<p>For years, the overall # of filled spots in boarding schools has been flat. Apparently, there has been discussion at boarding school conferences that the market is in decline. Is it in decline because day schools are preferred, or is it in decline because the overall market will decline after the echo boom completes high school? Or some combination of the two? Thoughts?</p>
<p>Since I'm the one who mentioned this in a prior post, I'll give you some details. I think it is in decline primarily because of parent's preference to have their kids close to home, and a secondary reason being the tuition. WIth helicopter parents and moms who run their kids' lives, there is just no way they are letting them go to boarding school. (yet they seem to make exceptions for top tier schools!) The high sticker price is another factor---the tuition is much higher than in the past, adjusted for inflation.</p>
<p>Boarding schools that have done well in the decline are: Those that have big name cache, those that are near major population centers, those that have added a big % of day students. </p>
<p>For those of you who will claim that applications are way up at a certain school, you have to include the trend of hundreds and hundreds of Asian students applying. The schools do not accept more than a handful of them, but their volume of applications obviously effects the application rate and acceptance rate.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal had an article on the decline of interest in boarding schools recently, maybe someone can find it. I think it was about 6-9 months ago.</p>
<p>
[quote]
**The schools do not accept more than a handful of them
[/quote]
**</p>
<p>Hand full? I have not read nor observed this.</p>
<p>I should have clarified---students from Asian countries. I don't mean asian american students of course. And yes, generally the schools keep each language group at about 5% of the school. So, 5% of the student body will be from Korea, 5% from China. Often that means only 2 Korean students in a 9th grade class, and they will get about 300 applications from Korean for those spots. There are no quotas or anything of the sort for asian americans, but those needing visas and coming from another language background do have quotas.</p>
<p>Thank you edconsultant22. Very interesting. I remember reading that article, and the focus (that I remember) was on helicopter parents. I'll see if I can find it and post it. </p>
<p>I'd heard about the increase of Asian applicants, but I had no idea that it was that large. Years ago in Hong Kong, the British boarding schools were the popular choice. Suze, an Andover grad who used to post here, said that there are several popular Asian novels that take place in US boarding schools, and this has fueled interest.</p>
<p>
[quote]
For years, the overall # of filled spots in boarding schools has been flat. Apparently, there has been discussion at boarding school conferences that the market is in decline. Is it in decline because day schools are preferred, or is it in decline because the overall market will decline after the echo boom completes high school? Or some combination of the two? Thoughts?
[/quote]
Is it thought to be in decline because of the lack of growth in seats/beds, or is it because there is a financial crunch or educational achievement metric not growing?</p>
<p>I don't necessarily think that growing more students at a school necessarily makes it better. And I don't see a whole lot of new operations starting up, so I would wonder where any seats/beds growth would come from.</p>
<p>And with a growing population at the HS age, I would think that the competitiveness overall for any seat in a relative fixed pool would lead to better quality at even the lowest of the schools. Or have I missed something here?</p>
<p>Add to that the international students - and they add to schools from top to bottom - and I would think that the BS "industry" would be in pretty good shape.</p>
<p>Tell me what kind of "decline" is being noticed and how it is quantified?</p>
<p>i think i pointed out in the other forum. Top tier schools have a much bigger endownment to offer more financial aid. Why would people even bother applying to the lower tier schools if the school's less prestigious and offer less aid or less likely to offer aid at the same time?</p>
<p>and as my dorm faculty pointed out, it's just like colleges, when kids apply to college, they simply forgot that there are more than 3000 4 year colleges in the entire nation, but everyone simply crowd for the ivies.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think whatever "decline" that has been observed might be for 2 reasons. One, kids and their parents probably think, if I can get a similar education at home for less $, then why go to BS? I made this decision and chose BS, and it has been extremely worth it, but many people do not see both sides of this. Also, BS is a lot more competitive in terms of college admissions. Why would someone enter a pool of equally, if not more, qualified students for admission to the Ivies and Ivy+ schools, instead of remaining at home in private or public HS, where the kids who may not have stood out at BS will be at the top of the heap? It is that much easier for kids at public school, albeit some place like stuy or bronx sci, to stand out. </p>
<p>That said, I have not noticed any decline and every year our Director of Admissions says that we were even more selective, had a lot more apps, and more qualified people competing for them. Also, this year was a record year for a lot of BS's in terms of college admits to selective places, as noted in another thread, so colleges may be onto the fact that BS is a better pool because they have been selected once already. That's my 2 cents.</p>
<p>it's becoz u go to choate..they are talking about the declining in the size of the pool outside the top 10 BS, which according to our admissions officer, is a misallocation of applications.</p>
<p>Here is part of the 7/6/05 WSJ article:</p>
<p>Dependence Issues: Boarding Schools Face New Hurdle: Mom and Dad
