I find most of the negative attitude to be derived from socio/economic and/or political animosity.
I would have answered “Yes, thank you for understanding that,” because it’s true for my daughter and I am not good at catching sarcasm.
I think some of the negativity is the result of some of the statements that BS parents/children make. As I read this thread, I read some statements that imply a superiority to non-BS parents/kids.
For example a statement like this “well, I’ll have more opportunities for cultural, athletic and academic ventures there, and I’ll get an overall better education.” – implies that it is superior to what the other children/parent will experience.
Granted this quote might not be exactly accurate and it is out of the full context but – as a home schooler I can tell you whenever someone uses the term “better” or “more” – you are naturally going to offend the recipient of that statement. 
And to be honest, in the Greater Boston area, the DS and some of the public high schools are on par with the educational offerings of the HADES schools.
@laenen I share your sentiment in that posters can inadvertently offend others when they use certain terms to describe their schools. However, pit of genuine curiosity, while I understand some public high schools in greater Boston are top notch, are they really “on par” with the best private (boarding or day) schools? How did you reach that conclusion? What are the measurements you use to evaluate these supposedly quite different types of schools?
@panpacific – 1st - you have to determine what are you measuring – sports, arts, academics, etc. 2nd – at some point, education is equal to the amount of effort you put into it.
You can look at what the top students achieve when coming from some of those schools.
But lets just look at academics
Mass Academy Weston PE
Average SAT 2088 1950 2120
Average ACT 30 32
of AP courses Sr year in WPI 16 14
Cost “Free” “Free” $200k
Type Magnet Public BS
There are a lot of benefits to BS and more importantly it is a personal family decision that is more about the child and their path but if you are going to look holistically at the education and its value that BS has over some of the public high schools in the Greater Boston area, I am not sure I personally see $200k worth of value. YMMV
BTW – the high schools that stand out in my mind is Mass Academy in Worcester and the Math school in Marlborough. There is Duxbury and Needham for sports and academics. There is Weston, Dover-Sherborn, and Lexington that are strong in everything. If these districts were able to take out the “non-performing” kids like a BS does, you better believe that Weston would be as high as Mass Academy. Moreover, the non-performing kids in the top public HS are not intermingled with the AP courses so those kids are truly working with the brightest kids in that town.
NOTE - my son is not at the any of these schools nor do I live in these towns.
Laenen: yep.
@laenen Okay. Thanks.
I just don’t believe that you can use SAT scores to measure the quality of the education a child receives. Mass Academy takes 100 11th and 12th graders who are already academically accelerated. The average SAT scores for that group of kids has to be more reflective of the selection of the population than that the kids got those SAT scores because they attended Mass Academy. The number of AP courses a school offers is even less a good metric of the quality of education, given that many schools have chosen not to designate courses as “AP” courses. As for the best-regarded non-magnet public high schools, can you get a good education there? Sure. Is your educational experience at, say, Lexington High School, which has close to 2000 students going to be anything at all like your educational experience at a BS? Nope, not really. But the difference in experience isn’t something that you can – or should – try to measure by metrics like average SAT scores. If that’s all you’re interested in, you could send your kid to the worst public school out there and get him a really great SAT tutor, and probably achieve the same results.
@soxmom – I wasn’t attempting to compare education “experience”. Clearly you can not compare a BS with a day school.
That said they are still on par academically. Why can’t you compare MA Academy to the HADES school? They both have admission process that is very selective. They both end up with roughly the same SAT.
RE: Public – I also believe that if you were to remove the stats of the lower children in any of the top schools in MA so that the populations align, their results would match the HADES schools. So I would conclude that the children of both schools ended up with roughly the same quality education.
Here is an interesting fact, Nobles or RL have a roughly 33% matriculation rate into the Ivy+ schools. If you complete the Russian School of Mathematics curriculum you have a 40% matriculation rate. Nobles is $40k and RSM is $4k.
Spending more doesn’t mean that you are getting something better. It just means you are spending more.
Seems to me this will always be a touchy and somewhat charged subject. Best to leave it at different parents and kids take different paths. None always right. None always wrong. Just different.
Spending more doesn’t necessarily gives you something better. But then higher Ivy+ rate might not be the main benefit you were looking for either. It is arguable that which generates higher SAT score and Ivy+ matriculation rate, between the top boarding schools and top private schools. But for me, it seems clear which gives better overall education that SAT and Ivy+ is only a part of it.
@saillakeerie – I agree this is a touchy subject. I just wanted to point out to BS parents that feel that they are getting negative reactions because their child is attending BS that perhaps it is due to how they frames their decision – “I’ll have more opportunities for cultural, athletic and academic”.
Just look at LAX, Laxachusetts Minutemen put 68 kids into a collegian program. The top school was Duxbury (public) HS with 11. No one was even close. The second school was a Catholic school and the third was another public school.
If you look at soccer, the top players come the DA program of the Revolution not the HADES schools.
I am not arguing that BS is not a good choice for ones child it is a very personal decision and fit. But in no way is any statement of superiority culturally, athletically or academically of the HADES schools justified if you are going to compare to the top MA private day schools not to mention the public high schools.
NOTE: I am an unbiased homeschool dad that went to a private HS.
“More opportunity for cultural, athletic and academic” still stands in individual level. Each student at a top boarding school seems to have much greater chance to have those opportunities, and gain personal growth through them, regardless of previous personal experience and/or talent, than each student at one of those top public schools, where only a smaller % of the student body is given the opportunities.
