Hello everybody! We are considering 2016 12th Grade Entry for our DD.
She is studying in Italy, in her 3rd year of a very academic Liceo Scientifico. Her grade point average is really high in an Italian school (around 9.8/10, that means all As except one A- ), she is passionate about her extra-curricular activities (modern music, French, journalism, sport, theatre…), in which she is deeply involved. In Italy EC are not important and never reach a national level. We don’t have any academic competitions as well. Here it’s important what you do at school. She graduated from the Middle School with 10/10 cum Laude and in the last three years she has been awarded with distinction letters from the Headmaster and from the Director of the School for her academic merits. Her school permits her to study abroad for one year (Sept 2016- July 2017) and then come back and take her Diploma in Italy.
For what concerns her English, she got a Grade A First Certificate in English, CEFR C1.
She’s studying to take the SAT test (in her first mock test she got 1890, with no practice at all and being a foreigner - she might improve it) and the TOEFL.
What school do you suggest us? Looking for:
-boarding, co-ed, North-East area
-high academic level
-friendly, liberal, open-minded, possibly Harkness Method, with caring teachers and stuff, attention towards the students
-good Maths and Science
-Latin
-rock bands
I know it’s hard to get into the 12th Gr (above all with little EC…)!!
Who can help me? Thanks!!!
Uh uh! Is our situation so desperate??
Of course I’ve already searched in the web sites and in CC forums… I might cite the HADES and the Hidden Gems. But I can’t really distinguish one from another. I may give you some other clues to help me.
We need a school which
accepts 12th Grade applications.
accepts internationals (no need of economic help)
She'll be not involved in the college process, as she comes back for her Italian Diploma
Not interested at all in retaking a year (her school is very good, she would stay here, instead)
My DD was the top student of her year in her school and of all the school (650 students) in 2014-
2015
She's been studying acoustic guitar and vocal music for some years (enjoying a lot, not a national
level, but won two school competitions)
2nd in a cross country competition among catholic schools inthe county(1st of her school)
plays in the volley and soccer teams of her class (school tournmaments)
played in many musical plays in her school
Can ski, swim, snowboard, play tennis quite well ( not competitive, though)
Has been studying Latin for two years (this will be her 3rd) and studied French for 3and a half
Won 1st prize ( regional) PlayEnergy project in her 8th Grade
Tutor classmates and school friends in Maths, English, Latin, Physics, Italian regularly, but not
officially, so not recorded
Many things, but school size, I don’t know how to express it.
Academically she got all 10/10 in Italian, Latin, Art History, Religion,English,Maths,Physics, Sciences, Behaviour, and 9/10 in History and Physical Education
Could you give me your impressions? Eternally grateful!!!
PS: sorry for my English!
All schools take international students. The limiting factor will be that not all schools will take applications for senior year. So I would start by identifying the schools that are even possible for her to apply to, and then research which of these seem appealing to her. This link has a list of schools that take PG applications – I wouldn’t necessarily assume that just because a school takes PGs that they would necessarily also take new seniors, but it will at least give you a starting point. You should go through this list and limit it to schools in the geographic area you want. I would then check the admissions page of those schools’ websites, which will hopefully tell you if they will take applications for new seniors. If it’s not clear from the website, you should feel free to call or email the admissions office to get a clear answer – no sense wasting your time on schools that won’t even look at an application for a new senior. As far as which of those schools she could reasonably hope to get into, I don’t think anyone on this forum is really going to be able to help you with that. Once you have the results of her SSAT and TOEFL tests, that should help you figure out which schools are realistic for her.
http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/pg_boarding_schools.php
Thank you Soxmom! Your link is very useful! I’ve already begun to search the school which accept the 12th G and I will go on following your suggestion.
What I need here is to understand what kind of school we should reasonably aim at. For her competence someone suggested us Choate, Andover, Loomis, Lawrenceville, Hotchkiss and so on… Others think that her EC are too weak, so better to think about Worcester, Tilton, North Broward, Gunnery, Thornton…
From your experience, what would you opt for?
Consider that Middlesex, Milton, St. Paul’s Taft, St. Andrew’s do not accept 12th G applications, while Hill School, Loomis, Choate, Kent, Suffield(she might have some problems with some compulsory subjects, in S, like Behaviour), Hothkiss, Andover, Deerfield, Lake Forest, … do accept them.
Could you give your opinions? Suppose the scores are the ones above.
Thank you!
I agree with @soxmom–most definitely start by narrowing your choice to schools that will accept students starting in 12th.
