Why Boarding School?

As the summer is winding down, rising freshmen are feeling a range of emotions: excitement, anxiety, uncertainty. This is the time in a student’s life when he or she or the parents may ask — private or public? Or boarding school?

Not every student is guaranteed to benefit from boarding schools. But, the proactive environment of a boarding school is an incomparable advantage for a growing student, giving him or her the opportunity that is hard to find in public schools.

According to The Association of Boarding Schools, or TABS, 90% of the boarding school students interviewed claim that their teachers are high quality compared to 51% for public high schools. The teachers not only hold advanced degrees, but they also live with the students. Brian Choi, a senior at Phillips Exeter Academy, claims,“Outside the classroom, [teachers] have always been available for additional help, generously sacrificing their own time, and because many of our teachers live in the same dorm, I’ve had the privilege to develop relationships with my teachers outside of classes.”

A lot of students declare that the next aspect of boarding school is the one they cannot complete the experience without: friends. The students are with each other for seven days a week and make long lasting bonds that last even through their adulthood. With a smaller body of students, the community itself tends to be closer than the ones at public schools.

Even though having close knit friendships is essential, knowing about oneself is the most important and the hardest task. By being away from the radar of the parents, the students are able to make their own choices, gain maturity, strengthen their moral compass, and find passions. They also learn skills needed in college during their daily lives at school. Kelly Oh, a junior at the Thacher School, says,“From travelling overseas to learning how to use the laundry machine for the first time, Thacher has taught me unforgettable life lessons I would not have been able to learn otherwise.”

Boarding schools also help with preparation for the future. For high school students, their nearest future is college, and boarding schools are renown to get students prepared for that big step. Not only do they have experienced college counselors, TABS also reveals that the hours boarding school students put into academics, music, and athletics are significantly higher, which means that students are able to prioritize the essentials and also maintain their time well.

Extra experiences that public schools do not offer attract many students; for example, the Thacher School in Ojai, California, has a horse program and biannual camping trips to beautiful national forests and parks. These experiences add to the academics that the schools provide, creating a healthy and balanced environment for the students. Steven Yoo, a sophomore at the Thacher School, narrates,“During my first week at Thacher, camping near the beautiful Plumas National Forest, I shared the same tent with boys from my class, which gave us no choice but to obliterate the ice standing in between us. Before we knew it, we all became friends.”

Jack Kim, a senior at Choate Rosemary Hall, conveys,“Boarding school experience is unique in that it creates a learning environment that is starkly different from public schools; it is competitive with intellectuals who want nothing more than to learn.”