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Life at boarding school prepares students |
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Thursday, 05 April 2007 |
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series on the boarding school experiences of Appalachian students.
by JULIA HARR
News Reporter
If boarding school students are anything, they’re prepared.
Many students who attended boarding school who now go to Appalachian State University agreed that going to boarding school was one of the best experiences of their lives.
“I really liked it. I mean, it was a really tough experience. It was a prep school. It was a lot of work, and I was always over worked with not enough sleep,” Sara K. Zachary, a sophomore psychology major, said. “Overall, it was great. If I had to do it over again, I would still go to boarding school over public school.”
Belle Farish, a sophomore building sciences major, agreed.
“It was a college preparatory school, and I feel like it did what it was supposed to,” she said.
The excellent preparation for college is a common theme for boarding school students.
“When I compare my work habits, I put in a lot less work and make
better grades,” Ryan J. Ostrow, a senior management and economics
major, said. “It was a pain while I was there, but it gets you ready
[for college].”
Boarding school alumni have pulled various lessons from their experience and applied it to their classes here.
Farish, a St. Mary’s School graduate, boasts how the Raleigh-based boarding school prepared her to write.
“I have never had one professor complain about my papers. I can do Chicago, MLA and APA style very well,” she said.
Aaron M. Barnette, a senior health promotion major who graduated from
public school before attending a boarding school, said he felt
unprepared for college before attending boarding school.
“I had to get used to a heavier work load [at boarding school]. I never
did homework in public school. I don’t remember ever having to write a
paper. The first semester [in boarding school] I wrote six or seven
papers,” he said.
Zachary said by having small classes at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School in Georgia, it forced her to pay attention.
When the time came for students to apply for colleges, boarding schools
were very helpful in finding colleges that the students would mesh well
in.
“The first week of school was dedicated to filling out applications, or
helping you with colleges you wanted to go to,” Farish said.
Extracurricular activities are not only encouraged but required at many boarding schools.
Barnette, a college student athlete, credits his school, Mercersburg
Academy located in Pennsylvania, with finding his scholarship to
Appalachian.
“I was a wrestler, and I got recruited,” he said. “[Mercersburg] did all the work for me.”
At Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, Zachary said she was an active participant in the dance department.
She participated in 31 productions while attending the school and used
that experience when trying out for Appalachian Dance Ensemble.
“That’s what I miss most about [boarding school] – the performing,” she said.
At one point, Zachary took a trip to New York through the school to study dance.
Ostrow played lacrosse while in school and also participated in the ultimate Frisbee club.
Zachary and Farish were both prefects in their dorm buildings. A prefect is similar to an RA.
These students who went to boarding school said they were prepared for
dorm life at Appalachian, but it was different in boarding school.
“It was about 100 times better than living here. The rooms were twice
as big and twice as nice,” Barnette said. “Living in the dorms here you
have to work hard to meet people. They spoil you – I went from that to
Gardner [Residence Hall].”
Farish recalls more restrictions in her boarding school residence.
“It was an all-girls school, so we were on stronger lock down,” she
said. “We were under 18 and the school is responsible for minors.”
Living in the dorms was Ostrow’s favorite experiences because he grew
close with his hall mates and they participated in a lot of practical
jokes.
“We used to put easy cheese on people while they were sleeping and then punch them with inflatable boxing gloves,” he said.
Boarding school dorm life was also a highly entertaining experience for Zachary.
“School was horrible, but in the dorm we did so many crazy things,” she
said. “We once had an indoor snowball fight. We also used to tie up the
freshmen’s underwear.”
One thing they all agreed on about dorm life was being totally submerged in diversity.
“That level of diversity is rare. Even in big cities there is
separation [between different groups]. I am very thankful for the
experience,” Barnette said.
Ostrow believes boarding school taught him tolerance.
“I would say that I’m more accepting of a wider variety of people, and less quick to judge,” he said.
“There was a fair amount of diversity there. The prince of Nigeria
lived across the hall from me. There was a lot more diversity there
than is here.”
Zachary agreed that her boarding school peers were more diverse than her peers at Appalachian.
“I don’t really thing it matters what you look like, it’s your
personality – I had friends from all kinds of nationalities,” she said.
“There were a lot of people from Korea and Asia, and we don’t really
have that here.”
The biggest difference boarding school students have noticed is the lack of a structured environment.
Most boarding school students know where they will be at any given
point in the day and life at Appalachian is the first time they
experienced “free time.”
One student could understand why someone might wish to go to boarding school.
“I attended two public high schools,” Emily A. Merritt, a freshman health care management major, said.
“My first school was so bad that I changed schools after my freshman
year there so that I could be prepared for college. I imagine that
wouldn’t be necessary in boarding school.”
Merritt, who switched from a Charlotte-Mecklenburg school to one in
Gaston County, said she feels she was much more prepared by her second
school.
Despite the large class load and multiple extracurricular activities,
the students who experienced boarding school would recommend it to
others.
“It’s one of the best advantages you can give your child. I firmly, firmly believe that,” Barnette said.
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