@Center, check out the thread on the prep school parents page called last few weeks. This is the conversation they’re having!
@center it takes some adjusting. Our sophomore daughter debated dropping down from her advanced physics class the first week. We supported her decision if she spoke to her teacher and asked their opinion. After discussing her challenges with her teacher - she got done good advice and decide to stay in the class.
According to a few post on that “last few weeks” post, it seems the shear quantity of work is fairly universal.
Bad: Shear amount of homework from day 1. Econ teacher warned class that majority will get B and C. No open ceramics lab outside of pottery class and student club, both of which only do pottery and not sculpture. Clay supply not of professional quality.
Good: Sleepover every night with a nice roommate, friendly classmates, horse and guitar lessons without commuting. delicious food better way than mom’s cooking, no back and forth to library because she has her own printer. No study hour Friday evening. I just talked her and she says everything is fine because she is having fun chatting and eating pizza with new friends, just as she imagined.
She lowered Spanish level and dropped Pottery class for an empty study hour to keep the workload under control.
Nothing ugly.
" Econ teacher warned class that majority will get B and C. "
Welcome to boarding school where most schools don’t believe in grade inflation. An A is reserved for outstanding work. Since the majority of your peers are now all amongst the top performers at their old schools, those As are going to be much harder to come by. Prepare yourself for mid-term grades that might be lower than what you’ve seen in the past. Doesn’t happen to all but happens to many.
Thanks @gardenstategal
Thanks all. My post wasn’t really about grades. It was about the “enormous” “ridiculous” amount of work. The subject matter, ( comprehension and difficulty) does not seem to be the issue.
When my DD told me how much work there was on day 1, I really hoped they were starting off full speed and not slowly ramping up, or she would be buried in the coming weeks! She made a few adjustments to her schedule and visited the tutoring center, and got through the rest of the first week, but between that and some unexpected homesickness it has been tough! I will visit her tomorrow. For someone who was constantly on social media and watched tons of Netflix this summer, it was a big adjustment to go cold turkey and just focus on school and keeping up! She did watch some TV tonight and I hope she will get back to her social self and find some time to hang out with friends! I am glad she is being responsible about studying but I want her to have some fun too! It was hard to hear her say that boarding school was not the right choice, that she is not ready and that she just wants to come home. I told her so many students feel that way at first and to get support from the dorm parents and proctors, her advisor, counseling center, etc.
Honestly, I don’t think BSs have tv watching time built into the normal student’s day. It’s not something they really allow time for between academics and other commitments. Maybe on the weekends you can watch a little catch up or a netflix movie. They keep them pretty busy from 8am to whatever time your child is able to finish up and get to bed. Additionally, the workload ramps up. Junior year is usually a killer.
Junior year was a killer, @doschicos !
@mass2020mom oh no. I do she can tough it out and give it a bit more time. My DC says while the work is crazy he still loves the school…no homesickness, no regret just worry over managing all the work.
I don’t want her watching TV, but hope she will be able to spend some time having lunch with friends, or hanging out for a few minutes after dinner and before study hall in the dorm, or going to the Friday night activities.
I she not having lunch with friends currently, @mass2020mom or any of that other stuff? Is it a 5 or 6 day a week academic calendar?
@mass2020mom and @doschicos The frustrating thing is that I see absolutely no time for clubs or extracurriculars. Class Monday through Saturday. In general sports after classes end and then dinner. Studying until midnight.
At least at my kids’ school, club activities were often in the 7-8pm time frame. Sunday night/afternoon was also a popular time to meet for clubs and social activities.
@center I thought your son’s school was down to classes on just one Saturday per month?
@doschicos yes that seems to be the case but sports is 4 to 6 ish and then dinner. No time to go to anything else. As for weekends. That’s what we thought but it’s been two in a row. Maybe just at the very beginning of the year? We should find out more details soon.
No Saturday classes for my DD. She sounds like she reacted to the big workload the first night by panicking a bit and using every free minute the rest of the week to work, so she had quick meals and was so tired tonight that she didn’t want to go to the social event. I hope she goes tomorrow night after we visit. They have study in their rooms 7:15-9:45 Sun-Thurs and lights out 10:15, but the first night she was working until midnight. The other nights just until 9:30 so that was better, but hopefully she will find a better balance with a little time for friends!
Yeah, the life of a boarding school student is running from one commitment to another. Classes, lunch, classes, sports, dinner, activities, study, sleep (not enough if my kids were any indication). Repeat. My kids went to school 6 days a week. Saturday night was for hanging out with friends. Sunday morning for sleeping and brunch. Then a little hanging with friends than back to the studying. No study hall (unless you requested or needed it) and no lights out at my kids’ school. They were rarely done by 9:30-10pm. Often much later, but they were rarely done at 9:30 in middle school due to activities, etc. More like 10-10:30 quite often.
Free blocks were used for socializing, sleeping, studying depending on how busy or tired one was. There is an old BS saying: pick 2 - grades, social life, sleep. My kids did fine but were not straight A students at boarding school. They chose the latter two. Adjustment to college was not an issue and the extra free time with a college schedule was eye-opening.
It seemed to me that the kids who were straight A students in boarding school were either extremely, extremely smart, highly organized and efficient with very strong time management skills, or both.
Here’s the PEA calendar: https://www.exeter.edu/documents/Academy_School_Year_2016-2017.pdf
I would say the schedule at Exeter, including Saturday classes, is what swayed my DD against attending there. The day starting at 8 with athletics in the afternoon and another class after that until 6 just didn’t seem to fit her. Obviously it works for many, many other students though! We’ve not heard to much from DD but it seems like the first couple of weekly are heavily scheduled with activities, likely to stave off homesickness.
My son says that at boarding school, although there isn’t something you SHOULD be doing at every moment, there is always something you COULD be doing. He is sick now with some virus that breeds in the airways of closely-packed-together teenagers. First time ever that he went to the health center. I hope 11th grade homework isn’t what wore him down! 
My DD has definitely commented that she has homework in most every class, every night, including health. The homework in health though, is to stay fit and work out/exercise/walk/run for 245 miles. I’m not completely clear on whether that is just for this semester or the full year. The classes she seems to have the most work in are History, English, and Latin. The most to study for at this time seems to go to Physics. Add in that she is going to try out for the school play, and if no part is awarded then she wants to be part of stage crew, volleyball practice most everyday, and game days, and the club’s she joined…I’d say sleep isn’t her tip top priority right now. Luckily the Freshman have a mandatory 2 hour study hall each night, outside of their rooms, in a quiet location for no distractions! Though, she has been sleeping in a bit on weekends and still getting her laundry done so…