough aid to avoid making sacrifices they don’t view as worth it. Enjoy Walt Whitman!

This doesn’t make much sense. Again, it would only cost them $25k to send them to these top boarding schools if accepted.

I bet any family considering private or boarding school at that income would be ecstatic to know that they could attend Andover for probably much less than any DMV private school.

I literally know a DC family probably around that income sending their kid to a boarding school because it ended up as such a good deal for them. That said…the kid was the one pushing to explore boarding schools.

“Only cost 25k” say goodbye to both your trips to Park City and Hilton Head. There’s a reason not many families making 150-500k go to boarding school, and it’s not only a question of having family on the board like OP. 25k is an enormous sacrifice for them and they probably wouldn’t go to st albans or GDS either.

Any DC family that made $250 k and could get their kid into an elite boarding school for $25k/year would jump all over that deal and never look back. That’s half the top private schools in DC and not a lot more than a Catholic school that many middle class families attend. Deal of the century. Not sure why you’re so fixated on the idea that a $250k family wouldn’t attend private schools

They wouldn’t. They don’t apply. You’re on DCUM, you’re already more invested than most of your similarly situated peers. Most don’t care if they go to Walt Whitman then a bad SEC school. They’re too busy eating cheese dip on football Sundays.

There is a family on our block that sends one kid to Choate and one to DCPS (that kid is very young).

I assume the DCPS kid will probably go private by middle school.

I have no idea of their financial situation other than they can’t be dirt poor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

FA depends on the year. Sometimes the institutional priorities dictate that they take more full pay students than usual.

Financial aid goes to URMs and hockey players. It doesn’t go to high achieving whites

Are 40%-50% of the schools URM and hockey players?

It goes to whomever they accept and their income.

Actually, yea, about 40% of these schools are Latino/black/play hockey at this point, especially at smaller schools where you need a ton of players within a smaller student body.

Yes, financial aid goes to who they accept. And they accept hockey players and URMs. That poster with the 99th percentile child is not a hockey player or URM, guaranteed

So a school like Exeter that says 48% receive FA with an average award of $58k…that’s hockey players and URM?

How would poor URMs even find these places?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

FA depends on the year. Sometimes the institutional priorities dictate that they take more full pay students than usual.

Financial aid goes to URMs and hockey players. It doesn’t go to high achieving whites

Are 40%-50% of the schools URM and hockey players?

It goes to whomever they accept and their income.

Actually, yea, about 40% of these schools are Latino/black/play hockey at this point, especially at smaller schools where you need a ton of players within a smaller student body.

Yes, financial aid goes to who they accept. And they accept hockey players and URMs. That poster with the 99th percentile child is not a hockey player or URM, guaranteed

So a school like Exeter that says 48% receive FA with an average award of $58k…that’s hockey players and URM?

How would poor URMs even find these places?

There are numerous non profits that connect URMs with prep schools. They schedule group tours. Reach out to parochial and magnet schools etc

Here’s just one of many https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prep_for_Prep

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

NP. Illogical conclusion. Does not boost your attempt to argue that you got a superior education at your boarding school.

Parents making 250k in the DMV don’t send their children to boarding school. Students from the DMV have rich parents or are from the inner city and use pipeline programs. People making 250k don’t get enough aid to avoid making sacrifices they don’t view as worth it. Enjoy Walt Whitman!

This doesn’t make much sense. Again, it would only cost them $25k to send them to these top boarding schools if accepted.

I bet any family considering private or boarding school at that income would be ecstatic to know that they could attend Andover for probably much less than any DMV private school.

I literally know a DC family probably around that income sending their kid to a boarding school because it ended up as such a good deal for them. That said…the kid was the one pushing to explore boarding schools.

“Only cost 25k” say goodbye to both your trips to Park City and Hilton Head. There’s a reason not many families making 150-500k go to boarding school, and it’s not only a question of having family on the board like OP. 25k is an enormous sacrifice for them and they probably wouldn’t go to st albans or GDS either.

