@magnetnh thank you so much! I did get the message but I’m out of the country on vacation right now and am on the internet very, very little! I’ll return and respond soon! Thanks!!!
@SkysTheLimit2007 Check out your email as the official email went out today with the details of the upcoming workshops. NYC is next weekend for the cohort welcome and then the summer skills session is soon thereafter. Are you attending in this region or another?
Hi, I saw it and held my breathe a little wondering what it was going to say!!! There’s absolutely no way we can attend either one unfortunately, it’s just too little notice especially since we are out of the country (and will still be…). I had the original dates blocked off, but certainly not these ones! I’ll be contacting ABC on Monday for sure. Expecting us to be in NYC for x-many days at just over a weeks’ notice is kind of insane!!!
It is a late notice indeed! I feel like we are pledging for a sorority and they are testing our commitment! Since you can’t attend I can PM you details. Enjoy your vacation.
Hi I’m a current ABC scholar that’s going in 9th grade and into one of their member school in NE , I went through the program last year and all I can say was that it was a lot but worth it I applied to 7 schools all boarding expect one day that I applied independently and got excepted into 2 and waitlisted from one. I ended up only getting financial aid from one school but it was a price range that didn’t fit with my parents budget. The other school put me on financial aid waiting list so I assumed that my dreams of going to boarding school were over m, because if they didn’t have it now when would they. After two weeks I revived a call saying they had the money and more for me and it was in my price range and now I’m very happy. The whole ABC summer process taught me a lot and helped me gain friendships, although I didn’t study as hard as I should have on the tests to score higher I encourage you to do test innovators and get the Princeton review books for your children because my brother used that and it helped him get into some of the top schools in the NE. If you have any questions please ask because I would love to answer them
@Enweonwus Thank you so much for sharing your journey! Once I am hearing that the first no, or signs that there may not be a match, may not be the last. There is hope for a match even after it seems like it might not happen. Did you do the in-person Princeton review? That seems to be an option this year but I guess I will find out more about it this Saturday. Do you recall your first meeting - they call it the cohort meeting? That is where we will be this weekend and I am wondering what to expect from it. It is only 3-4 hours at an all girls school in NYC.
The Princeton review I used was a book that was very thick it was for lower level up to high school. I don’t remover my first cohort meeting but I do remember the workshops over the summer they helped to emphasize the importance of studying for the tests while you participated in fun actives with other cohorts to help build friendships.
@magnetnh Did you receive the latest correction email? There will be a Boston area cohort meet in August apparently. That one is better for us, so I don’t need to worry at all about not being able to get to NY this coming week. Phew! If you do go to NY, I’d definitely love to hear about it – if you like, we can exchange email addresses since our kids are both in the NE cohort? I didn’t get around to tutors, etc yet but plan to look into it – thanks for the info!
@Enweonwus thanks so much for the information! It’s always great to hear from people who are a little further in the process. I’d love to hear anything you have to say! Are there any other ABC scholars at your school? We’re you accepted to the school you applied to independently? If nothing else, I’ll definitely have my child do the Test Innovators work, it seems pretty effective!
Once you finish the program and become a full time scholar they give you a directory with every school and current scholars who attend it fortunately for me there are 3 people that attend my school and my family has gotten into contact with one of them. I was waitlisted from the school I applied independently.
@magnetnh, are they doing the new cohort welcome at Nightingale Bamford? That’s where they are doing the new scholar orientation on Monday and Tuesday. I wonder if they will have the new cohort and scholars together. They aren’t having parents invited to this one so I’m curious how it will be.
@Momto4kids The cohort welcome is at the Times Square location. The summer skills meeting is at Nightingale Bamford the following week. The latter is students only so I had posted here on CC to ask about things to do in the area. Since you seems to be familiar with it, what did you do when you dropped off your child? Do you take the train into NYC or drive in? I am planning on taking the train but need to work out logistics once I get there. Any suggestions are appreciated.
We’re not actually from the NYC area. My son did the summer cohort stuff in Boston. Not sure where the school is or what there is to do around there. My understanding is that they are taking the Boston kids from here and bringing them back when they are done.
@SkysTheLimit2007 The session today was very informative. A long list of future milestones and dates was given for New York. Not sure what the calendar will look like for Boston but for NY there is something every month until February 2018 and that does not include test prep or visits to the schools. We should be proud to have made it into the Northeast cohort as they mentioned that there were over 700 applications and approximately 200 acceptances. They also mentioned last years cohort was approximately 240 and they ended with 120 scholars. There are many reasons why all in the cohort don’t make it to scholars so they ask us to keep an open mind and be open to all school suggestions and even the possibility of repeating a grade. They will be sending an email with key dates and college prep info for Princeton Review (face to face) and Test Innovators (online). These are at an additional cost and they will send all the details. Finally, they encourage students to take both tests, ISEE and SSAT because they may do better in one over the other. These test dates are scheduled for second and third weeks in September to allow a chance for a retake in October or November if needed.
Anyone that has gone through this process feel free to share your experiences and words of advice as we embark on this long road ahead!
I’m glad the welcome session went well. We dropped our son off this morning for the ride to NYC and I just got a text that he is safely in his room. I’m excited to hear about what they will be doing with them for the next couple of days!
@Momto4kids Hoping your son has a great time. Do they have other planned activities for them this summer? How about his new school?
@sobrooksgirl Any news with your placement? Keep us posted on your match.
@magnetnh I’m glad the session went well and that you learned a lot! Interesting information indeed – I feel myself getting a little overwhelmed already at the thought of the next months but hope it will all be worth it in the end. The SSAT and ISEE make sense but I really feel for these kids having to take both! I did sign my daughter up with Test Innovators so she can do some more timed practice tests, etc so now we’re back from vacation we can get back into the swing of things. I also looked into a tutor but right now it seems out of budget, so we’ll see…I’m looking forward to our welcome session but no word on when it will be yet and I’m thinking not until August from the last email contact I had from the NE ABC office. I keep having these moments where I still can’t believe we made the cohort – I know it’s a long, uphill road but I can’t believe we made the first hurdle! I think I’m going to make contact with another ABC parent I met at the test prep in May – her child is an ABC scholar locally and she gave me her email at the time. Another parent who’s been there, done that is always welcomed right now!!!
@Momto4kids What the news from NYC?!!! Hope he had a great time!
@magnetnh unfortunately no. mom is telling me to be hopeful, but honestly we’re both getting pretty disappointed. we’ve called a better chance & the school, none have answered yet. (my guess is ABC is currently on vacation haha) but i’m hoping to hear back by this week or next week. 
My DC is an ABC scholar at a NE boarding school. I’ll be happy to answer any questions I can. The process can be tedious at times but paid off for us. Know some will drop out because it’s a long process, but as long as you stick with them, they will try and find a placement. Just be open to school recommendations and know that it’s okay to say no if you don’t like a recommendation. @sobrooksgirl hang in there you’ll land at the right school for you.
@SkysTheLimit2007 My DS had a great time at the orientation. I picked him up late last night after the long bus ride. He was a bit nervous going into it, but was able to thoroughly enjoy himself. I was happy that they had them share rooms with kids they hadn’t previously known. I was quite relieved as he is a pretty shy kid, but was able to push through that and have fun in the activities. He really enjoyed meeting all the other Northeast scholars and seeing where they are each going to school. It made him feel much more a part of the program!
You probably haven’t heard much from the NE office as they’ve been supervising all these kids for the last few days! It can feel as though they are a bit disorganized at times, but we are so happy with it all!