Choosing a School

New York Times columnist Frank Bruni has written a very useful book about college admissions entitled Where You Go Is Not Who You Will Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania. As you can see from the title, Bruni's audience is parents and possibly students who are considering and applying to college. Yet, as I read the book, I began to see many similarities between private K-12 school admissions and college admissions. I suggest that you read this book, which will clarify your thinking as you go through the process of selecting a private school for your child. Bruni's insights will also prepare you for the months and years ahead when you and your child will be dealing with the mysteries of college admissions. In the meantime, let's look at some of the things about college admissions that Frank Bruni points out, which are remarkably similar to what we will find in private school admissions.

Treatment of legacies

Affirmative Action for the Rich: Legacy Preferences in College Admissions by Richard D. Kahlenberg and The Price of Admission by Daniel Golden are two additional books about legacy admissions. These authors go into great detail and cite many sources to support their arguments.

What is a legacy? A legacy is an applicant to a school who has a relative or relatives who attended the same school. You will find legacies in both private K-12 schools as well as at the college level. Kahlenberg and Golden

First of all, let's define competitive. At its most basic level, a competitive boarding school is one that admits fewer applicants than it receives applications from. For example, a school has a fixed admissions deadline of January 31 each year. Last year it received 250 applications for 100 places. That means that 150 applicants were not accepted by the school. Perhaps some of them were put on the waiting list but we will look at that later.

So, essentially a competitive boarding school receives more applicants than it has places which it can offer to those applicants. Within the scope of competitive schools are several subsets. There is nothing official here, of course, as no organization will officially state that such and such a school is a highly competitive school or a less competitive school and so on. Having said that, you do not have to know a lot about private schools to look at the data which our site Boarding School Review offers after doing a little sorting of acceptance rates.

The other filter which we have to apply is for admissions to special schools. These schools which specialize in teaching students with learning disabilities, for example, have acceptance rates that are generally subject to other variables. In most cases, we will classify these as non-competitive.

So, where are we going to set the bar? Anything below a 25% acceptance rate is very competitive. 26-50% is competitive. 51-75% is less competitive. Individual educational consultants will have

Now and then, the question that occurs to me, as it should to you, is precisely why I think a particular school is one of the best. I have to conclude that the best schools have all of the following characteristics. What's more, they have them in abundance. Now, before you start thinking that I am only talking about older established schools, that ain't necessarily so. I am aware of a couple of newer schools that fit neatly into the category of best schools simply because they have all of the characteristics explained below. So let's look at what I think are the traits of the best schools.

Great leadership

The best schools have strong, dynamic, dedicated leaders. They are led by women and men who envision their goals. They also have the experience to execute their plans to achieve that vision. The head of the best school is a superb fund-raiser. She is a capable administrator. She leads by example. She expects the best from everybody in her school community.

This video from Loomis Chafee illustrates the school's global perspective.

The solid support of the trustees

I know of several schools which could have been great. But they never made it because their fractious board of trustees kept getting in the way of progress. Change is never easy. But it seems that boards often have a rather difficult time with change. That

As you work through choosing the right boarding school for your child, you will find it easy to get side-tracked. Nothing wrong with getting side-tracked. Just make sure that you get yourself back on track. There are three to five schools for you to visit. Lots of observations, evaluations, assessments, and questions. Make sure that you have checked all the boxes.

1. Location

The location of the boarding schools on your list is essential simply because travel these days is never easy. Review the logistics involved carefully. Ideally, you don't want to be more than a few hours from the school. That may seem unrealistic, but practically speaking, it is not. For example, there are dozens of schools within an hour of Boston's Logan Airport. From there, you can get to many major metropolitan areas in two hours. Incidentally, those New England boarding schools are old hands at transferring students from campus to the airport. Those are precision operations honed over many years so that just about every travel eventuality is thought of. Naturally, cell phones make communications with you waiting anxiously on the other end much more accessible than when my daughters went to boarding school. So draw a circle 60-120 miles out from any major airport. If boarding schools fall within the circle, you should be all set.

2. Academics

Once you have more or less decided where you are looking for schools, then you can begin to get granular with that very important item on

Finding the right boarding school for your child is one of the most critical and expensive decisions you will ever make. You might try to research thoroughly on your own, only to find that most websites look alike, and very few give information on the profile of typically accepted students. Families who want guidance often turn to “independent educational consultants” or IECs.

IECs are professionals who the family pays to advise them on the boarding school search and admissions process. Many offer full-service comprehensive packages that span over a year, and others have shorter packages or an hourly rate. A typical consultation starts with a focus on the student’s background and interest in boarding school. This includes a review of his transcript, testing, activities, interests, and academic successes and challenges of the past. An IEC talks with the student and parents about goals for the future and what they hope to get out of the boarding school experience. Consultants might give examples of nurturing schools, offer learning support, or provide extra help to students when they need it, whether they ask for it or not! IECs discuss the pros and cons of the more rigorous schools or might help a family decide whether to repeat a year. Families might hear about how the schools are different, why a single-sex school might be beneficial, or why a rural, primarily boarding community will feel different than a suburban school with a mix of day students. IECs