<p>The living away from home experience as a high school student is certainly not “necessary”. You’ll have the rest of your life for that! One can have an excellent high school experience at either a day school or a boarding school. The pros and cons of each have been debated on this board many times. And in the end, the answer will frequently be determined by the type of person the particular student is. So, you’ll have to figure that answer out for yourself.</p>
<p>A different question, which applied to me as well as to you, is whether you want to be a day student at a school that is primarily boarding. During my time at L’ville there were times that I regretted not being there as a boarder and then there were times that I was very happy that I was a day student. Generally, as a day student I had more freedom than boarding students had. But I also wasn’t around for some late night activities that took place in the Houses. However, once I got my drivers license, I stayed through dinner and some after dinner club meetings most nights of the week.</p>
<p>An interesting situation existed back then between day students and boarding students that I don’t know if is still true. Generally, day students were better academically than boarding students. One would often hear of a student who applied as a day student but was only accepted as a boarding student (never the reverse). Of course, other things were different back then, too. Most notably, the school was still all male.</p>
<p>For me the question of where to go to school was easy. My parents weren’t even considering a boarding school and within the commuting range of our home, Lawrenceville was the clear first choice for an academically strong student. I did apply to one other school (George School) because everyone from my K-8 school applied there, but there was little question that I’d be going to go to L’ville.</p>
<p>It is still true that day students are generally better academically than boarders, although I’m not sure why that is the case. What do you think?</p>
<p>Well, boarding students have a time limit on their homework, and a lights out time. If day students want, they could probably work through the night…(if not for fanatical mothers who want them to sleep already and ticked older sisters who can’t get their beauty sleep with the lights on.)
And they still have the emotional support of their parents and the comfort of their home during the rigorous academic transition.</p>
<p>Thank you for your thoughts Lvillegrad. </p>
<p>As for the day student scenario, I think it has changed. Lville is now attracting many talented students from all around the world. The sheer numbers of people applying as boarding vs day probably make the academic talent equal if not in favor of boarding. That would make sense to me, but I could be very wrong. </p>
<p>The demographic around Lville is high financially. Princeton’s surrounding area is well off and most people live in nice homes in nice neighborhoods with a nice sized pay check. It could have been back then the day students were higher academically because they came from wealthy families that could afford a better early education. Again, another guess. I’d like to hear what people think. </p>
<p>@Purpleswirl It could work in the opposite favor as well. Day students have more freedom to get distracted and procrastinate. Most boarding schools impose a “No TV” during certain hours and mandatory studying. Some parents may also do the same, but there’s a chance they don’t. They probably drive a total of 30 mins everyday (15 min/back/forth) which one could argue is valuable studying time.</p>
<p>@PXAlaska:</p>
<p>I would have loved only a 15 minute commute each way! Until I got my driver’s license (midway through IV Form), my local school district bussed me. I got on the bus at 6:36am (I was always the 1st or 2nd pickup) to get to school at 8:05 in time for what was known as “A Period” which started at 8:15am. The bus ride home in the evening was a bit shorter since some kids took the early bus and some When I finally got my license, it was still about a 25 minute drive each way.</p>
<p>Oh dear oh dear. I did not think that it was that far. I also didn’t know that Lville gives out a bus to pick up day students. Well if we use those numbers, we’re talking an hour “wasted” each day.</p>
<p>@PxAlaska:</p>
<p>An hour a day? I think you need to check your arithmetic. 
It was more like almost 3 hours a day when I was taking the bus.</p>
<p>L’ville didn’t bus me. Pennsbury school district was required under Pennsylvania law to bus students who lived in the district to any private school within 10 miles of the school district. L’ville was 9.8 miles away. I have no idea if that law is still in effect.</p>
<p>I’m gonna use the driving thing because if you’re riding a bus, you can do something remotely useful. Sleep/do homework. It might not be comfortable, but it’s not a complete waste. When driving you can’t do anything except focus on driving. 25 mins one way is 50 mins total. Though I’d add 10 mins for traffic and other oddities.</p>
<p>I certainly did something remotely useful on the bus. I usually slept. :)</p>
<p>As a current L’ville international boarder, thought I’d drop in on this conversation, though it seems to have strayed from the original humanities vs. math/science topic - in my opinion much stronger in the humanities, by the way.</p>
<p>Personally, I do not feel like day students do better academically than boarders at the moment, I would say it is pretty much equal or favored toward boarders. In my opinion, I prefer being a boarder much more, but that is because of my personal situation - I do not get along with my parents at all and being away from them has helped me infinitely both emotionally and academically. Also, though the school tries to prevent it from happening, there is a definite gap between day students and boarders. Boarders just spend so much more time together that they become closer, which leads to day students feeling separate and clinging to each other, creating a sort of snowball effect. For example, though it does happen very occasionally, typically house presidents are always boarders, and for my house this year, the entire house council is made up of boarders except for the obvious day student representative and our third form representative is a day student who ran unopposed. And like discussed previously, the obvious gain in sleeping time is very nice - I used to have to get up at 6:00 to catch my school bus, now I can sleep until 7:30. :)</p>
<p>My observations are slightly different–socially, there is no substantial disparity between day students and boarders. In my house at least, day students are well integrated into the boarding community. You would occasionally find boarders hanging out in the day student room, and day students chilling in a boarder’s room. Some day students stay on campus until 10 p.m. I rarely see “day students feeling separate and clinging to each other,” though aaralyn’s comment regarding the house council is veracious.</p>
<p>Back to whether or not day students do better academically than boarders–a senior, whom I spoke to about this particular matter, noted that generally, his day student friends have higher GPAs than his boarder friends. I am NOT asserting that this is the trend for the entire school, but it’s interesting that the senior’s observation mirrors mine, to a vast extent.</p>
<p>@MBVLoveless: Wow, how can that happen? I thought that you have more time to study when you are a boarder? It’s kind of weird isnt it?</p>
<p>Regarding day students vs boarders, here is my theory. The greater Princeton area has very strong public and private schools and students in that area in general are very competitive (the public schools send a lot of kids to Ivys). Lville is the top choice for the majority of the kids in the area. Compare that to the boarding situation, where the top boarders have other BS alternatives, it’s not hard to imagine the day competition is more fierce. Just a theory to explain why the top kids in the current senior class tend to be day students.</p>
<p>A very thoughtful explanation. But I thought the Boarding Section of the school is more fierce since it’s a battle for Everyone around the world!</p>
<p>It’s all relative and I am sure the situation is different each year. If you know how competitive the public schools are in the area, as I do, you would not be surprised by the result, as Lville only takes a few from each school. Also, the public schools in the area are ranked near the top in the country in math and science and has a monopoly (my obsevation) on math and science awards in the state. As a result, the perception that Lville is weak in math and science has a lot to do with that as well.</p>
<p>@ProsParrent:
I dont get your idea.
“has a monopoly (my obsevation) on math and science awards in the state.”
"the perception that Lville is weak in math and science has a lot to do with that as well. "
Don’t these two statements contradict each other?</p>
<p>I was talking about the public schools being very strong in math and science and as a result Lville’s math and science is considered not strong by comparison.</p>
<p>@ProsParent: I read it so carelessly. Sorry!</p>