‘Not For Oneself’: East Coast Boarding Schools Take Care of Their Own

Schools such as Andover and Exeter are private boarding schools in New England that were founded centuries ago, known for their rigorous curriculum and academically excellent students, paving a smooth road for Ivy League acceptances.

The college application process is nothing short of miserable for almost everyone involved. It’s a grueling period of time full of essay writing, test taking, and transcript sending. Some people choose to go through a similar process much earlier, and are then able to avoid a small bit of the stress that comes with college applications. This respite from college admissions pressures comes through the experience of applying to and attending an elite East Coast boarding school.

Schools such as Andover and Exeter are well established boarding schools that were established almost as long ago as America itself. They boast a list of notable alumni, including both Bush presidents attending Andover, and Mark Zuckerberg graduating from Exeter. These institutions cater to students seeking a very rigorous education, along with the high pressure environments they provide.

These schools are highly competitive. Andover has an acceptance rate of 13%, and Exeter has an acceptance rate of just 10%. These acceptance rates are lower than many extremely prestigious colleges and universities. Additionally, the application process for these schools is very rigorous, similar to that of college admissions, according to current junior at Phillips Academy at Andover, Christine Lee. “There’s a bunch of essay questions you have to answer, and you have to get a teacher recommendation, submit your school transcripts, write the awards you got. Very similar to a college application, I feel like,” Lee said. This is a pursuit that students take on when they are in 8th grade, so anywhere from 12 to 14 years

All of these schools do have high college admission success rates. Every year, a disproportionate amount of students compared to non-East-Coast boarding schools are accepted into elite universities. From 2018-2020, Andover sent 77 students to Harvard, Princeton, and MIT alone, according to Polaris List. This is 8% of their graduating class, attending just these three elite schools. There are many factors leading to these schools’ high college acceptance rates. Boarding schools like Andover and Exeter are highly selective with the students they admit, students who would more than likely be capable of gaining admittance to an Ivy League, even without attending one of these schools. Andover and Exeter also have large endowments, with many resources available to their students that are not available to those at other schools. Beyond the obvious advantages, these schools are well regarded institutions, and their names carry a lot of weight and importance with top colleges.

Advanced courses rarely seen outside of university lecture halls are readily available to boarding school students, such as the History and Literature of the Haitian Revolution offered at Andover, a school that offers over 300 courses taught by a large and diverse faculty, allowing students to properly pursue all of their academic interests. Exeter has a 5:1 student to faculty ratio, which allows for small classes, a lot of one-on-one time, and support from the school’s staff. Additionally, Exeter employs the Harkness method of teaching, which favors a discussion-based, democratic learning approach over lectures and worksheets.

Despite all the educational advantages, these can be hard places to find proper support systems and guidance. Rose Chen, a current senior at Phillips Exeter Academy, says, “I mean, there were a lot of things that happened my freshman year at Exeter. I was 13, I was 2000 miles away from home, and in retrospect, I certainly think that being closer to home would’ve meant that someone would’ve seen the signs sooner, and I would’ve had the support of my family…” Living away from home during an already tumultuous time in one’s life can lead to a lack of the support system that one’s family typically provides. This separation from a person’s family can have a negative effect on a student’s mental health.

Being so far from home at such a young age can be a very difficult adjustment for many students, and not all of them are up to the challenge. These are very academically rigorous institutions, and their demands can come with a lot of pressure. “There is a pressure to like…be academically strong and maintain your social life because that’s what you see everyone else doing on campus,” Lee said.

So are these schools worth the stress and pressure for an elite education and a better chance at a prestigious college? That depends on the kid. Some will not be able to handle the pressure, but for those who can, and are even looking for it, boarding schools may be the perfect choice. “I grew up in a really small town in western Nebraska… and by the time that I reached 8th grade I had maxed out the curriculum at the local high school, and I had already been taking classes at Stanford Online High for like 3 years at that point…I wanted to just be at an institution where I was surrounded by peers my own age because that was so important to me to kinda develop socially, but also be able to do everything else I was doing and boarding school seemed like the right solution. It was going to be an academic challenge, certainly, and I desperately needed that at the time,” Chen said.

Lee echoes these sentiments, “It’s given me, like, the rigor that I was looking for. Because, like, throughout elementary and middle school I was always looking for, like, challenging courses and, like, having the ability to move to higher level classes, and so I had to go to classes outside of school to like fulfill those like academic interests, but when attending boarding school, I think, like, because of how hard those classes are, it definitely pushes you and gives you the challenges you need to grow and learn.”

At the end of the day, these schools are places that in many ways benefit those who attend them. Their academic offerings, the opportunities they provide, and the prestige they maintain draw many to their doors year after year. They are places where a bond over the difficulty over hard classes can be formed. Chen remarks, “Exeter was somewhere where, and this is going to sound very cliche, but it was somewhere I felt very at home at.”