A variety of students attend post high school prep school. Certain prep schools can help focus students aspiring to a particular career path, such as those hoping to gain admission to the Naval Academy. Students with learning disabilities such as Attention Deficit Disorder might take an additional year between high school and college to ensure that they can attend college with the requisite skills. Students who have experienced "bumps in the road," such as illness and family death, that adversely affected their high school careers, might consider taking a year of postgraduate study. Finally, numerous students benefit from an additional year of academic and/or personal enrichment before leaving home for the first time to attend college, a time of intellectual and emotional challenge.
College applicants who spend the year after high school in postgraduate study are attractive to school for numerous reasons. First, colleges appreciate that postgraduate study can enhance a student's chances of succeeding at college academics. Second, colleges see students who have already lived away from home --- as is the case for many students attending post high school prep schools --- as less of an admissions risk. These students have gained experience with managing their lives away from home, and as such, have a certain level of maturity.
Many post high schools are boarding schools, which help students build the skills needed to succeed while living away from home for the first time. When most high school students attend college, they tend to struggle with managing distractions, budgeting their time, surviving roommate situations and making important decisions on their own. Prep boarding schools give students an advantage with handling the residential aspects of college, compared to their counterparts who go straight to college after high school graduation. In prep boarding school, with the support of a nurturing faculty, students learn about time management and rooming situations and experience a degree of autonomy for the first time.
Day school programs differ from their boarding school counterparts in that they focus much more on academic enrichment, by omitting the residential component entirely. Day schools may release a student from traditional academic requirements, allowing them to focus on the specific areas in which they need reinforcement. Without the boarding and social components, a prep day school experience is like an additional year of high school, tailored to the needs of the individual student. Students who feel the need to "fix" their academics, either to become academically stronger before attending a challenging college or to gain admission to college, are good candidates for day school.