Boarding-School Blues

The storied boarding schools of the East are as well-mannered, wealthy and academically rigorous as they ever were. Indeed, many are broadening their curriculums and ridding themselves of anachronistic customs. But they are not so exclusive or sought after as in the past. In selecting students for the fall term, some of the nation's oldest and most prestigious preparatory schools have found applications decreasing. Hence the schools cannot be as selective in choosing their students as they used to be.

Things have come to such a pass that a qualified student can still get into some boarding schools in time for the September term. Williston, Tilton and Pomfret, for instance, still have vacancies. Phillips Exeter, while it has no openings, has experienced a decline in applicants during the past few years --and applications are also off at such elite girls' schools as Emma Willard, the Masters School and Ethel Walker.

The reasons are varied. Tuitions, for one, are often staggering. Already worried about a shaky stock market, even a rich parent might boggle at spending $3,600 a year or more per child. Rosemary Hall will charge $4,500 this year.

No Passport. The prep schools' competition is improving, and some of it is free. Suburban public high schools, especially in well-to-do areas that many potential boarding-school students call home, are now often on an academic par with boarding schools. For this reason, and because the admission policies of colleges have changed, a boarding-school diploma is no longer pursued simply as an Ivy League passport.

Boarding schools are also caught in a social dilemma. Though many schools have actively recruited ghetto students and given them scholarships, liberal parents now find the prep school atmosphere snobby and artificial. More conservative parents, meanwhile, resent the collapse of social and racial exclusivity.

The biggest factor is that more parents than ever are letting their children choose their own schools. A traditional boarding school that excludes one sex is rarely the first choice. "The rural, rustic life is not attractive to young people," says David Pynchon, headmaster of Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. "Today's youth is not accepting the kind of authority that the school represents." Adds Pomfret Headmaster Joseph K. Milnor Jr.: "They opt for Mom, Pop, a girl and television." Indeed, places in city and suburban private day schools are much in demand. The power of sex appeal is perhaps best demonstrated by Rosemary Hall, which is one of the few girls' boarding schools that has not felt the decline in applications this year. The school is moving to Wallingford, Conn., home of all-male Choate.

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