Has anyone applied and been successful for A Better Chance for middle grades? Looking at grade 6 day admissions and have read that it may be more difficult as the program has focused on high school matches. Let me know any suggestions or best way to proceed and if it would be worth applying.
Pursue both ABC and Caroline Bradley. Those who know early enough in the process that boarding schools are in their future would do themselves a disservice not to do so. If you qualify, go for it.
@onthewestfence Thanks for the suggestion. Will look into it.
Jack Kent Cooke also has a HS program (apply in 7th like Caroline D. Bradley). Cooke has income component.
Hey – just wondering if you ended up applying or not? I applied for 6th grade also for my child and am waiting for June 15th to find out if she was successful…Had never heard of Caroline Bradley, but my child is not old enough anyway, I believe. Good info to know!
@SkysTheLimit2007 Yes I applied and waiting until June 15th as well. Did your child do the benchmark SSAT testing? If so, did you receive the results? Best of luck!
Thank you. We did do the benchmark testing, which apparently was very challenging. No results as of yet and I didn’t realize that they will be mailed (or so I read on the website) I did receive the email this morning regarding the test prep pilot program that “some” of the kids will be encouraged to do. Best of luck to you guys also!
I received the email this morning as well. My child stated it was challenging as well. They told me that they would be sending out results. I am wondering if there will be a fee for this test prep program. If so, when would we have to decide to join before we get notice on June 15th? Have you researched the participating schools in your market? Do you have a specific choice for your child? There are 4-5 in our market for middle grades. Originally I started with just one in mind, but now that I researched the others any will do but distance may be an issue. I have heard that middle grade placement is competitive but hope we make it to the next round. The next step is the summer program prep - did you get those dates and locations?
I’m really not sure how the test prep would work but if selected, we’d welcome it – if there is a fee, I wonder if it would be reduced because of the partnership? Much research has been done and continues! Like you, we had a specific school in mind but now I realize that there may be a couple of especially good matches, 4-5 in our market also. Distance won’t be an issue for those four, one of them is farther than the rest but there is a bus pick up close by that we could use. One of the schools is about 2 miles from our house, yet when I spoke with a parent volunteer, she told me that there are never that many applicants from this area, which boggles my mind. I’ve heard the same about middle grade placement, but also that the earlier grades are open to more applicants – one or two of the schools only begin at 6th grade, so there’s a silver lining! The more I hear about the program, the more I hope for an acceptance! We got the second week in August, I believe as the summer program prep week for the kids only and June 24th for the family, although I can’t remember the location off the top of my head.
I am trying to manage expectations but hope for good news on June 15th. A friend who suggested the program had her son matched to a boarding school in New England. I also know of many other happy parents who have been matched. Our principal was supportive and spoke highly of the community school programs in our area. I hope the process in the fall won’t be too stressful as I have an S18 so we will be applying for college at the same time as this middle school application. Will you leave your child in thru high school? My hope is to only do middle grades for private school but I will see how it goes. This has been the thing in our district, and from what I have read nation wide. Parents will bring their kids back into the public school system for high school where these kids excel and get into top colleges.
I don’t know anyone so far who’s been through the program, except for the family I met at the SSAT and their experience appears to be wonderful – mom spoke very highly of the program. If my child were accepted and matched, depending on the financial aid package and experience, we’d like to stay with the school until 12th – I’m totally fine with that. For us though, the fit of the school is of paramount importance.
I’m still drumming my fingers waiting on these results. I’m so curious now!
Coming in a bit late to the conversation, but I have a son who was in the most recent cohort from ABC. We just finished the process and he will be attending a local day school. The process is pretty intense, but definitely well worth it. We are in the Northeast area and there were two workshops during the summer which basically focused on test prep. Later in the year they had an interview day as well as workshops for the parents for financial aid information. They also piloted a program of online test prep which was very reasonable. It was through Test Innovators and had my son doing online work for most of the summer. I’m not sure how they made decisions about who qualified for the pilot program, but we participated and a friend of mine didn’t.
Good luck on June 15th!
Thank you Momto4kids – it always helps to have the perspective of someone actually in the trenches, so to speak! I actually just received the test prep information from Test Innovators about an hour ago and I agree, seems pretty reasonable. Did your friend choose not to participate or they weren’t invited to? Is your son excited about the school – how about you?!
