Boarding School Wizard Blog

20 College Majors that Lead to the Most Money

Allison "AJ" Miller — 2011-01-20 07:00:00 -0800

Choosing a college major should not be based solely on how much money you expect to earn after graduation - you know that. But being aware of which majors offer big job offers and which will not is useful information to have up front. Because if you're weighing two career paths, you may want to opt for the one that will have you living large from Day One.

With that in mind, check out this list of 20 College Majors that Lead to the Most Money! From engineering to urban planning to mathematics, these are the careers that college students are finding the most success with in the 21st century!

1. Petroleum Engineering

Petroleum engineering majors are among the very few who earn a near-six-figure starting salary; $93,000 is the median, says PayScale.com. So if you’re interested in earth science or geology, this may be a major to pursue. Petroleum engineers are responsible for finding crude oil and natural gas reserves beneath the earth’s surface. To do so often requires travel or living abroad. However, bachelor’s degree programs in petroleum engineering are less common than master’s degrees, so you may want to major in something like geology, math or physics as a stepping stone to a petroleum engineering career.

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2. Aerospace Engineering

Aerospace engineers frequently apply their knowledge of math and physics to develop new forms of air and space travel. Newly-minted aerospace engineers earn just under $60,000-a-year. Entry-level aero engineers may be tasked with anything related to designing, constructing, operating and maintaining above ground aircraft. Students with a love of math and the mysteries of flight – but mainly a love of math – are an excellent fit with this college major.

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3. Chemical Engineering

Are you seeing a theme yet with these top-paying college majors? Yes, most contain the word “engineering.” Chemical engineering is no different, and pays more than $60,000 right out of school. Here, too, math is a core skill, which is applied to the use of chemicals and the equipment that comes into contact with those chemicals. Determining the optimal mix and amount of substances is frequently the challenge.

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How is the Environment Different at Boarding School?

admin — 2010-11-16 07:00:00 -0800

Although the purpose of boarding school is essentially the same as a traditional high school – educating teenagers and preparing them for life after graduation - the environments are quite different.

Of course, the biggest difference is the amount of time students spend on campus every day – at boarding schools, students are present 24 hours a day, while at typical public and private high schools, they go home in the late afternoon and don’t return until morning. Boarding school students also spend their weekends on campus, participating in school-sponsored activities and events.

That one factor, however, shapes the educational experience students have more than any other. Because of their 24/7 presence, students, faculty and staff at boarding schools become their own tight-knit community, more so than at a day school. For many students, their classmates and dormmates become their family; they come to rely on each other much like sisters and brothers in many cases.

Boarding Schools for Students with Learning Differences

admin — 2010-11-10 07:00:00 -0800

Where therapeutic boarding schools are designed to address the emotional, physical and mental needs of struggling teens, boarding schools for students with learning differences, or disabilities are similarly focused.

Since learning disabilities are neurobiological disorders that interfere with a student’s capability to read, write, calculate, reason, remember and organize, traditional learning environments often come up short. Many students with learning differences are moved to special education classes for more personal attention, but in some cases they are also grouped with students with differing issues, such as behavioral or psychological, which can be disruptive.

Most public schools have special education departments that can work with you to design an individualized education plan (IEP) for your child, once he or she has been diagnosed with a learning disability. However, there is no guarantee every student receives the attention he or she needs, even after the condition has been identified. Some districts with inadequate special education programs will even contribute to the cost of boarding school if you can prove your child requires more services than your district can provide.

How far away should my child go to boarding school?

admin — 2010-11-02 08:00:00 -0700

By definition, a boarding school is a residential campus where junior high and high school students live and study together away from home. Some boarding schools also permit day students, who live nearby and go home at the end of the school day. But most students who enter a boarding school do so to take advantage of the sense of community that develops among students who live together.

