he has made it very clear he is fine with my going to a boarding school if i get in, he just isnt ok with me delaying my graduation date by a year. and regarding finances, every school im considering is commited to 100% finaid and judging by my families finances its highly likely we would recieve enough that it wont be a strain. not necessarily guaranteed, but likely enough that finances shouldnt discourage me from applying.
Then all anyone here can say is apply and give it your best shot.
i mean i meant 0 safeties within prep schools but i want to change bc of the following (copied from another reply): “first of all, due to no fault of my incredible teachers, our classes are forced to be lecture based with minimal discussion, that promotes teaching to the test rather than for actual conceptual understanding- even the most advanced courses or niche electives have class sizes around 30 people. exeter or andover or whatever other school solves this by having much smaller class sizes, around 12 people maximum and often less, as well as not utilizing any standardized curriculum for most courses, allowing them to use discussion based courses that teach actual understanding of the content rather than rote memorization. secondly, i aspire to be a chemical engineer, and these schools have courses like ochem and thermdynamics (or fluid dynamics) as well as multi and linalg that i couldnt ever take where im at now. thirdly i do obviously have a passion for the german language and the full immersion programs at those schools go much deeper than anything i can experience where im at, as well as having upper level courses be based on german film and literature rather than just an ap curriculum.”
what im looking for in a school is really just german programs, halal meat, and good stem with at least ochem and multi. and i do have reasons for not doing a semester in germany (mostly that it contradicts with some of my goals in stem, makes access to halal food more difficult depending on where i go, and my parents arent nearly as comfortable with it as with a regular BS)
also with everyone telling me do a german semester abroad: german is an auxilliary goal for me, not nearly as important as what i care about for stem, but important enough that i still want to continue studying it through all 4 years of high school. it might’ve came off that i care mostly about german but that wasnt ever my intention and i only mentioned it bc so few schools have german.
imo if outside provider means doing it virtually then im not open to the idea. as said in another comment somewhere in this thread my goal is not complete fluency that one would see through a semester/year abroad, rather just continuing to study the language at a rigorous level with other people (aka not online) while pursuing my goals in stem. its important enough that i wont sacrifice it for BS level stem, but not important enough that ill sacrifice stem for it by doing sem/year in germany.
1 Like
I think that this is valid. Having a valid reason to want to transfer might improve your chances.
Organic chemistry, thermodynamics, and linear algebra are all courses that are commonly taken in university. I have heard that organic chemistry can be quite tough, but I never took it (my wife and both daughters did take it, but in university). I quite liked thermodynamics and at least to me this is a class that has some relevance to discussions of energy use and global warming, which might suggest that it would be good for more people to have taken it at some point. I am assuming that by “multi” you mean multi-variate calculus, which again is a good class to take at some point (and is something that I found to be very useful). Also, for any language some degree of immersion does seem like a good idea to me. Strictly speaking you could wait until university for most of this, although I can see why you might want to take these earlier.
Again this sounds valid to me.
We applied one time to a highly selective private school, and were turned down. I think that part of the reason why we were turned down was that the school felt that staying where we already were was a better choice for us, and I think that they turned out to be correct. In contrast, you seem to have valid reasons to want to transfer. While this may help your chances, I still find it quite difficult to predict what your chances actually are. I think that you just need to apply and see what happens.
However, it does sound like you are in a pretty good spot where you are now, even if it is not perfect. Very little in life is perfect.
It sounds like you are doing very well. Best wishes.
Wasn’t online, but saturdays, all morning. There were a number of kids in the area (not necessarily at BS) who had one parent who was a native speaker who were part of this program.
im in a good enough spot where i wont be like cooked for the rest of my life if i cant leave, certainly, but yea as you said its definitely worth it to apply. thanks for your advice.
It would also be helpful to understand the level of math and science courses you have taken to date, given your focus on engineering. If you are interested in taking multivariate calculus and linear algebra in high school, what level of calculus are you currently taking? How are you doing in that class? This might give us a better sense of whether or not you would find the transition into one of these highly academic schools reasonable, or whether it might be the appropriate level of challenge for you.
2 Likes
im in precalculus rn which is essentially the highest level of math a sophomore can reasonably be in, unless you took a random test in 5th grade which i didnt even learn about till like 8th. which means assuming im on track to complete multi by the end of hs, linear it depends on the school (for some its part of the three term sequence with multi for some its a seperate course after multi that i prolly wouldnt be able to take). regarding science im in honors chem and ap physics 1, which is the highest level a sophomore can be in, and for this one there arent even tests to accelerate.
edit: forgot to mention that in all of them i’m doing fine
1 Like
You are doing fine for a student interested in eventually going into engineering (or mathematics or physics). You do not need to be accelerated any more than you are, or even accelerated as much as you already are.
In math there is a very long progression of classes that depend upon previous classes. Thus it makes sense to make sure that you understand each step very well and be very cautious about jumping ahead. Calculus in particular is a class that depends heavily on ALL of its prerequisites. Also, calculus is a class that is going to be used a LOT in future classes. As such this is something that is worth taking the time to learn very well (and this does involve multiple years of classes in a well understood progression).
To me again it sounds like you are already doing very well. However, you really can wait until you get to university to take quite a few of the classes that you have mentioned, including university level chemistry and organic chemistry and thermodynamics and linear algebra and multivariate calculus, and language classes that get into German film and literature.
11th grade is important for university admissions, which at least to me does not make it an ideal time to switch to an academically more demanding high school. I expect that admissions at selective private high schools are very familiar with this issue.
And students at selective colleges and universities come from a huge range of high schools.
2 Likes
i do understand what you are saying, i think however that its more of an argument that im not done for if i stay where im at, rather than an argument i shouldnt consider applying. im prolly still gonna apply unless something changes now until january, so that if i luck out and get in, the option is always on the table and im able to choose whether to go rather than being forced to stay- and if i dont get in nothing changes against if i hadn’t applied at all.
Look at George School – they have a way to accelerate in math without summer classes. If that appeals, there are also other places that have similar academic calendars. It’s not a given that being at a school with those options will necessarily give you access to them.
1 Like
a. im not too keen on further acceleration cuz its a risky move, considering that im in precal now and will be doing BC/equivalent in 11th further acceleration would mean skipping BC which is not a good idea whatsoever.
b. they dont seem to have bc (dont quote me on this) and regardless they def dont have german so its automatically disqualified
they dont seem to have multi*
Most of the 700 level classes have BC as a prerequisite. But you seem to know what you want.
1 Like
700 classes/classes with bc as prereq ≠ multivariable. but regardless if theres no german its out of consideration for me effectively.
High school catalogs with extensive post-AP options look impressive, but it’s important not to confuse them with actual university-level coursework. They are advanced for high school, but they fall well short of equivalent classes at elite colleges.
More importantly, taking these courses rarely buys you a shortcut in college. If a subject is required for your major, most top universities will require you to take their version anyway—or, at minimum, force you to prove mastery by passing their own internal placement test.
5 Likes
i never wanted to skip the college courses, i wanted to be more prepared for them by knowing a good chunk of the content. a chemical engineering major would be a fool to try to test out of ochem.
1 Like