Parents Who Want Kids Close Add to Enrollment Woes
Marketing Directly to Teens
Personal Growth, Hot Chocolate</p>
<p>By Suein Hwang, The Wall Street Journal, 2081 words
Jul 6, 2005 </p>
<p>Boarding school was a family tradition for Clay Gibson. As a teen, he followed his brother, uncle and great uncle to Baylor School, a 112-year-old private school in Chattanooga, Tenn., whose 670 acres overlook the Tennessee River. Thirty years later and now an Atlanta law-firm partner, Mr. Gibson is a Baylor trustee and easily lists the elite school's many attractions.</p>
<p>But when time came to send his three children to high school, Mr. Gibson broke with tradition: He sent his two sons and daughter to a private day school. He loves Baylor, he says, but he and his wife never seriously considered it. "We're very involved in our kids' education and life, and we wanted to stay involved on a day-to-day basis," Mr. Gibson says. "We wanted them to stay in our home and enjoy that opportunity."</p>
<p>Mr. Gibson's decision is part of a broader shift plaguing schools like Baylor: While enrollment at private day schools is booming, boarding schools are seeing little or no growth. Boarding-school enrollment stands at 39,000 for the 2004-2005 school year, and has barely budged in five years, says the National Association of Independent Schools. That's down from about 42,000 in the late 1960s, estimate some boarding-school veterans. (The association doesn't have historic figures.) Enrollment grew 2.7% over the past 10 years, versus 15% for private day schools.</p>
<p>Boarding-school administrators often blame image problems and competition from day schools. But a growing number of administrators, consultants and parents believe the biggest force at work is a shift in parent philosophy over the past generation. With more mothers working outside the home and with older couples having fewer kids, parents want to be more involved with their children than their forebears did, they say.</p>
<p>"The type of kids who used to go to boarding school has a very different relationship with their parents," says Kelly Makes of Atlanta-based Mindpower Inc., a consulting firm working with Baylor. "Kids are very close to their parents. They are not as independent." Adds Alice Jackson, a California consultant who advises families on boarding-school issues: "I think parents have become more dependent on their children."</p>
<p>Boarding schools have educated legions of this country's wealthy and powerful. They invoke images of rich endowments, bucolic campuses and reputations for providing the best education money can buy. They are among the oldest educational institutions in the U.S., surviving the Revolutionary War and the revolutionary 1960s, when anti-establishment youths boycotted them.</p>
<p>Some of the most famous boarding schools, such as the Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts and Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, still get many applications for each opening. And boarding schools for children with learning or behavior issues are a growth industry.</p>
<p>But many traditional boarding schools say their prospects are worsening. "It's very critical because other alternatives that are close to home are emerging," says Patrick Bassett, president of the National Association of Independent Schools, which represents private day and boarding schools. Home schooling and faith-based schools are among the options attracting families, he says. Boarding schools "have to make a better case for themselves."</p>
<p>Hotchkiss sent recruiters to Korea for the first time several years ago and the Korean students applying and acceptance went up. There always were a lot of students from Hong Kong. Choate has more than 70 students (?) from Korea. One of the graduates who has a famous dad (an actor) then went to Harvard and wrote a book in Korea and that is how Choate became very famous and popular among Koreans. I heard that they go by "ranking" in Korea which is more based on scores such as SAT, SSAT so they rank SPS higher than others, based on their ranking. Also more international students pay full tuition so it makes a good business sense for BS.</p>
<p>The growing middle class in Asia that is now conforming to western ideals of wealth, etc. is a great market as well.. boarding school really is rather glamorous (think of all the books, movies, famous grads), and these parents are doing everything to get their kids ahead and comfortable in western culture (golf lessons, English classes, international western-style prep schools and real prep schools).</p>
<p>And I think that the coddling culture deserves a lot of blame for the decline in apps. Thing is, that's exactly what these kids need - to get away from their parents and gain independence.</p>
<p>"Hotchkiss sent recruiters to Korea for the first time several years ago and the Korean students applying and acceptance went up. There always were a lot of students from Hong Kong. Choate has more than 70 students (?) from Korea. One of the graduates who has a famous dad (an actor) then went to Harvard and wrote a book in Korea and that is how Choate became very famous and popular among Koreans. I heard that they go by "ranking" in Korea which is more based on scores such as SAT, SSAT so they rank SPS higher than others, based on their ranking. Also more international students pay full tuition so it makes a good business sense for BS."</p>
<p>Recruiter? that's our head of school man lol...anyhway, they just added a stop in korea for their annual asian tours seeing it's actually our biggest asian market now..There are around 20 korean kids here now. it used to be hong kong, but the hong kong population went down from 18 (my first year) to a pathetic 6.</p>
<p>Yes, the number of Asian applicants to boarding schools is staggering. Just this morning, I looged onto my email and have 3 request from Korean families to help them with fall 2007 admissions. One school in Connecticut told me they had more applicants from Korea than from the US. One school in Massachusetts told me they had 320 applications from Korea for 9th grade, and were only had two spots for Koreans in the 9th grade. </p>
