<p>I agree with d'yer, i'd really like to know why you didn't like bs at all? and also, why did you even go to this website in the first place?</p>
<p>my experience has been totally different. im from the rural south, where few people go to private school, much less boarding school, so its not like all my friends were rushing off to top prep schools. i totally, 100% initiated the process of looking at boarding schools and applying, and had to actually talk my parents into letting me go. </p>
<p>no, it wasnt easy learning to be responsible for myself at 14, or how to live with a roommate, or how to manage my time, but it has prepared me for college more than i can even begin to tell you. i have made lasting friendships and the girls from my dorm are like my sisters. </p>
<p>boarding school was the best thing that ever happened to me. so, ibftw, maybe you can get into HYP from just about any school, but think about how much more prepared for college students who did go to boarding school are. </p>
<p>disclaimer: i did choose an all-girls school, which i think is a very different environment from many coed boarding schools. also, i am not trying to invalidate ibftw's experience in any way. i am just trying to present a different point of view to show some of you confused 8th graders/parents that everyone has a different experience at boarding school, just like everyone has a different experience at a private day school or public high school or whatever.</p>
<p>oops, forgot to mention that im currently a senior. (that would be why i am lurking on CC instead of doing my AP government paper...)</p>
<p>you can't know what it's like until you go. it's as simple as that. you want real research, read prepping for power or whatever its called. two sociologists do a survey of a few hundred boarding school kids. that's about as close as i've seen to it. reading the school's website or boarding school review, or going on the official visits isn't research. it'd be like buying a car based only on what the dealer told you.</p>
<p>i understand there are a lot of parents reading this, and i understand you're putting a lot of time and money into the whole boarding school thing because you think it's the best thing for your child; it's a commendable sentiment and i applaud you for it. but i'm also telling you that if you knew the type of stuff that your child was going to be subjected and exposed to over the course of their time you'd think twice about sending them. just remember that all the sex and drug and hazing scandals that you hear so much about on the news aren't made up, and they really aren't isolated incidents either. that stuff happens at every high school, but at least you can keep an eye on your kids if they're still at home.</p>
<p>nellyrae, i see you're from the west coast- what schools are you looking at? haha sorry, im curious, and i just love hearing about people's boarding school searches.</p>
<p>maybe an all-girls school is different. i could believe that.</p>
<p>as far as kids asking their parents to let them go, aren't there a bunch of popular books/movies/whatever aimed at pre-pubescent girls where the main characters go to boarding school or went to boarding school or something?</p>
<p>lbftw. BS will most of the time give you a better more full education and make you a better candidate for college and life. True there are a bunch of pencil pushers, snobby rich pricks, and that of the sort. Quite on the contrary though there are genuine nice people. It's a lot like the world. There are good people and bad people wherever you go. The only difference is at BS is that you live with them. May you please name a few specific things that you really did not like?</p>
<p>for me, it was more about opportunity. like i said, i'm from the rural south, and i consider myself to be very mature and independent as well as adventurous. i was simply looking for a bigger experience than anything where i am from could offer me. </p>
<p>yes, granted, there is a lot of media (the it girl novels...anyone?) geared towards middle schoolers, girls especially, glamorizing boarding school. but i think that most 8th graders smart enough to get into top prep schools are aware that boarding school isnt really like that.</p>
<p>inspiration: HI! i'm applying to andover, exter, st. pauls, loomis chaffe and the hill school. you?</p>
<p>lbftw: sure. there are books like that. There are also books about canabalism. But just because i read something in a book does not change my outlook on decisons as important as this. I can assure you that i'm not applying to live on the other side of the country where i know noone because i read a stupid little book.</p>
<p>if you say so. how did you hear about boarding school exactly? either you read about it or somebody told you about it.</p>
<p>also, i think it would help if you told us where you went. just because we're all certainly very curious about that. its not like you arent anyonymous. but thats your prerogative.</p>
<p>where are you applying inspiration?</p>
<p>ibftw: i heard about boarding school because i went to summer camp with an older girl who went to Kent, and loved it. </p>
<p>nellyrae: those are awesome schools. like i said, im a senior, and in my search i ended up at an all girls school called Madeira (maybe you've heard of it?) in DC. since you're from the west, i just wondered if you had looked at/heard of Cate. i really liked it and kind of wanted to go there partly because it is so beautiful, but it wasnt right for me. i know people at exeter and the hill school! good luck with all your schools, i hope you get in!</p>
<p>a lot of people would never articulate that they decided to go to boarding school because they saw it in a movie or whatever, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. even the smartest 13 year old girl in the world is still very impressionable.</p>
<p>there are some normal kids like you'd expect to find at any high school in america at boarding school, but they really are a pretty small minority. and most of the time, they're kind of their own clique and not very popular (with anybody).</p>
<p>telling you where i went would give away too much of my identity. like i said, one of the schools that graduated a us president. there aren't that many of them.</p>
<p>who's to say what a "normal american highschooler" is like? i think we pretty much go all across the board. </p>
<p>and so what? so you decide to go to boarding school because that actress you really like played a girl who went to Andover. maybe it ends up being an awesome experience.</p>
<p>So the school is probably one of the following:
Andover
Exeter
SPS
Deerfield
Choate
Lawrenceville?</p>
<p>I'm not sure which schools graduated a president except Bush from Andover and JFK from Choate so i listed the "elite" schools.</p>
<p>by average i mean kids who would fit in at any high school anywhere in the country. normal kids with normal interests who aren't snobby and stuck up or hyper competitive and anti social.</p>
<p>and i'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. just explaining why some people would be asking their parents to send them.</p>
<p>there are very few people in the world who would fit in absolutely everywhere they went. if everyone likes you, you have no personality. people with personality have conflicts. thats life. </p>
<p>also, i think you went to groton.</p>
<p>it's one of the ones you listed.</p>