Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My kid will have these two options for school next year as a 9th grader. Which would you choose? I know Lawrenceville is more prestigious, but I don't think he'd succeed in an academic pressure cooker situation. Episcopal seems more laid back, almost like a public school but on a gorgeous boarding school campus. I also think having less competitive classmates could make college admissions easier. I also like that Episcopal doesn't have Saturday classes like Lawrenceville does.
Which do you think is the better option?
Life is short. I would not do boarding school for teens. My kids needed us more than ever as teens in different ways. You want to be there at night for the late night talks after they finished studying or doing homework. Even that 1-2 times a week will mean a lot when they go to college.
You clearly did not go to boarding school yourself. There are kids out there for whom boarding school is a blessing (I was one of them). I became *much* closer with my parents, mom in particular after I went away. I needed freedom, room to do things my way, and to get out of my brother's shadow and my very small town. For me, it really was the best possible thing. I also went to a boarding school that was only about 90 minutes away so my parents could visit, I could go home on weekends, etc. I would enter that into the calculus.