Depending on the focus and location of the school, there are different kinds of "boarding" aside from the conventional practice of having students stay at the school for an entire semester. For instance, "day boarding" is a system in which students stay at school from morning until evening, and meals and after-school activities are provided by the school, as well as daily instruction. Since students still spend evenings and weekends at home, this is seen as an alternative to full boarding.
Since boarding schools are private institutions, they can be more selective about whom they admit, unlike public schools. There are two tests that boarding schools use to evaluate a potential student. A student must successfully complete the SSAT (Secondary School Admission Test) or the ISEE (Independent School Entrance Examination) as a measure of academic merit. International students may also have to complete a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam to assess their linguistic proficiency.
These three terms are intrinsic to boarding school life. They are borrowed from England, where boarding schools are much more mainstream. The "house" refers to the specific group of students who live within a dorm or similar housing facility. A dorm master is the teacher, administrator or senior student who supervises a house and functions in many ways as a surrogate parent. The headmaster is the chief administrator or principal of the school.
The literal meaning of this Latin term is "in place of a parent." It refers not only to students and teachers living at the school together but also to the boarding school environment as a whole. Boarding schools maintain that self-reliance and "teachable life moments" are important hallmarks of boarding school life that set them apart from conventional schools. The importance of community, support (for academics, extracurricular activities and life in general) are strongly emphasized at a boarding school.