<p>@Madagascar,</p>
<p>He will need a recommendation from his Math & English teachers, so he needs to be sure to impress those 2 people in particular in the coming academic year.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t start the essay now. A better strategy would be to visit & interview at the schools first, and then write a focused essay that speaks to how he would fit in and contribute some quality to the school. If you have the choice of using a common app (i.e. TABS or SAO) or the school’s own essay (e.g, Gateway portal), then always use the school’s own application. The schools say it doesn’t matter, but they really do prefer their own form. And their own form will enable your son to submit a more tailored essay. The common app will only allow the same generic essay to be submitted to each school. For the non-rolling admissions schools, there is no advantage to sending the completed application early. For those schools the final admit decisions will be made in February. </p>
<p>Your son can also start prepping for the SSAT. No need to get expensive tutoring. Neither of my boys bothered with it. Just go to any bookstore and get yourself an SSAT study guide book. They are in the same section of the bookstore w SAT study guides. There is an Apr & Jun test date coming up (check for int’l test center availability). Wouldn’t hurt to just go ahead and take it as a diagnostic test to see what areas he needs to work on, and to benchmark what schools are a realistic match. If your son actually does happen to kick-a$$ on the test now, then check with the schools one whether they will accept the scores. Some schools require the test be taken no earlier than the Sep test date.</p>
<p>Between now and this fall, start researching schools and putting together a strategic list of schools. We started out w a list of 20 and culled it down to a final 5. You can use school stats to do an initial filtering:<br>
filter for sports & programs: <a href=“Boarding School Search Tool”>http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/searchschools.php</a>
sort by stats: <a href=“Sort Boarding Schools by Key Criteria”>http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/school_ranking.php</a></p>
<p>Since GMTson was applying to be a boarder, we eliminated schools with low %boarding students, like Milton. We also eliminated schools that offer ESL, which is an indication of a lot of int’l kids being admitted for their ability to pay rather than their readiness to play… We also eliminated schools that didn’t offer his sport. BTW, the most prestigious American schools do not offer the IB.</p>
<p>In GMTson’s final list of 5, there were:
- 3 reaches
- 1 match
- 1 safety
What constitutes a “reach”, “match”, or “safety” will differ for each applicant according to his profile, hooks, & need for FA. Madagascar residency will be a hook, but not a guarantee.</p>
<p>Once you put together the list of schools, then you can contact the schools to schedule visits. GMTson2 toured/interviewed at 7 schools. He dropped 2 from his list after the visits, including his #1 choice at the time. At best you can do 2 schools per day. To do this, you have to get the early morning slot and the late afternoon slot, to give yourself enough time to drive between and eat lunch. It is therefore imperative to get on the school’s calendar as soon as possible, to get the early & late time slots. The slots in the 3rd & 4th week of Oct fill up really fast, because that’s when the junior boarding school kids get time off from school to do their visits. </p>
<p>For the interviews, your son needs to be prepared to articulate why he is interested in that particular school and be prepared to list what qualities he would contribute to the school. Coach him to expand on his answers to the interview question. It’s not the answer that is important, but being able to explain the “WHY”… Make good eye contact & show enthusiasm. It takes practice. GMTson2 was getting pretty comfortable w it by his 3 interview. Don’t schedule your favorite school first. </p>
<p>As you have probably observed from the admissions results posted in CC this past round, the competition is intense for getting into the schools w the most prestigious names. Don’t get caught up in that nuttiness. I work w some incredibly educated and internationally cosmopolitan people, and they have not heard of any of the boarding school names, so big whoop…</p>
<p>Another tip for you as int’l family not in western Europe, convenient access to JFK is a huge plus for a school.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>