Schools that take (non-athletic) juniors?

Prep School Admissions
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Okay, I have 27 hours in which to freak out that we haven’t applied to enough “safety” schools. (spoiler alert: we didn’t apply to any!)

Daughter is looking to transfer junior year. She’s not an athlete (but former champion in an unusual sport that no top college has). Attends a “lower tier” boarding school currently, with all As. Top quartile SSATs for math, top 5% for verbal. An amazing extracurricular, sponsored by a US government agency, that is highly competitive. Wants to go into foreign service and/or diplomacy, and is learning several less-common “languages of national importance” (through official venues, not just Duolingo). Plays viola AND upright bass in her school orchestra, as well as a few other instruments.

I think she sounds like an AMAZING candidate. But I also know that it’s a total lottery, and also I’m biased. Especially for junior year. The schools we’ve spoken to almost all say they admit between 0 and 5 juniors, and the schools with the higher stats said they’re mostly looking for top athletes.

Suggestions for schools that take more than the average number of juniors? And where sports aren’t as important? She’s currently applying to:
Choate (she’s already learning Arabic and wants to concentrate in it), Groton (LOVES the music program, loved her visit there), THINK Global (she’s all about travel), Nobles (she visited a bunch of local schools, and Nobles REALLY resonated with her), BU Academy (again, to take less common languages and international studies), Winsor (their science and art programs), Milton (again, their science and art programs, and their campus really resonated with her), and Cambridge School of Weston (she loved the mod system, and all the classes she’d be able to take… and, honestly, these folks are just her general vibe). They’re all different, but I think she’d thrive at all of them, and she has specific reasons to go to all. I think we applied to all the day schools we’re interested in (we visited more, they didn’t really resonate), but are there other boarding suggestions within a 3 hour drive of Boston that are known for having a number of openings for juniors who don’t play sports, and are very academically rigorous?

ETA: I forgot a MAJOR thing: we need financial aid.

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Not outside of Boston, but I know that Mercersburg accepts juniors and is generous with financial aid.

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If she’s already at a boarding school why does she want to transfer?

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George School has the same academic calendar/schedule as CSW and a similar vibe. They accept juniors and are generous with FA. You could take a look.

As a general observation, when I look at your list, it’s hard to know what you’re looking for in terms of environmental. For a student leaving a school that they don’t like, that’s probably important to get right.

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I don’t know if Peddie takes “more than average” but there are a few every year. Occasionally they apply after the usual timeline on a “rolling” basis. The school has a reputation for strong STEM (its well deserved) but the History and English departments are excellent. Each year there are a few very accomplished musicians.

Having said that, I think somewhat commonly kids reclass and come in as repeat 10th graders. Is this something you have considered?

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I am not sure how many Concord Academy takes as 11th graders, but that seems like an obvious addition if you like CSW - CA seems like a slightly preppier but more rigorous cousin to CSW and not that sporty - certainly from day student side many kids apply to both…It seems closer to CSW than any of the others you mention honestly. (Groton or Choate seem extremely different than CSW to me). CA is not a safety though.

The athlete part shouldn’t matter for BUA and the fact she isn’t STEM focused is probably a big advantage as math kids flock to it given the never ending math options. Would she mind not being at a boarding school though?

How about a Putney?

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Thank you! I’ll take a look there.

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She’s looking for more academic rigor, a wider variety of electives, and she would like to be closer to home (her current school is 8+ hours away). There was also a head of school change that seems to have created a strong cultural shift within the school, and my husband and I have some concerns about that. Several of her favorite teachers quit, some in the middle of the school year, last year. Perhaps the change will be good for the school in the long run, but it was not good in the short.

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Really? Her top priority is increased academic rigor and more class opportunities. She is generally pretty adaptable, makes friends easily, and I can see her being happy at any of these schools. We knocked off a number of schools because she didn’t like the campus vibe. I would be very interested to know more of any concerns you have about the atmosphere of any of these schools conflicting with each other. I know that CSW is an outlier on the list, but it did check most of our boxes, and is the closest to a “safety” on the list… they do take a number of juniors, and aren’t as academically rigorous as the others. If it’s the only school she gets into, I think she would be happy there.

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Thank you, we’ll look at Peddie (especially if they take some rolling admissions!)

Reclassing is sort of complicated in this case, for reasons that would take a long time to explain (but the schools know… basically, her amazing extracurricular already put her a year younger than her grade, so she’d be staying back 2 years, which I think it’s a great look)), and we’d be open to 10th grade, but none of the schools brought it up. Perhaps we should have asked more, but I guess lesson learned.

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She does want a coed school, and based on where we live in the Boston area, CA is more complicated for us to get to than the others. Even though I think she has a more artsy/alternative vibe, the schools that resonated with her were quite preppy, for lack of a better word, which I did find interesting.

I love Putney, and I wanted to go there as a kid. She’s a talented artist and musician, but she isn’t looking for an arts school. She thought that Walnut Hill was interesting, but was more interested in very academic programs.

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Not concerns, observation. Boarding, day, big, small, arty, buttoned up. If you feel like they all work, that’s all that matters. Most kids who love Groton don’t love CSW. BU Academy is pretty different from Choate.

I understand wanting to leave where you are and needing FA.

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I don’t think she particularly cares about any of those things. She’s very pragmatic, and trying to figure out where she can get the best education at this point. I think that applying as a junior is different from applying as a freshman: she has more defined college and career goals, and she knows the classes and programming that she wants access to. Boarding v. day and big v. small doesn’t really affect those things… we are very lucky that we live in Boston and so there are a million day school options to choose from, but that’s really just luck that we live here and so has great day v. boarding options.

She’s also a genuinely nice, interesting kid who has always made friends easily in all sorts of environments, so I don’t worry about her socially at any of the schools we’re applying to, all of which are full of smart kids she’ll enjoy hanging out with. There ARE schools that I don’t think she’d be happy at socially, but I don’t think that the kids at any of these schools are markedly different enough that she wouldn’t find her people easily.

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Did you look at Williston-Northampton? They have the Williston Scholars program which allows students to do independent study in subjects they are interested in. Also, when we were touring/at visit day, multiple kids told us that their favorite teacher/class was AP Government - a dynamic teacher in that class may foster her interest in foreign service. I think they usually take a few juniors. Everyone on campus is super friendly and in our experience they are generous with aid.
Anecdotally when we looked at Concord they told us they rarely take 10th or 11th graders, maybe one or two a year. And I know someone personally who transferred into Groton for 11th grade three years ago but she was the only new 11th grader, they also rarely take students for 11th. I think Choate and CSW are probably they best bets from your list. But check out Williston, my son loves it.

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It may matter to the schools though. They are looking not just for kids who can extract value from them, but kids who contribute to the community. Especially upper-classmen. Probably less of an issue at day schools. But as you are worried about having adequate options, this plays into it.

You are very fortunate for the having so many options in your area, and your D sounds like an interesting kid. Hopefully it all works out!

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We didn’t, but that sounds great! We’ll look into Williston-Northampton, too.

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If she fits the general vibe, her chances should be good at CSW.

(I’m an alum and current parent.)

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Not related to this thread, but could I ask you about CSW? I’m very interested in the school and theres a few questions I want to ask about it.

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Ask away! I’ve had two kids apply there, and we really enjoyed it. My other kid ended up going to a different school, but I was really hoping he’d pick CSW :slight_smile:

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Feel free to PM me.