Taking A Look At High School Boarding Schools

So we went to prep school fair this past weekend and ran into quite a few prep schools based mostly in the north east like Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, a few in the south and a couple in the west.

The few schools my oldest was interested including one in Hawaii (Hawaii Prep Academy) and one in Massachusetts (Tabor Academy).   The costs of these schools runs anywhere from $20k to $45k per year.   The basic next step is to get my son enrolled in a summer program for one of the schools and see if he truly enjoys it before making a huge commitment.    Since I’m an avid traveler, I gravitated toward schools like Lowell Whiteman but that was just me…

It’s an exciting time for my son as he comes of age and begins a journey of self discovery but the road will be long and costly.   Fortunately, it’ll be a couple of years before a full commitment but it is amazing at how fast the time has flown by as I still remember my son as a little baby.   The fall back plan is to go to a local private school and keep him at home which he’ll love as well.

The obvious question here though is if these kinds of costs are worth the value of the education.   What I see critically missing from most of these curriculum are practical business, engineering or scientific training.   Perhaps I’m asking too much but I expect graduates to be able to start a business or enter an engineering program practically certified as an engineer for this kind of money.

There is an interesting prediction that education is in in  massive bubble and it’s only a matter of time before it collapses in on itself.  This may be particularly true for college but I’m not so sure about the prep schools.  Only time will tell.