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Boarding School

Eloise

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I'm not exacty sure how to phrase this and I keep vacillating on whether to post this in the first place. I am currently 14 years old and seeing as we move evet 18 months/1 year my parents wish me to apply to academically elite boarding schools. I'm unsure how I would cope with boarding school. I love the freedom and resoponsibility it would grant me and being academically stretched would be great but my time management and organisational skills would shame a 3 year old. I would also be surrounded by people all the time which would be really weird. However, I would like some stability in my life and to be around motivated peers. I took the entrance tests and scored in the 98th percentille, so i know I'm academically qualified. Have any INTPs gone to boarding school? How did you cope with it? Do you regret going?
 

Auburn

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Yep. I went to a boarding school for three years of high school, however my experience may not apply to you seeing how it was a different type of boarding school - but for what it's worth:

It pushed me to try new things which I wouldn't have tried otherwise - and I actually ended up liking a lot of them. True, my introverted nature struggled with some of the required activities, but the overall effect was similar to a workout which hurts at the time, but you look back on and think it was worth the effort. It also helped me with cleanliness because they had room check every day.

The first year I went, I took little/no advantage of the opportunities I had, and wouldn't leave my dorm room except to go eat or to school. The second year I entered the acro team, got an on-campus job working grounds, and became a class officer. The third year I became an S.A. officer and became a group leader [there was a Leadership class I took].
 

sniktawekim

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my parents often threatened to send me to bording school.. while.. at the same time.. telling me what a terrible scary place it would be.
looking back at it.. i wish i had gone.
i am in college now.. and the dorm system is MUCH better than the highschool system.. networking is , imo, much better..
and i feel like bording school would probably relate more to the college experience than highschool.
also - i think bording school would greatly have helped me with social development.
 

fullerene

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I'm not quite sure what boarding schools are like... but to be honest, I think moving away for college was one of the best things that ever happened to me. The freedom is nice, all my roommates have been good so far, and organization/time management are overrated. Well... organization is overrated. All my notes from all (6 of) my classes last semester are jumbled up (mixed together) and scattered across my desk, part of the desk where the keyboard of the computer would go, the shelf where books are supposed to go, both the drawers, and the area scattered around my feet--not to mention those in my backpack. Time management I find actually helps a lot... but if you're that smart, then you'll be able to pick it up if the work gets hard enough that you need to.

I would, however, caution you not to make school the be-all end-all of your life, while you're there. Play sports, meet neighbors, join clubs, or find people who like video games and play with them often. Just... do something that makes your time there different that "just school", because otherwise you'll be worn out and have no motivation by the time college rolls around. At college, I sort of sunk large quantities of time into schoolwork, to the detriment of other things, and it was probably not a good decision; I just got really lucky and made some friends because my floor freshman year was very friendly. I wouldn't bank on something like that happening, though, so you'll probably want to make an effort to find ways to unwind and enjoy yourself.

I think I would recommend it, though. Living away from home is veeery nice, if you're not the type to get homesick.
 

Eloise

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Definetly not the type to get homesick. I guess what cryptonia said about isolating myself is something I worry about. My mother is a ESFJ and has made it her mission from my birth to 'socialize' and 'normalise' me. While at times it frustrates me to no end and escaping from that is incredibly appealing, I do realise that without her I would probably have no social skills and not having her yelling at me to start my essay at 3am the day it's due would result in me getting nothing done. I guess I'm so used to her controlling my socializing and procrastination that I'm afraid I'll fail without her. I don't want to have to rely on her (or anyone) either so the idependence of Boarding School really apeals. I am pasable at sport when I don't zone out and get hit in the head with a ball and pushing myself into new things is good. Of course, I have to get in first which is a task in itself, the 6 essay prompts I have to respond to are still blank with the deadline rapidly approaching. Thanks for the responses, I guess I'd already made my decision to an extent but I keep thinking up new reasons for why I shouldn't go and doubting my decision. It was nice to get some impartial advice.
 

fullerene

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I can't really help you doubt why you shouldn't go. Haha my parents are ESTJ and ISxJ, and they've both made it their goal to socialize me as well, it seems. I remember them often telling me to have people over to play, when I was in elementary school. Later they turned their attention towards trying to get me to stop socially-unacceptable things (twitchy eye movements, looking at people while I talk to them, comb/cut hair somewhat short, don't spit out in public, wear shoes when I went out places, look up while I'm walking, etc). I'm not sure if your ESFJ mom's promptings were that nitpicky/controlling/frustrating, but when I left for college, I actually found out that most of the reason I did those things in the first place was because I was under constant watch/criticism. Within three days I had my head raised and looked around while I walked places, and within a week or two I was mostly-twitch free. Though the twitching does come back occasionally. I also found that virtually nobody cared about the same things they did (though I did go to a very high-quality college, so it was filled with an extremely lopsided population of N-types, which I'm sure had something to do with it), and had no trouble making friends or holding conversation with people by just being myself.

I'm not sure how mature the boarding, high school age, kids are in comparison to college ones... but I think you'll likely be fine. Act like a normal person and you'll find yourself surrounded by lots of normal friends, who will then proceed to bore the crap out of you with their conversations. Act like yourself and you'll probably have a lot fewer real friends (and, yes, you run the risk of getting screwed and meeting nobody who likes you... but I thought that risk worth taking. You really have to decide for yourself, though), but you'll actually enjoy hanging out and talking with them.

(hahaha... I promise I didn't see your avatar before writing that last sentence. It just worked out that way)

Waiting til 3am the day things are due is rough, though, haha. I've never even been that bad. If you want to get your work done, the best thing I've found is to get in the habit of doing it as soon as it's assigned. My freshman year, I tried this and by far had the least-stress year I've eveer had. I was about a week ahead on all my work at a given time, and played on average 2-3 hours of cards each day. As a more realistic goal (which I fell into as the years went on), I find that as long as I'm working when there's nothing else I'd actually want to be doing (friends were all working, or going to do something I didn't like, or whatever), there was/is always enough time to have as much fun as I want, and get all my work done in time. I just had to get rid of that stuff I sort of "did", but didn't really like... like playing RPGs on emulators and watching lots of youtube clips and stuff like that--the time-filler stuff that you wouldn't do if you had something better to do.

Honestly I think you'll be just fine. It's hard for me to think anything else, though, because my time away from home has been a huge asset to self-growth, and I got extremely lucky and landed in a dorm full of very sociable and equally-socially-inept people.
 

jacq

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There are advantages and disadvantages living in a boarding school. First, I would say the pros there is the feeling of having a life at school, the independence you have, the friends you'll meet, and all the great memories you're going to have later on. While, the cons is the school fees, overly strict rules, and the distinct possibility of it not being what you expected. I really do think you should give it a shot because it's simply one of those things you'll never forget.
 
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