For example, amazing students at public schools are given great science research opportunities. But how many among who want the program will qualify? On the other hand, I was heard from Choate that so far ALL applicants for their amazing environmental research program have been accepted.
@SculptorDad At some point if you are making the statement that BS have “the better overall education”, you have to have some metrics. How are you quantifying that statement to prove that it is true?
Why? I don’t believe that you can measure the quality of the education from any metrics. I can say, for instance, that it is probably generally better to have a lower student to teacher ratio, and I don’t think anyone would dispute the concept. Who wouldn’t rather have their kid in a class of 12 kids rather than 30? But if the teacher with the 12 kids sucks, well then, it didn’t give your kid better educational experience than if they’d been in a bigger class but with a better teacher. SAT scores are highly statistically correlated to SSAT scores, so the average SAT score for a school tells you much more about the incoming population of 9th graders than it does about how much those kids will learn over the next four years. And I think most of the parents on this board have long since gotten past the notion that Ivy League acceptance rates is some measure of how good the high school, or the education it provides, is.
I feel 100% confident that the quality of the education that my kids are getting at the boarding school they attend is superior to the education that they could have gotten if they had stayed at their private day school or had attended our local public high school. Can I prove that with metrics? No, and I don’t really care. It’s in the eye of the beholder, and I’m the beholder.
I never considered BS for my kids, but I know I would have loved it and probably thrived.
@laenen, I am making a logical assertion based on generally available data, and I do not have a special knowledge or experience that you don’t.
One common logic I used is size of schools. Stuyvesant has 3000 students. Most of good high schools seem to have about 2000 or more students. So I assumed that competition to get in to a varsity sport team would be harder at those schools than at a boarding school where enrollments is 1000, 500 or even less.
Another logic was that, student to teacher ratio. It is 22:1 at Stuyvesant, and is seldom less than 10:1 at other top private schools. It is often 5~7:1 at boarding schools. This seem to contribute more quality EC opportunities at BC, because teachers have more time. I don’t have a data. But about 20 schools I researched all had so many great programs, and it seemed much easier to get in those programs. I am figuring that competition for those high quality EC programs are lower at BC, because they have so many of them that most students can get in to some.
Yet another logic was funding. Budget for each public school student is $11~$12k. Tuition for each BS students, except for boarding part is about $42k they also have endowment. As a result it seems, even though I don’t have obective data with me, public schools are reducing or barely maintaining fewer EC programs because they can’t pay for them, if for nothing else.
I have received a myriad of reactions from other parents when I mention boarding school. Some parents give me a disdainful look and question why I am trying to “get rid of my child”. Others are very inquisitive and have thoughtful questions. I think that even today, the negative stereotypes about boarding schools still persist. Some people are under the mistaken belief that BS is a label used for all types of residential schools such as reform schools or schools that exist for so called juvenile delinquents and wayward kids. Parents have asked me, “What did your son do to get sent away to reform school?” or “Have you considered counseling before you send your son away?” When I explain what a BS is, and elaborate on the types of BS’s that I am considering, I sometimes receive dumbfounded looks or just looks of plain disbelief. Some parents can’t seem to fathom why a parent would be willing to part with their child at an age that they consider too young to leave home. Once I have gotten past that hurdle in explanation, the next question that always follows is about tuition and costs of BS. When I mention estimated figures, some parents react as if it is a crime to spend that much money on secondary school education. Yet these parents don’t bat an eye at spending similar amounts on non-education items like cars, vacations, boats, etc. Of course these are parents that don’t necessarily have a clue about boarding schools and prep schools. It also does not help when a new scandal at a BS pops up all over the media. The naysayers love to point out those stories.
The type of school that a parent chooses for their child is a very personal one, and it should be a decision that isn’t judged by others. Every parent and child is different. What may work for one child, may not work for another. That’s my two cents.
I think it’s very much regional. Although DH and I went to our LPS, our families are both aware of the top BS by name and reputation, so no one questions the wisdom of pursuing them. Moreover, we live in an area with many DS and BS and people are knowledgeable about the benefits. Honestly, the people who think you are just “sending away” a “problem” kid are just embarrassing themselves with their lack of worldliness.
So here are a few “metrics” we used to compare the quality of different school options (Note that “cost” is not one of them because while what you pay to get something is important, it is not part of the quality measurement.)
- Class size (related to school size but may not necessarily proportional)
- faculty/student ratio
- faculty credentials
- teaching methods and philosophy (e.g. Harkness/seminar style, writing focused, critical thinking/analysis driven, etc.)
- teaching facilities (quality of labs for science and language classes, libraries, and easy access to other teaching aid such as museums and art galleries)
- peer quality (a very defining metric IMO. Sorry there's no "taking out" low/non-performers, which is part of your peer group in reality)
- breadth and depth of course offerings (not the same as AP course offering as many private schools have been moving away from AP and instead offering courses of AP and post AP levels without AP designations)
- extracurricular opportunities (number relative to size of student body, performing/competing/travel... opportunities. leadership opportunities)
- Development in interpersonal skills and social skills (interactions with adults and thoughtful peers, and awareness of involvement in social issues from early on...)
- Quality of college counseling services
I must’ve missed something, but my conclusion was (and still is) that the top private (boarding or day) schools are much better than the best public schools in my area (non-NE major metro in an east coast state). I do have admired the many great public schools in the Greater Boston area though, and I don’t really know if they are fundamentally different than the “normal” public schools hence my question to @laenen earlier.