S24 is a day student at a boarding school that currently has a 60/40, day/boarder ratio. There are no Saturday classes, and if there were, I would have likely pulled him out after his 9th grade 20-21 school year. Our district does bus him everyday to and from school, which was a selling point on attending. We live just over 30 minutes away, so getting him to and from school every Saturday would have been a non starter.
The day / boarder ratio has hovered around 50/50 for well over a decade. It severely eroded due to Covid due to the schools previous reliance on Chinese students. With such a high percentage of day students, the school would have issues maintaining a mandatory Saturday schedule. Many day students come from a distance and parents would not be willing to make that sacrifice every week.
Some sports do have Saturday games, although many competitions are during the week. My son plays a sport that only has weekday matches due to availability of the facility, so heās rarely on campus during the weekend. If kids are involved in theatre or robotics as theyāre after school activity, there are no Saturday meeting times.
So for my son and the 60% day student population, attending his school is pretty close to attending a regular private or public day school. It does have an impact on boarder / day relations, although that doesnāt bother my son at all. He didnāt want to attend school as a boarder, so heās happy with his school.
There is the burden of an early morning drive on another day. Dropping your kid off at noon might be a welcome change.
Beyond this, it varies wildly by school and student . Day students are on campus on weekends. Boarders go home on weekends. (Even at schools with very high boarding percentages, many kids may leave on weekends.) While I person love the immersive experience that is BS, there are students who want/need time away from it. Many day students stay through dinner and study halls every day, but there may be others who are picked up on a parentās drive from work. Ime, itās hard to establish a different rhythm from that of the school ā if something happens after dinner, itās hard to collect your kid at 5! But at some schools, it may work.
It really depends on what is going on on campus as,well. But there is probably a small percent of kids chose the school solely for the S of BS with little interest in the B. There are families applying to both day and boarding schools. Some may feel different after they matriculate to a BS, but some may succeed in navigating it the same way as,they would a day school.
By my junior and senior years, I was probably on campus for about half of Sundays due to the many activities I had going on. I personally preferred to recharge at home on Sundays, however (plus, for the most part, there isnāt much going on).
My daughter feels like you can barely tell boarders from day students as everyone is very integrated into the dorm (all day students are apart of a dorm). Thus far there have been a mix of Saturday classes/non-classes this fall due (to testing, holidays, etc), but for this year there are Saturday classes. There are tons of things to do on the weekends and everyday for that matter. My daughter has shared that there just is not enough time to do everything she wants (and study of course). Every Wednesday there are wellness reset activities (some have been very creative and thoughtful in pulling in all different types of kids). Everyday there are lectures, activities, tickets, etc to pick from. We are amazed at the offering and opportunities ā I think these pull day students back to campus. The challenge with a big student body is often spaces available for some activities, but the benefit is the wide net of options. Even on the non-saturday weekends my daughter has wanted to stay on campus with her friends instead of coming home.
Like most things in life, some will like Saturday classes, some will not like Saturday classes, and some will be largely indifferent. There are certainly individual circumstances that make Saturday classes less appealing (e.g., travel sports teams, special music and arts opportunities, transportation needs) and some kids just donāt want to go to school on weekends. Some kids, however, like the half days on Wednesdays and Saturdays. And Iām guessing that some schools prefer having kids busy Friday nights and Saturday mornings. In the end, kids and families are fortunate there are options either way.