My son is African-American and applying to several boarding schools, most in the NE this fall. In reading various threads, I noticed that students and staff at several of the schools we are looking at are referred to as warm, kind and genuine. But I know the threads are limited to those that participate. Most of the schools we are looking at have less than 20 AA males attending the school. I would like to hear from some current African-American males about their experience at boarding schools especially those that are not athletes. If you are willing to answer some questions, please PM me.
Good luck finding NE boarding schools where the majority of black males are not athletes. To the extent that such situations exist, they will occur in the most selective schools. If these schools are not a good fit for you academically or otherwise, then you will need to look at less selective schools. At those places, you will likely find that a disproportionate number of the black males are athletes, typically basketball and football players. You may also very well find a disproportionate percentage of black males as compared to black females - a somewhat curious phenomenon when you consider that most colleges and universities enroll many more black females than males.
I would love to be told that I am incorrect about this, and I am certainly most interested in hearing the names of schools where the academic/extracurricular demographics of black males closely resemble those of the larger population and where the black male/female ratio is even (or is at least about the same as that of the entire student population).
I wanted to thank all those that PM’d me. Your advice and feedback is really appreciated. I have noticed exactly what ‘chameleon’ said: most of the AA boys in boarding schools are athletes. My son is smart but doesn’t play sports and has no interests in them. He already feels ‘different’ because he doesn’t play basketball or football or any sport for that matter. He’s a minority within a minority group. He loves engineering, robotics, math and science. Finding a BS that’s a right fit has been difficult.
Boarding schools are private and are not attempting to create classes that reflect the general demographics of the U.S. They have different criteria for building classes than colleges do and they are not filling quotas. They DO try to strike some balances, like male-to-female ratios, and they value diversity, but more with a global perspective and with an eye for the uniquenesses that bright applicants will bring to their campuses. One thing I can say for sure, boarding schools do NOT resemble the general population and make no attempt to do so.
I don’t know a lot about Church Farms but they have interesting numbers. Worth a peek?
I just did a quick search of my son’s BS class. There are a total of 6 african-american males (out of a class of approx 120). None are recruited athletes (although most BS do have a sports requirement).
So I guess it depends on the school.