<p>So, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about European boarding schools versus American boarding schools. Now, we were basically defining "European" as British and Swiss boarding schools, because those are the ones we have heard of the most. Any opinions on the subject? Does anyone on these threads go to school in Europe?</p>
<p>I go to a very competitive well known private day school in London. Schools here are generally very traditional and very elitist. FA is virtually unheard of, but scholarships and bursaries are common. As opposed to British schools, Swiss are generally quite liberal but still all-round good schools. Swiss schools are known to coddle their pupils (or so I’ve heard), American schools are neither of the two extremes (liberal and traditional) and sort of have a very good balance between the two (from what I’ve seen so far). Students in the UK at top tier schools strive for grades. EC’s don’t mean as much as they do in the US when being admitted into college. British universities mostly look at your grades at school. Swiss usually do the IB which is meant to be hard, but the very prestigious like Le Rosey are pretty liberal.</p>
<p>From what I’ve gathered, British schools are on level with (if not harder than) GLADCHEMMS schools. They also have a sort of old-fashioned air to them, and lots of history.</p>
<p>Swiss schools tend to be very private, and also very expensive. They tend to have an air of mystery and selectivity about them, but they also offer a very, very good education. I’ve noticed that a lot of the boarding schools seem to be towards the southern part of Switzerland, around Geneva. I’ve seen a mix of traditional and liberal elements, from school to school, and within each school itself.</p>
<p>American schools are, I think, a little more liberal. As PreppyDude mentioned, EC’s mean a lot more to American schools. From my experience, American schools tend to be more accepting of a student who may not have the best grades (but certainly has decent ones), but has a plethora of EC’s or is really good a certain sport.</p>
<p>But those are just my opinions and observations. Please correct me if I’m mistaken.</p>
<p>I think I’m fairly qualified to answer this question…</p>
<p>I finished boarding school in Oxford last year and a few years ago I was potentially going to go to a school in Switzerland. Also, my parents have a place near Geneva (Montreux for those who know Switzerland).</p>
<p>The school I went to was, as some Americans might see it, the archetypal “Hogwarts school.” Old buildings with different houses (like Griffendor etc.), which often have a rivalry. There were girls and boys (luckily), but only about 1/3 were girls. We played typical English sports: rugby, cricket, soccer etc. As for the education, it was top-notch: a good proportion of people went onto elite universities e.g. Oxford and others of that ilk. We did IB alongside A-levels. I did IB and I can say that the workload was intense!</p>
<p>From what I gather, Swiss boarding schools are rather elitist and as expensive, if not more expensive, than the English schools. Le Rosey is often said to be the most expensive school in the world; no wonder, when they have two campuses, one of which is in Gstaad (where the Royal family ski and where Bernie Ecclestone owns a private ski lift). These schools are also extremely international: Russians, Arabs, Americans, Europeans etc. A lot of royalty and ruler’s sons go to these schools, as well as some Russian Oligarch’s sons. The education is also very good, but the atmospheres of these two types of schools are very different.</p>
<p>We have child #1 in a Swiss BS and child #2 has just been accepted to a HADES school. True, Swiss school is a lot of $ and FA unheard of. IB program is intense but child wanted exposure to multi language programs.
Child#2 decided to stay in states and wanted the large selection of classes offered. Also wanted high level of sports.
It all comes down to finding the right fit. In both cases we had each child make a list of the 5 most important things they were looking for in a school. From there we researched schools.</p>