I do think there are instances where going to boarding school might not be the right choice - if you are chasing sizable merit aid from state schools where they have hard and fast GPA targets, you might be better staying home if the financial part is paramount to you.
Boarding schools can meet the needs of all and parents do need to keep that in mind.
But there are other BS students who do perform well and get big $$ merit scholarships like the Jefferson Scholars at UVa, as an example. But those are super competitive.
@one1ofeach Can you give an example or two of the colleges where these students aren’t qualifying for merit aid?
"They are also often “big donors” and their kids might be the full pay legacy based kids who slid in under that bucket ( the school needs these kids to pay the bills). "
From info I was privy to at the school with which I am the most familiar, legacy students actually had somewhat better stats on average than the student body as a whole. For a lot of reasons, it didn’t surprise me.