I think the boy girl friendship culture also varies by grade within school. Also noticed that friendships started off strong freshman year and had kind of imploded by senior year because enough relationships had gotten messy.
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Hotchkiss’ music practice rooms have windows at the top and bottom of the doors.
For the record, much, if not most, of the issues raised in this thread are common to ALL high schools, not just boarding schools.
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There’s a little “publications hall” in one of the buildings here, which is one of the only places to which students have free, unsupervised access throughout most of the day. I now understand why all of the doors there are fully made of see-through glass…
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I recall that there are insurance standards that have to do with no 2 people being in a room that can’t be viewed/supervsed by a third - as protection againstsexual assualt/impropriety. And an older child doing with a younger one counts as 2. We had to change out doors in a church for this reason!
I wonder if they changed the doors on the ceramics building at Choate… 
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To get to the sports fields at DS’s school, you need to walk down a path through the woods. I’m constantly thinking, that in my day, those woods would be prime hooking up territory.
DS is doing a Wildlife Biology independent study and sought permission to set up trail cams in the woods around campus. My first thought was “I’m pretty sure he’s going to find out more about the mating habits of his classmates than any of the small woodland creatures in the area”. The deal he had to make with the school was that any footage that showed a human had to be immediately deleted.
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It says he was a 22 year old Junior!!! Did he repeat 5 years? 
Re-read the article; Taylor was 22. Conor was 18.
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Ah- skimmed it too quickly
Wow, you guys are not kidding about the age ranges in BS.
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Taylor Swift was just visiting her younger boyfriend.
Someone thought it would be a good idea to put a Harkness table in the woods at Kiddo1’s school. Based on what students have renamed said table, I would strongly discourage anyone from putting a camera there! 
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An interactive discourse (not active intercourse) is the purpose of the harkness table. 
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Here is a positive thing…. alert the media!
We did not receive some information prior to the start of school…I guess they just assumed we would know that ….
- Kids get a lap top to keep at our school
- Kids get a type of IPad for geometry
- Books were provided on the Harkness Table the first day of term - no running to a bookstore or ordering online for our kid.
- Sports uniforms and one team’s practice uniforms washed at school
- How many kids work in the gym out before class
- Many of the student organization give out great swag
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Loomis would never do that on such a wide scale but we do have a pretty decent FA library—free fridge, fans, and books.
What I wish I knew: Not every school will make an effort to address roommate incompatibility. More often than not, roommate change requests are declined. Admin folks at most schools expect your child to tough it out and work it out, which may or may not happen, because it’s all about chemistry and often has to do with individual values, habits and upbringing.
Bottom line - Your family should beware of these issues before sending your kid to BS - a roommate can make or break your BS experience.
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A bit surprised at the weak communication with boarding school parents about logistics like Covid boosters, vacation scheduling, and Amtrak. I wish I had made more friends with day student parents because it would be very helpful. But really thrilled daughter is happy and thriving at boarding school.
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My husband is 52 and just now is snickering over some post from his eleven person boarding school friends text thread. These are his eleven “best friends” vs the 27 person text thread or the very active all class message boards. He had three BS friends fly in for his 50th birthday party. One of these friends makes my husband’s suits at his haberdashery. One reads us the news each morning. One is distant because after a successful career in pro soccer lives in rural Africa for his soccer charity. And one is a spy. When I was very sick a few years ago his bs friends sent him a $3500 doordash gift account within three days.
These friends are gonna to be solid, for life.
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Isn’t it amazing? My husband was a day student at a boarding school and it was interesting to hear that they really had NO friends that were boarders and just kept to themselves as day students, but even that created such a strong bond. We are in our mid-40s and my husband’s very best friends are from his prep school. There were four guys and two girls in their close group and they are all still in contact, were all in each other’s weddings, are godparents to children, get together for vacations with each other’s families, etc. I barely keep in touch with my high school friends and he is texting, calling, chatting with them all the time. I feel like they are my very good friends as well since I have known them for over 20 years (and met them before I met my husband!).
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Absolutely. Funny enough he has good friends from his Ivy League school but while they started out interesting with lots of obscure PhDs etc everyone of them is now an investment baker or consultant. Every one.