<p>@Invent: Maybe you could follow up with the kids on the wait list threads and be a good samaritan.</p>
<p>This thread got me to think a little. With all due respect, I started to agree with Invent, but then some of your comments were very inaccurate. I think it is important to note that another expense people are forgetting about is that bs pretty much completely covers living expenses for its faculty. Housing, food, etc. Also, I believe that a private organization, company, etc. will almost always spend their money more efficiently and will have better leadership than a public company. Bs are not filled with as much corruption as public schools. Public schools are filled with corruption that sucks funding out of them. Some have the misconception that since some class sizes are bigger in public schools and there are a lot fewer opportunities in most cases, the problem is automatically a lack of funding. THIS IS NOT TRUE. The problem could be the family the child comes from (how much they value education), corruption, and lack of good leadership. For example, there is a big, poor, failing district about 25 min away from me that somehow manages to spend $25,000 per student! This district happens to be one of the worst in the state I live in. Then there is a very good private day school also about 25 min away from me that has a tuition of about 25K, and sends I think about 30%-40% of their graduates to Ivies. </p>
<p>How can this be? To start off many public schools at least near me have a board of parents that pretty much call the shots on who gets hired, constructing the budget, etc. This gets me so angry because most of the board does not have any background in education. I am sorry, but are you freaking kidding me! How are they supposed to run a school effectively and hire the right people? The board of parents at my old public school were a bunch of fools. They obviously didnt do any research on the superintendents they hire. We have probably had more superintendents in the past decade then all the bs in New England had combined. How is a school suppose to aim for long term goals if the short term goals never get completed because we have had 2-4 superintendents a year. Some of these superintendents could care less about the advancement of the school as long as they get their $200K paycheck. The last superintendent our school had I think resigned in the middle of the year. He did this at two other districts in the past. Why would the board hire him, because they are stupid and are running the school? Btw, this superintendent is such a winner that he plagiarized his entire resignation speech. Also, talking about corruption, he bought a wait for it, 15K desk with school funds. Thats right a 15K desk, with a treadmill attached to it for his office.</p>
<p>@prep… No wonder we spend the most and we are middle of the pack in international math and science competitions.</p>
<p>@krao… I read a saying like “In a kingdom of the blind, a one-eyed man is the king.”</p>
<p>Hmm. Our local public schools spend that much and have 30 kids in a class. BS has 12-15. Public schools send their children home at the end of the day and serve one lousy barely edible lunch. Boarding schools are providing three main meals a day. Public School teachers don’t have to live with their student, Boarding school tuition has to account for the 24-7 lifestyle and must also provide housing. Many also provide daycare for faculty. Now add state of the art buildings and equipment, grounds maintenance and upkeep, and all the “trappings” and ancilary activities and one can easily see why the cost is so high.</p>
<p>Multiple course options, courses well above what is offered at most public schools, lots of extracurriculars, many diverse sports programs (Crew requires shells and a boathouse for instance, Hockey requires a dedicated rink, etc…) and there you go.</p>
<p>Put a different way - it costs 50,000 + to go to MIT or better yet - Bennington in Vermont. You don’t live with the faculty and you have to buy meal plans, and pay for dorms, etc. and you’ll be maxing out.</p>
<p>Cost is relative. A local private day school (which can’t hold a candle to BS) charges $24,000 with little FA available.</p>
<p>I think what our kids are getting is a bargain.</p>
<p>If you think 50K/year for high school is a bargain, I have a bridge to sell you.</p>
<p>That my friend, is what FA is for.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I would necessarily say that bs is a bargain (although tuition is substantially subsidized), but I will say that it is a very, very good investment. 50K is a lot of money, but it is money well spent.</p>
<p>Stock market tells you “what’s a good investment for one is a bad one for another, as one is buying the same stock that some one else is selling.”</p>
<p>“Thinking aloud is a habit which is responsible for most of mankind’s misery.”
— Benjamin Franklin</p>
<p>50k is a heck of a lot of money, but the elite schools with the mega-endowments spend well in excess of 50k/per student-- more like 70-80k/per student, which the earnings on the endowments permit.</p>
<p>Looking at tuition cost v. actual operational cost, 50k is a relative bargain, if not a painful bargain when u write that check… :-(</p>
<p>I’d make the case that it’s better to use today’s dollars to make the investment if you have the right kid who can really soar in BS. What you gain in education (and study habits) as a mid-adolescent you cary forward with you, and what you miss out on is much harder to fill in later. Also a strong BS career probably significantly improves your chances for both needed-based and merit FA, plus if you’re an athlete, can showcase you in unusual sports (crew, squash, tennis, etc.) that elite colleges support. For the right kid, it’s an investment risk well worth taking.</p>
<p>The right kid will also soar at a good public high school?</p>
<p>@Invent,</p>
<p>Yes, the right kid will probably also soar at a good public high school, but the hope is that among a group of similarly talented eagles, the right kid might soar even higher…</p>
<p>As PelicanDad expressed, a lot of us parents have assessed that the investment risk is worth taking because the talent might be more effectively maximised if developed early.</p>
<p>I’ve been in both public schools and a boarding school. I have children who have been in a combination. Of all the options, boarding school has been the best decision for the second (staying home was best for the first). In general, in comparing the school experience with the boarding school experience - the educational and “global citizen” opportunities are better at boarding school. </p>
<p>I think the others have it right - for better or worse the students at BS had to meet a rigorous entrance requirement and although not all are “eagles” most are flying at a significantly higher level than what we found at elite private schools at home where “better than public schools” was the major litmus test for most parents.</p>
<p>Yes, it is true (as I stated before) that many of the boarding schools greatly subsidize tuition. That being said, I am pretty sure that the boarding schools calculate the cost per student by taking the total operating budget and dividing it by the number of students. Therefore, this cost per student includes financial aid which makes up a significant portion of the operating budget at many top bs. Therefore, the cost per student for a full pay student is skewed. Also, the total cost per student at bs probably includes faculty benefits such as healthcare, pensions, etc. At public schools, I am sure that pensions, healthcare, etc. come from a separate budget from the state, and are therefore not included in the cost per public school student.</p>
<p>Sorry to be getting into the conversation so late.</p>
<p>For many students, not all maybe 30%, bs is the only option!</p>
<p>As a parent and an educator, all the common points are valid; great academics, great facilities, excellent faculty,etc. But what was most compelling for our family was the chance to be with other students like herself, smart, motivated, ready and willing to learn and most important, SAFE!</p>
<p>No where in the world is perfectly safe, true, but coming from a major urban jungle, Chicago, where teens get killed and jailed on a weekly/monthly time frame, bs was a great option for us. We tried the top public school and even homeschooled for 3 years. </p>
<p>BS was just a perfect fit.</p>
<p>Just my 3 cents.</p>
<p>@Alexz825Mom,</p>
<p>The horrific events on a secluded island in Norway has made me rethink where “safe” is…</p>
<p>@GMT–yes I was sicken by the events in Norway, but coming from a big city, this events are more common place, weekly. The city events dont get the media coverage because they happen all the time.</p>