It was never clear to me about why some were offered the pilot program at a very reduced price, I think it was about 100$ for the whole program which included online chats with a tutor and at least six full length tests. At first I had thought it was based on income level, but I’m not sure. There weren’t that many slots in the pilot program and it required you to respond quickly to the inquiry. I’m surprised that they are talking about all this before you even know if they’ve been accepted into the cohort. Last year it didn’t start until the summer.
Also, the results of the benchmark exam were delivered to us via email.
My son is pretty excited about his school. We had a very dissappointing March 10th and he wasn’t accepted at any of the schools to which he had been referred, including his brother’s school. Fortunately, ABC kept working with us and he was referred to other schools and he was finally placed about a month ago. He also interviewed at a few of the CSP programs and they seemed wonderful. We chose not to go forward with visiting a couple of them as we had a very good day school option. We’re very happy thus far with our ABC experience.
@Momto4kids Thanks for sharing your experience. Do you mind sharing the grade placement? I am glad to hear that they continued to work with you to make a placement. You mentioned your other child was placed as well. Which grade? I have heard it is an intense process so any tips you can share would be appreciated. I also received the test prep email today and plan on participating. Did your child only do the online prep? Or any other tutoring? A friend recommended a local SSAT tutor who seems reasonably priced since she is a college student who also attended an elite ABC boarding school so I am considering it too.
It’s really gratifying to read positive experiences about the program! I was kind of confused though about this test prep – the initial email from ABC says that it’s not mandatory but strongly encouraged, yet the test prep email says that it’s the next step in the application process! Regardless, it’s going to be tough for us because my child is in California right now and won’t be home until Saturday, probably jet lagged at that --the homework is due on the 7th, I believe!
Anyway, the way they pitch it is that it will be helpful even if we don’t get accepted into the cohort. I wonder if they’ve simply identified a weakness in their process and are doing things slightly differently this time around? It does seem odd to start this before knowing the outcome of our application.
My son is going into 9th, so we were in the largest group of kids. I did, however, see a number of kids looking for middle school placements. We have another son who is currently in one of the frequently mentioned schools on this forum. We hadn’t known about the ABC program at the time we was looking at schools so did it on our own. The ABC process was definitely easier because there was only one application and no application fees, however, they referred my second son to 13 schools which required 13 interviews. That was pretty grueling! If accepted into the cohort they will have you start their application process in the early fall with two due dates for materials which include the essays, transcripts and recommendations. They will also have them take the SSAT again.
As far as test prep, we did the online stuff through test innovators. They had weekly assignments with an online session most weekends to go over what they had done. The online session was with many other students as well, so it wasn’t an individual session, however, it was helpful for him to go through the questions that other kids had as well. We also used a tutor who did some individual work with him as well as review his essays and help him sort through school options. It is strange that they are starting it this early, however, as stated above it probably can’t hurt. It’s good to have even if you’re not accepted into the cohort.
So would they have to take the SSAT again along with the ISEE or is it just one of them? If accepted, it looks like my child would only have about five school’s available anyway, that for sure cuts down on grueling interviews…and I checked the Test Innovators website, there is already homework due for 6/7, yikes!
Yes, the one that the kids already took was just a benchmark and is only seen by ABC. They use it for admission for their program. If accepted into the cohort they will take an actual SSAT or ISEE (depending on where you live and type of school to which you are applying). In our case he took the SSAT again in October as a flex test. ABC administered an actual exam and the results were available on the SSAT website.
Another positive thing about ABC is that even if your child isn’t placed in that particular academic year you can continue with the program the next year. You would have to complete new essays and references, but are still part of the cohort. You don’t become an ABC scholar after you are placed into a school.
@Momto4kids Some questions below based on your experience…
1- A question about the financial aid portion of the process. Is there anyway to get an estimate before hand? I asked here on CC if there was such a thing as a Net Price Calculator like colleges have on their web sites. S18 is applying to college and D is applying for middle school via ABC both for Fall 2018. So I would like to have an estimate. Any resources for that?
2- I am getting way ahead of myself since I won’t know until June 15th if we have made it, but one concern is the summer program during the week that you have to attend. I am between two markets. The closest market’s week does not work with our schedule, would ABC allow the student to attend the week in another market? What happens that week? Did you meet other parents and applicants? Do the students enjoy it?
3- Is your high school child applying to colleges soon? Since you mentioned that the school they attend is frequently mentioned I can only imagine that the college counseling is amazing. But do you think attending the school will help with college placement? Do you know if the student can still apply for fee waivers for college applications even though they attend a private/boarding school?