so that the transition to college is smooth.
Boading schools tend to favor the Harkness or conference method, with students and teacher grouped around a large oval table. Learning is based on discussion and questioning rather than lecture and the absorption of facts. Students are expected to read widely and ahead of the discussions. Testing is infrequent. The writing of papers is central. Some few schools, including most famously Exeter, employ the conference method for every subject, including mathematics and the lab-based sciences. Others pick and choose, limiting the conference method to the humanities and languages.
For new students coming from public schools, boarding school academics can come as a shock. Those coming from private day schools will often feel comfortable with the conference teaching style, but the level of intensity tends to be higher. Those from junior boarding schools usually have a seamless transition as they are already accustomed to these conditions. New students often bloom when presented with the conference method and participate well in class. Where they tend to falter is in note taking and especially in reading. The result is often an abrupt grade drop in the first term, a startling and dismaying circumstance for new students, and one that is often a first in their lives. New students entering after the first year suffer most in this circumstance, as many schools do not give older new students the tutorial and oversight support that the youngest grade receives.
In the past, boarding school grading was rigorous; achieving a B average was often a hard fought campaign. Nowadays, as is the case with their college brethren, these schools sometimes struggle with bouts of grade inflation as average scores trend upward. This is sometimes explained as a reaction to correlative grade inflation at private day and public schools. Purgative remedies at some schools sometimes result in grade deflation, with protests from students and parents.
Overall, straight A averages are a decided rarity at boarding school. Grade point averages (GPAs) are kept for each student at some schools while others dispense with this. Many schools maintain Cum Laude societies, recognizing students whose academics place them in the top 20% of their class.
Most curricula are tightly prescribed; students proceed from one term to the next and one year to the next with many required courses and few options. New students test in various subjects to place them in levels of courses – regular, honors, or advanced. The wide array of electives, often a delight to read through in the school catalogues, is usually reserved for students in their eleventh and twelfth grade years.
In class, new students tend to fall into one of two camps. Some keep quiet, too shy or intimidated to speak. For many, sitting in a classroom configuration making eye contact with the other students is a new and strange experience. Others who may be more familiar with the conference method may feel compelled to show off their intellect by discoursing at length, without regard to the opinions of others. Both extremes need to learn to engage other students, listen to alternative viewpoints, and develop nuanced responses from those interchanges.
Schools have a variety of strategies regarding course selection and loads. Eleventh grade is typically the most challenging year, with added courses and/or more rigor. New students entering a school past the lowest grade need to understand the details of that school’s course structure well ahead of arrival.
Boarding school teachers and students encounter one another in many more circumstances than at non boarding schools. Student/teacher conversations happen in after class discussions, in the library, at meals and, in the common rooms in the dorms. Teachers often invite their students to coffees or teas and see them during sports practice or at other campus events.
The schools also maintain staffs of advisors. Academic advisors usually are faculty members and are often attached to dorms as assistant masters. Many schools employ time management and/or organizational advisors to help new students. A battery of certified psychologists, physicians, nutritionists, physical therapists, and sports trainers are common on boarding campuses. Many schools also allow students to secure outside tutors who are given permission to meet with students on campus. Advanced athletes in some sports specialties may receive permission to train with outside coaches off campus.
Students with ADD/ADHD and learning differences will find a widely varying range of support from school to school. All must comply with the requirements of the Americans with Disbilities Act (ADA), but some go much further, with entire school departments dedicated to such support. Such schools usually charge extra fees for students who wish to use these facilities. Some schools are completely dedicated to students with special needs.
ATHLETICS
Sports play a traditional and central role in boarding school life. Many schools have three sports requirements (fall-winter-spring) for all students. Sports help schools promote student health and fitness, divert adolescent energy away from misbehavior, and teach an array of “character building” values: sportsmanship, cooperation, team dynamics, leadership, determination, and not incidentally, resilience after failure.
The focus on sports comes as a culture shock to many new students, including public and day students whose schools have dropped physical education requirements and particularly those from other countries, where athletics are often not part of a school curriculum and not regarded as a useful student activity at all. Some schools have compromised by offering non sports activities such as yoga, dance, and rock climbing to substitute for competitive sports.
For many student athletes, a boarding school is a huge toy box of fantastic, well funded sports programs that offer an array of helmet sports – football, lacrosse, baseball, hockey – as well as track and field, crew, field hockey, equestrian, wrestling, fencing, golf, skiing and many more programs. With public high school sports increasingly reserved for those with experience and exceptional skill, boarding schools often offer students a chance to try new sports, working their way up from squads of absolute beginners known as “thirds” to junior varsity and varsity levels.
Small schools offer more chances for students to play at the varsity level. Large schools often have a wider range of sports offerings. Schools that do not field teams in a sport usually have a club for that sport or are willing to support one on student request. As larger schools tend to play sports at a higher level than the smaller schools, truly gifted athletes tend to enroll in the larger schools.
Rigorous sports activity promotes school spirit, intense camaraderie among teammates, and the potential for college athletic scholarships. Many advanced high school athletes take postgraduate (PG) years at boarding schools to continue their physical training, improve their skills, add playing time, and gain the attention of college sports scouts. This sometimes presents disappointment for student athletes who after working their way up for years towards a starting position on a team find themselves displaced by an incoming star athlete.
Boarding school sports have downsides. Injury can complicate life on a campus that requires a lot of walking and carrying. Team travel to and from rival schools can take up a lot of time. Students who repeat years, either upon entry to the school or as PGs, sometimes run afoul of college sports eligibility rules. Students in such circumstances need to work closely with school athletic departments to comply with NCAA rules.
Schools sometimes “find” their star athletes on campus. Many a lanky cross country runner (fall sport) has been invited to join a school’s crew squad (spring sport), and stick handling hockey players (winter) end up playing lacrosse in the spring. Truly exceptional prep athletes competing at the Olympic and international circuit level are given leeway by schools to travel to compete or train. Some will take a year’s absence to do this, returning to school afterwards.
ARTS
The arts, especially the performing arts, play a central role in boarding
