<p>if you’ve been a big time football player at public school, the atmosphere at the boarding school is just so different. The Friday Night Lights setting is gone – replaced by Saturday afternoon in New England. Students stop by after <em>their</em> games – because almost every student is playing a sport and Saturday afternoon (after class) is game day. There’s no cheerleaders, no marching band, and just a small group of parents. Also generally no admission, small wooden bleachers, and probably not a concession stand. </p>
<p>The glitz and the glitter is absent – replaced by the philosophy of “Mens sano in corporo sano.”</p>
<p>It’s different – and you should be prepared for that difference.</p>
<p>At Blair there were a number of PGs who were not there just for another year of athletics. There were certainly PG athletes, especially wrestlers, but there wree also kids just needing an extra year to get it together for college. I have met PGs from other schools who were not athletes.</p>
<p>cnp55: For me there would be no transition. In my school of 60 probably 40 play sports so there aren’t any cheerleaders or bands either, although there are tickets for games and concession booths. We finish our game, take showers, and then go watch the girls’ game.</p>
<p>Anyone willing to hazard a guess on whether i can get into andover, exeter, deerfield, or hotchkiss? </p>
<p>My SAT will be comfortably higher than the average of all the top bs -graduates- but i imagine postgraduates might be expected to have higher scores. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if i did this right but i used an EFC calculator and it came back with a very low figure, $1300. So, that might be a large deterrent for admission. I most likely can’t go to one of these schools if i have to pay more than 5000 of the stick price, unless a financial miracle drops on me. Can i get this kind of aid?</p>
<p>You’re an Oregon resident studying in Belgium and can’t pay more than $5,000?</p>
<p>I think you’re looking for a financial miracle: Manna from Boarding Schools.</p>
<p>The one thing you’ve got going in your favor is that you’re a one-off hit against the FA cash drawer. You’ll only need aid that one year.</p>
<p>But, instead of having me guess what a BS will want to do with its money, I think your stark need for FA is all the more reason to explore what you’re trying to achieve with a PG year. And remember, the fact that you’re trying to regain the year (and money) you’re now spending in Belgium is a double-edged sword. Instead of asking a question with an obvious answer: “Yes, the more aid you seek, the tougher it will be to get accepted,” your time would seem to be better spent trying to figure out how to present yourself to schools that will make them want to invest a substantial amount of money in you…for a year.</p>
<p>D’yer Maker:That’s good advice, which i plan on taking.
I’m able to be here because rotary exchanges are very reasonable, i work every summer, and i sold my truck. Any activity during my gap year will be financed mainly by me. I need to start a business or something. Working for barely above minimum wage is getting old…fast. Still, i’m happy to have a job. Maybe i could do some fundraisers. </p>
<p>Well anyways, thanks everyone for all your help, this forum is great. I’ll see how it all turns outs in '08. Ciao.</p>
<p>I am familiar with applicants to the service academies being encouraged to attend boarding school to enhance academic preparation before attending the navel academy. These students also are very athletic and well disciplined so they are welcomed by many PG accepting schools. I will call Blair and some other schools to get their input. Blair admissions is not currently accepting phone calls until after decisions go out. The ideal PG at an academically elite boarding school would be a foreign schooled international student headed for a U.S. university who wants a year to absorb the culture and language before attending a college or university. This just doesn’t seem to happen much.</p>
<p>i am an international student who wants to do a PG year in the US, but I’m not an athlete, does that hurt my chances?
in my country, we have 13 years of school, that would make me a year older than other PGs, is that a problem?
does it help that my country is not represented at all at american boarding schools?
do i have to be accepted at a college in the US prior to the PG year and is it enough if I plan to go there after a PG year?
