How do you know what kind of a school is a good “fit”?
What kind of culture and community are you looking for?
I know you don’t personally know me, so you cant really help me decide what my deciding factors should be but, when you and/ or your children were looking into boarding schools, what were some of your deciding factors? How many schools did you apply to and how many do you think is a good amount for me to apply to?
Make your way over to the sit down dinner and homework threads under the “Parents” topic. There are some great, real observations going on about school culture. You can find rigor easily. Can’t throw a rock without hitting a school with rigor. It is everything else that matters to finding the right school for you.
Do you want a school that feels like a college campus or a small school?
Do you like living in the woods or the city?
What kind of teaching style do you like?
How close to home do you want to be?
How much obvious faculty support do you want? Are you going to be ok figuring out a social landscape or adjusting academically with very little adult help or do you want a close faculty relationship to help you.
Are there schools where you will max out on say math classes and do those schools have a way to keep you taking classes and engaged in math. Ie the freshman taking calculus.
Do you want to be able to play sports or star in a school play? Size matters here.
What about class requirements? There’s a LOT less flexibility in the courses you take than you think when you look at course catalogues.
Do you care about dress codes. Will you hate wearing a jacket n tie or a dress every day?
How do you FEEL when you are on campus? Some kids get a gut reaction to schools.
Do you want a school with a collaborative student body? If that’s important to you and you don’t want to be completing with classmates you need to suss this out.
That’s just scratching the surface. This place is going to be your HOME for 4 years.
I want a school that feels more like a college campus.
I would prefer to live in the city, or an area near the city.
I don’t have any sort of preference when it comes to teaching style, some of my teachers like very collaborative classes where we always talk and work with our peers, while other teachers just give us lectures, expect us to take notes, then test us. I work equally well in both environments.
As long as the school is in the US i’m okay with it. I don’t have a problem with living across the country from my parents, nor do I have a problem with living across the street from them.
As I’ve moved around a lot, I’ve gotten used to adjusting socially and academically without much help. I know going to boarding school will be a WAY bigger change, but I’ll be ok with some, but not too much, adult help.
The only schools I’ve looked at that I would max out on classes in, are local boarding schools.
I am very interested in playing sports, and although I am not interested in school plays, I am interested in arts like choir or a cappella.
No, dress codes don’t bother me.
Collaborative communities don’t bother me, but it’s not something that I have to have. I would be fine in a competitive or a collaborative environment, or a community that has a little bit of both. I think being in a slightly competitive environment would push me to get better and being collaborative would allow me to learn from others who are stronger in some areas than I am.
I do realize that this is going to be my home for 4 years, and that is something I’ve been taking a little too lightly. I am trying to look for schools that would be a good fit for me, not just the elite schools. The more famous schools are the first ones I thought of because attending a bigger school is great to put on a college application, but I did actually think Andover would be a good place for me. I still really want to get in but, as many people have suggested, I will look into more schools.
@one1ofeach do you mind my asking what boarding school your son is at? I have a second child applying, and I’m not convinced an off-the-charts workload is a good fit. I’m trying to get a feel for different schools. Thanks!
@Itz_Mkay Gosh, I just reread your post. Sorry to hear some people have been so mean and nasty at school. I personally think Andover, and many other boarding schools, are very non-cliquish, accepting, and SOME try hard to admit people from lots of very different backgrounds. (Can you tell I am a fan of prep school lol?) (To research diversity, I personally think it helps to look up the school’s stats on “% students of color” and “% students who are international” plus read reviews of the school — do people say it is an accepting atmosphere, etc.)
For Andover, I think getting your scores up is/was your biggest challenge. You are clearly interested in school, have good grades, and have lots of different hobbies and volunteer work. Good luck ?
Even beyond students of color some prep schools really focus on inclusion in more subtle ways. The number of kids from our prep school who will be first gen college students is astounding. You can’t pick them out of a crowd unless you have long conversations with parents and find out that they didn’t go to college. It has been interesting. Without a doubt there are more of these kids at some schools than at others. The preconceived notion that prep schools are filled with rich senators’ sons is pervasive.
@OneOfEach , if this topic interests you, you might enjoy “the privileged poor”. Interesting insight into how first gen kids from BS fare in college vs those from less privileged high schools.
Thank you, I will look that up at the library.
This is one of my favorite things about my son’s school and I think a big part of why he chose it over the other main contender. He had a lot of friends from different backgrounds at his old school and I think he felt more comfortable with the diversity here.
Hey everyone!
I just got my ISEE test scores back, and my scores are:
Verbal Reasoning - 95%
Reading Comprehension - 98%
Quantitative Reasoning - 96%
Mathematics Achievement - 86%
@Itz_Mkay I am THRILLED to read this!!! To think that you were in the 50 to 70% leap just a couple of months ago! Your hard work paid off, and I cannot wait to see what is next for you! Congratulations. Nicely done.
Congratulations, @Itz_Mkay! Well done.
If you’re still looking for schools that offer Japanese and astronomy, you can add SPS to the list. But maybe you’ve moved from that already. J
Thanks for the suggestion @GoatMama, someone actually said the same thing to me not too long ago, so SPS is one of the schools I am applying to.
Congratulations! Any school would be happy to have you! Make certain to point out the obstacles you have had to overcome to get to where you are academically. The stress of multiple moves and being bullied shows you are a person on strong fortitude. The schools put a huge amount of weight of this. Wishing you the best!
Our friend’s son is at Hotchkiss. He loves it. Hotchkiss prides itself on inclusion. It has one of the highest diversity percentages in the country. Check it out. Best Wishes!
Hotchkiss is a great school, no question about it! However, it’s in the middle of the pack in terms of diversity. There are a bunch of NE BS with a higher proportion of URM and/or FA students, if that’s how diversity is defined. Just noting.
Hey guys! I’m the OP but I got locked out of my old account so I’ll be posting here until further notice.
I just wanted to ask for updated chances.
So I got all of my essays read by a student from an Ivy League college, and they helped me edit it (they didn’t go and type anything or cover up my voice, they just helped with grammar and flow), and they said that they found my essays genuinely interesting and that they revealed my personality in a nice way.
My ECs haven’t changed much; I got promoted to 8th-grade board leader in Beta Club and well this isn’t an EC but I included in my application that I took in the PSAT/NMSQT and got an 1120 (84th percentile)
My recs are all good, especially my personal rec (she let me read it)
My Choate and Exeter interviews were great
Andover was ok
St.Pauls was bad
That’s all that’s new… I’m only posting because I just turned in my applications and now that I have, I don’t feel confident at all, do I have a chance?
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