There is no hard-and-fast rule for how close or how far away you should permit your child to travel to attend boarding school. Given the ease of transportation today, you can reach almost any school within the country in less than a day by plane. And you should be able to find many boarding school options within driving distance, if that is important to you. Your comfort level, and that of your child, regarding how far away he or she will be, varies by family.

The advantage of a boarding school located within driving distance is that you will likely be able to bring your child home during school breaks, or even weekends. The cost of driving a few hours to transport your child will be less than having to have him or her hop on a plane, and may make it possible for him or her to come home more frequently. However, over time your child may prefer to remain at school to enjoy some of the weekend activities with his or her friends.

20 Famous People Who Attended Boarding Schools

Allison "AJ" Miller — 2010-09-14 08:00:00 -0700

In addition to a terrific education in an often beautiful setting, boarding schools are also the place to network with people who are going places. Future actors and actresses, politicians, athletes, musicians, CEOs and even high profile celebrities are likely living right down the hall from you. Not convinced a boarding school is the appropriate venue for your child?

Then check out this list of 20 Famous People Who Attended Boarding Schools and imagine your son or daughter in their place or on a future list. It could happen!

1. Conrad Hilton

Born in New Mexico, Conrad Hilton attended the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico, and went on to found one of the world’s largest hotel chains – Hilton Hotels. His start in the lodging business began at home, however, when he helped his father turn their house by the railroad tracks into an inn for salesmen; renting out rooms at $2.50 per night. Later, he bought hotels in Texas and then expanded into California, New York, Illinois and beyond.

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2. John Kerry

The current Senator from Massachusetts spent many of his younger days at boarding schools in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He first attended the Fessenden School and then high school at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire. At St. Paul’s he became interested in politics and worked hard at improving his public speaking skills. From there he went on to Yale and had his first opportunity to rub elbows with the Kennedys. He eventually worked on JFK’s campaign before initiating his own political career in Massachusetts. But he is perhaps best known for his 2004 bid for the presidency, which he lost against incumbent George Bush.

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3. Liz Claiborne

Born in Belgium to a prominent Louisiana family, Anne Elisabeth Jane Claiborne moved back to Louisiana at a young age and attended St. Timothy’s boarding school in Stevenson, Maryland, before heading off to Europe to study art. Her father did not believe she needed formal education so she did not attend college. She won the Jacques Heim National Design Contest in 1949 and moved to New York City to work for a number of clothiers as a sketch artist. Frustrated at the companies’ inability to design for women, she started her own company in 1976. It made the Fortune 500 in 1986 with $1.2 billion in sales. Claiborne retired from the company in 1989 and passed away in 2007 from a rare form of cancer.

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4. Matthew Perry

Born in Williamstown, Mass., but raised in Canada, Matthew Perry attended private day and boarding school Ashbury College in Ottawa, Ontario. His interest in acting was sparked in seventh grade and at 15 he moved to Los Angeles to live with his father, John Bennett Perry, also an actor. A nationally-ranked Canadian junior tennis player, Perry planned to enroll at the University of Southern California but changed plans when he was offered a role on “Boys Will Be Boys.” He is most famous for his role as Chandler Bing on the TV show, “Friends,” which ran from 1994 to 2004.

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20 Most Bizarre College Sports Mascots

admin — 2010-08-10 07:00:00 -0700

You’ve probably heard of the Tigers, the Wildcats and even the Wolverines, but did you know there was a squirrel or a mollusk representing a U.S. college? That’s not all; there are 18 other bizarre mascots, from a banana slug to a boll weevil.

Check out the stories behind the 20 Most Bizarre College Sports Mascots!

1. Concordia College's Kernel the Cobber

An apparent homage to the corn fields surrounding the campus of Concordia College, its mascot, Kernel the Cobber appears to be an angry ear of corn. Putting aside the fact that corn is not the most feared of all vegetables, Kernel does look particularly vicious. And weird.

