Private School to Boarding School

CanadaDad
Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:10:28 +0000

This is all very interesting and I appreciate the input. I think there are a few things that may be helpful in terms of getting additional clarity. While I have read that there is a quite the debate about matriculation stats etc, it is a consideration for me (not my son at this point). We want to keep open the option (and also at the same time hopefully increase the odds) of attending a top 10-15 U.S. school, while not closing the idea of going to a top tier Canadian school (McGill, UofT).

I think in terms of school we really have no sense whatsoever of what the perceptions of certain schools are - sink/swim, diversity, size of international student base, % of boarder vs. day school.

My view is that size of international student body is tremendously important, as well as academic rigour and to a lesser extent matriculation. My son is also very outgoing, but at the same time very independent and a self-starter. We would also prefer a non-denominational school so St. Pauls and Groton would be out of the mix.

The school he is at now is very well regarded in Canada, but very local in focus (small boarding population). He’s made some great friends there, but they again are all local and the opportunity to go abroad is very appealing.

Given all of this information, are there some schools that you think would be better or worse? We want to do some visits, but without something to go on it’s hard to start culling the list.

Thanks all,