It is indeed all relative, and personal too. A good friend of CaliKid’s is very happy in a school with a much smaller student population. Neither has any desire to trade schools.
My husband asked me a few days ago if kids do trade schools. Is this very common? And if they do, is it usually a fit issue?
In my 2 years of experience being a student at a boarding school, I have only known 2 people who transferred to different boarding schools. One of the students wanted a much smaller school (less than 200 kids, mine is just under 400) and another wanted to go to a school closer to their home. In my personal experience, it is more common for kids to go back home and attend a day school because of fit issues, as opposed to transferring to another boarding school.
Two students at my DD’s boarding school transferred after their first year. Both to smaller schools, not that hers is large by any means, but from 550 to 350 students.
I wish we could pin @vegas1’s post to any discussion involving “fit”. It’s not about what’s right or wrong with a school’s rigor or culture. It’s not even about family values and how they mesh with the school’s stated mission. It’s about how well will this one child will thrive in this particular environment. If you have a kid who will never be at the top of their class because they don’t have a single competitive bone in their body and are perfectly satisfied to get by with the minimum effort required to not make a fool of themselves, a local low-tier school may not be the best environment for them. Conversely, if you have a type A perfectionist who will eat herself alive with self-imposed guilt and anxiety that she is not the valedictorian, E/A/etc may not be the way to go no matter how smart said kid is.