<p>I just want to let you guys know that there is a boarding school in the West. Fountain Valley School in Colorado seems to be a great school. They have small class sizes (although not exactly harkness), plenty of AP courses, and as many sports as the big schools. FVS is also a smaller school with around 500 kids, if I remember correctly. My favorite thing about it is that they have skiing as a sport and "outdoor education" - where you get to go hike in the mountains and stuff - as a P.E. class. I probably would have applied if it didn't cost so much - around $45,000. They offer some financial aid and scholarships, but nothing substantial, so you have to be pretty dedicated to the cause to go there.</p>
<p>I just thought I'd put this school out there.</p>
<p>Yeah! I have talked to FVS, even though I haven’t applied there yet, and they seemed to show a great interest in me. It looks like a really nice school and they do have great facilities. Of course, I will still be applying to DA, Exeter and Andover (and I would prefer to attend a school on the East Coast), but FVS (and Millbrook) are my safe schools.</p>
<p>I was volunteering in the Dominican this past spring break and shared facilities with about 20 kids from Fountain Valley. Nice, laid-back kids who all seemed to get along great. The faculty with them also seemed nice.</p>
<p>There are other boarding schools in the west, such as Colorado Rocky Mountain School and Verde Valley School. You can easily search schools by state at boardingschoolreview.com. There are quite a few prep schools in California so I am assuming by “the west” you were thinking of the Rocky Mountain West. </p>
<p>Fountain Valley offers some merit scholarships (half tuition) based partly on SSAT scores. I don’t know how many scholarships are awarded or how stiff the competition is. Even though my daughter wasn’t applying to FVS, she was invited to apply for a scholarship (we had requested their catalog earlier but that was it). She preferred other schools so she did not apply. Nothing against FVS, it just didn’t meet her particular criteria.</p>