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2. Delta State University's Fighting Okra

Delta State has long been known as the Statesmen in a nod to State Rep. Walter Sillers, Jr., who was the speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives for 20 years. However, in the late 1980s, a basketball player and some dorm mates were complaining to each other that a Fighting Statesman was not particularly frightening to their opponents. They wanted a mascot that was "mean and green." The discussion continued and one of the baseball players suggested that since it was green, fuzzy and tough, that okra would be the perfect mascot. Thereafter, the rally cry of, "Okra! Okra! Okra!" could be heard regularly at basketball games, prompting the creation of the unofficial Fighting Okra mascot.

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3. Evergreen State College's Speedy the Geoduck

Is it an asparagus? A plate with vegetables on it? No, it's Speedy the Geoduck (pronounced "Gooey Duck"), more commonly known as a clam. Why the school chose a phallic mollusk to represent its sports teams, no one seems to know. Although the school's fight song gives some hints: "Go, Geoducks go; through the mud and the sand, let's go. Siphon high, squirt it out, swivel all about, let it all hang out. Go, Geoducks go. Stretch your necks when the tide is low. Siphon high, squirt it out, swivel all about, let it all hang out." Maybe the belief that the burrowing clam is an aphrodisiac has something to do with it?

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4. Grays Harbor College's Charlie Choker

Grays Harbor certainly wins the prize for most menacing mascot. Yet Charlie Choker is also perhaps the most misunderstood of all college mascots. Because he actually isn’t a criminal, he is a logger. A choker-setter is a pivotal role in logging operations and is the strong, courageous individual who places a cable with large clamps around a log to remove it from the forest. The explanation doesn’t diminish his creepiness.

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ESL Programs at Boarding Schools

Allison "AJ" Miller — 2010-08-03 14:11:00 -0700

The fast academic pace at most boarding schools necessitates a strong command of the English language prior to enrolling. In order to keep up with coursework and perform at your best, you should be able to read, write and speak English with near fluency. If you aren’t almost fluent, you will likely struggle.

That doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t attend U.S. or Canadian boarding schools, however. It simply means you should look for boarding schools that offer English as a Second Language (ESL) programs for students whose native language is not English.

ESL programs help students to quickly get up to speed on the language. Depending on their mastery of the language, students are generally placed into a beginner, intermediate or advanced ESL class. From there, students are integrated with American students into classes where English is the only language spoken.

16 Most Unbelievable School Pranks Ever Committed

admin — 2010-07-15 08:00:00 -0700

In addition to being known for rigorous academic programs, cut-throat athletics or a prestigious history of tradition, the following schools and universities have also earned a reputation for some of the best school pranks of all time. Creative, clever and most of all, unexpected, check out this list of 16 of the Most Unbelievable School Pranks Ever Committed that earned national and even international attention for their respective alma matter.

Check out our list of the 16 Most Unbelievable School Pranks Ever Committed and let us know what you think!

1. There's No Stopping Them

Auburn University is well-known for its football program. Its rivalry with Georgia Tech, which originated in 1892, is equally well-known. That rivalry came to a head in 1896, when Auburn students decided to "grease the skids" of an Auburn football win over Georgia Tech by lubricating the train tracks and platform at the Auburn Train Station with grease and lard the night before the train carrying Georgia Tech's football team was to arrive. The next morning, as anticipated, the train's efforts to stop at the station were a complete failure. The train blew past the station by at least five miles before it was able to stop. After having to walk the five miles back to the station, Georgia Tech's team was easily defeated 45-0 by Auburn.

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2. Harvard's Fish Story

Since the eighteenth century, a five-foot-long wooden carving of a cod fish has hung above the entrance to the chamber of the House of Representatives in the Massachusetts State House as a symbol of the importance of the cod to the region's early economy. The fish hung in its lofty position for years until the 1933 staff of the Harvard Lampoon, Harvard University's monthly humor magazine, decided it needed to be acquired. Despite its importance to the Massachusetts legislature, the cod was left surprisingly unguarded. Obtaining it took little effort. Three Lampoon staffers walked into the statehouse and surreptitiously snipped the two wires holding the cod, lowered it into a long flower box, and walked out. The theft caused quite the uproar in Boston but only 50 hours later the cod was returned without incident and hung again in the state house - albeit six inches higher.

