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A Beginner’s Guide to Boarding School Terminology

Boarding schools offer many advantages for students who desire an education that will fully equip them with the tools needed to enter college with skills above their peers.  However, it is important to understand the differences between boarding schools and traditional schools, particularly when you are comparing schools for the purpose of enrollment.

Likewise, understanding the terminology associated with boarding schools will help the parent and student make a well-qualified decision regarding the school that best meets their needs.  Just as traditional schools vary, there is a wide spectrum found amongst boarding schools.  Here are some terms that will help explain those differences and ensure that the school you choose is the best choice for your family’s needs.

Academia- Academia is used to describe an educational group or community that is actively committed to higher education.

Academic Counseling- Academic counseling is the process where teachers and faculty members guide students in mapping out the course of their education to ensure that they achieve their educational goals.

Achievement- Achievement is used to measure a student’s level or degree of success.  It may be in the form of testing or by assessing skills that have been learned.

Active Learning- Active learning is a type of educational procedure where students participate in the learning process through a variety of means and methods. It is in direct contrast to passive learning, where students learn by listening to a teacher or instructor. Active learning engages the student through discussions, problem solving, and other critical thinking activities.

Advanced Placement (AP)- The Advanced Placement program is used by colleges or universities to allow high school students to earn college credits.

Advisor- An advisor is a member of the school faculty that helps students plan their academic courses. Advisors play a vital role in ensuring that students reach their academic goals.

Boarding School- A Boarding School is a residential school where students receive lodging, meals, and education.

Coeducational- Coeducational refers to a group or environment that consists of members of both sexes.

College Preparatory- College preparatory classes are added to a student’s curriculum to help them enter into college or a university.  The classes are often required by the higher education facility for entrance purposes.

Curriculum- A curriculum is the program or courses taught in the school setting.  It is determined either by the school board or an outside governing agency.

Day School- A day school is a boarding school that offers classes for non-residential students as well as the boarding school students.

Department of Education- The Department of Education is the US governing branch that monitors and regulates educational programs in the United States.

Dormitory- A dormitory is the section of a boarding school where the students reside.

Elementary School- Elementary school is the first stage of education. It begins in kindergarten and ends somewhere between the fourth and eighth grade, depending upon the school’s policies.

Faculty- School faculty is comprised of the adults who are in leadership.  This typically includes teachers, principals, and may include professors or lecturers.

Grades- Grades are the evaluation of a student’s performance in an educational setting.  They may be written in numerical or letter format.

Grade Point Average- Grade point average, or GPA, is determined by computing credits and grade points together.

Graduate- To graduate means to successfully complete one course of study and to advance to the next course.

Passive Learning- Passive learning is in contrast to active learning.  It consists of receiving instructions through methods such as lectures or film watching.  With passive learning, the student is not actively engaged in the learning process but receives the information that is being directed towards him or her.

Private school- A private school is a school that is owned and operated by an entity other than the government or state.

Public school- Public school is education provided by the government and paid for by citizen tax dollars.

Room and Board- Room and board is covered in the tuition fees for students at boarding schools.  This consists of sleeping arrangements, living quarters, and meals.

School Discipline- School discipline is the code or punishment that is administered when the school’s rules have been violated.

Secondary School- Secondary school consists of the grades between elementary and college.  It is often referred to as Secondary Education.

Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT)- The SSAT or Secondary School Admission Test is given to entrants of a boarding school.  It measures the student’s proficiency in reading comprehension as well as verbal and mathematical skills.

Socratic Method- The Socratic Method was developed by the philosopher, Socrates.  It is a teaching method used to develop rational thinking by challenging concepts and encourages the participants to rely heavily upon critical thinking skills.

Special Education- Special education refers to teaching methods that are geared towards those who do not think or learn in the traditional manner.  This may be due to emotional, physical, or academic needs.

Syllabus- A syllabus is a guide that accompanies a class or course.  It is given to students so that they have a thorough understanding of the topics that will be expounded upon during the course.

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)- The Test of English as a Foreign Language is administered to those whose native language is one other than English.  Colleges and universities administer this test to assess the speaker’s grasp and understanding of the English language.

Transcript- A transcript is the student’s written record of his or her academic performance at a school previously attended.

Tuition- Tuition is the fee charged by the school for the student’s education.

Visual Learning- Visual learning may also be referred to as spatial learning.  It is a learning style where images such as maps, graphic organizers, and webs are used to help connect ideas with spatial images.

Whole Language- Whole language is a teaching approach used to incorporate many aspects of reading, grammar, and language arts into the student’s life, rather than teaching reading as a mechanical or rote function.

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It’s hard to picture a President of the United States as a stereotypical drunken college frat boy, but that’s not to say they weren’t in fraternities! Here’s a collection of Presidents that may have indulged in a kegger or two during their college days.

George W. Bush

Following in his father’s footsteps, Bush attended Yale University, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in history and was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. As a college senior, Bush became a member of the secretive Skull and Bones society

Bill Clinton

While in college, Clinton became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi’s National Honorary Band Fraternity, Inc.

George H.W. Bush

While at Yale, he was enrolled in an accelerated program that allowed him to graduate in two and a half years, rather than four. He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and was elected president.

