Every year, I look for the very few parents or kids who get on CC and start with the question: "this is what I love, this is who I am - what schools might people recommend?" I love those posts and always want to respond.
Instead, the bulk of new CC'ers get on and immediately begin asking what they need to do to get into Andover/Exeter - a narrow, hair-brained, naive approach to an important decision.
Agreed. And I'm wondering why the moderators haven't moved the inane "chance me" threads on this forum over to the Chances forum where they belong. I keep thinking that if some applicants can't even figure out that there is a specific forum for such "narrow, harebrained, naive" questions, they are off to a bad start.
(I have asked the moderator to move these threads to the Chances forum.)
Last edited by ChoatieMom; 10-03-2012 at 03:51 PM.
Not that I actually knew this (should have attended Exeter), but it turns out to be a variant spelling: Hairbrained | Define Hairbrained at Dictionary.com. So I am only half-embarrassed because I hyphenated.
I already had an idea of certain characteristics I wanted a prospective school to have, so I started by looking for schools that had those characteristics. I came into the whole boarding school thing almost completely blind. I did research on my own, and then came to CC as a resource for finding schools that fit my criteria. I am now 95% set on a school (one that I feel is comfortably within my range), with a couple of back-ups, that I probably would not have found if it weren't for CC. Now I'm going for the 'Chance Me' side of things. But I may start the 'This is who I am, and this is what I love. What schools do you think fit this?' to see if the schools I'm looking at come up again. That would be an interesting project. I think I'll do that.
Some questions to ask yourself when u are selecting which schools and how many schools to apply to:
- Am I OK w possibly being a small fish in a big pond? A lot of kids who are the star at their present school will be humbled at an elite school.
- Would I be better off as a big fish in a smaller pond? Class rank does matter…
- Do my stats fall in the ballpark of the school’s average stats? Skip the CHANCE ME threads and be honest with yourself.
- How many hours of homework am I prepared to deal with? At the elite schools, expect at least 20 hours of homework per week.
- How much time & money am I willing to invest in this quest? Each application takes a significant chunk of time to complete, plus there are application fees & travel costs to visit the school
- How badly do I need to go to BS? Am I OK with staying at my present school if I don’t get admitted?
- What are the students at that school like—do I see myself fitting in?
- How far away from home am I willing to be? Do I want to be able to see my family some weekends? Can my family afford the air travel for a far away school?
But the most important question by far is:
WHY DO I WANT TO GO TO BOARDING SCHOOL?
