Negatives of Boarding School

Prep School Admissions
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<p>Respect OP, start another thread, we can converse. Looks like BS won’t teach much manners or some won’t get it.</p>

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<p>What’s the matter pulsar, I thought we were having a civil discussion. Just facts. No opinions. Isn’t this the knowledge and insight you are seeking to help you make the decision on whether to attend prep school or not?</p>

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<p>If you want to discuss something other than the thread topic, leave the thread and start another one. Otherwise, you’ll end up waiting until the cows come home.</p>

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<p>I’m a 4 year senior at a NE boarding school and here are the negatives I’ve found so far:
-Classes are MUCH harder than public school classes. I’m taking the max amount of APs this semester and I have 6+ hrs a night of homework (and I work fast)
-Social life is different. You are with your friends and other people your age 24/7. It can get tough. There is also not much privacy if you have a roommate.
-Weekends can be painfully repetitive. Study/sports, sleep, eat (in that order). Friends obviously make it more bearable, but if you want to remain substance free, you can run out of stuff to do pretty quickly.
-Food sucks sometimes
-Lack of sleep (wake up at 7 for classes, get to bed after 1 depending on your workload at my school)</p>

<p>However, I’m an overachiever. If you like getting straight C’s, you can get away with less than 2 hrs a night of homework with regular classes, 8+ hrs of sleep a night, and partying all weekend. Like most high schools, many kids are like that, but at boarding school you’ll run into quite a few rich kids who party harder than anyone you’ll ever meet. </p>

<p>The positives far outweigh the negatives. If you can get over the initial homesickness, learn to nap whenever possible, and stay out of trouble, you can have a really good time. I’ve loved my 4 years</p>

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<p>pulsar - I started a new thread for you in the Prep School Cafe…you can continue your discussion there.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry I’ve upset you pulsar. I would never want to do that. Please continue with this thread. I’ll try not to post any more positive comments about prep schools here. </p>

<p>So getting back to your post on prep schools only sending 30% of students to Ivy’s. Any other negative facts you would like to add to get back to the original topic?</p>

47

<p>Thank you 1finite for your insights.</p>

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<p>doschicos - I started a new thread for you in the Prep School Cafe…you can continue your discussion there.</p>

49

<p>Parent here, and I will post a negative. Lack of sleep, can cause frequent illness if you don’t have a strong immune system.</p>

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<p>I spot an inconsistency here. Many here post that BSs select only applicants who can handle the work. If so, why are they not able to get enough sleep? Are the BSs admitting applicants that can’t handle the work because some of them bring in the dollars or have legacy connections?</p>

51

<p>Legacy connections don’t help as much as people think, unless your connection has donated billions. I should know, I was rejected from a school with a legacy connection.</p>

<p>Most schools dont look at ability to pay until the last last round of admissions unless the school is truly need - blind. And to get into this last round of admissions, you will surely be able to handle the work.</p>

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<p>If they are able to handle the work, why are they sleepless? Is Baystateresident trying to be funny?</p>

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<p>Because the work may take a little longer and require more effort and more time. I have a bit of insomnia, so I’ve gotten used to a lack of sleep so that might not be as big of a problem for me at BS as others who go to BS</p>

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<p>Mine can handle the work…they stay up late having fun. When they come home, it takes them days to catch up on their sleep.</p>

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<p>Just because an applicant can handle the work, doesn’t mean they will always go to bed early. Students, especially at BS, are motivated to do their homework and most will stay up in order to accomplish that.</p>

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<p>It’s not about being unable to handle the work. There is just a LOT of it. With EC’s, (required) sports, studying for standardized tests, and having a social life it’s hard to avoid burning the midnight oil when you are expected to do 2.5 hrs of homework a night per AP class.</p>

<p>edit: and pulsar it might benefit you more to actually visit/spend a night at a boarding school and draw your own conclusions.</p>

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<p>^in all honesty, handling the amount of work is all about time management. I know many people who budget their time wisely, don’t procrastinate, don’t waste all of their frees socializing, and as a result always have their work done well and on time and don’t have problems as far as I know. Then there are many people <em>coughmecough</em> who procrastinate and use a lot more time than they should to socialize and are the ones who end up having to stay up until the wee hours of the morning finishing that paper. Nine times out of ten, you shouldn’t need to stay up late or sacrifice much to get your work done if you can manage your time well and spend that free and the hour between sports and dinner to do homework.</p>

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<p>Time management at BS is stressed a lot. But how much is the peer pressure to party or do stuff other than HW in your opinion? How do you deal with your roommate playing music while you study? At home, we have a controlled study environment.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.blogut.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/song-chart-memes-breakdown-students.jpg[/url]”>http://www.blogut.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/song-chart-memes-breakdown-students.jpg&lt;/a&gt; is pretty much the fundamental problem</p>

<p>when one cannot defy the laws of physics, the second best alternative is to simply hop around on the venn diagram given different circumstances. Here individual judgment becomes an issue…</p>

<p>I know some people who solve the sleep problem by simply sleeping less and getting accustomed to it, or through different sleep patterns (sleeping a few hours at night, taking several naps during the day, train the body to go to REM sleep very quickly). </p>

<p>I’d have to say another problem at boarding school is confidence. Maybe a kid was pretty smart from where he came but at a boarding school he is average, or worse. </p>

<p>Another problem is boarding school really opens your eyes to the world. Maybe some child lived a secluded and pampered life and isn’t ready to handle reality. Not exactly a problem, but some parents may want to guide their children through this process. Having to interact with older kids, dealing with stress by oneself, taking care of oneself, not the mention the illegal things that sometimes happen at boarding school…</p>

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<p>Yes, one can. This is only true until someone invents a time machine that travels faster than light or proves that some of the existing physical theories are wrong. Now if only the Exonians worked harder on these theories. :D</p>