Any DC family that made $250 k and could get their kid into an elite boarding school for $25k/year would jump all over that deal and never look back. That’s half the top private schools in DC and not a lot more than a Catholic school that many middle class families attend. Deal of the century. Not sure why you’re so fixated on the idea that a $250k family wouldn’t attend private schools

They wouldn’t. They don’t apply. You’re on DCUM, you’re already more invested than most of your similarly situated peers. Most don’t care if they go to Walt Whitman then a bad SEC school. They’re too busy eating cheese dip on football Sundays.

There is a family on our block that sends one kid to Choate and one to DCPS (that kid is very young).

I assume the DCPS kid will probably go private by middle school.

I have no idea of their financial situation other than they can’t be dirt poor.

Probably quietly rich. Like many prep school families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

NP. Illogical conclusion. Does not boost your attempt to argue that you got a superior education at your boarding school.

Parents making 250k in the DMV don’t send their children to boarding school. Students from the DMV have rich parents or are from the inner city and use pipeline programs. People making 250k don’t get enough aid to avoid making sacrifices they don’t view as worth it. Enjoy Walt Whitman!

This doesn’t make much sense. Again, it would only cost them $25k to send them to these top boarding schools if accepted.

I bet any family considering private or boarding school at that income would be ecstatic to know that they could attend Andover for probably much less than any DMV private school.

I literally know a DC family probably around that income sending their kid to a boarding school because it ended up as such a good deal for them. That said…the kid was the one pushing to explore boarding schools.

“Only cost 25k” say goodbye to both your trips to Park City and Hilton Head. There’s a reason not many families making 150-500k go to boarding school, and it’s not only a question of having family on the board like OP. 25k is an enormous sacrifice for them and they probably wouldn’t go to st albans or GDS either.

Any DC family that made $250 k and could get their kid into an elite boarding school for $25k/year would jump all over that deal and never look back. That’s half the top private schools in DC and not a lot more than a Catholic school that many middle class families attend. Deal of the century. Not sure why you’re so fixated on the idea that a $250k family wouldn’t attend private schools

They wouldn’t. They don’t apply. You’re on DCUM, you’re already more invested than most of your similarly situated peers. Most don’t care if they go to Walt Whitman then a bad SEC school. They’re too busy eating cheese dip on football Sundays.

There is a family on our block that sends one kid to Choate and one to DCPS (that kid is very young).

I assume the DCPS kid will probably go private by middle school.

I have no idea of their financial situation other than they can’t be dirt poor.

Probably quietly rich. Like many prep school families.

Maybe…but I don’t know of any “quietly rich” or “loudly rich” families spending one minute in DCPS for any of their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

FA depends on the year. Sometimes the institutional priorities dictate that they take more full pay students than usual.

Financial aid goes to URMs and hockey players. It doesn’t go to high achieving whites

Are 40%-50% of the schools URM and hockey players?

It goes to whomever they accept and their income.

Actually, yea, about 40% of these schools are Latino/black/play hockey at this point, especially at smaller schools where you need a ton of players within a smaller student body.

Yes, financial aid goes to who they accept. And they accept hockey players and URMs. That poster with the 99th percentile child is not a hockey player or URM, guaranteed

So a school like Exeter that says 48% receive FA with an average award of $58k…that’s hockey players and URM?

How would poor URMs even find these places?

There are numerous non profits that connect URMs with prep schools. They schedule group tours. Reach out to parochial and magnet schools etc

Here’s just one of many https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prep_for_Prep

That organization has been around since 1978 and has 3000 alumni. That doesn’t seem like it’s making much of a dent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

FA depends on the year. Sometimes the institutional priorities dictate that they take more full pay students than usual.

Financial aid goes to URMs and hockey players. It doesn’t go to high achieving whites

Are 40%-50% of the schools URM and hockey players?

It goes to whomever they accept and their income.

Actually, yea, about 40% of these schools are Latino/black/play hockey at this point, especially at smaller schools where you need a ton of players within a smaller student body.

