If this might be an issue for you, it should definitely be on your list of questions during revisit. The way schools handle this may be vastly different but it’s unlikely you’ll be abandoned during a long weekend.
There are many friendly local families with day students who take in international students for a night or two and can help with logistics. But it’s worth asking those questions.
Same here, but no more than that, usually.
Not true. Our son needed to stay in a hotel a couple of times and American Express concierge services handled that for us with the hotel. Check the benefits of your credit card membership services.
You can never assume that the credit card company will trump a hotel’s rules however. That can change at anytime, even at the same location based on management. Whether American Express can coerce a particular hotel to allow minors to check in with no adult, it is not something that should be banked on. It’s never guaranteed by AmEx.
EWS seemed to try and control extra travel expenses for the kids, and does not shut the campus down on long weekends. Also day students eat free at the dining halls, but that’s pretty common I believe. Cranbrook charged kids.
My kid had a free bus trip to Boston on a 4-day weekend (not overnight). Spring break activities are generally very modest and can provide aid.
No fees for transport to and from Amtrak and Albany Airport. My biggest headache is that the big nearby colleges have similar holiday schedules and can make some travel times expensive.
I don’t think the school emphasizes sports at all, although there is a crew team?
I’ll point out that Southwest Airlines has a very generous unaccompanied minor policy—can fly alone with no fee at 14! This is a big cost saver for us.
They are usually explicit about when you can arrive and when you have to be gone. Students coordinate flights with the dean’s office.
The school doesn’t want to be responsible for students outside that point and may not have the resources for that - teachers, etc also take vacation then.
At our school, day families could sign up to host students who needed to leave campus but couldn’t go home. From what I saw, this was more likely to happen without the school’s involvement - boarders would stay with day student friends or go home with other boarders. But in a few cases, they’d go to the list and I do recall one student who remarked that she had developed a close tie with her local family and hoped she could come back for Thanksgiving when she was in college!
For us, transportation has been the largest “extra” fee. Flights, car rentals, hotels, meals for breaks and visits add up quickly.
Re- Prom cost. I have a Senior and have not heard a single word about Prom cost. I think it is free. It is on campus. Even J-Prom, which was off campus with a DJ had no fee. We were asked for a donation of any amount for the Senior Party.
Re-travel. We are an 8 hour drive. It’s long, but usually a wash vs flight expense, at least the holiday airline prices when I have checked. And her dad enjoys the drive with her.
Our school’s dances were free as well (not on campus). And bonus - the girls competed to see how little they could spend! Thrift shops, shared clothes, etc. DS’ date said “why spend so much on something I’ll wear for a few hours?” I was thinking that she was a keeper! But out loud, I said nothing.
Nice! My normally practical DD found a prom dress more than I was willing to spend so she is paying for part of it.
Another expense you may have: Laundry. Some send out to a laundry service. Some charge for the machines. Thankfully ours weee made free this year.
I think we should note in this thread that many of the costs we’ve listed so far would be incurred if our students attended LPS as well. We would have had to buy supplies (calculators, laptop, etc.) and pay activity/lesson/prom costs even if our son had stayed home. We found that the “additional” costs were mostly travel related.
We pay sizable amount for off-campus food delivery since athletic practices often end after the cafeteria is closed. We also pay meal for a whole team to consume on a bus, at least once a season per family, since the cafeteria is also closed by the time the players are back on campus.
Wow. That is surprising that they couldn’t work that out for the practices to work with the dining area. I should add - surprising to me. I hadn’t heard this and never really thought it could be an issue because sports are required at most/many boarding schools so I assumed they would have it worked out so kids can eat at the end of the day! Another great question to ask after March 10 - how often do students miss dinner due to extracurricular commitments that last beyond dining hours . . .
For the Choate crew team, most of the time, so those study-hour food trucks parked in front of Mem House were very popular, thus another “additional” expense. Hungry athletes can run up enormous food bills.
Our kids either had dinners packed by the dining hall or if it was really far, stopped for dinner. We never had a cost for that.
I can picture my tiny daughter being asked to join a crew team (I was approached almost weekly in the dining hall in college by different members of the crew teams asking if I would be interested in being a coxswain for their boat).
As for hungry athletes - oh my goodness I can imagine. My mom was shocked at how much I went over my food plan every term in college! But we had doubles almost every day (and I was a three season varsity athlete, so it never let up) and we were HUNGRY!
agreed it is unfathomable to me they wouldn’t have food for all kids who were ON campus…For away games, we often had to eat on the road back as the dining hall would be closed, but the school always paid for it!
Oh, they probably had access to school food after hours, but who wants a boxed cafeteria dinner when you can get Thai, Mexican, Chinese or whatever tantalizing fat bomb is peddled right outside your door? I’m not saying there was any sense in what they did… Boys.
Expected family donation. I am not sure whether it is expected or not, but one can check the average donation per family to get an idea.
I may have misunderstood, and took too literally. I read the other poster saying there was no choice as the cafe was closed… families being ask to pay for a whole team of kids to eat after away games 1x per season is weird to me too. Could all be a choice (and boxed dinners are gross) though the the bus seems like something people would be guilted into and almost non-optional…
Anyway, delivery food (and outside food) is certainly a real cost though!