Apologies for taking this thread in a direction that I don’t think the OP was necessarily envisioning…
@ChoatieMom eloquently summarized my POV on BS in general with this statement: “Quality of education…is least important because I believe it is least differentiating among the schools discussed here. Our son could have gotten a stellar education at any of them. We should have moved on to way more important things.”
I’m also very sympatico with @buuzn03 on the notion that “the difference in academics amongst the schools is nominal, yet the differences in academics between our local schools and just about any BS is unbelievably vast”.
The intersection of these sentiments is why I get so het up by the “go big or stay home”/“HADES or bust” folks. And why I push back on anyone claiming to target “big name schools” for any reason (outside of legacy/family tradition/etc.) other than a perceived (and illusory, IMO) boost in selective college admissions.
Yes, I do think that there may be a very small percentage (0.5%?) of kids whose needs may truly be best served by attending one of the most rigorous/challenging boarding schools in the country. But IMO, the parents of those kids are going to know that and not turn to some anonymous internet forum to help steer their child’s education decisions.