<p>We thought we were sure of our choices and now we're back to square one. Sort of. I'd love to hear from all of you. OK...we are relocating to Toronto so we were initially intent on sending our d to Havergal. Then we thought..wait a minute..since she only wants to go to a US university, why not look into boarding (she wasn't fond of the idea at first). Since she was hesistant, we pondered days between Canadian prep and US boarding. We all agreed to add a few across the boarder and chose the following; Emma, MPS, Loomis and Blair. We are sure about the first two but we now want to trim and make it 3 choices from the US. We like Blair, Loomis, Peddie and Taft equally and it's driving us nuts. Our d is the more quiet, mature, hard-worker type who loves writing and arts--not too sporty,though. She will be applying as a 10th grader. Do we need to include more than 3 for higher chances of acceptance and which would you recommend among the 4? We're focusing on a warm, encouraging and somewhat challenging environment. Help anyone?</p>
<p>Are you able to visit the 4 schools in question? If you can visit, I think you and your daughter will get a better sense of which schools are the best fit for her. I think sports are important in all 4 schools. Perhaps they are most important at Taft, but I could be wrong about that. I know that both Blair and Loomis have physical activities (required some terms) for the non-athlete. I suspect Peddie & Taft do too -- I just don't know. </p>
<p>Anyway, my suggestion is to visit. You can combine Blair & Peddie one day (around 1 1/2 hours apart) and Loomis & Taft (I guess one hour apart) on another day. I suspect you will find an academically challenging environment at all four. </p>
<p>Assuming that your daughter is in the mid-range or better of accepted students, has some talent to offer the schools and great recommendations, a combination of MPS, Emma Willard and Blair should be OK. If the 3rd school you select has a significantly lower acceptance rate, like Taft and Peddie, you should consider adding at least one more school.</p>
<p>I am happy to answer any questions you have about Blair. It is warm & encouraging. Good luck in your search! I've visited Toronto, and it looks like a fun city in which to live.</p>
<p>Have you visited any U.S. boarding schools? If so, which ones? If not, how did you select the schools mentioned in your post? Has your daughter taken the SSAT examination yet?</p>
<p>Thanks BurbParent for your insight---I've read all your comments on Blair and it was really helpful in many ways. The impression our d got from these schools was that they were all good --especially the girls schools. We weren't able to visit Peddie or Loomis,though. Have you visited them before and what were your impressions? Also, does Blair have any language abroad programs ? Thanks so much again!</p>
<p>Many boarding schools participate in SYA, School Year Abroad, which is supported by a large number of boarding, and some day, schools. I would not recommend boarding school for a tenth grade student if one year will be spent abroad. She can attend SYA while attending most any public or private school.</p>
<p>All 4 schools have good reputations. Blair is the school I know best, so I have a bias there. What you and your daughter need to do is figure out which would be the best fit for her. Blair has summer travel for language <a href="http://www.blair.edu/Admissions/ad_15_reasons.shtm%5B/url%5D">http://www.blair.edu/Admissions/ad_15_reasons.shtm</a> . If this is important to your daughter, I'll add to your confusion by noting that Choate has an impressive term abroad program and a well-regarded arts program. Did you already visit Blair and Taft? If you are unable to visit any more schools, then I can understand that it is hard to determine with only viewbooks, websites and this forum. I wish I could give you a clear answer on which school would be the best for your daughter. Do a search on this forum to see what others have said about Loomis, Taft, Peddie and Blair.</p>
<p>Thank you again Burb Parent and icy9ff8 for the advice! Now that you've mentioned it, Choate is a school that we would love for her to attend (and d is attracted to) but it is a "reach school". She is within the 75% in SSAT and from what we know, Choate is much higher than that. She wants to play safe...so we have not even considered applying. Overseas language programs are not a must...it was just something we were interested in. We made a quick visit to Emma, MPS and Blair. Madeira was another consideration but a lot of people advised against low boarding percentile...and they do not seem to have enough boarders. There are just so many wonderful schools across the spectrum and we almost just limited our choices to Toronto.</p>
<p>A 75 on the SSAT will get your daughter into a lot of great boarding schools, especially if you are not in need of financial aid. St. George's School in Rhode Island has a great group of college advisors and sits on a spectacular ocean front setting, for example. You are correct in your belief that a boarding school should have a very high percentage of boarders. Unless the school is as large as Exeter or Andover, my experienced opinion is that it should be at least ninety (90%) percent boarders to maintain a cohesive campus culture.</p>
<p>which schools have "at least ninety percent boarders"? I have done three searches with three kids, and never came across a school (other than st paul's which is 100 percent boarding) that was over 90% boarders.</p>
<p>May I suggest Brooks in North Andover MA. Believe 75% on the SSAT is tight but all these schools look at the whole student.</p>
<p>I would not recommend excluding schools that have less than 90% boarders. Excluded would be Exeter, Andover, Deerfield, Choate, Milton, Groton, Loomis, Middlesex, Lawrenceville and Taft of the elites.</p>
<p>Remember that that % boarders can be misleading in that many of the schools provide free tuition for any faculty or staff child that qualifies academically. At schools with 100 faculty or so, you often find 20 or more children of faculty and staff. These students are listed as day students and alter %'s but are really not traditional day students since almost all live on campus with their parents. 90% boarding and above is great (and very rare) but you will find many schools with lower %'s that have very cohesive campus cultures. I do agree though that 60(or lower)-70% boarding would provide unique challenges to a school.</p>
