January brings with it a new year, a new semester, and—for some students—a new opportunity to apply to boarding schools. From Hotchkiss in Connecticut to Cate in California, boarding schools around the country will spend the winter accepting applications from domestic and international students hoping for an opportunity to study away from home. The application process is often intensive, involving essays, interviews, test scores, and letters of recommendation, and the acceptance rates at top schools can be punishing. (Deerfield Academy, for example, has a 15% acceptance rate, while Choate Rosemary Hall admits just 11% of applicants.)
It’s easy to get caught up in the application whirlwind, but before diving in, we encourage prospective students to take a step back and ask a key question: is boarding school really the right option for me? To help you as you mull over this question, we’ve listed below some of the pros and cons interested students should consider before applying.
BOARDING SCHOOL PROS
Boarding schools can offer opportunities that are not available at your local schools. Especially if you live in rural area or a neighborhood without many academic options, boarding schools can offer a better, more rigorous education than local schools.
TTA co-founder, Dr. Michele Hernandez, sent both of her children to boarding schools, in large part because
“our local public school did not offer Latin or Greek and did not provide enough upper-level classes for advanced students. My daughter studied classics at Deerfield and attended Princeton and Stanford for a PhD and my son attended Groton and is a senior at Cornell.”
You may also find that you are particularly excited about some of the opportunities boarding schools offer, whether it’s the Harkness discussions at Exeter, the Classics Diploma at Hotchkiss, or the Horse Program at Thacher. For strong students with clear academic and extracurricular interests, boarding schools can offer excellent resources that are hard to find at home, making for an exciting, invigorating high school career.
Boarding schools can help foster independence. Are you a born explorer eager to meet new people? A teen champing at the bit to get away from parental oversight and carve out your own pathway? An expert at practical life skills, ranging from time management to laundry duty? If so, boarding school could be a great option for you, as it offers opportunities to embrace your independence ahead of most of your peers. You’ll be responsible for managing your schedule and responsibilities without the same kind of safety net you might have at home—but for some students, that’s a huge perk!
Boarding schools can help smooth your pathway into certain colleges. As we’ve noted before, many boarding schools are considered “feeder schools” for top colleges, sending a disproportionate number of students to those universities each year. While there are plenty of caveats to this rule (which we’ll dig into below), it is true that boarding school students do often perform well at certain colleges. Students at Exeter, for example, tend to fare very well when they apply to Georgetown, while applicants from Groton often hear good news from the University of Chicago (especially when they apply in the Early Decision round). Most boarding schools are happy to share their matriculation data. If you see evidence of past students doing unusually well at one or more of your target colleges, that can be a big point in the school’s favor.
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BOARDING SCHOOL CONS
You may struggle at boarding school if you do not take initiative. While independent students can thrive at boarding school, those who would benefit from more oversight risk falling through the cracks. Boarding school requires you to advocate for yourself with teachers, carve out on-campus extracurricular opportunities, and manage your time wisely, which can be challenging for students just starting ninth grade. While many boarding schools now have mandatory study hours and peer tutoring options, you generally won’t find the same kind of on-demand help that you might get from your parents at home.
In a talented pool, it can be hard to stand out. Top boarding schools are open about the fact that they aim to attract top students—but in a class composed entirely of exceptional candidates, even strong students can start to seem average. As we’ve noted before, most top colleges aim to admit students in the top 10% of their high school class. While it might have been easy to rank at the top of your local middle school, it can be much harder to stand out at a school where nearly 50% of the class has an A or A+ average in challenging courses (as is the case at Hotchkiss). In such an environment, earning a few A- and B+ grades can put you out of the running at top schools.
Boarding school matriculation records can be misleading. While admissions officers do recognize the rigor and selectivity of boarding schools, they don’t necessarily give students at those schools special attention. In fact, the bias against “privileged” students in recent years can sometimes work against boarding school applicants, especially those who are not at the very top of their class. In some cases, a boarding school’s robust matriculation record at a certain college may be less the result of the school’s inherent strength and more of how many hooked applicants (i.e., athletic recruits, development candidates, etc.) are currently in attendance.
Boarding schools can be pressure cookers. The push to take the initiative and stand out in a hyper-competitive student body can make boarding school a stressful experience. While some students thrive under pressure and rise to the occasion, others find that such intensity makes their school experience unenjoyable. If you are able to tour your schools of interest before applying, it’s worth chatting with current students about their experiences to make sure you wouldn’t feel overwhelmed as a student.
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IS BOARDING SCHOOL RIGHT FOR YOU?
Once you have taken all of these points into account, ask yourself how you feel about boarding school. If it still seems like an incredible opportunity, take a look at our boarding school application timeline and make sure you are on the path to putting together a successful application this January!
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