@Momto4kids that’s music to my ears to know that in theory we could continue next year, since a few more schools open up for 7th grade. I did get confused with the testing, we’d have to do the ISEE in our neck of the woods and for a moment thought you meant to do both! Yes, I was aware of that – thanks!
@magnetnh one of the parents I spoke with has an older child in college that they were paying for, then learned of ABC for the next child. They received a mind-bogglingly generous financial aid package from the school but I’m sure it depends on the individual school and how attractive the candidate.
@SkysTheLimit2007 Hoping your child has started with the Test Innovators web site. Based on the emails it seems like activity and engagement will be tracked. We have completed some of the assignments from the dashboard. My plan is to have my daughter review with the tutor and continue with test prep. Even if we don’t make it to the ABC cohort I have been urged by other parents that I should consider applying to schools directly. Also, regarding financial aid I found an old thread listed below #5 which lists some schools with financial aid estimator calculators that you could use to gauge financial aid based on your income and family size. Choate is another school that has a financial aid estimator that you may use so google it.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1982679-prep-school-and-financial-aid.html
@magnetnh Yes, my daughter started the work from the website just yesterday. She has been out of town and only just came back so I emailed and asked for an extended deadline for the homework, which they gave her. I’m glad they were flexible because she could never get through it otherwise. She enjoyed some of it, but boy some areas need work!!! I’m not sure what to think or what the strategy should be. I’m going to wait though until 6/15 to see if we’re accepted or not, then plan accordingly. My problem with applying directly is that I truly believe the financial aid package would be significantly better with ABC advocating for our needs. Funny story though – a friend of mine went through a similar program with her son a number of years ago. He was accepted to (among others) two VERY highly acclaimed boys schools. When mom received the financial aid package, one of them said her portion was $25!!! The other school, she was to pay $0!!! Son picked his favorite school, had a fabulous time there and graduated a couple of years ago.
Anyway, we’ll see what happens for us next week!
@SkysTheLimit2007 Regarding the test prep I am going to have a tutor review responses with my daughter. Hopefully this plan will help reinforce test strategies. As for ABC or direct application the way a friend explained it to me is that if a school is reviewing students the ABC student would get priority since they have ABC behind them, but when it comes to financial aid it is not ABC based so it should not be different. Not sure if that is correct but I guess it makes sense since ABC does not offer FA. One of our schools of interest only gets high school referrals from ABC so they said we should apply directly if we want middle school. The decision process will be much easier next week when we find out our status.
@magnetnh I totally understand what you’re saying regarding applying directly, makes perfect sense. I’m just happy knowing we have another shot next year if things don’t work out this time around. We’re applying for 6th but 7th is an entry year as you’ll know already. As for financial aid… I think we might be mulling it all over for quite some time yet! We need an expert here, lol!
Sorry for the delay in response. It’s a crazy time with the end of the school year. My 8th grader left for DC for their 8th grade field trip this morning and my oldest leaves for Africa on Sunday for a summer trip with his boarding school.
As far as financial aid goes, it’s hard to get a real estimate at this point. When the SSS by NAIS site opens up in the fall you will need to input all of your data and it will give you an estimate of what they think is reasonable for your family. Keep in mind, however, that the figure that an actual school gives you can vary substantially. With our oldest son we were offered more aid than the figure quoted, however, with our second son (the one with ABC) we were offered somewhat less. Regardless of what the estimated family contribution says, I would recommend having a figure in your own mind about what your family can afford.
The second question about locations is a good one. I believe that if you live too far away then they will let you do the meetings either online or through skype. Keep in mind, however, that there are numerous cities available. We are in the Northeast cohort, but they had meetings in both New York and Boston. I’m also a bit confused by what you mean by spending the week. Thus far there has been nothing which required an overnight stay. They have had only meetings during single days; no week long requirement. I believe the summer was just two day long sessions about a month apart. Thus far he has enjoyed it, but he hasn’t spent that much time with the other cohort members. Supposedly there will be an overnight stay this summer, however, we don’t yet have a date for that. Perhaps other areas do it differently than the Northeast group. They may also be doing things differently this year as well, not sure.
As far as my older son, he isn’t working with ABC. We hadn’t known about the organization during the application process. He has started his college search process and thus far the school has been very helpful. So helpful in fact, that I’m barely involved in the process. They are working with him on that and I’m basically the transportation to and from the schools he wants to visit. If your child eventually chooses a boarding school then you will see that they become independent very quickly. Unfortunately, there are no fee waivers when applying for college for us. Perhaps ABC will be involved in that process for our second son, but we’re not there yet!!
What a fabulous experience to go to Africa with your classmates! That’s beyond exciting…yet somewhat nerve wrecking for the parents!
I think the week you’re thinking about is a week in August that the ABC admissions told us to save the dates for in the event the kids are admitted into the cohort. It doesn’t require any overnights, just Mon-Thursday attendance if I remember correctly. I think it’s a time when the cohort can meet each other and also get some prep work done.