<p>Loomis has a low boarding population (60% maybe?) and many that do board are "local" boarders (within a couple of hours away) that go home on weekends. I know we have some Loomis parents here, maybe they could comment about that. </p>
<p>I do know a few people who attend Emma Willard and love it.</p>
<p>We were in the same position with our d 4 years ago. She was entering 11th grade and we were moving to Toronto. She scored quite well on her SSATs and had her choice of the Toronto schools (which was very lucky!) even still, we would have been better off sending her to a US boarding school. There is a much bigger adjustment going into a Canadian school than you would think. The curriculum doesn't necessarily follow what you would have in a US school. Not that it is better or worse, but slightly "off track." And, when it's time for the college search, the counselors are pretty familiar with the Ivies, but smaller LACs or state schools are, generally unfamiliar territory. Our daughter had a great experience and made life-long friends in Toronto, but in some ways, she would have been better off in a bs environment. Our son is currently boarding at a school in CT and I can see that this might have been a better option for our daughter. Please PM me if you would like more specifics...</p>
<p>As far as the 60% boarding at Loomis, that really isn't a problem when 60% = 400 kids living on campus. Besides the interscholastic sporting events, Loomis provides a wide range of optional weekend activities, including chaperoned trips to NYC, Boston and more local events in Hartford/Springfield. There are lots of dances and other activities on campus that include day students. There were plenty of boarders who lived within 30 minutes who rarely went home on weekends. (When they did, they often brought home other students who lived farther away.)</p>
<p>We live in California and our son only came home for Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring break. He spend some weekends and headmasters' weekend visiting another student whose family lives in NJ.</p>
<p>The issue regarding percentage of boarders always gets a lot of response. As I wrote earlier, my experience leads me to prefer close to 90% boarders at the smaller schools and, as I wrote above, less at the larger schools such as Exeter, Andover,Lawrenceville, etc. Groton, which is a small school, has about 90% boarders. Middlesex, according to several parents with whom I have spoken has day students and a lot of boarders who live within 2 hours or so of the school. Deerfield has about 85% boarders and is quite successful as a mid-size boarding school. Another issue important to families considering boarding school is whether or not there are Saturday classes. The percent of boarders is relative to the size of the studentbody as well as to the composition of the studentbody. Students who live far away tend to stay on campus during weekends.</p>
<p>drnancie: I believe that there are several boarding schools at, near or above the 90% level of boarders. Without researching, consider Groton, St. Andrew's School, St. Paul's School and there are several others which are easily found with a bit of research. Also, Episcopal High School, United World College, Over a dozen military schools, several sports schools, many therapeutic schools (like Montana Academy and many in New England), Woodberry Forest School, totaling approx. 50 all boarding schools in the U.S. If we add in schools with at least 85% to 90% boarders, we can then add several dozen more schools to this list which should exceed 100 U.S. boarding schools which have at least 85% boarders. Please reread my original post which clearly recognizes that it is a sliding scale mostly dependent upon the sixe of the studentbody. Tallulah Falls School in Georgia is also all boarding and very generous with financial aid.</p>
<p>Instead of trying to settle on a bright line rule that establishes the % of boarders, why not just recognize that you value a high % of boarders? Instead of eliminating potentially excellent schools for your child, why not just make a note that you need to look more closely at schools with under 70-75% boarders than you would for schools in the 80-85% range?</p>
<p>EDIT:</p>
<p>Consider this list, ranking boarding schools by the % of boarders:</p>
<p>I would suggest that it makes more sense to give greater scrutiny to residential life issues the further down the list you go than to draw a line that an applicant refuses to cross. Resorting to the latter could result in the needless elimination of a perfectly fine school that happens to do an excellent job with a lower % of boarders. Remember, some of these schools have been successful for decades...and it's not unreasonable to think that some of them have ironed out the problems that might generally exist when the boarding population is low. If one of those schools is the school that would otherwise be the best school for your child, do you want to eliminate it based on a rule that values line-drawing over information-gathering?</p>
<p>I agree. The Culver Academies is another that quickly comes to mind. The list referred to in the above post lists only 71 schools with 85% or above boarding population; and lists 56 schools with a boarding population of at least 90%. Some of the percentages vary substantially from Peterson's which, for example, lists Tallulah Falls at 99% boarding. Hotchkiss is another school above 90% boarders. A great school that is an exception to my guidelines is the Cate School-- a small California school with approx. 83% boarders. Listing only 20 one (100%) hundred percent boarding schools, the list excludes well over a dozen therapeutic schools and some sports schools. (I am providing specifics for drnancie who posted that she was only able to find one boarding school with more than 90% boarders on three separate searches. drnancie is one of my favorite posters as she has shared a lot of insightful info. re: boarding schools).</p>
<p>To the OP (original poster): It is my opinion, and opinions vary greatly on this board, that the greater the distance a student is from home, the better it is to have a high percentage of boarders. Massachusetts has the most boarding schools of any state and many have less than 80% boarders, yet maintain a cohesive campus culture. This is relative to not just the size of the studentbody, but also to the distance from home. Many, probably most, students at the lower percentages of boarders are just a few hours drive from home. My experienced opinion is that the prep boarding school experience is enhanced when the vast majority of students remain on campus during the weekends as they grow together socially as well as mentally.</p>