i would really love to go to boarding school</p>
<p>No,you do not have to be accepted to a college or university to be a PG at a boarding school. Age may be of some concern as many parents might be a bit uncomfortable with their 14,15,16 and 17 year old children attending school and living with a 20 year old student. Some schools actually have an age limit for eligibility as a student.Not being an athlete does not hurt your chances if you can pay the full tuition and fees,thus not requiring financial aid,AND if you can justify why you need a PG year. But your age may still be an issue. The fact that your country is not represented at a school probably will increase your chance of admission.</p>
<p>I will be turning 20 at the end of april, so I would be 19 for most of the year
I’m already taking pretty advanced courses this year and also next year, I’m even taking some classes at my local university which is not usual for high school students here, will a PG year look like a waste of time to them, academically? Because I could also apply to some good colleges in the US
And I already spent a semester of my junior year at a high school in the US as an exchange student and I liked it so much that I would like to repeat this experience at a boading school</p>
<p>Yes,in my opinion due to your age,your command of the English language and your experience attending an American school, I think a PG year is a waste of your time without more of a justification for needing such. Many adults wish that they could go back to the innocence of high school;and many high school students want to stay where they are comfortable. Growth is a sometimes uncomfortable process,that’s why it is called “growing pains”. From my very limited knowledge of your situation I think that you need to move on to college.</p>
<p>One could just as easily say, “Women who bear children have obviously never delivered a child.”</p>
<p>There’s a certain defense mechanism in the brain that blocks out recollection from the pain receptors that were used so often during childhood and during pregnancy/labor that makes people go back for more, despite no rational basis for doing so. I imagine it’s the same part of the brain in both cases…in which case one could argue that the survival of the human race is predicated on the brain functions that make adults yearn for childhood.</p>
<p>Prettyckitty: I agree 100% and,as a parent, would be a bit uncomfortable having a 14 or 15 year old child living in the same dorm as a 20 year old student. Many students are unable to let go of the comfort and security of college and never leave. That’s okay because all are adults;but to those who refuse to leave high school, I think that some motivational counseling is in order both for the benefit of the 20 year old and for the safety of the minor children.</p>
<p>The information I have so far from several boardings schools is that the kids are often put in dorms according to classes – so that seniors aren’t dorming with freshmen. I would think that PG kids would also be separated from the younger kids in most cases.</p>
<p>However – in this case I will agree with Garrity, I think you are probably ready for college. If you are looking for a way to strengthen your application to top schools, you might consider a more productive way to spend a gap year in the US other than at a boarding school.</p>
<p>From reading the posts by the kids interested in the PG year, I don’t think either one expressed an interest in refusing to leave high school. It seems that both posters were under the impression that a year in boarding school would add to their resume, clear up any deficits in their transcripts and make them more appealing to top schools – and that may be true for some kids. I don’t think either poster is in need of motivational counseling – nor does either poster seem to pose a threat to any minor children.</p>
<p>Don’t take that too seriously, D’yer. I believe that childhood is in many ways one of the most precious and wonderful times in life (though I can’t really say this, as I haven’t experianced anything besides childhood), but it does come with immense challenges and hardships.
I do agree that I would be a little uncomfortable sending my child at the really still quite young age of thirteen to a school where he would be with twenty year olds.</p>
<p>When we were gathering information about BS for our PG S, we discovered that most schools will not accept a PG student who will be 20 before the end of the school year. Other schools will not accept a student who will be 19 before entering in September. Bridgton (which is an all PG school) may be an exception. </p>
<p>We also found that the dorms were grouped by class year (not age) so that freshmen were generally only with freshmen (other than the RAs) and PGs were in the same dorm with seniors (and sometimes juniors). </p>
<p>Also, there didn’t seem to be that many 13 year old freshmen. Most of them were 14-15 years old before the start of their first year. We even know of some freshmen who turned 16 in their first year, so PGs are probably the least of your worries if you are sending a 13 year old. Freshmen and PGs won’t be rooming together or have many classe together anyway. (There is probably a huge difference between a 15 year old freshman and an 13 year old freshman that you might want to consider!)</p>
<p>At many schools, senior prefects live in the dorms with lower students. It is a leadership position with some privileges. They help the students acclimate to the boarding community. Often younger students will talk to older students before they will talk to faculty. There might be one prefect per floor or one or two in a dorm.</p>
<p>At my son’s PG school, he lived in a “freshman” dorm. There were 30 freshmen, plus 3 senior prefects, plus the prefect’s roommates (affectionately termed ‘defects’) and 4 PGs. The PGs roomed with each other, and their rooms were directly across from the prefect’s room – making a senior end of the hall. At the other end of the hall was the dorm parent’s apartment.</p>
<p>There’s some sense to that set-up, cnp55, because other dorms will have students who have spent 2-3 years bonding with each other. The PGs will come in new, like the freshmen do, and there’s no goal of getting them to form long-term relationships (roommate-wise, that is) so why bother tossing them into the mix of upperclass relationships that have worked out over time.</p>
<p>No, it’s not to say that it’s the only way or the right way, but I do see the logic in having PGs move in with freshmen…in a cluster…near the prefects.</p>