<p>Hi, I'm a boarding school (rising) sophomore who went through the whole application process just last year. I completed the freshman year and I want to give two pieces of advice.</p>
<p>1) Do not choose schools for their prestige.
Prestige is a shallow evaluation of a school that does not reflect its true spirit. Every school's atmosphere is unique, and though I'm sure you'd love your school regardless if you chose based on prestige, you may have passed up on a school more suited to your personality and interests that would've made you happier. For example, Cate is a beautiful, smaller school, where the dorm rooms have a view of the Pacific Ocean. You shouldn't overlook that because it's less prestigious than Exeter. If you don't want heavy academics, don't go to a school with heavy academics because it's famous. Know what YOU want. Have a general sense of each school's stats, but don't choose Deerfield over Peddie because of a few % difference in acceptance rates. Don't choose Lawrenceville over Groton because Forbes said it was better. Lemme tell ya, when you're physically attending the school, you don't care about prestige anymore. The school is home, not a badge of honor. You also might be currently doing this without knowing it. Review yourself right now. So keep an open mind! And I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere, Don't Rank Them, Understand Them. </p>
<p>2) Make a timeline of your application process.... NOW.
It's the middle/end of summer, and since deadlines are around January, give yourself half a year to do everything. At this point, you should ideally be researching schools, requesting lots of viewbooks, and scheduling tours at some of them (you're just looking, there's no commitment yet - don't worry!). You should also be studying your SSAT's (the earlier you start on vocab, the better). Don't plan to do most of the app process during Thanksgiving break, because that'll turn into planning to do most of it in winter break. I did that.... please, just don't.</p>
<p>Because it's still early, I don't need to talk about adjusting to prep school life, rejections, etc yet (unless you wanna hear me preach more...), but please ask me questions about whatever.</p>
<p>HAND OUT TEACHER RECCOMENDATIONS ASAP. Your teachers will not be really impressed and write you a good reccomendation if you hand them in 2 weeks before they’re due.</p>
<p>I disagree with deerbri re: recs…some of your teachers may be new and will not have any/not enough experience as your teacher to gush glowingly about you. We sent the rec forms into our daughter’s current school just before Thanksgiving break.</p>
<p>Some teachers may have a lot applications to fill out for other students. You don’t want to be known as the student who handed in reccomendations super late…but not super early either. I guess a good rule of thumb is to hand them out around the time most schools release essays? (end of Oct./ Nov.) My teachers knew me from the previous year which made things easier…</p>
<p>I go to Lawrenceville. This past year totally changed me. First of all, I love Lawrenceville. I can’t imagine going to any other school, and unfortunately I’m not skilled enough as a writer to show you how unique the spirit there is. But, I still wish I had looked at other schools like Deerfield and Cate and Groton and kept an open mind before looking at Lawrenceville’s prestige. (I applied for Lawrenceville, and Peddie for backup. I realize how snobby I was to call Peddie a backup as an applicant - both great schools: who cares about minor stat differences and fame?) So I’m gonna stress again, PRESTIGE. MEANS. NOTHING!!! NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING AHHH GOODNESS GRACIOUS DON’T LISTEN TO IT
I remember when I was applying to Lawrenceville, I’d imagine myself walking on the campus and feeling really smug and accomplished whenever I saw the “Lawrenceville” logo or whatever it’s called or when I’d see red and black everywhere and stuff. NO. That doesn’t happen. It’s home. Getting a “home” you love is a way better feeling than getting admiration from people back home saying “Ohhhh you went to Lawrenceville! You’re pretty tough! Ehhhhh!” from your friends and your mother’s gossiping friends. </p>
<p>Things I should’ve known that initially surprised me there was how much socializing it takes to live at boarding school and not go home - I pretty much had to extrovert my life, and that added to the homesickness (now that I’m used to it, I’m so much happier in general, not that introversion is bad) - and how I can’t escape from problems anymore. I realized that before boarding school, I viewed life as two worlds - school and home. When you put it into one, you can’t escape from the annoying girl or the misunderstanding teacher, so you have to face problems head on. Taught me a lot.</p>
<p>Boarding School Teacher here. just wanted to cheer for this thread since I think PreppedSoph is making excellent points, although–GASP–by pointing out that the relatively minor statistical differences between schools like Peddie and Lawrenceville are not as important as finding a home away from home, the very foundation of CC’s snobbery shakes. Jokes aside, I wanted to address the question of recommendations as a teacher who gets asked to write tons every year: for me, there’s no such thing as handing it to me too early because I’m going to have to find tiny bits of free time whenever I can cram them in. I can also watch you closely in class to get a good annecdote or two to mention. I’ve written many a rec for a kid who was like “oops, this is due tomorrow, please don’t ruin my life, just drop everything and write me a recommendation,” but I beg all of you not to be that kid. give your teachers lots of lead time, and don’t hand it over the day before a holiday break. Finally, there’s a lot of talk about “hooks” or at least frames for student applications, and I always ask my kids which of their skills or attributes they are trying to highlight in their application so I can reinforce those same themes. If your teacher is kind and savvy, I’d recommend asking him/her that if s/he’s comfortable with it you are trying to highlight X in your application, and you are hoping s/he could speak to that aspect of you from his/her perspective. You can’t dictate the content, but it can make the recommendation stronger.
Good Luck to all!</p>