unhappy situation; admissions as junior?

fadedskyline
Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:19:21 +0000

Let’s see, going out of order, but:


Right off the bat I’m going to say that SPS admits hardly any juniors. I applied there myself and was told pretty much from the start when I arrived at my interview (before I had sent anything in - so it wasn’t because of me) that I should apply to repeat 10th grade if I wanted to get in. They only have about 5 spots open for junior year (so 2 or 3 of your gender) and I’ve heard most of those go to local high school students. However, since I expected this of a lot of schools I wasn’t too dissapointed.


I was pleasantly surprised to find out that some bigger (and equally, if not more “prestigious”) schools accepted more like 25 kids for junior year! I applied to both andover and exeter and was admitted to both for my junior year. (And I’m not some crazy super-genius either! I mean, I’m well rounded, but I don’t really know what I want to do with my life, and to be perfectly honest haven’t done anything insanely special with it so far – I’m hoping boarding school will give me the independence to start sorting those sorts of things out!) Andover, especially, seemed really geared towards welcoming new 11th graders, as the english course you take the first two terms consists solely of new 11th graders, allowing you to find a group of people all going through the same experience you are!

That being said, I still think the actual transition IS going to be hard. I mean, changing schools in general is difficult and junior year in general is difficult so the two of them together might be absolute insanity. However, right now it is an insanity I am strongly considering risking. I didn’t meet anyone at my visit of exeter who was a new 11th grader, but I’m hoping I will at andover, I really want to talk through the experience with them because I think they’re really the people who know best!


Now as to your first question, I feel that in general prep schools are much more welcoming towards lgbt, but at the same time it is a small community so gossip spreads fast and nowhere’s perfect, so there will be some unwelcoming people. However, I feel that the majority of these prep schools have a GBSA club or something along those lines and are very welcoming of the lgbt community. I have heard that andover especially, is very involved in this front (perhaps even overly so).


Anyways, don’t stress too much. Definitely go for it and apply, and if you don’t get in, nothing much lost because that’s the same result as if you didn’t apply! And if you do get in, that’s really exciting because then you have the choice of what you want to do! Anyways, best of luck to you!