<p>This can also be an issue at schools with a high proportion of day students. When my D and I visited Milton three years ago, I came away thinking this is a wonderful school if you live in Boston. Academics-athletics-arts-stellar. But it’s hard to join a school where many of the students live at home and have been going to school together since kindergarten. Weekend activities tended to take place at the homes of day students and the campus could be lonely on weekends. Milton was my D’s first choice school before we visited schools, and I was so concerned about what life would be like as a boarder there that we visited several times. My concerns were heightened, not assuaged, and my D did end up liking other schools more. Try to get a feel for what it is like to spend weekends on campus. I don’t know St. Mark’s so this is not in any way a commentary about that school. When my S was looking at schools this year, we limited our search to schools with about 80% or more boarders.</p>