<p>My D, who will enter 10th grade in the upcoming fall 2011, has applied to six bs as a day student. Only recently, and since our fall tours and applications were submitted, have I heard that there are some schools that "ostracize" day students. We are looking at Choate, Taft, Loomis, NMH, Millbrook and Milton.<br>
I'd like to hear from any and all who have insight into the day student at bs situation.</p>
<p>How could your daughter be a day student at those schools if they are no where near each other? As for insight, my friend is a day student at Choate and it is very difficult for him to get to school in the winter(especially this winter). When I talked to him very recently I asked him the same question and he said that at Choate day students and boarding students are not treated very differently. Hope this helps.
-CTPeruvian97</p>
<p>Thank you CTPeruvian–it’s good to know that Choate evidently doesn’t make distinctions between boarders and day students.</p>
<p>Your question about how my D can become a day student at such diverse locations is a good one. We are fortunate in that we are a very mobile family. We will move, if need be.</p>
<p>From my d, who is a boarder at DA, the day students do tend to hang together. She has found her best friends among them. I believe, like any minority group, that they need to reach out and be willing to take part in the school life outside of the classroom. According to my d, day students are always willing to stay on campus until curfew. They can eat meals in the dining hall and study in the dorms or libraries. It is more difficult when the parents need to drive the kids back and forth. At DA the day students have their own lounge to hang out leave their stuff and study. They tend to welcome any boarding students to hang with them. Day students are a god-send to the kids that live far away. For the long winter weekend my d stayed with a local family, who shared their home and community to a kid who is from the midwest.</p>
<p>We are a day student family, although not at any of the schools you listed. In general day students have different challenges than boarders, not harder or easier, just different. In terms of how day students are treated - that also varies. </p>
<p>In schools with less than 15% day students it can be a challenge to integrate into the social scene, and logistics are extra complicated when everyone assumes you will be on campus 24/7. Particularly true in the years before driver’s licences. In schools that are closer to 50/50 there can be a dichotomy that forms, day students hang out with day students, boarders with boarders. I have heard this from other families with kids at schools like Loomis, Milton and Williston. It is not necessarily a negative, just the way it works out. </p>
<p>NMH has a particular reputation for doing a good job integrating day students and boarders. I think they are around 20 - 30 % day. Day students get rooms in the dorm (something like 10 to a room), which gives them a place of their own on campus. Maybe that is part of the difference.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>There is a rift between day students and residential students at Milton from what I’ve seen, being sort of an awkward-ish a 50-50 percentage split. A lot of the kids spend time in their dorms, whether they watch TV, read a book, study, or whatever, it can make a divide.</p>
<p>As applying as a day student to Milton with having residential friends, I think that there is a split, in my personal opinion.</p>
<p>I was actually going to say that from everything I’ve heard, Milton is the easiest place to be a day student due to the largest percentage of them. So I guess from the above that’s not quite so.</p>
<p>You also have very different schools academically on your list. Is that because some are safeties or did you just choose randomly?</p>
<p>Im still flabbergasted though at the idea that you will move to whenever your kid gets into the BS as a day student. You are willing to disrupt life and job for that? In that case why not apply to some excellent day schools in different cities and not have your child deal with day student issues at a BS?
Im also really curious how the schools reacted to the fact that you would move just to have your kid attend? Tx.</p>
<p>I can say without a doubt that Millbrook is the absolute best at integrating the day students with the boarders. All day students have a bed, and are welcome to sleep over as many times a week as they like. (This comes in handy with dances and projects) When they sleep over, they have study hall in the library and then go back to their dorms for the night.
I know a bunch of people who are all day students at Millbrook, and they say that there is basically no difference between being a boarder and a day student, except for where you sleep! They also say that the community is so small and family-like that it’s hard have any group of students isolated from the rest. I’m also applying to Millbrook as a day student, and a lot my friends have went there, or are currently going there, so if you have any questions, feel free to PM me! :)</p>
<p>Many thanks, 1012Mom. NMH did appear to be, if this is still an appropriate term, “child-centered.” It confirms the feeling we had about that school that integrating the boarders and the days would be of concern to them. Loomis has I think around 30% day students. I had no sense of how that works out when we visited. I was sort of counting on the 50/50 at Milton to work to the best–to everyone’s advantage–but it does make sense that the groups could easily divide. I recognize that by having our D attend as a day student we are creating a different experience. Thank you again for giving me such a considerate response to such a quirky question.</p>
<p>why are you so unwilling to let your child have the full boarding experience?</p>
<p>catg: Everyone is different.</p>
<p>Rubricon: I agree with you–every family needs to make the decision best for them. That said, I wonder if I might ask why you’d choose boarding school over a good day school where everyone goes home at night like your kid. Just curious–ignore me if I’m being too nosy. :)</p>
<p>classical, that is basically what I meant. I’m not sure the in class experience is that different between top day and boarding.</p>
<p>Our family considered moving into the neighborhood when our child was accepted to first-choice boarding school. Only when said child sarcastically inquired whether or not we planned to move again in four years, for another college experience, did we loosen the reins. I can already see that we’ll be sending a full-grown adult to college. That said, I can certainly understand the motivation.</p>
<p>Well, if any of you can suggest a good, private day school in the CT/MA region, I’d be very interested. Our current school did not make any such recommendations. Even so, I’m assuming that it would be both late in the admissions process as well as fairly unlikely to find a spot in the 10th grade at this point.</p>
<p>The Independent School League:
<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_School_League_(Boston_Area[/url])”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_School_League_(Boston_Area)</a></p>
<p>Some of the best private day schools around</p>
<p>It is well past the deadlines for nearly all day schools, but there are always a few chance openings. I have to put in the good word for Boston University Academy, of course, since it’s our school. There might be space still for a 10th grader. It is a good place for very smart kids of a certain sort. Take a look at the website and see what you think. Otherwise, visit the AISNE site for a complete list. What sort of school are you looking for/what sort of child do you have?</p>
<p>@nemom: My d is strong academically, serious, philosophical, a peer mediator, a participant, who feels shaky now about her identity at 15 1/2 because she’s suddenly discovered the opposite gender, ahem, yet she retains high emotional intelligence. She’s also a talented artist, plays drums, is on varsity soccer and lax but does dance class too. She scored 98 on the SSAT. However, and this might account for what someone commented on re:the mix of schools we’ve applied to, she could fit into many different learning environments. She’d prefer to be in a more diverse, “less preppy,” school, but being accustomed to being in one she realizes that she can handle three more years at a prep school. NMH is the one semi-alternative school she’s applied to.<br>
I really think it would be close to a miracle to be able to place her in an appropriate day school at so late a date. We always do a lot of research, and I’d be blind other than with NYC indep. schools, which we’ve left.</p>