Do boarding school headmasters and other faculty have “favorite” boarding schools when it comes to their own kids?
Many get tuition at the schools where they teach if their kids are accepted. And because most don’t get paid a lot, the other options can be prohibitively expensive.
^^^ this is what I was going to say. They go wherever their parent is because it’s free.
Generally, the faculty/admin have their kids attend the same school – the free tuition is a major benefit of BS employment. I know of a couple of faculty who have sent their kids to other schools for specific reasons… i.e., they wanted single-sex school for their kid, or a school with specific support programs for LDs, etc.
Interesting on a related note, faculty kids of BS teachers at Choate have to apply to at least one other BS. I believe the idea is to at least look outside your back yard, so that you’ll have another reference for comparison, and in the end not feel trapped by the opportunity you were given (with a free ride).
I know of at least one prominent school where faculty kids are not guaranteed a spot…despite being qualified from a gpa and test score standpoint.
FYI- Headmasters from top BS make around $500K/yr.
500k is not so much that you wouldn’t miss 60K in after tax dollars. If they can get them in that the school they work at, they will.
I remember someone posting that their kid’s BS was attended by headmasters’ kids from other boarding schools… but I can’t remember the school. Was it St. Andrews?
Yes, I wonder if they give each other a courtesy break, and there is “free” reciprocity, or if they actually pay if their students goes to another BS.
While true, the OP did include faculty in the body of the post, and they make nowhere near that.
Yes, headmasters are paid well. For faculty and staff, 99% make well below $100K and qualify for sizable tuition discounts (which they’d likely qualify for any way through FA if their spouse isn’t making a lot or if they don’t have sizable assets). At my kids’ school, it was very competitive for faculty kids to get in. I’d say less than a 1/3 to 1/4 got in any given year. Many attend public school. Others attend less selective boarding/day schools. Both the headmaster’s children attended my kids’ school but did apply and get in elsewhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if the school, as part of the employment package, pays for a headmaster’s children to attend elsewhere if desired. I think it must be hard to attend a school where your parent is the headmaster.
So children may not want to attend because their parent is head of school OR both they and their parents see the value in boarding so they may send them to a place where they can board. And I would love to know which heads of school are making that!! When the head of school position at one top schools several years ago, the salary was listed as $250,000.
You can look at each school’s IRS Form 990 and you will find a list of the highest paid employees. Also, remember that most get housing (and meals if they eat in the dining hall).
Do they subsidize tuition cost even faculty kids go somewhere else other than the school they teach at? Many colleges do. My impression is that MOST faculty kids will be admitted if they choose to attend the school where their parents teach although they sometimes choose to send their kids somewhere else. But apparently at least it’s not true in every school, as @doschicos shared. How many faculty kids are applying in any one yearanyeay? Doesn’t the school have a few spots for them? I thought that was an attractive benefit for BS teachers to teach, coach and live in dorms…
In the school I’m familiar with, they can easily have 15-20 applicants from faculty/staff families in some years. From my observations, they seem to take 4-5 per year. Which means about 20 students at the school total. Maybe a little more. Just trying to calculate off the top of my head. But I have had discussions with faculty members who were disappointed when their child didn’t get in.
When I was at Kent there were about six faculty kids in my class. Years later, the Headmaster’s kids went to Hotchkiss. I know of one instance at Taft where only one of two siblings were offered admission.