<p>My understanding is that the top tier schools would have very few spots for the junior year, only schools that can not fill all spots would have “left-over” for the junior or even senior year. Am I right, or wrong?</p>
<p>While sympathizing with your tierlevelitis, the acceptance rate for any BS at junior or senior year is extremely low and competitive. Consider repeating sophomore or go for it but can be talking about one to less than 10 openings. Those spots can be any number of boys or girls depending on the situation at each school which changes every year.</p>
<p>My tour guide at Exeter came in as a sophmore and told me that about 30 new juniors arrived in the 2008 school year. About 8 new juniors for SPS. </p>
<p>Left over… Fromwhat I hear some schools build in spots. AND many times 10-15 students may drop out of a grade(I have heard as many as 15 and they said that often happens).</p>
<p>From the Groton website:</p>
<p>For the academic year 2008-2009, Groton enrolled 102 new students: 55 boys and 47 girls. 25 came as Second Formers; 52 as Third Formers; 22 as Fourth Formers; and 3 as Fifth Formers.</p>
<p>The yield was 59%, but I have no clue how that distributes over the forms. Of the 3 new juniors who matriculated, I have no idea how many they accepted for those spots.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with calling and asking what the competition will be like for the schools you’re interested in! It’s a perfectly reasonable question. Perhaps an email to the admissions office?</p>
<p>SPS only admits Jr’s from attrition. Many schools do have built in openings. I would ask when you call to get information how many Jr. openings they have. Or, if you know for certain you’ll be touring/interviewing, ask in the interview.</p>
<p>10-15 kids from a single grade drop out is not impressive.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the info. I get a better picture now.</p>
<p>I asked the above question for my oversea friends. Sending kids to American BS is now a new fashion among the riches in China and I keep getting those questions. </p>
<p>As for myself, I am a mother of a 7th grader who is now a day student in junior boarding school, next year will be our big year. I will be hanging around for a while. :)</p>
<p>Welcome, FayMom!</p>
<p>The schools may see more students leaving due to financial pressures this year. This year, and next year, may therefore see more openings for juniors, even at schools which don’t usually have any. It would be worthwhile to call schools. The worst they can say is no, we’re full.</p>
<p>Welcom FayMom!</p>
<p>With regards to your international friends, I would suggest that they look at 2nd and 3rd tier schools that are not as well endowed, as I suspect that many of these schools will slightly increase their international (full-pay) students in the next year to offset some of the decline in revenues from their endowments used to fund financial aid for domestic students. Plus, there is a bit more turnover in international students in lower tier schools, leaving more opportunities at Junior slots.</p>
<p>Even with that though, the competition for international slots at all boarding schools (even the less selective) is intense, as there are so many applicants that they could fill the campuses with them. Perhaps this will change a bit with the current financial issues, but I think the new areas discovering US boarding schools (like your friends) will more than make up for some of any dropoff from the areas where they are currently coming from.</p>
<p>Good Luck to your friends - and your family too when it comes time.</p>
<p>My understanding that the amount of students BS take from China is largely determined by the amount of student visas the schools can get. In other words, I don’t know if schools would be able to increase over-represented countries to increase full-pay students even if they wanted to.</p>
<p>I am by no means stating this as fact, as I don’t have first hand info. But it is what I was told my someone whose information I deem reliable.</p>
<p>Periwinkle wrote: “The schools may see more students leaving due to financial pressures this year.”</p>
<p>Good point. </p>
<p>Goaliedad wrote: “With regards to your international friends, I would suggest that they look at 2nd and 3rd tier schools that are not as well endowed….”</p>
<p>You are very right. Oversea students are often guided to those lower tier schools by their consultants. Those schools are also marketing aggressively overseas. Getting into good American BS schools has become so competitive that many good students can only end up at the lower tier schools. After coming to the schools, many students often find themselves bored by lacking academic challenges, and start thinking of a better school……that is where applying for junior year comes in the picture. </p>
<p>neatoburrito wrote:” My understanding that the amount of students BS take from China is largely determined by the amount of student visas the schools can get.”</p>
<p>It seems to me that the schools decide by themselves on how many spots given to international students and try to balance the number of students from different countries. I notice that the lower tier the school, the higher the % of international students; a BS in FL has a whopping 75% international student body.</p>