Yes, financial aid goes to who they accept. And they accept hockey players and URMs. That poster with the 99th percentile child is not a hockey player or URM, guaranteed

So a school like Exeter that says 48% receive FA with an average award of $58k…that’s hockey players and URM?

How would poor URMs even find these places?

There are numerous non profits that connect URMs with prep schools. They schedule group tours. Reach out to parochial and magnet schools etc

Here’s just one of many https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prep_for_Prep

That organization has been around since 1978 and has 3000 alumni. That doesn’t seem like it’s making much of a dent.

That’s 67 a year. Among the top ten schools that six each. And that’s only one organization. There are many URMs at these schools. Aid doesn’t go to academic whites

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

NP. Illogical conclusion. Does not boost your attempt to argue that you got a superior education at your boarding school.

Parents making 250k in the DMV don’t send their children to boarding school. Students from the DMV have rich parents or are from the inner city and use pipeline programs. People making 250k don’t get enough aid to avoid making sacrifices they don’t view as worth it. Enjoy Walt Whitman!

This doesn’t make much sense. Again, it would only cost them $25k to send them to these top boarding schools if accepted.

I bet any family considering private or boarding school at that income would be ecstatic to know that they could attend Andover for probably much less than any DMV private school.

I literally know a DC family probably around that income sending their kid to a boarding school because it ended up as such a good deal for them. That said…the kid was the one pushing to explore boarding schools.

“Only cost 25k” say goodbye to both your trips to Park City and Hilton Head. There’s a reason not many families making 150-500k go to boarding school, and it’s not only a question of having family on the board like OP. 25k is an enormous sacrifice for them and they probably wouldn’t go to st albans or GDS either.

Any DC family that made $250 k and could get their kid into an elite boarding school for $25k/year would jump all over that deal and never look back. That’s half the top private schools in DC and not a lot more than a Catholic school that many middle class families attend. Deal of the century. Not sure why you’re so fixated on the idea that a $250k family wouldn’t attend private schools

They wouldn’t. They don’t apply. You’re on DCUM, you’re already more invested than most of your similarly situated peers. Most don’t care if they go to Walt Whitman then a bad SEC school. They’re too busy eating cheese dip on football Sundays.

There is a family on our block that sends one kid to Choate and one to DCPS (that kid is very young).

I assume the DCPS kid will probably go private by middle school.

I have no idea of their financial situation other than they can’t be dirt poor.

Probably quietly rich. Like many prep school families.

Maybe…but I don’t know of any “quietly rich” or “loudly rich” families spending one minute in DCPS for any of their kids.

Many quietly do. I’m sure you live in NW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of families at these top boarding schools are stunned with the level of rigor and expectation placed on students. The pace is unrelenting and the workload is heavy. Most kids adapt, but the first few report cards are humbling, and it's not uncommon for kids to break down in tears when they realize their Ivy dreams are crushed because of a weak freshman GPA.

Facts. My DS was making straight As at a school here that everyone on DCUM loves to discuss and apply to. We sent him to one of the HADES and he had his first ever Cs. No grade inflation. He was shocked. He turned it around, but it was humbling for him.

Both of our kids went to boarding schools, both are doing well in college and one after. You go for the education, experience, connections. They both loved it and wanted it. That’s also key. Wanting to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

FA depends on the year. Sometimes the institutional priorities dictate that they take more full pay students than usual.

Financial aid goes to URMs and hockey players. It doesn’t go to high achieving whites

Are 40%-50% of the schools URM and hockey players?

It goes to whomever they accept and their income.

Actually, yea, about 40% of these schools are Latino/black/play hockey at this point, especially at smaller schools where you need a ton of players within a smaller student body.

Yes, financial aid goes to who they accept. And they accept hockey players and URMs. That poster with the 99th percentile child is not a hockey player or URM, guaranteed

My child happens to be both a URM and a hockey player. He got so fed up with the constant comments about being on scholarship (we are UHNW) that we, against our normal habits, made a very large and very public donation to the school so it would stop. Many of the hockey players are not on scholarship (teammate had parents worth multiple billions), but a lot of URM are, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

NP. Illogical conclusion. Does not boost your attempt to argue that you got a superior education at your boarding school.

