Hello,
I’m interested in applying to boarding school during for the 2024-2025 school year. I’m in 8th grade and my grades are fairly decent (90% average). Most likely I won’t be applying for financial aid so full pay. What schools would you recommend?
You’ll be a bit limited because you’re coming to the game rather late. Few schools have rolling admissions, but sometimes schools have a few open spaces after the dust settles. Your best bet will be schools where you are a good fit. Can you tell us a bit about what you are looking for beyond having space at this point in the game?
Are there any sports or ECs you are looking for? Are you open to single sex schools? Do you care where it is? What is it that interests you about BS?
Preferably a coed but if not that’s okay. Sports: golf and skiing if possible. Location doesn’t matter. I moved from NYC to Asia and don’t really like it culture,etc so I’m moving to boarding schools. I’m just looking for a school for decent ecs and like top 75/50 area so nothing to competitive. I’m currently looking at Switzerland,America and the UK but really any location is fine.
I have known both George and Mercersberg to admit kids “off cycle”. There have usually been reasons – such as a family move,-- but you could reach out now and ask if you could submit an application should they find they have space later in the spring. I don’t think it behooves you to wait.
There are also schools like Fryeburg, featured in the film Maineland, that have rolling admissions. Most boarders are international students, so I think you may want to give some thought to that in leaving your current situation. Canterbury and Cheshire could be worth a look.
Take a look at the Hidden Gems thread. Many are not at all under the radar, but there are quite a few nobody talks about and they’re greatly schools.
Linden Hall (All girls- I heard they have a great riding program), I think Westtown, M’burg, George to name a few. gardenstategal is right to tell you to check the hidden gem thread.
Millbrook sometimes has spots open after March 10.
Thanks, just applied to those schools. One of them said the interview schedule passed but I’m a prospect in their system and can just submit my app and skip the interview. Is that good or bad?
Which school?
Well the interview portion of the application is definitely one of the most important parts of the application but I think it’ll be fine. Only time it can hurt you is if you were going to compete with someone else for the same spot where they have the interview and you don’t.
For rolling admissions (if space available) Winchendon School in MA is co-ed and has many ECs. They offer a year long leadership course, jobs on campus and an annual 2 week “project week” that they call Collab which can be anything from service trips to the Dominican Rebublic, language immersion on campus and in Quebec, learning a trade or craft on or off campus just to give a few examples. It’s also close to skiing and they go many weekends. It’s smaller (285 students) and nice and chill. The sports are great for athletes (and fans), many going D-1, especially with a strong PG program in Basketball, Baseball and Hockey. If you’re not that caliber athlete, you can participate at the JV level or by being a sports writer, social media manager, team manager or photographer. So many ways to be involved. They do arts and dramatic showcases, trips to Boston etc. I believe there are at least 25% international students from places like Nigeria, Canada, Asia and even Bermuda ann Aruba. And, the faculty truly truly care.
Generally, interviews are helpful for both you and the AO to learn a bit more about each other and to try to assess if it’s a good fit.
But it also makes sense that with only 9 days to go until the firstcmajor wave of acceptances that admissions folks are just too busy to interview you now.
You’ve done what you can do, and at this point, there will just be a bit of luck involved. Remember, you only need one! Fingers crossed one of these works out!
kent
Just applied to a total of 8 schools and hopefully, all goes well.
That sounds great I’ll def check out