Hey, guys!
I’m writing a novel that will be set at a prestigious boarding school in America. My first thought was, of course, to set it at an elite school in the New England area. But then I started thinking about changing the setting to a Southern boarding school.
So I’m wondering…are there any boarding schools in the south that are -as- prestigious as Exeter, Andover, Groton, Deerfield, Choate, etc? Or are they all considered second-tier?
Furthermore, beyond the prestige aspect, what would you say are the major differences between NE and Southern boarding schools, in terms of campus, boarding life, traditions, atmosphere, student body, etc?
Thanks for any opinions!
You are not planning to use an existing school’s name in your novel, are you? Because all the schools have lawyers, and would not ignore a novel which could harm their reputation.
Nope, not at all! It’ll be a fictional school.
John Green’s first novel Looking for Alaska takes place at an Alabama BS- you might want to check it out. Has a different feel than a NE school- Fictional obviously, but I believe he based the school off his own high school ( Indian Springs School, AL)
There are boarding schools in the south but most of the hard, well known, prestigious schools are located in New England. There are for sure boarding schools in the south but they don’t have the rigor of top 30 schools, a vast majority of which are located in New England. If you look at the top 50 boarding schools on http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/the-50-most-elite-boarding-schools-in-the-us/ss-AA8lJW6#image=51 you will see that only one southern school (if you are excluding Virginia as the south) is in the list: Asheville School in North Carolina. There are about 4-7 Virginia school, but as for southern boarding schools go, a majority are second tier. To answer your question- most boarding schools in the south are second tier. To put in respectfully, if schools in the south were top tier, you would have already heard about them.
Your book sounds really interesting! Write more threads or pm me if you have any questions! I’m sure people would love to read it when it is finished:)
I went to a NE boarding school (Kent) and my kids all went/go to southern BS’s. (being that as an adult I moved to Atlanta, and NE just seemed too far). I agree, that at least by reputation they are 2nd’ tier to NE ones, but I have found the education received by my kids at some of these are as good if not better than my Kent one. And I’m not sure that my experience as a student varies that much in that from theirs. I mean, living in a dorm and interacting with peers is what its about (and probably plays pretty heavily into the plot of a novel about boarding schools), and I think that is pretty universal.
It does sound a bit harsh to call something second tier. That being said, it is difficult to replace schools which in some cases have hundreds of years of history. Also, while I cannot fully attest (as I am not a Southerner), schools in the North are often more highly rated academically. We are in MA and I just received the standard test scores. As it spilled out, all over it was marked, MA has the #1 test scores in the nation.Hmm, ok. So it’s hard to beat even the good public schools not to mention the elite private ones. If I lived in the South, I would send my kids to a Southern school however. The competition among the elite schools (public and private) is intense in NE. People define themselves by their school long after they have graduated. While it is silly. it impacts the kids who are intensely focused.