I agree with @cityran that the boarding experience at different schools varies widely. My son is in his third year boarding at Mercersburg, and he is NOT miserable. Has it been perfect or ideal? Certainly not. But his biggest fear right now is that school will get shut down at some point this year and he will have to be remote at home, like last Spring. Those months, being separated from his friends, were really hard on him. When I asked him a few weeks ago if he wanted to be on campus or virtual for winter, he told me - with no hesitation - that he wanted to be on campus.
We certainly recognize that he has the advantage of an established group of friends, and the majority of them were placed all in the same dorm and even same floor. He had football, his first love, to practice and play this fall. Even though there were no interscholastic games, there were inter-squad games on campus. His biggest challenge was taking an AP science and honors math course in 9 weeks during the fall. It was hard to adjust to a new block schedule, and the first few weeks were rough. But since he found his groove, he has improved significantly.
I do feel that the leadership at Mercersburg has put a lot of time and energy into creating a positive student experience during these times. I know they are working on creating indoor and outdoor spaces this winter for kids to socialize outside of the dorms. Using the field house as well as heated tent areas were mentioned during our last parent zoom meeting. As @hellomaisy mentioned above, they come home for Thanksgiving and will return January 9th /10th for an on campus quarantine period, that will also include pre-trip covid testing, plus 2 more rounds of testing once they get there to create the bubble. The process worked well in the fall, and I am hopeful and optimistic that it can work again in January.
I do think that schools can be creative and be safe, while offering up many of the benefits that you expect from a boarding school. Our local public schools are either hybrid or fully remote this fall. The hybrids will soon change to all remote due to rising case levels in our area. So I am so grateful that my kids are in private school and get to attend in person every day. It makes it worth every penny.
As I mentioned before, I also have a 9th grader who attends another local boarding school as a day student. In a normal year, the school would have a 50/50 split of day and boarding students. This fall most of the international students stayed remote, so it’s been more like 80/20 day / boarding ratio. In September they did not require any pre-trip covid testing, nor on campus testing, nor quarantine. With the small boarding population this year, they are operating the same way that private day schools are operating in our area. Thankfully, there have been no positive cases on campus . The school is reopening for in person instruction after Thanksgiving, but has asked all families to make a choice regarding Thanksgiving celebrations. They have stated that families who celebrate the holiday with others outside of their household, will be asked to quarantine and take their classes remotely for two weeks. They are working on the honor system, so they can’t enforce it, but are asking parents to do the right thing to protect their community.
As for January, their current plan is to start on time on January 5th, but have everyone be remote for the first week. Then classes will begin on campus the week after, although there is no indication at this time that testing will be required. Very different approach to the school year, but so far its been working.