The Girls' Boarding School Experience

By living where they learn, boarding school students get the additional benefit of being immersed in an education-oriented community 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Close contact with teachers extends the learning experience beyond the classroom walls, providing a unique environment for self-discovery and intellectual growth.

The typical boarding school campus has been described as providing a "village-like atmosphere and sense of neighborhood, where everyone is expected to be thoughtful of one another and to look out for one another, just as one would at home."

Of course, each boarding school is unique. Some schools are quite large, with hundreds of students, some are smaller. Some are in cities and suburbs, others are out in the countryside. Some are relatively new institutions, others have been educating girls for decades, in some cases a century or more. Each offers a different mix of boarding and day students, with classmates from around the country or around the world.

But there are hallmarks common to all single-sex boarding schools for girls. For example, such schools:

• Permit families to consider schools beyond their local area
  
• Immerse students in a rigorous academic atmosphere
  
• Allow girls to be judged by their accomplishments, not on "popularity" or appearance
  
• Offer a wide range of opportunities to take on leadership positions
  
• Promote lifelong friendships among classmates

In short, boarding schools combine the best of tradition with the innovative, achievement-oriented learning environments that make girls' schools such an attractive educational option today. We encourage you to search our member directory for schools that offer boarding programs. Send away for admissions materials, and make plans to visit campus. You'll see the rich diversity of all that today's boarding schools have to offer.

Useful Links:

Be sure to visit the websites of the many boarding schools within the NCGS membership. They offer a variety of academic  programs in diverse campus settings -- all uniquely focused on educational excellence for girls and young women. In addition, check out the following resources for information and insights on the boarding school experience:

The Association of Boarding Schools -- www.schools.com

Catholic Boarding Schools Association -- www.cbsa.org

Southeastern Association of Boarding Schools -- www.sabs.org

Western Boarding Schools Association -- www.wbsa.net