<p>We live in a town just outside the specifed towns in the day student area for Andover. Our commute to the school would be about 25 minutes (distance from a couple of the named towns is actually a bit farther). </p>
<p>Does anyone have any first-hand experience or insight into what their flexibility on this might be?</p>
<p>Why not simply contact the school and ask directly, since only they have the authority to decide.</p>
<p>Well obviously I will, but I was just wondering if anyone had experience to share on the subject.</p>
<p>Do you live in one of these towns?
</p>
<p>@Benley, no we don’t. That’s what I said in my post (the specified towns I was refrring to). We do, however, have a shorter commute to the school than we would have from a couple of those towns. That’s why I was wondering aloud how they handle that type of thing. </p>
<p>I will call the school and ask, of course, but was just wondering if the collective wisdom here had ever discussed it before.</p>
<p>No problem. It’s rather typical for people to come on this board for advice from people who have direct experience before they ask for any sort of exceptions from the school. Unfortunately I don’t have that experience. I would think the school should try to work with you if not too many people are in similar situations. Do note though this request may put your kid in different pools - boarders or day students. And I am not sure which is more competitive for a certain gender in a certain year.</p>
<p>Hello, all. So I finally connected with the admissions folks to ask this question. Unlike some other boarding schools, they do <em>not</em> have a policy that allows applicants to request consideration for day student status outside of the specified towns on their radius list. A lovely, helpful patient AO explained why they stay fast to this. And it made complete sense for this particular schoool.</p>
<p>So…that sounded like bad news to my son at first. But he is doing some heavy-duty thinking at the moment, and we are too.</p>
<p>We have two options available to us: he can either apply as a boarder (which he is mulling over), or he could apply with the intention of moving to the radius (they allow this an an option).</p>
<p>At first it seemed like a silly prospect. But after a couple days of talking about it, my husband and I are not so resistent to the idea. We moved to this home 12 years ago to raise our son, and for the schools, and the general understanding has always been that we will move back into the city after he goes to college (we’re not rooted here except for his ties). So if he were to be accepted and/or offered a great FA package to a school like this, would it be the weirdest thing to consider? </p>
<p>Keep in mind we live 30 minutes from the school (tops). Moving to a closer town wouldn’t change anything else about our lives - jobs, friends, etc. would all be the same. One of us would shorten commute and the other would remain the same. </p>
<p>Thoughts? Just thinking aloud… Would love input from other parents here.</p>
<p>I would apply and stay as a boarder, which has the least overhead cost all around. Being a local boarder, in some ways you get the best of both world. Your son will have the “full experience” of a boarding school, and you can save the time and trouble of shuttling him back and forth daily, often at odd hours including weekends. Meanwhile, if he ever gets sick or has any other sort of emergencies, you can get to the school at short notice. He can definitely go home on weekends whenever he likes…</p>
<p>Noted. Tell me more about what you mean about “least overhead cost all around” though…</p>
<p>I agree with Benley. On the one hand, Andover has great facilities for day students (the day student lounge, lockers, etc.), but on the other, the experience of being a boarder is invaluable. My best friend at PA was a day student, and while we could hang out pretty much whenever we wanted, it would have been nice to see her at weekend brunch, etc. Also keep in mind that Andover has a lot of nighttime activities during the weekend, so you may find yourself running out at 10 pm to pick him up from a dance.</p>
<p>Well, selling and buying a house, moving and settling in the new place is a lot of trouble isn’t it? Unless moving was your original plan, even if your son could apply as a day student from where you are.</p>
<p>Don’t put all eggs in one basket and get attached to one school before you get in. There are plenty of good schools in the Boston area, apply to them, go to the revisit day to find which school has a better fit. Your chances of getting in are much easier as a day student (23% admit rate) as opposed to as a boarder (13% admit rate) as there are only so many applicants in the immediate neighborhood which is populated by schools like Lawrence High School.</p>
<p>The first part of your post is good advice although I think OP is already applying to other schools within commuting range. The second part? Where did you get those admit rates for day and boarders? And what does Lawrence High have to do with anything? You know Andover is located in Andover don’t you?</p>
<p>Isn’t that obvious? If a kid applies from a USNews unranked high school like Lawrence as a day student, he won’t be as competitive as some one applying as a boarder from Weston High School. The admission stats are on the internet for you to peruse.</p>
<p>No it’s not obvious, but let’s say your logic is right. The day school area is a pretty big area. Lawrence is just one of the 20+ towns. Why single it out to make your point that day students pool is of poor quality? </p>
<p>What school are you in? Where do you live? What makes you qualify to discuss admissions issues of this particular boarding school?</p>
<p>Make Google your friend. Then you won’t have as many questions.</p>
<p>Like Benley, I think you’re making a lot of assumptions about the surrounding area. It’s a pretty diverse range of towns. But even in the larger more urban towns, it’s insulting to suggest that the candidates are of lesser quality. </p>
<p>That said, I just want to assure everyone that we are not putting all our eggs in one basket. Or packing up! I was speaking only about decision making for this one school, depending on what happens this March and what we are facing. </p>
<p>My son is applying to schools as a day student for a whole host of reasons that make sense for him and for our family. I don’t really want to go down the road of arguing whether the BS experience is better than the day experience, because I think it’s totally subjective and dependent on your kid.</p>
<p>The suggestion of casting a wider net and just applying to a bunch of schools in the Boston area in order to get into one of them is not really sound advice for our situation. We live in Massachusetts. There are tons of private options available, but quality-wise most would be a lateral move to his public option. He has a great local public option, and we feel it would only really be worth it for him to go to an independent school if it was a school like Andover or Exeter, which are not only outstanding but are so close to us that it’s crazy to not just apply to see what happens.</p>
<p>He’s a competitive candidate, but we’re not naive about the odds.</p>
<p>Arguing with/responding to pwalsh is not generally worthwhile and tends to sidetrack good threads–best to just ignore his posts.</p>
<p>That said, your post raises some interesting questions. I think what you’re saying is that you’re planning to move anyway, probably when your son is in college, so really, getting into Andover as a day student would just hasten an already inevitable move (assuming that one of the communities on Andover’s list is a place you’d be happy to live long term.) In that case, the question really is whether there are any advantages of boarding over being a day student at a school like Andover.</p>
<p>I’d argue–based on conversations I’ve had with the parents of day students-- that generally speaking, boarders have an easier time of it than day students, simply because the life of the school is built around the lives of boarding, not day students. Schools like Exeter and Andover do a good job keeping students busy well into the evening with sports practices, club meetings, music practices, etc. That’s a good thing for a boarding population–busy kids are kids less likely to get into trouble right? But for day students, it often means not getting home until 8 or 9 or 10 in the evening and then needing to study for hours after that. In addition, the time spend commuting back and forth is time that could be spent studying or socializing.</p>
<p>I have heard in the past that day students, on average, get better grades than boarding students at schools like Exeter and Andover.</p>
<p>Classicalmama, I think in our case the comparison might not end up day vs. boarding, but day vs. not going at all.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that attending Andover or Exeter as a day student is not worth it just because there may be advantages to boarding. See where I’m coming from? (I do totally take your points, though, don’t get me wrong).</p>