@Happymom123, I can certainly understand why it feels scary to contemplate sending your child to school in another country. And you’re asking really good questions. The only thing, though, is that I think the answers to all of your questions (except #5) would be pretty much the same for any of the boarding schools that you’re probably looking at. All the top boarding schools have a strong sense of community, with significant international student populations, lots of school-planned activities for weekends and for helping integrate new students into the social life of the school, etc, etc. Now, if you’re able to visit any of the schools, you certainly may walk away with the feeling like you liked the atmosphere at one school better than another, but that’s really something that’s just a “feel” thing, not something that you’re going to be able to get from answers to the questions you pose. As for your #5 about NYC kids, I’m not sure I’d say there are any schools where they truly “dominate” the feel of the school (that is to say, I think all these schools look and feel incredibly diverse). But there certainly are some schools where a big enough percentage of the kids are from NYC that it’s noticeable (Deerfield comes to mind, for one).