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3. Veterans of Future Wars

When World War I veterans lobbied Congress in 1935 to receive their war bonuses ten years early, to ease the strains of the Great Depression, the Harrison Bonus Bill was born. So was an idea. Princeton senior Lewis Gorin decided that if present-day veterans could get their bonuses early, why shouldn't future veterans be prepaid for their service – before fighting in a war?! Gorin lobbied that all male citizens between 18 and 36 should be paid a $1,000 war bonus on June 1, 1965. The Veterans of Future Wars movement spread quickly, with local chapters springing up on college campuses nationwide, with spin-off groups, such as the Association of Gold Star Mothers of Future Veterans, following suit. (Although it was originally meant to be a satirical look at government, all but two members of the Princeton VFW ended up fighting in World War II.)

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4. Placard Switcheroo

Flip-cards seen at football games are generally used to spell out a word or phrase related to the teams on the field. The 1961 Rose Bowl game between the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Washington Huskies was an exception and one of the first pranks involving flip-cards. During half-time at the game, spectators picked up the stack of cards from their seats and began to turn them over as instructed, revealing a series of gigantic images for people watching on TV. All was going according to plan until the fourteenth image when instead of showing the word "Huskies," the thousands of placards spelled "Caltech," the prank-happy school just down the road in Pasadena. Later, one of the Caltech students responsible admitted that a fellow prankster had posed as a reporter and asked the head Washington cheerleader how the flip-card system worked. Then other team members gained access to the cheerleaders' hotel rooms and switched instruction sheets.

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New Hampton School to Begin iPad Pilot Program for All Ninth Graders

admin — 2010-06-21 11:32:00 -0700

New Hampton School to Begin iPad Pilot Program for All Ninth Graders

June 21, 2010

NEW HAMPTON, NH -- New Hampton School is pleased to announce the introduction of an iPad pilot program for incoming ninth-grade students beginning in September.

All ninth-grade students and selected faculty members will receive iPads as part of the program, which was funded by a recent reunion gift from the New Hampton School Class of 1960. The pilot program will inform how the school will continue to improve technology integration in the classroom and prepare students for college and beyond.

“It’s been our vision to be a nationally recognized innovator in how we deliver curriculum and durable skills to our students,” says Head of School Andrew Menke. “This pilot program affords us the opportunity to create an environment of exploration for our students.”

Menke says that the school will evaluate the implementation of the iPad in the ninth graders’ experience, and then decide whether the iPad will be fully integrated into the school experience for all students.

New Hampton School Technology Integration Coordinator Hans Mundahl says that the pilot program is much more than giving a slick, new device to a group of curious students.

“It is a tool that will help our students solve problems,” says Mundahl. “We’re hoping to enable students and teachers to work creatively with one another in new ways. It has the chance to transform the way faculty teach and the way students learn.”

Financial Aid for Students Attending Boarding Schools

Allison "AJ" Miller — 2010-05-18 07:00:00 -0700

With boarding school tuition rivaling that of private colleges, at just under $40,000 a year, many families need some financial assistance to afford it or help with tuition costs. And, in fact, an estimated 30% of all families with students attending a boarding school receive some sort of financial aid, with the average aid amount being around $17,000.

Similar to colleges and other private schools, families apply for financial aid when their child applies for admission into a boarding school. In general, families making more than $120,000 in household income have a lower chance of qualifying for aid; those making less should qualify for some form of need-based financial aid.

Boarding schools offer two general types of aid: need based and merit based.

Families with lower incomes typically qualify for help from the school in the form of grants. Grants do not need to be repaid. However, because of the high cost of attendance, most families also need to apply for loans to cover the balance. Boarding schools generally have established relationships with banks and funding sources that will provide educational loans.