Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
It usually does. Granted not always, but almost always. The more you pay for things, the better they are. That goes for almost anything in life. Restaurants, hotels, cars, anything. You get what you pay for. My nephew goes to a boarding school. My brother and his wife, make silly money. Tuition is a drop in the bucket. The school is insane. The facility, the academics, the sports, the food, even the moms who drop the kids off are extra hot. The whole experience is great. Unfortunately with 3 kids, colleges, probably grad school too, prep school would be a tough financial pill to swallow.

Most prep schools are inflated hype for rich people. Often it is a place for kids who, for various and valid reasons, just aren't thriving in their public school or in their personal development. Makes sense. Parents rich enough to try something else can afford to send them away. Oddly it is students who already come from very rich towns with great public schools who dominate prep schools. I mean boarding schools, not local day or Catholic schools. Though those places also are full of kids from rich towns.

Top prep schools are excellent and provide an amazing experience not public HS can touch. But most aren't any better than a decent public HS. I'd say 90% of preps offer nothing better than a Bronxville, Scarsdale, Pleasantville etc can offer in terms of academics.

But this is about lax. Prep schools have completely ramped up their devotion to sports, though, and recruiting mixed with facilities means they are just like college sports these days. Preps have holdbacks, college connections, and are surging in lacrosse, especially in the Northeast.

I'm not one to make sweeping generalizations so I'll just share my experience for what it's worth. My son was an excellent player in a very good Fairfield county school system that wasn't thriving for a number of valid reasons. I was someone that never would have considered boarding school but for him specifically it not only made a ton of sense but it made all the difference in the world. I don't know if the teachers were any better than what he had in public school, but his grades got much better. Add to that the Founders lax experience is at least a level above FCIAC. Most importantly, he not only loved it but he developed a maturity and self-reliance that made transitioning to college a non-event. Every kid and situation will be different, but from my perspective going away to boarding school was the best thing that could have happened to him.