Parents making 250k in the DMV don’t send their children to boarding school. Students from the DMV have rich parents or are from the inner city and use pipeline programs. People making 250k don’t get enough aid to avoid making sacrifices they don’t view as worth it. Enjoy Walt Whitman!

This doesn’t make much sense. Again, it would only cost them $25k to send them to these top boarding schools if accepted.

I bet any family considering private or boarding school at that income would be ecstatic to know that they could attend Andover for probably much less than any DMV private school.

I literally know a DC family probably around that income sending their kid to a boarding school because it ended up as such a good deal for them. That said…the kid was the one pushing to explore boarding schools.

“Only cost 25k” say goodbye to both your trips to Park City and Hilton Head. There’s a reason not many families making 150-500k go to boarding school, and it’s not only a question of having family on the board like OP. 25k is an enormous sacrifice for them and they probably wouldn’t go to st albans or GDS either.

Any DC family that made $250 k and could get their kid into an elite boarding school for $25k/year would jump all over that deal and never look back. That’s half the top private schools in DC and not a lot more than a Catholic school that many middle class families attend. Deal of the century. Not sure why you’re so fixated on the idea that a $250k family wouldn’t attend private schools

They wouldn’t. They don’t apply. You’re on DCUM, you’re already more invested than most of your similarly situated peers. Most don’t care if they go to Walt Whitman then a bad SEC school. They’re too busy eating cheese dip on football Sundays.

There is a family on our block that sends one kid to Choate and one to DCPS (that kid is very young).

I assume the DCPS kid will probably go private by middle school.

I have no idea of their financial situation other than they can’t be dirt poor.

Probably quietly rich. Like many prep school families.

Maybe…but I don’t know of any “quietly rich” or “loudly rich” families spending one minute in DCPS for any of their kids.

Many quietly do. I’m sure you live in NW.

That’s absurd. “Many” rich families don’t send their kids to DCPS. Some may do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As always, this board is very unhelpful when it comes to boarding schools. There is a very good, moderated boarding school board at college confidential that has been very helpful.

Many are bitter they can’t afford the tuition and feel threatened by boarding school seniors taking their public and private day school children’s college slots.

It can't be that...Exeter and Deerfield have some of the most generous FA of any school, including every college. At Deerfield, you don't pay any more than 10% of your income. I don't think any college as an example would give FA to a family making $500k, yet Deerfield caps you at $50k tuition.

Even though they are generous with FA, it is still a large expense for upper middle class families. They’re not giving up an annual ski or beach vacation for boarding school unless they really prize education. They’d rather send them to MoCo schools.

FA depends on the year. Sometimes the institutional priorities dictate that they take more full pay students than usual.

Financial aid goes to URMs and hockey players. It doesn’t go to high achieving whites

Are 40%-50% of the schools URM and hockey players?

It goes to whomever they accept and their income.

Actually, yea, about 40% of these schools are Latino/black/play hockey at this point, especially at smaller schools where you need a ton of players within a smaller student body.

Yes, financial aid goes to who they accept. And they accept hockey players and URMs. That poster with the 99th percentile child is not a hockey player or URM, guaranteed

So a school like Exeter that says 48% receive FA with an average award of $58k…that’s hockey players and URM?

How would poor URMs even find these places?

There are numerous non profits that connect URMs with prep schools. They schedule group tours. Reach out to parochial and magnet schools etc

Here’s just one of many https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prep_for_Prep

That organization has been around since 1978 and has 3000 alumni. That doesn’t seem like it’s making much of a dent.

That’s 67 a year. Among the top ten schools that six each. And that’s only one organization. There are many URMs at these schools. Aid doesn’t go to academic whites

Most of the schools they place kids are private day schools, not boarding schools. I would be shocked if they place more than 5 kids at all the boarding schools (there are more then 10 BTW).

Someone posted that Andover has like 320 kids in their graduating class. It’s not a small Upper School.