Ronald Reagan
Reagan attended Eureka College, where he was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, majored in economics and sociology, and was very active in sports

Gerald Ford
At University of Michigan, Ford became a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and washed dishes at his fraternity house to earn money for college expenses.

John F. Kennedy

JFK attended Harvard College, residing in Winthrop House during his sophomore through senior years as a member of Phi Kappa Theta

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Roosevelt went to Harvard, where he lived in luxurious quarters and was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity

Calvin Coolidge

At Amherst College, Coolidge became a member of the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta and joined the College Republicans in 1892

Woodrow Wilson

In 1873, Wilson spent a year at Davidson College in North Carolina, then transferred to Princeton as a freshman, graduating in 1879, becoming a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity

William Howard Taft

At Yale, he was a member of the Linonian Society, a literary and debate society; Skull and Bones, the secret society co-founded by his father in 1832; and the Beta chapter of the Psi Upsilon fraternity

Theodore Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Harvard in 1880

William McKinley

McKinley attended Allegheny College for one term in 1860, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Benjamin Harris

Harrison Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, where he was a member of the fraternity Phi Delta Theta and graduated in 1852.

Chester Arthur

Chester Arthur was a member of Psi Upsilon while he attended Union College in Schenectady, New York

James Garfield

The next President in line after Hayes was also a frat boy in college. James Garfield belonged to Delta Upsilon way back in 1856 while attending Williams College in Massachusetts

Rutherford B. Hayes

The nineteenth president of the United States, Hayes was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon back when he was at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.

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CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — At this remote ski resort, going to “boarding school” means spending as much time in a snow-packed terrain park as a high school classroom. The students at the college preparatory school here even wake up in a hotel and spa that once housed a Club Med, a location that gives the skiers among them slope-side access to some of the most famed expert terrain in the country.

But for the 70 youths enrolled at Crested Butte Academy, the similarities to being on vacation end there.

On a recent day, those who live on campus rise before dawn for a mandatory breakfast appearance before joining the day students at a nearby building for an hour of strength training with their performance coach.

Brendan Gerard, a shaggy-haired 17-year-old and four-year academy veteran, arrives last because he’s been scraping the wax off the bottom of his snowboard. He’s soon groaning alongside two dozen other teenagers, some of whom begin stripping off their ski caps and tossing them aside with the parkas, boots and other layers of clothing that already sit in piles around the perimeter of the dimly lit room.

The students listen up as Bud Keene, who coached snowboarder Shaun White to Olympic gold in 2006, enters the room to put strict limits on the use of portable music players on the slopes. Keene, who joined the academy last spring as director of snowboarding and freeride skiing, allows a split-second for any questions.

“Everybody got that? Cool.”

The new iPod edict comes as a blow to some of the kids in the room. But the change is just a tiny tweak compared with the complete turnaround in the school’s once lax standards and near-bankrupt status.

The school’s reversal of fortunes gained momentum when the school was absorbed last year into the IMG sports and talent agency, the behemoth that has operated in 30 countries and represents big names such as Tiger Woods.

Its far-flung business now includes widespread media and entertainment interests and a division that operates a dozen sports-specific academies aimed at churning out future greats.

The winter sports emphasis at Crested Butte Academy filled a gap in IMG’s diverse portfolio of schools, some of which cater to tennis players and golfers, even future trophy fishers. The deep-pocketed IMG has allowed the academy here to do more than just keep the doors open. It has moved from aging quarters and dilapidated dormitories to relatively posh resort digs that have it claiming to be the only ski-in, ski-out private school in the country.

Its recruitment efforts — the school has almost doubled its full-time enrollment in a year and now brings dozens of youths in for weeklong training sessions — have been aided by its ability to lure big-name coaches.

A typical day also involves four hours on the snow and four hours in the classroom. There are three daily meals designed by a nutritionist, stretching, strength-training and mental-conditioning programs, as well as a two-hour study hall in the evenings.

The intensive athletic and academic experience comes at a price: $34,000 a year for tuition, room and board.

The cost doesn’t include multiweek summer training camps that often involve international travel.

The academy was founded as an alternative high school for local kids whose parents wanted them to attend high school in town rather than down the valley in Gunnison.

It went out of business briefly in the middle of the 2003-04 school year, only to be revived as a nonprofit, sports-focused prep school several days later. It lacked enough coaches to support the new approach. And the purchase of a new building eventually put the cash-strapped school over the edge.

“This was a third-tier boarding school — a school that survived by admitting everyone they could,” says Graham Frey, who became the school’s headmaster just before the start of the 2006-07 school year. “It was a mess.”

About three months after arriving on campus, Frey boarded an airplane bound for Bradenton, Fla., home to IMG Academies and the campus of its biggest and best-known sports academy programs.

“If this place was going to make it, it needed a strong financial partner,” says Frey, who made a pitch that eventually led to the IMG deal.

Despite all the time spent on the mountain, the highly structured lifestyle and all of the rules can prove daunting.

“You do lose a lot of your freedom. And it’s definitely not part of snowboarding society to be restricted,” says snowboarding student Gerard, who spent the early part of his youth in Cleveland. “I miss out on the whole party scene, but how can I be bummed when I get to snowboard when they’re in school?”

Read the resource article here.

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