<p>I thought this was an interesting direction that was started on another thread, so I'd like to put it out there for general input from those who might have some experience, either as Post-Grads, or as parents of PGs, or well, anyone with real life experience of this: It was posited by another poster in another thread that...</p>
<p>"the presence or absence of PGs has a significant impact on the social, athletic & , to a lesser extent, academic environment of any boarding school. So... if it isn't, it should be a consideration."</p>
<p>Since I haven't previously given the matter much thought, and since all the schools we looked at last year, including the one my dd now attends, accept PGs, I would like to know more about it. AFAIK dd's school does not have any PGs <em>this</em> year, and it is fairly uncommon, but not unheard of, for her school to accept PGs. Some schools have PGs as a matter of course. Some, only occasionally.</p>
<p>Your experience? Thoughts based on observation?</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore at The Taft School, where we have plenty of PG’s. To be completely honest I don’t notice the difference that much, except in sports. A lot of times the Varsity teams are made up of mainly juniors, seniors, and PG’s, but there is definitely still a presence of underclassmen, it just makes it much more of a competitive field (creating 4ths teams for boys soccer, and still having enough people to make a 5ths team!). </p>
<p>Outside of athletics though I don’t see it as a huge difference, and there are some people I didn’t even realize were PG’s because of how social they are with everyone. Also that fact that they are all there for the same reasons as everyone else, and are hoping to have a good year.</p>
<p>Thanks, taftie. So you don’t think the fact that they are only there for one year has an effect on how they behave or interact with the community (outside of sports)?</p>
<p>Anyone else from other schools?</p>
<p>I mean the fact that they are only there for one year changes the closeness of relationships and friendships, but besides that nothing that I’ve really seen has had the much of an impact to the entire community there.</p>
<p>As discussed on other threads, some students at boarding schools are older than one would expect. What is the upper age limit for PGs?</p>
<p>Oh, interesting Peri. I hadn’t thought of that. I’d always assumed they were 18-19, or “just been” seniors. Taftie?</p>
<p>Not completely sure, but those that I know have been 18/19, and I know of one that’s 20. I think that typically it’s students straight from another high school, just looking to have the extra year boost, not going back again 2 years later.</p>