What Going to an All-Girls Boarding High School is Like
I had Saturday detention 10 times
I went to an all-girls boarding school in Middlebury, CT for grades 10 -12. It was a unique experience, but it never felt truly strange to me until I started describing my experiences to my friends in college. Here are some interesting facts about the particular school I went to.
See if you can guess the school without looking up the location…
P.S., I really loved this school. It’s just quirky.
1. It’s not a religious school, but we had Chapel every Thursday
Every Thursday, without fail, we would have Chapel. After a couple of classes, you needed to be in the hallway outside the chapel and grab a hymnal from one of the chest benches. You also needed to be in your special events uniform, which was a white shirt with shoulder pads and a white skirt. They were pretty lax {all things considered} on the shoe requirements, but our shoes were expected to be blue or black.
We would line up in the hallways and be told which hymns to sing as we processed in, starting with the people furthest from the doors. Other than the hymns, the ceremony was used to tell inspiring stories, sing songs, and give announcements. They did their best to make it seem non-denominational, but as an atheist, you were required to be there. Yes, they always took attendance. If you missed any class or Chapel without an excuse, you would get Saturday detention.
2. We had biweekly assigned dinners
Every couple of weeks, sometimes multiple times in this period, we would have “formal” dinners. We would be assigned tables to sit at with proctors. This was to force us to talk to people we wouldn’t normally talk to in our small, all-girls school.
It was also to teach service, as someone was in charge of getting all the food from the kitchen and bringing it to the table, while others were in charge of bussing, or cleanup.
There were often trivia contests for the table to play to win a small prize at the end, which was often getting to leave first. No one at the table was permitted to leave until the busser finished, so winning the trivia contest meant that the busser got to beat the lines back into the kitchen to drop off dishes first, meaning the table got to leave 10+ minutes before everyone else. Trust me, you wanted those 10 minutes.
3. Rules are intense and everyone got detention no matter what
Boarding students were heavily watched. Lights out were at a certain time, and they would bang on your room window if they saw your light past the time. Every year your lights out time would be pushed back by 15 minutes. Luckily, there was plenty of cell phone service and my screen was very dim.
We also weren’t allowed to bring any boys on campus unless they were related to us. I’m not sure if that was an official rule or rumored, but I never saw any guy who wasn’t someone’s sibling or a teacher’s kid on campus.
You needed a permission slip to leave campus and there was a sign-in & out book you had to record your location in. If you didn’t, you would get detention. The day slips were yellow and gave you three hours off-property. Overnight slips were more complicated. Yes, this school did check that you were in your room by lights out every night.
Detention was inevitable. If you missed any class, any chapel, forgot to sign out, or were less than a minute late to 3 classes, you would have Saturday detention. For some students, their classes were nearly 2 football fields away from each other with a five-minute window to arrive. Everyone I ever talked to got detention at least once. I had it at least 10 times in my time there.
4. Sports or community service is required
After your classes from 7:55–3ish, you were required to do a team sport, no exceptions. Community service was offered as an option during one season per year. Because of this rule, I did Varsity Swimming & Varsity Volleyball, and JV softball. I was upset at the time about being on JV but was told JV needed a pitcher. Valid, I guess.
Due to all this exercise, I was extremely skinny and tired all the time. We had sports practice every day after school, with required games occasionally on the weekends. If you have to play sports until 5:30 and then eat at a required formal dinner for an hour, you get 4 hours to do your homework and relax before lights out.
It’s no wonder I never played sports again after high school.
—
The all-girls experience wasn’t all that strange. It felt more supportive than usual schools, at least in my case, and I found that the girls were more confident than the girls I’d been around in non-girls schools.
Put simply, the all-girls part wasn’t what made the boarding school strange. It was their rigidity regarding attendance and forcing us to do community activities that made it vastly different than all other schools I attended. The curriculum at my high school was harder than college for me, and I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Neuroscience & Psychology.
I enjoyed my high school experience, but it was also the most difficult school I’ve ever attended. After all, I had to publish a novel at 15 just to get admitted. The school definitely gave me a leg up in the world, not to mention a new appreciation for women getting things done.
