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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For our family, one of the boarding schools you mention has been amazing. Our oldest attended a day school, and it was very good.  But the boarding school has been sooo much better. Why? Depends on the kid. For us:

There is more time in the day when the commute to school, sport and socialization is eliminated. So kid goes deeper into subjects, sport/gym/training, and in person social opportunities.

There is much better personal regulation around phones. The school does not welcome them at all during the school day, outside the dorm, and never in the dining hall. This is not a big deal when everyone else is doing the same. They don’t live and die by the phone.

Grades mix better when they live together. Freshman look up to the senior proctors who live with them in the dorm. They level up pretty quickly. And holy moly what a mix of kids in the class. Some seriously intriguing personal stories. Diverse by many metrics.

Dorm life: they have so much fun! This is the reason my kid would give you. Glad it is true. The last kid at home can be lonely without siblings. Not so in a dorm. YMMV depending on how social they like to be. Mine needs downtime and takes it when needed.

Resources… the schools you list spend about $125-30k per student, per year. Effectively, even the wealthiest are receiving $40k+ financial aid. The financial aid office has deep pockets. We are upper middle class ($400k HHI) and pay half of next year’s 80k tuition. So for $39k (fudging numbers slightly for privacy), we cover all tuition, sport at the most elite level, food for 34 weeks per year, college counseling (we are not the type to hire a consultant and don’t think anyone should have to if your kid is doing it right), and a robust level of student programming both academically and socially.

The typical class is 1:8 up to 1:14 depending on subject. Teachers are exceptional. Though we have heard of one or two not great ones, our kid has not had that experience.

People talk about the networking but our kid is not that transactional and probably won’t think to leverage it. Besties this year are a 100% FA foreign kid and an American household name kid. Polar opposites of opportunity. They don’t care. They do have sport in common.

That said, kid has fielded a few sweet invites to visit friends in other places. He is now a very curious traveler and appreciates a local host.

Oddly, we feel closer with our kid bc there is always so much for us to report to each other. We chat/text frequently and also visit for a dinner once each month. I don’t think I could have let go like this with kid #1. They paved the way for us to give more freedom to #2. We also rarely saw #1 because they were so busy driving to school/sport/life. It’s not like the kids at home are sitting around gazing into mom’s eyes all day long.

Summers will be at home with us (no pay to play college stuff) and that was one of our conditions to saying yes. Just get a good job and spend time with your family.

I hope you have a choice on March 10. If it is the right thing for the child and family both, it is transformative.

As for the DCUM pile on heading my way, save your breath. I was you. I changed my mind. And my thriving kid is thrilled that I did! [/quote]

NP here - thanks for such an insightful post. We went to boarding school and loved our experience and hope to give it to our children. They've grown up knowing that it is a possibility for them and our eldest is on board with going in a few years. We would prefer to be within a 2 hour drive from DC so are looking at schools in Delaware, PA, MD, and Virginia. Curious if you looked at any schools in this area and if so, ant that you particularly liked and why?[/quote]

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