<p>Most of the time, I only hear good things about boarding school, apart from homesickness. I don't want to get in my head that BS is some sort of utopia, so could you guys share some negative aspects of boarding school? Thanks!</p>
<p>Hey loubear, I have been on CC for the last few months. What I notice is most people on CC are already BS cheerleaders. So you rarely hear about the negatives. If you ask about the negatives, they don’t hesitate to call you names, as it happened to me.</p>
<p>[thread=925939]Problems at Boarding Schools[/thread]</p>
<p>Expensive. Don’t get to see your kid nearly as much as you’d like. More hours of homework than any other kind of high school. Kids can sometimes get a little too Lord of the Flies, but that’s infrequent. When you’re sick, your family is not there to take care of you. But, if you’re a smart, independent and good hearted kid, you’re most likely going to have an awesome experience that is worth the kudos it gets on this site.</p>
<p>RebelAngel, Loubear wants the negatives other than homesickness. S/he already knows the Positives. Your post is again talking about the Positives, not the Negatives other than homesickness that OP wants to know. I think the current BS students, not their moms and dads, would be in a best position to discuss the negatives.</p>
<p>Well rebelangel definitely has some valid points, especially about the health issue. Like if i’m sick at home, my mom has always been there to comfort me or hold my hair back if i’m throwing up or anything. i’d like to hear both the students and parents negatives, as it will be good info for my parents.</p>
<p>and @pulsar, thanks for the link :)</p>
<ol>
<li>You will miss your family. They will go to parties, the movies, out to dinner without you and you will hear about it. They will miss you, too, terribly. </li>
<li>During the summer, you are usually not near your closest friends. Sure, you may have local friends from before, but it’s not the same as having your current school buddies nearby.</li>
<li>If you are on a fall team, you have to prep for the season without teammates.</li>
<li>You have to grow up and be independent much more quickly. </li>
<li>You may miss home cooking. </li>
<li>School is all around you all the time. No escape. Even when you get off campus, it’s usually with schoolmates. </li>
<li>You really need to be careful about the rules for alcohol, drugs, etc. While you shouldn’t get involved with these things anywhere, the consequences at boarding school can be much more dramatic. At a public school, I don’t know what happens but I think it’s hard to get kicked out. At a private day school, you could get kicked out but you won’t have to move. At a boarding school, you could end up totally uprooted and never seeing your friends again. </li>
<li>Loss of privacy. Dining hall, dorm, roommates, bathrooms shared by many. </li>
<li>People will study for a lot of the weekend. If you are going to do really well, you have to, too.</li>
</ol>
<p>Above all, I think that boring weekends get to me the most. Wake up, class, sports, homework, hang out with friends, sleep, wake up, food, work, friends, sleep. Gets boring by the end of the year.</p>
<p>It takes a certain caliber of student to really enjoy boarding school. Certainly a negative attitude beforehand really won’t change that much once in a boarding school. One must understand the environment they are placing themselves into with the unlimited opportunities or limitations. Depends how one looks at it and approaches the situation. A kind of half empty, half full scenario. A student with the proper initiative will look at it half full and will have an incredible time filling the glass. Those at the other extreme, the complainers, the neigh sayers of course the glass will always be half empty and as the years progress it will seem empty. The clubs, the EC’s, certainly the sports and yes just hanging out with friends can be fun. The facilities and opportunities are there but the positive attitude has to be present. I know one of school where the kids have so much fun on campus that many elect to stay on long weekends, SAS. IMO there is a lot more going on at these schools than there is back home, especially on weekends. Sorry, I can’t come up with much in the negative department. Sunday afternoons we dedicated to “create a club”. We came up with a skin diving club, rocket club (that was a blast), barbecue club where the whole school would show up, game show day, it was all little wacky but good fun. It’s almost endless but then again you have to have the right altitude. There’s always one around that seems all he or she can do is complain, gets tiresome.</p>
<p>What school do you go to ops? It sounds great.</p>
<p>The way I’m looking at boarding school is much of what you described ops: endless possibilities, friends for life, glass half full etc. I just wanted to hear about the negatives because I’m having a hard time seeing them.</p>
<p>@ loubear, I pm’d you, it’s such a small world.<br>
I’m having a hard time coming up with the negatives. I lost my starting position on JV Football my junior year to a sophomore. But he got hurt so I got my spot back. We had a cleptomaniac but he eventually got caught. Having to diet to get down to my weight class for wrestling. It shrank my stomach so I could never eat all the steak dinners that were owed to me by the coach. My biggest regret and this is the honest truth that you’ll hear from most alumni, was not taking advantage of all that was offered.</p>
<p>loubear, OPS is not a current BS student. Check out his/her previous posts. So the information may be outdated. You can check the previous posts by right clicking on the name and selecting the previous posts option. There are a lot of admissions consultants on this site who will only talk about the positives and I found a lot of made up stories without facts to back them up. Take all the CC input with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>^untrue. I know for a fact that admissions officers only lurk [but be warned, they do lurk.]</p>
<p>I said admissions consultants, not admissions officers. Please read completely before posting.</p>
<p>pulsar, do you / have you attended boarding school?</p>
<p>I think the consensus is that pulsar is a semi-■■■■■, and very negative person.</p>
<p>I’m alumni and parent of current and graduated students and my pm to loubear clearly stated so. I believe loubear wanted to hear from students and parents alike. Many of those who check out CC on a regular basis know well enough that I’m not a student as much as they know you’re quite the antagonistic little individual. No, boarding school would not be for you. Pulsar you would be a negative aspect for any boarding school.</p>
<p>BS negatives:
- High school is hard and stressful --BS makes it much more so because all of the students are well qualified, hardworking, goal setting. Demands are high
- There’s no going home at night (except if you are a day student there, which is in my view the best of both worlds) to be freed of the intensity and insanity of 20+ teens in your dorm.
- You live in a bubble, without the balance and perspective that “life” provides.
- It’s MUCH harder not to be a cookie cutter/carve your own identity. Hard to stand out.
- Teens may not know it, but they still needs adult influences. A BS kid will need to find those and foster them on their own or be prepared to go it alone–may sound great, but you have no idea how hard that is until it happens.
- You will miss your family, friends, dog/cat, own bed, home cooking, bathroom, old routine, etc.</p>
<p>Thank you grinzing for a thoughtful post of what the OP wants to hear, myself included. 
It’s amazing how many people here on CC want to hear only one side of the story, considering BS education is supposed to make one consider all points of view. The OP wants negatives, don’t come here to post positives as we are bombarded with them everyday. Please keep the negatives coming as these are as useful as positives in making the decision to attend or not attend a BS.</p>
<p>OPS, Go look at all your old posts how you tried to sell all the schools bad to which you are tied to in the boonies. :(</p>
<p>I knew you’d be back but sorry you’ve been fed enough. Entertaining at times but a pill none the less.</p>
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<p>Somebody like pulsar might attend your BS…</p>