I was speaking with an ABC mom who told me that her child was doing college visits which had been well subsidized by ABC and school for her child because mom had done lots of volunteering for ABC. Also that ABC has member schools for college too and so the commitment continues — @Momto4kids you might be in luck down the line with your second child, lol!
@magnetnh Yes, my daughter started the work from the website just yesterday. She has been out of town and only just came back so I emailed and asked for an extended deadline for the homework, which they gave her. I’m glad they were flexible because she could never get through it otherwise. She enjoyed some of it, but boy some areas need work!!! I’m not sure what to think or what the strategy should be. I’m going to wait though until 6/15 to see if we’re accepted or not, then plan accordingly. My problem with applying directly is that I truly believe the financial aid package would be significantly better with ABC advocating for our needs. Funny story though – a friend of mine went through a similar program with her son a number of years ago. He was accepted to (among others) two VERY highly acclaimed boys schools. When mom received the financial aid package, one of them said her portion was $25!!! The other school, she was to pay $0!!! Son picked his favorite school, had a fabulous time there and graduated a couple of years ago.
Anyway, we’ll see what happens for us next week!
@magnetnh Yes, my daughter started the work from the website just yesterday. She has been out of town and only just came back so I emailed and asked for an extended deadline for the homework, which they gave her. I’m glad they were flexible because she could never get through it otherwise. She enjoyed some of it, but boy some areas need work!!! I’m not sure what to think or what the strategy should be. I’m going to wait though until 6/15 to see if we’re accepted or not, then plan accordingly. My problem with applying directly is that I truly believe the financial aid package would be significantly better with ABC advocating for our needs. Funny story though – a friend of mine went through a similar program with her son a number of years ago. He was accepted to (among others) two VERY highly acclaimed boys schools. When mom received the financial aid package, one of them said her portion was $25!!! The other school, she was to pay $0!!! Son picked his favorite school, had a fabulous time there and graduated a couple of years ago.
Anyway, we’ll see what happens for us next week!
@Momto4kids Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and provide such great details. It sounds like a very busy and traveling time in your household but how great that they have those opportunities! I apologize as I was under the impression that your older son was in ABC. You have confirmed what many have told me that these schools have amazing college counseling services. I have even seen it on many of their web sites including their college placements. Best of luck to your son.
Regarding financial aid, I think we will have to wait and see. We do have a figure in mind and even had to list one on ABC. I think I’ve read that ABC provides fee waivers for the financial aid application. I am also in the NE cohort as well, and they listed a week in NY and one in Boston. Daily commuting to these cities with traffic would just be too crazy so I was planning to stay overnight. I am over the 50 mile radius so maybe I can do the online version, but I think it would be better to it in person. Since you seem to be in my market I will PM you the day schools we are considering and see if you’ve had any experiences with them. I would appreciate any information, even anecdotal, that you could provide.
As far as financial aid goes, I’m not sure if there’s really a difference if you go with ABC or not. In my experience, if a school is really interested in your child then they will work to make the financial part work. My oldest son who is not a part of ABC got a wonderful package from his boarding school, we are paying very little. My son who is attending a day school and is with ABC is going to be more expensive. If you are able to be admitted to some of the top schools that have huge endowments then the financial aid can be very generous. My other son’s school is very small and doesn’t have the same ability to fully fund students. Personally, I think that the numbers for financial will be the same, however, ABC may help with the admission side.
I agree with that actually-- the schools were falling over my friend’s son to admit him and like I said, he ended up going for free to a highly desired boy’s school. The ABC parent I spoke of pays extremely little for a $45,000+ school and she mentioned that her child is now leading the school in the child’s particular sport. In essence, they recruited the child from ABC to fit a need that they had. So yes, I believe they have the ability to work with you, especially if they like what they hear about the applicant.
In all actuality though, everyone’s circumstances will be different so there’s really no way of knowing until you’re dealing with it, right?!
@SkysTheLimit2007 When will they send the cohort email? It’s almost 5pm EST and nothing on my end. I am guessing it will be a no.
Don’t be discouraged yet! I didn’t hear anything either but the last email said that decisions for the NE may not arrive until 6/30?!!! Of course, I’m in the NE!
I just saw that email as it was sitting in my junk folder! So I guess it’s another waiting game until 6/30 and no email but it said to log in to the portal. Good luck!
Oh and @magnetnh the email says we have to log on to see the decision-- weird, huh?!
Hang in there. We didn’t receive our decisions last year until about 6:30pm on 6/15. Do you think that’s what they meant by 630? Also, the decisions were reached by logging into the account, not in the body of the email.
@Momto4kids they definitely mean June 30th and it appears as if it’s only the Northeast applicants too so there must’ve been some hold up. They say “BY June 30th…” so I guess it could be anytime between now and then. We’ll just carry on waiting!
Yes I just read the email again and it says by June 30th via the portal. I guess it could be anytime before that date but I will just check the portal on June 30th rather than go crazy checking it.
That really stinks! I’ve been checking today to see if you’ve heard anything. It really seems as though things are different this year. I’m hoping you both get good news before 6/30.