<p>So one thing to look at here is that sure, applications to boarding school are staying about the same overall, but they aren't of the same quality. Boarding schools turn down lots of international students who they can't take or they would risk changing the nature of the school. They also turn down a lot of kids who come from therapeutic schools or those with emotional problems. Then they have lots of people applying for aid (and they can't help them all), so in the end, they can have a record year of applicants, but still be looking to fill their class in June.</p>
<p>As a consultant, I know that if I have a full pay American student with a decent B average who is a nice enough kid, I can find him lots and lots of good boarding options even as late as May. </p>
<p>The other poster is right about how top tier boarding schools are like Ivy's---everyone wants to apply to them, and they certainly don't suffer. But some of the "good but not great" schools really do. Those are my thoughts.</p>
<p>Thanks edconsultant22! You really understand the dynamics of this market, and now I understand what is happening much better. I could have used your advice when we were looking.</p>
<p>The anecdotal stories in the WSJ article seem to tell us that the legacies are not necessarily retuning, but I'm not convinced that this situation would necessarily lead to a decline in boarding schools. In fact, too much inbreeding in the prep school population leads to a lessening of the competitive aspect of boarding schools.</p>
<p>Just like new money will bring up a city, new (non-legacy) highly-competitive students can bring up a school. </p>
<p>Now, there does seem to be more elite private non-boarding options than before, but even those schools take time to develop the reputation necessary to shake the world of the established boarding schools.</p>
<p>There also seems to be a rise in the elite public high schools. IMSA in Chicago comes to mind here. Heck, even in my state, they will be starting a new Math/Science Academy (boarding) for 24 select 10th graders in conjunction with the flagship state U.</p>
<p>But these schools are looking primarily for the most schoolbook advanced students, not the more rounded (athletic, artistic, leadership) types that the top boarding schools are seeking, so I don't know if there is a real competition in the marketplace between these types of schools.</p>
<p>Yeah, the top boarding schools don't send quite as many of their students to Ivy League schools any more. It is now so much easier for the Ivy's to find great students elsewhere now. Just like the Montreal Canadiens will not ever have a streak of Stanley Cups like they did when there were only 6 teams in the NHL, with a wider competition for great students no one source will ever dominate matriculation ever again.</p>
<p>However, to me, that doesn't say that the quality of the product (i.e. the students graduated) are any less than they ever were. So where is the actual decline?</p>
<p>The Blair headmaster wrote an excellent rebuttal to that article, which, unfortunately, I can't find. The WSJ didn't publish it, of course. Every now and then the WSJ (one of my addictions, actually) takes off after boarding schools. I know Blair filled all their spots the last few years and has kept the ratio of day to boarding constant at 1 to 4.</p>
<p>testing.. testing</p>
<p>Goaliedad,</p>
<p>There is indeed a decline both in quality of students at boarding school and in the quantity. The top tier schools aren't effected by this though. I can tell you that it is a fact---conferences that I attend always have a seminar on the issue of declining interest in boarding, or marketing ideas to get families to consider boarding. The Association of Boarding School, TABS, was created for just this reason, to unify all the boarding schools and help them market themselves. It is something that people within the boarding school world talk about quite a bit, it just hasn't reached the parents, I guess.</p>
<p>The schools that have faced the biggest decline are those in rural areas, and also single sex schools, especially all boys schools. Some schools have done a fantastic job of marketing and re-positioning themselves, or adding things that students want. The addition of new PG year spots is one thing, adding more new 11th grade spaces. And also, goaliedad, if that is a reference to hockey, the sport of hockey has done great things for boaring school. At one school which was in decline, they now have 5 hockey teams, so roughly 25% of the boys are hockey players, and most of them full pay.</p>
<p>So anyway, I'm not saying that boarding schools are going out of business. But like any market, things are changing. The best schools are those that change and adapt along with the market. Some schools out there clearly have not, and they don't reach full enrollment each year.</p>
<p>I agree with MomofWildChild's assesment of the WSJ's views toward boarding schools.</p>
<p>In my view, any perceived decline in enrollment has little to do with changing family dynamics (closenesss, parent ages, "heli-parenting") and everything to do with cost and expanded opportunities for motivated students seeking less traditional educational options (charter schools, magnet schools, public HS and local coll/uni alliances to expand opportunities for HS students, distance learning, to name a few). Take for example, edconsultants full pay american student with a b average. He/she will be encouraged to seek the right fit among a variety of schools including, safety, match, and reach schools. All NE boarding schools cost roughly the same but there are big differences in the opportunities and resources they offer. This is where cost really would come into play for that type of student. If they only get into their safety school, then searching for great non traditional education/enrichment opportunities becomes much more attractive economically.</p>