<p>Yes, if a student goes to a lower tier school where they exhaust the course catalog before they graduate, they will be bored. For a Junior, it should be pretty clear whether or not they will have sufficient challenges for the 2 years they are applying. There are some excellent lower tier schools with quite a deep course selection. They should concentrate on reviewing these course catalogs before applying.</p>
<p>I do know that many Chinese (as well as other Asian) families look more for name recognition in their school selection, ignoring the fact that class rank and teacher evaluation is critical when evaluating candidates. Being a shining star at 2nd tier school may yield better results (rank and teacher evaluations) than being just another grinder at a top tier school.</p>
<p>I’ve had this discussion with a Chinese (native) professor friend of mine at the local flagship U. Actually, being in the business, he understands that it is more imporant to get into an undergrad school where you will have great opportunities and shine (he is pushing for his 4.0 with every AP class imaginable daughter to go to Vanderbilt for pre-med as opposed to his wife who thinks the daughter is a failure if she doesn’t get into an Ivy - Ugh!). She doesn’t even understand that Amherst/Williams (and a few others) are actually better places to study pre-med than some Ivies.</p>
<p>Of course the financial aspect (merit money at Vandy vs full-pay elsewhere) of the decision is also important because quite frankly, once you get into med school, nobody cares where your undergrad came from, much less where you went to high school. </p>
<p>And FayMom, you do make a valid point - check out the percentage of international students before applying. Any school with more than 20% foreign students will struggle giving them an “American” education.</p>
<p>And even within that 15-20% internationals (typical of most 2nd and 3rd tier NE prep schools), make sure you find a good variety of homelands. For example at my D’s school, only about 3/5 of the internationals are Asian (mostly Korean and Chinese) with a good mixture of Europeans (my D’s roommate this year is a German), Canadians, Latin Americans, and Africans (yes, from Africa), making quite an interesting cultural exchange.</p>
<p>And quite frankly from talking to admissions folks at my D’s school, they are more interested in the international kids who are most interested in being involved in the non-academic part of the school (athletics, arts, student government). They’ve been quite successful, having recently had a Korean class president and a Chinese football star (written up in many newspapers). Now I am not betting on the Chinese football star to play in the NFL, but I would bet money on his getting a big bump in admissions at a NESCAC school (he is well-qualified from what my D told me). The funny thing is he had never heard of American football before showing up on campus. He just poured himself into doing everything he could at the school. </p>
<p>And you know what?? He is getting a far more valuable education in working with the American culture than the kid who buries himself in his books trying to get that 780 Math SAT score to an 800. And if he goes back to China when he is finished with an American university, he will be more valuable to an American company trying to do business in China. </p>
<p>Pardon me if I am a bit overbearing, but even with many American prep students, they forget that so much of success in a career is developing those social skills that happen in the sporting venues, playing in the school band, being a participant in student government. It is not the name on the top of your diploma that counts, it is what your experience at a school does to develop you as a person that counts in the long run.</p>
<p>Getting off my soap box… (for those of you who know me, I never really do)</p>
<p>yes, Asians tend to go after brand names, school included. Giving up HYP for a LAC is crazy in their eyes.</p>
<p>As for “well-rounded”, it is a rather new concept for folks in China, where good test scores are the only thing a student needs to get into a top school. Growing up in that culture myself, I can see both good and bad side of it.</p>
<p>I talked to a friend today who just came back from a road show of over 50 American boarding schools in Beijing. She said it was a packed house. Most of the schools at the show were lower tier schools.</p>
<p>
I know at least one student from China who went to SSAT CAMP one summer in order to raise his scores from upper 80’s. He went daily for 3-4 weeks. They did several practice tests each day. It worked. He did score in the mid-90’s. Unfortunately, the rest of his application was fair and he was not accepted at any of the “big name” schools, which was of course, the goal. He didn’t need the 90+ to get in where he did.</p>
<p>Linda, </p>
<p>I would be surprised that if any of the kids from China took SSAT WITHOUT going through a SSAT camp or class first. Test prep schools in general has become such as a “successful” biz overseas that even Chinese parents here in the States have started sending their American born and educated kids back to China during the summer, to prepare American tests. Sounds funny, isn’t it?</p>