One thing that we did last year that helped us immensely, was rather than looking at a load of schools by “tier”, or “HADES”, etc., we instead came up with a very specific list of what our son wanted. Some, but not all, of the attributes we analyzed were:
*Size (this in the end became very important!)
*Location (how far from major cities? Country or not?)
*Specific courses, paths of study
*Specific sports/ECs
*Average SSAT scores–personally, I think this is an indicator of what kind of kids will end up in your child’s classroom. We made the cut at 85% or above-excepting one safety school that we loved. I guess in your case it will be the PSAT score.
*Acceptance rates–another indicator of a school’s rigor. Last year was a very competitive year, and all the schools he applied to had under a 30% acceptance rate (some were historically higher)
*And to some degree, “Yield”, which is harder information to get, but this board will have some posts on it. This is the % of students who actually enroll in a given school, vs. the % accepted.
*Student “type”–this is definitely a soft science, but as parents, we tended to ask each AO what attributes they were looking for in applicants. Some interesting answers here! See if you like what they have to say :).
Since we live 3,000 miles away from the NE schools and started the application process in late November of last year, we did not visit a single school for an interview. All interviews were off-campus or Skype. We are doing it differently this year, but last year’s method earned him acceptance at all schools applied to, so no worries about feeling like you MUST be face-to-face. We did, however spend a lot of time on campus during re-visit days. I paid a lot of attention to the level of engagement of the students in the classes we observed, which is, after all, why we are not sending our kid to public high school. I also tried to observe different levels (9th, 10th, 11th graders) as well as subjects at each school, and opted out of any “College information” sessions or other EC sessions in favor of classroom observations.
I think your concern over ECs is not that valid. Obviously, people live differently in other cultures, and I would imagine most AO’s recognize this. Lucky for you, not driving from sport-to-sport like us crazy American moms!
Lastly, your English is great!!
I hope that this helps you!
Ahahah! :):)We do run as well! We are just not competitive (you may guess it from from the Olympics or World Cups! Pennetta is an exception!!) …we get crazy as well, we just don’t win !:):);))
Thank you Itcannotbetrue! Your suggestions are really helpful!
I would argue that Italians have life in perspective!!!
I agree with @itcannotbetrue – the extra-curriculars are really not that big a deal. Having a passion about something is important, and it sounds like your daughter has some passions that she can point to. But competing at a national level isn’t required by any means, in fact it would be a very tiny minority of students who could say that. My kids have both been admitted to an excellent boarding school without any demonstrable sports prowess (they enjoy sports quite a bit but aren’t terribly talented at any of them), no musical instruments, and no after school clubs. Honestly, the most important hurdle is the academics. That’s what the top schools are looking at first – can this kid handle the academics and really succeed here? After they feel confident that your kid can get over that hurdle, then they’re looking at all the rest of the stuff – will this kid be a positive force in our community, do they bring diversity (geographically, ethnically, socioeconomically, etc), will they fully engage in the opportunities our school presents, etc.
This is good news! Thank you! 
I was looking at the schools ranking (I know I shouldn’t rely too much on them…)
Why is Loomis Chaffee ranked only 339 in the Best Schools sector on Niche?
Hill 145
St George’s 134
St Mark’s 77
Hopkins 43
Lake Forest 77 !!! Never heard on here!
Kent 161
Not sure. They have all kinds of weird criteria. But we’re happy.
Hi ProudLoomisDad!
What can you tell me about the academics? My DD is really strong there, I need her to go on on a high level, because her Italian school has high requirements when she comes back. Are the Humanities or the Sciences stronger? What’s its best aspect?
I would not get hung up on this. It looks to be user-generated anyway. Can a site that does not even have Andover really be considered accurate in its rankings? 
That sounded really strange to me too! But other ranking reviews rely on niche as well…
Ehhh. Use it as a starting point, not the end-all-be-all. Just like with Amazon. The final determination is what is right for your family, not anybody else’s.
You’re right! No doubt about that!
You might look at George School, a Quaker boarding school in Newtown, Pennsylvania. George offers the International Baccalaureate diploma and accepts students for 12th grade. (An entering 12th grader couldn’t do the two year IB program, but could take IB and AP classes.) It’s an amazing, warm community, in the Quaker tradition.
Thank you Dharmamom! I will look at it. What does exacly mean Quaker tradition?
@Ranu67-- A Quaker could probably better answer this, but it is a Protestant branch of faith that strongly upholds the beliefs of equality, pacifism, integrity, and simplicity. The Quakers run secondary schools in the U.S., mostly located in the Mid-Atlantic states. However, all that being said, their schools do not necessarily feel very “Religious.” We looked at George and liked it as well.
Positive qualities, then! Thanks!