By Heather Nelson
EIGHTH GRADERS HAVE a lot of options when it comes to where they can spend their next four years of school. Aside from their town’s public school, they can choose between the local private schools, parochial schools and even more specific magnet schools. A handful of students also attend boarding high schools.
Boarding high schools make up some of the most prestigious, academically challenging and athletically nurturing high schools in the country. For this reason, they have also been called “college preparatory schools,” or “prep schools” for short. Some of these boarding schools have existed since before the Revolutionary War.
Most boarding school students live on campus in dorms all throughout the school year and only come home for extended breaks, although some schools also enroll “day students” who attend the institution by day and go home to their families by night if they live within a certain radius of the campus.
These schools scatter mostly across the East Coast, although some lie as far away as California. There are over 250 boarding schools recognized by the Association of Boarding Schools in the United States from 40 different states that attract students from all over the country and world with their extensive campuses and unique environments.
Even though boarding schools offer a lot of experiences and opportunities that other wise might be unavailable to most students, a lot needs to go into the decision for a parent to send their 14-year-old off to live at a school that might be hours, or even a plane ride, away for upwards of $50,000 each year in tuition.
“The financial aspect was significant,” said Jane Burrell, Shrewsbury, the mother of Phillips Exeter Academy class of 2015 graduate Morgan Burrell. “It’s a huge sacrifice but we were willing to make it. Education is the best gift you can give to your kid, and you do anything to make it happen.”
Although financial aid is a readily available option for many students at most of these schools, it can still be hard for any family to afford.
To answer questions and provide information, for both parents and prospective students, certain middle schools hold boarding school fairs. Rumson Country Day School will be holding its annual boarding school fair from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27 where admission officers from more than 80 boarding high schools will be on hand to answer questions.
“I thought being in a community like that would help me learn much more than I would at a local school,” said Will Soltas, Rumson, now going into his second year at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. “And I thought it’d be a lot more fun because I’d be with people that would share my interests.”
For Soltas, picking a school heavily focused on academics and learning opportunities was an important part of the process.
Jane Burrell had a similar experience picking a school and said, “We didn’t want him (her son) to go at first. Once we visited we saw the tremendous opportunities Exeter would offer and it was hard to say no.”
For other eighth graders and parents, the defining aspect of a school might be the community service opportunities, abundance of abroad programs, number of academic courses, presence of certain clubs, quality of athletic teams, distance from home, prestige of certain academic departments or overall atmosphere of the school.
Eleni Scurletis, Rumson, who will be a senior at St. Andrew’s School (SAS) this fall, however, found that what she really wanted out of a boarding school was a strong and tight-knit community. SAS is a small boarding school with some 300 students in Delaware, whose strong, long-lasting traditions, cozy rural campus and focus on community bonding made appealed to Scurletis.
“It’s a small community that is 100 percent boarding so everyone is there together,” she said. “I wanted to surround myself with people that I would know and trust and to be close with teachers as well as students.”
For others, the independence and new experiences that come with attending boarding school is attractive. “I just wanted to go out on my own and experience the world, which is kind of weird since I was moving out at 14,” said Dustin Goldberg, Rumson, a rising senior at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts. “I wanted to introduce myself to people with new backgrounds and diverse identities.”
As boarding school students live away from their parents, in a setting similar to college except with more restrictions and rules, such as check-in hours at night and off-campus permission slips, they gain a lot of independence.
“You’re never truly on your own because your teachers and dorm parents are always looking after you, but there still is a lot of responsibility, for sure,” Scurletis explained.
Soltas relishes in this aspect of his unique high school experience. “I can go out to dinner where I want to and choose the classes I want to take. The small things really add up,” he said. “I think overall having that independence a bit earlier in life helped my maturity, and my parents’ because it won’t be as big of a jump when I go to college.”
Sometimes people assume that a child either dislikes their parents or vice versa to choose to attend a boarding school.
“When I tell other parents that my son goes to boarding school and they say, ‘I just love my child too much to send them away,’” said Burrell. “Just because he goes to an amazing school out of state, doesn’t mean I love him any less.”
Going to a prestigious academic school inherently comes with a heavy course load. Despite the work, these students are forever grateful for what they learn and what they are exposed to.
“I am surrounded by diverse people with the coolest backgrounds,” said Goldberg. “And even though it’s a lot of work, we suffer through it together. It can be tough at times but it’s all worth it. I’ve learned so much.”
“Going to boarding school and being away from home in an intense environment has encouraged me to take more risks and given me the courage to explore my interests and be my own person,” Scurletis said. “Being surrounded by so many unique people with different perspectives has completely reshaped my own.”
Heather Nelson, Fair Haven, is a rising senior at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire.
