Boarding School in MidAtlantic area

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blue Ridge school is in Albemarle County adjacent to the Blue Ridge mountains near Charlottesville. All boys. All boarding, but in practice some kids have 7-day boarding while a few kids who are local have 5-day boarding (go home Friday afternoon and return Sunday afternoon). It is Episcopal, but not pushy or evangelical. Small class sizes. Good facilities. Good academics. Usually has a handful of kids who are from overseas. Kids are well prepared for college.

Blue Ridge is not strong academically. They heavily recruit boys for their athletic program, and many of them are academically below grade level. Many are given free rides. The school survives on the full pay international students. If you want to stay in Virginia, Woodberry Forest is your best option.

[Anonymous]

St. Albans (DC), while not a bordering school, has a boarding program.

[Anonymous]

Peddie in NJ is absolutely worth seeing (and further south in NJ than other NJ schools mentioned). The academics and facilities are stellar and there is a big emphasis on character building. There My DH and several friends of ours are alums (some have sent their own kids). It's really been transformative in the best ways.

[Anonymous]

I've heard really great things about Peddie. It's always in Lawrenceville's shadow but I'm not sure it should be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We want to look into the possibility of boarding school for our son.

We would prefer all boys but open to coed also. We want to limit the search to somewhere driveable so maybe no more than 3 hours from DC. DS is above average, happy, social, independent kid. He does best being around a structured schedule. We are looking for 9th so high school but open to starting earlier in 8th if there is a 6-12th school.

I would love to get some recommendations of schools you know or if you have a child currently at a boarding school close to this area and what their experiences have been like. TIA.

Woodberry alum here. While I don't have the same level of connection to the school as many other classmates and alums (I came from out west back when the student body was more homogenous than it is today, and was something of a square peg in a round hole), it was the right place for me to go, and the education is top notch. College was a breeze by comparison, and I went to a top ~50 university. The facilities are outstanding, the extracurriculars are strong (athletics, drama, art, music), and the community is vibrant. The school has about 400 boys, all of whom board (including faculty sons - faculty daughters can attend the school but live at home), and per the headmaster they want all of their students to be known, challenged, and loved. The headmaster is both an alum who went there on financial aid and a former faculty member before he got into school administration, so he has experienced the school from every vantage point. It's definitely the best all-boys boarding school in the immediate area (St. Alban's and Georgetown Prep have boarders but are mostly day students, Blue Ridge is both significantly smaller and not as strong academically, and the others I know of are military academies - Fork Union and Hargrave).

The school can feel like stepping back in time for some, and not in the best ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blue Ridge school is in Albemarle County adjacent to the Blue Ridge mountains near Charlottesville. All boys. All boarding, but in practice some kids have 7-day boarding while a few kids who are local have 5-day boarding (go home Friday afternoon and return Sunday afternoon). It is Episcopal, but not pushy or evangelical. Small class sizes. Good facilities. Good academics. Usually has a handful of kids who are from overseas. Kids are well prepared for college.

Blue Ridge is not strong academically. They heavily recruit boys for their athletic program, and many of them are academically below grade level. Many are given free rides. The school survives on the full pay international students. If you want to stay in Virginia, Woodberry Forest is your best option.

Disagree with that characterization of Blue Ridge...

[Anonymous]

Woodberry is great, but I'd be cautious because of their "one strike policy." If your kid gets caught in a lie, they get kicked out. Personally, I think this is a bad policy because teen boys do stupid things and their brains aren't really developed at that age.