<p>so many people seem to believe that if they don't go to bs they will end up at a community college (exaggerating here, but u get the idea). really, do boarding schools really increase ur chances of getting into a good university? there are plenty of PUBLIC schools that send a good number of students to top 10-20 schools...</p>
<p>It's not all about college. Our family does not see BS as a stepping stone to a top college. It's probably the last consideration. It's about being in a community of scholars, with motivated peers....all the time. It's about one's education being who you are instead of something you go to during school hours. </p>
<p>I'm sure that academically, there are day schools that are just as good. But it's about the whole boarding experience for some people.</p>
<p>The top boarding schools get an unusally high percentage of students into the nation's most elite & selective colleges & universities. And for good reasons. Students & their families sacrifice a great deal financially & socially to attend boarding schools in favor of a superior education that occurs 7 days a week. Boarding school students must be or become quite mature & responsible or risk failure & possible dismissal from the school. I know hundreds of boarding school stuents and graduates of the top schools. They, for the most part, earn everything that they get & they were exceptionally bright, hardworking, responsible & motivated from the start. It is not easy for either the student or the parents when a child leaves home at age 14. But the sacrifice is for education. And that is the reward.</p>
<p>Not all live in communities with good private day schools</p>
<p>I am on board with neatoburrito.</p>
<p>For me, it's all about the experiance. Sure, I could look at Kingswood-Oxford or Xavier (both in my neck of the woods) if I liked, but I'm more into boarding schools.</p>
<p>The title of your post references private day schools but your post talks about public schools. Which are you talking about?</p>
<p>The private day schools of which I am most familiar (Washington DC area) are all just as good as most boarding schools. I just don't happen to live near one at this time.</p>
<p>I'd like to think that I'd have gotten into college had I gone to public school. Almost everything I leaned at BS, however, I learned outside of the classroom. The two real adavantages to BS are the independence learned from being a little more on your own, and the close connections made. A year or two ago some of my friends from BS were starting a buisness and were able to call up favors old classmates scattered across all the top colleges asking for help with various tasks, and take advantage of the alumni network so fully that they wound up not having to look elsewhere for initial investment.</p>
<p>In terms of education, you could probably get a similar amount of knowledge at a good private day or public school.</p>
<p>Personally I wanted to get my kid out of the gang-infested public schools we have in our town. The private options were academically inferior - yes to the incredibly bad public schools. We were out of options. I miss having her around but it's so nice to hear how happy she is and to know that she is making friends that aren't gang members. Seriously. And I am eternally grateful to the schools that accepted her and offered her financial aid. What an amazing gift.</p>
<p>If this is a factor for you, compare the college outcomes for the boarding schools you are considering (available on their websites) with the college outcomes for the local schools you would choose otherwise.</p>
<p>The simple truth is that it is impossible to say with any certainty whether private day or boarding school would improve college chances more. Many boarding schools place students very well but it is also the case that many of the boarding school students have much in their favor - any combination of : wealth, intelligence, drive, committed parents, legacy status, etc. Many day schools do very well - the obvious extreme would be Roxbury Latin whose Harvard connection goes way,way,way back. Many good public schools do well too. And, in the end, it comes down to how your student does, not how his/her school does.
Private schools, both public and private, do provide , in general, more guidance in terms of college admissions, which certainly can help. Of course, a family whose child is at a public school can always work with a college admissions pro too.</p>
<p>If you read on this forum for any length of time, I think you will find out that there are very many reasons parents and kids choose Boarding School, and fear of Community College is not one of them. It's really a strawman argument that the original poster is making.</p>
<p>I have never heard anyone on here make the blanket claim that Boarding school trumps Private Day Schools or all Public Schools. The choices are all made in individual circumstances.</p>
<p>siliconvalleymom- the problem with that line of logic is this: the AESD boarding schools send 40%-ish of their students to ivy leagues, and are about equally as selective. Do they get kids in, or pick kids who would get in?</p>
<p>I agree with you, thekidhere. I think it's probably both...the AESD schools pick from a strong pool of candidates, and the colleges know that in choosing their graduates, they are getting a student who has had a strong high school experience.
I think a school's matriculation history is just one data point to think about. I will say that there are many private day schools in my area that rarely send kids to any Ivy League school, and if that matters to the student, they should know that on the front end.</p>
<p>I've no idea whether BS helped me get into college, but I will say that it prepared me immeasurably for the college experience. It's wonderful to enjoy college without worrying about things like learning to laundry/manage my finances/live away from home: without that learning curve, it seems that so far college has been an idyllic experience. I'm at school in the UK now - and without Exeter, I don't think I would have been nearly as independent able to "hit the ground running," so to speak, in a foreign country.</p>
<p>That said, I'm enjoying Oxford much more than I ever enjoyed Exeter - the insular nature of boarding school does have its drawbacks. Being able to come back to my dorm whenever I want, to choose my own timetable, and - hell, to have a glass of wine with dinner (drinking age here is 18) - in some ways, I had much less freedom at boarding school than I would have had in my (admittedly permissive) home.</p>