DD is in eighth grade. She is interested in Groton BS, Phillips Exeter BS, St. Marks (Day), Governors (Day) and Phillips Andover (Day). When it comes to admissions, does applying as a day student offer any advantage?
I think that really depends on the individual school, and in some cases it varies from year to year. My guess (and someone please correct me) is that at a larger school such as Andover there may not be much of a difference. At St. Mark’s however, it could help you or hurt you depending on the year (how many faculty kids, day siblings etc. are applying). My impression from the process at Milton was that it was marginally easier to get in as a boarding student. This is a valid question to ask your AO, and if you have flexibility at all in boarding vs. day, let them know.
Andover & Exeter will tell you (based on geography) if you are a day or border and they are firm with this. You can apply as a day student and move into a day school town later. Most others are more flexible and allow you some leeway in how much commuting you and your child are comfortable with doing on a daily basis. I know one family from my town who commutes to St. Marks (about 20 miles). One thing to consider is how long the commute will be and how late activities will run. I’m not sure about acceptance rates at these schools for day vs boarding.
Most schools have higher acceptance rates for boarders vs day. These apply to schools in suburban areas like Lville Andover, Choate. The schools a bit father out like Deerfield, Exeter, St Pauls it probably doesn’t matter.
St. Marks told us that they have about 20 spots for day students and about 80 for boarders. They have a “feeder school” (Fay) practically sharing their campus it’s so close, so I imagine they get plenty of day students applying. Our AO said, since we told him we weren’t sure if we were applying as day or boarding, that we could apply as day, and that if they were getting tight on spots, they might call to ask us how we felt about switching over to boarding. Now, we are applying for FA, so I wasn’t sure if we could apply to board at a school that was close enough to commute to, since it would require additional FA dollars to do that. We didn’t discuss FA with our AO, so not sure if that still holds true…