<p>I am a prospective student and I'm wondering about daily life at this school. How many hours of homework are there everyday (weekdays and weekends)? How hard is it? How much sleep do students get? How much free time? Is there time for a social life? Are students generally happy? Is there a massive work load? Is it hard to balance work, sports, and friends? What type of grades do students get? </p>
<p>I know this is a lot to ask but I really need to know to decide if a BS is the best path for me. Especially these types: Andover, Exeter, SPS, and LVILLE. It is a momentous decision and I'd like as much information as possible before I make my final decision if I am lucky enough to get in. If there is any more information I or anybody else should know, feel free to post it. I just don't want to end up being completely unhappy if I go to boarding school. Some of my family friends have ended up deeply regretting their decisions.</p>
<p>thank you</p>
<p>Schools such as the ones you have listed above are looking for resourceful, self-starting students who are willing to work hard to achieve their goals. Don’t expect others to spoon feed you the information you need. Put forth some effort to try to find answers to your questions. Then, if you need additional info, or verification of the info you’ve found, ask away.</p>
<p>But first:
- go to the schools’ websites and read EVERYTHING there
- request a viewbook and a course catalog; study them cover to cover
- search CC and read everything you can on the schools; the main SPS thread alone will take hours to get through</p>
<p>You have to be willing to put in the time to do your own research.</p>
<p>@mountainhiker </p>
<p>I have read the viewbook, I’ve already gone there, and I’ve scoured the whole website multiple of times to find as much information as possible. I’m just looking for a more first-hand thought on this school.</p>
<p>Edit: I don’t want to be given only biased information</p>
<p>thank you so much this helped a lot</p>
<p>Hi bball-</p>
<p>I’m not as expert as some on this site because my daughter hasn’t started at St. Paul’s yet, but I did attend the school and we looked at several schools last year during the application process. I don’t think there are really substantial differences among the four schools you asked about in the areas you mentioned. However, there are some really substantial differences among them in other areas. The ones I mention below are just the ones that immediately come to mind:</p>
<p>1) Housing. Every school has its own system for this. St. Paul’s has four-class dorms and it seems like a lot of campus life is based around dorms (e.g. advisories are dorm-based). Other schools have separate dorms for freshman and Lawrenceville also has separate dorms for seniors. (I think Exeter has 4-class dorms but we didn’t look there). My daughter really liked the idea of living with students in other grades so she didn’t like the system at L’ville.</p>
<p>2) School size. I think school size makes a lot of difference in the tone and character of the school, and in the opportunities that students have. SPS is the smallest of the ones you mention. Every size has its advantages and disadvantages and there is no single answer as to what’s better or worse.</p>
<p>3) Structure/daily life. SPS has required chapel (4x/week), seated dinners (2x/week), Saturday classes, and advisor dinners (2x/week). On the other hand there is no required study hall. There’s a spectrum of this kind of structure across the schools you mentioned and again, it’s a question of personal taste and style. Andover, for example, has almost none of this kind of structure - it really felt like pre-college more than high school to us.</p>
<p>4) Physical setting. Each school you mentioned has different proximity to both a town and an urban area. It’s pretty easy to get off campus from Andover and go into town or get into Boston. Students at both Andover and Lawrenceville seemed to be relatively likely to get involved in off-campus opportunities for further study or activities. SPS has a gorgeous campus, but it’s 3 miles outside of Concord and you need to go into Concord to get a bus to Boston. It’s certainly possible to get off campus but there’s a definitely separation there.</p>
<p>5) Day students. SPS has no day students at all. Everyone lives in the dorms, even the children of faculty and staff. This is a very distinct feature of SPS and one that my daughter really liked. </p>
<p>I hope this helps.</p>
<p>@bballhopeful: Using the search tool (specifically the advanced search) to dig up info should be the first move of all new forum members looking for more information on a school or group of schools. Most newbs (including myself, many moons ago) fail to take this step…so posts end up sounding like you haven’t done your homework before asking questions.</p>
<p>Mountainhiker’s (a parent, btw) advice is spot on for you and all BS prospects. Following her third bullet point would have netted you the threads I linked to above…in less than a minute.</p>
<p>Best of luck with your search and application process this cycle. Know that the four schools you have mentioned are among the most selective private high schools in the world. My advice to you, which I’ve doled out to many other prospective students, is to really be honest with yourself on what strengths you bring to the application/school. Are you in the top 15% of the BS applicant pool? If you can’t answer “Yes” with a straight face and some corroborating evidence, then perhaps it’s time to think beyond those four schools. And even if you can say “Yes”, know that many kids with seemingly admissible profiles get rejected every year anyway. If BS is a must for you (which is sounds like it isn’t), then think long and hard about your range of “apply to” schools. (All of this advice is multiplied by 4 if you need FA.)</p>
<p>Forgot to mention that you should feel free to write a PM to a current student (finding them through the main school threads here on CC) with specific questions you can’t find answers to elsewhere. I corresponded with a few students on my daughter’s behalf (she isn’t on CC) during her application cycle and it helped answer a lot of Qs.</p>