The last few months I have been glancing at many admission officer and teacher bios on many the top boarding school sites. It seems that most of these people with high school age or older children have kids who are currently attending or have graduated from these schools. I wonder if all these kids are truly the “cream of the crop”, or many are average and this is a ‘perk’ of working there. I believe the latter is probably true. Does anyone know any employees or their kids and could shed some light on this?
I knew several employee’s kids at Choate, all top-notch and worthy of being there (maybe because the employees are high-achievers, too?). I also know that being an employee doesn’t guarantee that a child will be accepted.
Funny: we have noticed that as well. Many teachers and coaches have kids who are attending or have graduated. I imagine there is a significant discount…
I think it’s only fair to accept boarding teacher’s children unless the kids are so below standard that they can’t do the work and attending will be not in their interest. Their homes are the school. Where else should they go?
Different schools handle this issue differently. At my kids’ school, it used to be that employee’s kids attended free of charge (or at a huge discount, not sure which) and they were pretty much always accepted unless they truly weren’t capable of doing the work. A few years ago, the school changed the policy, toughening the admissions standards for those kids but offsetting that by agreeing to pay half of the tuition at any school they attended instead. The change was, not surprisingly, met with some mixed reactions within the teacher population, but personally I think it was a great decision. It ensures that the teacher/coach kids who attend the school really should be there, but if the kids don’t get over that hurdle, then the school is still giving the parents a significant perk by paying a big chunk of the kids’ education elsewhere.
Absolutely. At most schools, having your child attend (tuition-free) is a fabulous perk… or at least it was when I worked at Berkshire School. As admissions have become more competitive and there are more and more faculty kids in school communities, it is no longer ‘automatic’ at some schools… the kids have to have decent stats to be admitted. They do have to apply and interview like everyone else.
And for those of you who want to start scouring the school websites for employment opportunities, be aware that in most cases, you need to work there for 5 years before this becomes a benefit.
At the school I am most family with, there is a lot of competition among faculty/staff children to get in. A couple years back, one faculty member told me 27 fac kids were applying that year. Maybe 4-6 get in per year and they are qualified from what I’ve seen. I have known some faculty families who have not had their child apply because they know it might not be the best fit for that kid or that their kid wasn’t up for the academic rigor. Boarding schools are fairly enclosed communities for the adults living in them. I doubt any of them would want to put their kids into a situation where they aren’t going to be successful.
The discount at the time was 90%. Given most faculty/staff incomes (barring a high earning spouse), they would qualify for at least partial FA anyway. It’s a perk of working for the school - if your child can get accepted.
I have several friends who, like @cameo43, valued this perk enormously. Teachers and coaches aren’t paid as well as hedge fund managers, for example, but are likely to value education for their kids as much or more. It seems a small price to pay to attract talent to a school. Given that many BS also really value the community that they create, it’d be somewhat challenging to the overall ambience to eliminate faculty children when they hit grade 9 by asking that they go to the nearby public school unless someone in the family happened to be sitting on a trust fund. I know that schools that are 9-12 (who offer this) have lost valued employees with younger kids to K-12 schools with the same policy.
I do know two people who work at TSAO schools whose kids chose to transfer out after a year or two because although they were doing fine academically, they felt that the environment wasn’t for them, and in neither case did the parent encourage the kid to stay for financial reasons.
Occasionally, I’ve heard other parents grumble about this, feeling that they’re subsidizing these kids, but given that none of the faculty kids I know are not qualified to be at the school, these kids are no different than any other kid with FA. Mostly though, I’ve come to value that teachers who have kids at the school also bring a slightly different perspective and sympathy to their approach with young people that ultimately is a benefit to everyone. When a teacher experiences something that in the role of parent seems like a potential problem, he/she is in a different position to work on improving it than those of us who are simply parents.
DS is friendly with a few faculty kids at his school and they all appear to be qualified to be there (it is hard to really know, but DS is academic, and tends to hang out with like-minded kids). But I know at least one faculty kid who applied and didn’t get in a few years ago - and probably could not have handled the work.
Faculty/staff families add a lot to the school community. The students far from home who miss their younger siblings seem to have an especially great time hanging out with the kids and joining in family-type activities. It is also an extraordinary environment for the faculty/staff kids. I was a dorm parent in a 50-boys dorm. As a single parent of an only child, it was a real gift for my kid to have so many “big brothers”. She adored them, and they doted on her. They made pizza and baked cookies with us, and tolerated many Disney movies. They taught her to ride a bicycle, ice skate, and play hockey. (Truth be told, they also taught her how to play video games… and poker! LOL)
Frankly, I always assumed that this perk was one of the reasons that such talented people are willing to work at BS for not much money IMHO. I’d never begrudge them it.
Absolutely it is a perk of the job. Faculty children are as equally qualified as the other accepted students- the have to be able to do the work like everyone else. In many cases both parents teach at the school, and of course the family resides there. My impression is that it is a close community and a wonderful experience for the children - especially when they are young.
My D’s housemaster lived with his wife and their young boys in a large apartment in D’s dorm. She was close to the whole family and she absolutely loved the little boys. She used to babysit them for extra money and attended their birthday parties. They keep in touch. I can think of worse things than raising my family on a bucolic boarding school campus with housing provided along with dining hall privileges if you so desire. And you have your summers off.
Agree with @6teenSearch. The faculty kids also bring socioeconomic diversity to these communities, which is important.