NYC private schools or New England boarding schools?

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
1

The things I’m looking for in a school-
1)Connections
2)College Matriculation
3)Academically Rigorous
4)Focus on extra curricular activities

2

What is your question as nyc has excellent private schools (some of the best in The country). Boarding school offers a different type of experience. Better to decide what you specifically want from your experience. Maybe start with niche ranked private schools ( do not get caught up in the exact rankings - they all switch around) but it will give you an idea of how dome of the NYC schools stack up with the boarding schools.

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  1. connections for what? are you the parent or child? most connections are forged across the k-12 journey in private NY schools and start with parents early on. i wouldnt use this as your criteria for choosing a school unless you are coming in with something these elite parents want - access to hollywood, royalty, PE etc

  2. college matriculations - another murky topic where you cannot see or predict how your peers’ athletic angles and pursuit of commitment via this angle will be until jr/sr yr. And once these slots are taken at certain schools, the school will limit acceptances.
    You also have no visibility on legacies, big donors, development candidates

so you may be top 10% of your class but unless YOU bring a unique hook to the college, find yourself with surprising choices bc of all of the above - i see it in NYC, MIA, CHGO private results all the time (and i am sure this is very true of the eltite 10 boarding schools)

  1. you can make any school very rigorous

  2. trade off - better/more focused options as a day student in NYC private vs boarding. Sure boarding schools will have options - but you cant really continue your equestrian career unless you are at specific schools, you cant play club soccer and travel year round unless you are at a soccer boarding school etc etc but you will have the ability to explore other interests

good luck!

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4

For these points, the differences among individual schools within the NYC private vs NE boarding classification could be larger than these two groups average. To compare the tradeoffs of these two choices, two aspects important to me are: (1) For 9th grade entrance, boarding school is easier for students’ social life, since everyone is new. (2). Day school is better for parent-child bonding.

5

At a New England boarding school, not everyone will be from New York. There is significant value to the diversity of student backgrounds, experiences, etc. At boarding school, I think there are more opportunities to learn outside of the classroom.

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6

The answer 100% depends on the experience you and your child are looking for. Both options will offer everything you want in a school. The outcome will rest on your child’s: 1) ability to perform in the classroom and 2) desire to take advantage of the opportunities presented at the school.

7

I would challenge this assertation (and it’s been challenged plenty on this board if you go back and look for it.) It has been our experience that boarding school has made our bond different, but not less-than. While we spend less quantity of time with our kids, the time we do spend is quality.

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8

This is a counterfactual that no one can assert one way or other. Since any child/parents can take only path, there is no way to know how their bond may have been down the other path. I am just stating the obvious.

9

This isn’t obvious to me. Such rationale would preclude a vast amount of rigorous and useful human subjects research!

The question of parent-child bonding being in general affected by boarding school could certainly be studied, though the path of any one particular such relationship could not be absolutely predicted.

I did a quick search and found one such questionnaire-based study, though I won’t link it because it’s pretty bad :smile:. (FWIW, residential education didn’t seem associated with negative relationships with students attending for education, as opposed to at-risk behavior management).

Maybe there are good studies out there, though, or maybe this is an open question someone might suggest to their education or psychology student!

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10

Or maybe this is not easy to study :slight_smile:
Maybe all those other studies where people claim to study human behavior are flawed to a greater or lesser extent.

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11

I don’t disagree which is why I said it’s “different” in response to the poster who asserted that day school is “better” for the parent-child bond.

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Sure. I don’t buy into that belief that damns all such behavioral research (or by extension, all human subjects research), but to each their own.

My own experience is definitely along the lines suggested by @BlueBirdWine - the experience is different, neither better nor worse.

I would suggest that the OP ask their student what they’re looking for. An open discussion might reveal something that could more effectively differentiate between the options being considered.

13

Responses should address the OP 's question rather than debating amongst yourselves

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