Storage space in most dorm rooms is nearly nonexistent, except for under one’s bed. Sunlight is problematic. South facing rooms sometimes get too much, north facing rooms too little. Despite the incredible array of facilities and programs at boarding schools, many, perhaps most, prep dorm rooms have no air conditioning, so dorms at schools in even the most northern of climes tend to be stiflingly hot at the start of fall term and the end of spring term.
Due to safety and sanitation concerns, schools have numerous rules about what can be kept, hung, or used in the dorms. Anything involving heat and fire – toaster ovens, coffee makers, candles, irons, and the like are prohibited. Flammable wall hangings, pets, and firearms all are no-nos. Small appliances such as refrigerators and televisions usually do not make the cut. One device that is often welcome is a vacuum cleaner (and everyone will want to borrow it!).
Boarding school dorms have specific check in/check out times. A Duty Master, usually a faculty member, is present each evening to monitor check in times. Students are expected to check in by a prescribed hour and remain in their dorms until six or seven the next morning. Students seeking to leave their dorms after check in need permission from the Duty Master. Weekend evenings usually have more relaxed rules. Permissions are also required for off campus trips and weekend overnight trips. The upper grades usually have more privileges.
‘THE FOUR As”
Most schools revolve around four basic core concerns – academics, athletics, arts, and activities – the Four A’s. Most of the schools emphasize and promote student participation in all four as aspects of a multidimensional education. This presents students with the challenge of a continual balancing act requiring the student to marshal limited reserves of time and energy to fulfill sometimes conflicting demands.
ACADEMICS
American boarding schools offer a range of academic styles and philosophies. In the main, coursework tends toward small classes, extended class discussion, and extensive individual attention from instructors. The schools cleave to the traditional liberal arts, with courses in literature, history, science, mathematics, and languages. As preparation for college, this tradition has become increasingly pertinent to a student’s education as even elite colleges turn towards pre-professional programs or wide-open requirement-free curricula. In several surveys at elite universities, large majorities of boarding school alums have expressed disappointment with their college education, in comparison with what they received “at school.”
The majority of the schools also feature heightened academic demands – more reading, more homework, and more expectations from essays and projects. Class participation is enhanced, routine reliance on objective testing diminished. In the most demanding of the boarding schools, these standards are extremely rigorous.
Traditionally, many boarding schools brought in new students at the eighth grade level, but now, with the exception of Groton and a few others, most school start at ninth grade. Many schools ease first year students into academics with instruction in time management, essay construction, and study techniques, pass/fail grading in the first term, and scheduled study halls and early lights out in the dorms, all overseen by residential faculty and academic advisors. After the first year, these strictures are gradually loosened as the students mature; less supervision and more work is the standard. Eventually, students near graduation will be given many more freedoms and a heavy work load 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