This discussion was created from comments split from: Boarding Schools and sex.
Anyone care to post the ratios and approach to advising at the schools they know?
Unless is has changed, the SPS student/advisor ratio is around 5/1. Advisors are assigned by dorm and have dorm duty 1 or 2 nights per week where their charges live. Advisors may live in the dorms in apartments or in other housing on campus close by. Since there are all school morning chapels (basically school meetings 4x per week, advisors also get to lay eyes on each of their charges on those mornings as well. Seems minor but sometimes, like parental eyes, a lot can be ascertained about a student’s health and happiness from just looking at them. This is all in addition to more formal group and individual advisor meetings and meals.
from the school’s website:
"Advising
Your teachers and coaches will get to know you well, but it’s your adviser’s job more than anyone else’s to understand where you’re coming from and where you want to go – to understand you as a person unlike any other. Your adviser, a faculty member who lives in your house (your dorm), will advise only a handful of students. Advisers are never far away when you need them, maintaining an awareness of what is happening in their advisees’ lives.
Advisers are the first point of contact between parents and the School, and they are often the first adult to whom you will turn for help with any part of your life at school, but it’s important to remember that you can turn to any adult at St. Paul’s for advice about academics or life outside the classroom. Forming relationships like that is part of why St. Paul’s has remained entirely residential since its founding."
At Mercersburg, I think adviser (I don’t know why they spell it this way but they do) groups have 5 or 6 kids. Advisers are assigned on the basis of dorm, so students change advisors if they change dorms. Not all of the faculty members assigned to a dorm live there, but some do (at least one on each floor). Every evening, a faculty member sits in the dorm lobby (often with a prefect or two) and checks students in. My children’s advisers have been responsive and helpful (really, really helpful in the case of actual problems that cropped up along the way), and there were a couple of times when I thought a child sounded sad and asked an adviser to check on him or her and they immediately did so and my child thought I was out of my mind. 
Out experience so far…At Peddie, an adviser is assigned to a kid. I’m not sure how they are matched up as DS didnt seem to have much in common with his originally assigned advisor. At some point during the first year, students can opt to change advisors and at that point indicate a 1st and 2nd choice. Kids also have an opportunity to request a change each new academic year . If there is no change-request made, a student will have the same advisor all 4 years. Advisor groups have some variance in size. The groups are not separated by day or boarding. I would say about once a month (sometimes more) the whole adviser group will have dinner at the advisors house. DS has made pancakes, learned to bbq, etc at these dinners. There are also more informal meals or meetings if wanted/needed. The relationship is definitely a two way street with advisors reaching out to students and students reaching out to advisors for any number of reasons. Also the communication between advisor and parents has been very open.
I strongly believe it takes a village and the advisor should be/is an important part of the village!
(I think the advisor discussion is useful
in its own right and should be split off from the original Boarding School and Sex topic. @skieurope Is that possible?)
I would say the advisor ratio at Deerfield is 5 or 6 to 1. This person is beyond the form parent and is usually picked a the student based on interest area. My DD has a science teacher as an advisor.
SMS assigns 5 kids to each advisor. They are all grade levels, as students are allowed to request a change at the end of an academic year. They seem to group based on sport, interest, etc at first. Advisories sit together for seated meals once or twice per month. Also, the advisor plans get togethers for the group once per month (berry picking, beach day, pumpkin carving, movie nights, etc).
Dorm parents live on either end of the dorm building, but other faculty are assigned to each dorm, as well. There are usually 4-5 additional faculty assigned to each dorm for study hours and bedtime checks. Kids are required to check in in person with the on-duty faculty member at the start of study hours and at bedtime. The faculty member is available for any questions or help needed with work. At bedtime, dorm parent takes over for emergencies.
DS was assigned his XC coach as advisor, which was great, because that was his first sport plus several teammates were in his advisory also.
I believe my son has 4 students in his advisory group at Salisbury (2 freshmen, 2 upperclassmen), but the numbers differ based on circumstances. Advisors are assigned when the student enters, with the intent that you have the same advisor for all 4 years, or a student can request a change if he thinks a different advisor would be better. They have a sit-down lunch with their advisor groups (typically two advisories together) twice a week and also meet as a group once a week, and can do other activities together planned by the advisor. My son’s advisor seems to be a great fit, although he’s not one of his coaches or teachers (and they wouldn’t otherwise have any contact). Like freshmen roommates, they get matched up without any student input, and it generally seems to work out. Dorm parents are completely separate. Depending on the size of the dorm, there are a couple or more dorm parents or families that live in the dorm and are “on duty” at different times for supervision and generally being available. The freshman dorm has 4 dorm families that live in houses attached to the dorm.
Oh! I forgot to add that advisors are also our first point of contact for all issues. In addition, DS meets with his advisor for 1 on 1’s weekly. Teachers go to the advisor if they have concerns re a student. We also receive detailed academic/progress feedback from the advisor during parent weekend, through advisor’s letters at the end of the semester, and then midway through spring window. You may receive more than that if there’s a concern…knock on wood, we haven’t had that happen!
Salem has 5-6 students per advisor group. They have the same advisor all four years and meet regularly as a group for lunch, special occasions, and for field games against other groups. They can also set up one on one time as needed. These advisors are separate from their residential life advisors. Each dorm hall has a prefect and residential life advisor. Each hall varies on how many girls, but my daughter’s floor consists of 4 singles, a prefect room, and an advisor room.
Just a note that I think the advisor system at boarding schools is part of what really sets the education experience apart. (sample size = 1)
^I felt that was too, @carpoolingma! Even though DS’ advisor was a little more chill than I would have liked. (But he was exactly what DS wanted…)
I think most schools are around 5/1, 6/1, 4/1, 7/1
At a “10” rated public high school in the NorCal equivalent of an East Coast leafy green suburb, the ratio was about 250 kids to 1 advisor. Median home value was a bit north of $2MM in the sending communities.
Parents are the primary advisors in Marin…