<p>Always wanted to go to a boarding school, but just got initiative to actually discover information, and possibly apply. However, I am in the need of financial aid, and also late for many schools. Schools apparently do have late application policies, but they seem to possibly give short change to them--like Exeter, who allows late applicants, but only accepts them during a late round of admissions. Anyone have any experiences, or should I just wait for Senior year?</p>
<p>You might as well wait. You could apply, but you’d probably be placed on the waiting list, then you’d have to reapply. Are you a junior? Junior year has the lowest acceptance rate, plus applying late will hurt your chances. You might as well wait till senior year and start applying early in the fall.</p>
<p>A late application will seriously jeopardize your chances of getting financial aid. Admission is not outside the realm of possibility - but financial aid is trickier.</p>
<p>I would suggest going to [Boarding</a> School Review](<a href=“http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/]Boarding”>http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/) to see which schools have later application deadlines. You’re not looking for rolling admissions, but perhaps a mid-February application deadline.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve heard of some good, and bad stories about late admissions. I’m currently a Sophomore, and attempting to apply for Junior Year. I believe I have good credentials under my belt, at the moment, but that’s just me. If I do wait for Senior Year, is it still worth it to attend a Prep School? (Probably merits a whole other topic, but I’ll ask it anyways.)</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply dodgersmom. I’m sure my parents would support my decisions if I receive financial aid, most likely. Unless it is going to a College, they won’t be convinced enough to shell out the money, especially if I don’t receive any financial aid at all. Thanks for the tip!</p>
<p>It definitely is worth attending a prep school for senior year. Especially ones like the HADES. If you had Andover, or Exeter on your college app compared to whichever school you go to now, it’ll definitely boost your chances at a top tier university/college. I’m sure though, that the schools aren’t designed to get you into the Ivy league, so don’t pay too much attention at the college matriculation lists. You have just as much as a chance at an Ivy League at your public school or private day school then you would at say, the HADES. At those schools, your competing with your equally or even more talented students for a place at Harvard or Yale, and maybe students at your current school don’t even have the same aspirations as you do. Going to a prep school, especially a well known one, will be good for app to college, but it won’t do WONDERS as some people seem to think. You should consider a PG year too. You could do senior year and have the whole high school experience at your current school instead of breaking the monotony and going to a prep school for senior year, and do a PG year for rigorous prep before entering the college of your choice. It sorta goes both ways - it could be good for you, but it won’t make much difference. Of course you’d have many more opportunities at a great boarding school, and maybe you’d have a greater choice of EC’s. At the end of the day, the choice is yours.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. Now that you’ve said that, I’m sort of convinced I should at least try for Senior year next year. It would definitely be worth it to break the HS experience at my current public school and go to a different experience if it would be that much better. But, sadly, I should’ve discovered this wealth of information much sooner! I would love to even at least try to apply late, but accumulating application fees… Not sure.</p>
<p>If you have the money(ready to pay for application fees, tests and visits) then apply this year. Worst is worst, you try again next year. Getting FA will be hard as a late applicant but it’s not unheard of. Just very hard. Go for it!</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. I can probably convince my Parents to assist with the fees, but people on here seem to put late applications on such a “non-recommended level,” I wouldn’t want to waste any money.</p>
<p>Well, there is a possibility of you wasting your money, but you could also get in. It’s a tough decision.</p>
<p>Yeah. That’s why I’d like to see if anyone had any successes applying late, so I can know if I’d actually want to try. I have filled out most of the objective information, but at least before I go further, I want to find out if it is worth it.</p>
<p>If you really want to do it, then it’s worth it. But I suggest you wait till next year and apply early in the fall. Senior year acceptance rates are generally slightly higher then Junior year acceptance rates. And you won’t be rushing your app like you will be doing right now to get it in quickly because your late as it is. Just apply next year, but if you do really well this year and get placed on the waiting list, then you may have a better chance at acceptance the year after if you reapply. But you can correct me on this, because I’m not actually familiar with whether or not people on waiting list eventually get accepted. But applying this year and reapplying next, is definitely an option. Good Luck!</p>
<p>As a general rule, I’d say applying late to a school will be a waste of money if you need FA. Applying to a school with rolling admissions might be a bit better, but the schools will give out FA as they accept students, so your chances will be significantly lower. If you really want to apply this year, dodgersmom suggestion that you look for schools with a mid-Feb. deadline would probably be your best chance.</p>
<p>If you only want to go to a highly selective school with a Jan. 15 deadline, though, I’d wait until next year.</p>
<p>I would try for schools with a mid-Feb deadline this year rather than looking to apply as a senior, schools usually start the college application process junior year and it’s hard enough to jump in to the whole process with managing to adjust academically, socially, even athletically to any new school let alone boarding school. If you were to wait to apply though I’d suggest repeating junior year.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all of your responses again! Yeah, it would seem like a different story with my need of FA. </p>
<p>@classicalmama Thanks for the reference. Yeah, it would sound good. However, I heard that the schools that are just right out of the high-caliber schools drop like a rock in terms of quality. Would this happen to be true? </p>
<p>@aurelie426 Thanks for the reply. That’s an interesting way to go about it. I heard people talk about repeating Junior year, but what do Universities, and others look upon it as? When you talk about repeating a year around here (at my school) it means that you are… yeah. It’s universal. Would going Senior Year and doing PG be an option?</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies again. I just have another question posed from all these replies. Now that it seems that I should wait until next year, or find a solution… Should I just apply to a different boarding school with a later due date, and transfer to the high-caliber schools? Or should I stick with my Public School next year? How do you guys view this, and how would it affect my future? Thanks in advance, this is so helpful!</p>
<p>@tartio, I know what you mean in terms of repeating, I’m actually applying for 10th repeat next year and it took me a really long time to make the decision. To me it’s more about the learning and boarding experience, being able to try new things without the pressure one might get in a top college (getting into one also another reason for going to boarding school), studying abroad especially is something I really want to do- repeating would make all those a lot more plausible. As for that notion, it’s actually pretty common in boarding schools, from what I’ve heard from others not only on this site, but from some friends who attend NE boarding schools (a few from HADES schools) that have assured me no one would think that. Besides if you don’t tell them they’ll never know. Universities don’t look upon it badly either, I talked about that extensively with the AO who interviewed me. You could always explain to them why you made that decision, and some even like it in terms of maturity, showing that you really have a passion for learning and such. He also said that I wouldn’t be alone in the situation, which did make me feel a lot better. In terms of senior year and PG I actually think of it the same as just repeating junior year- you graduate a year later than your friends back home anyways. Does that kinda help?</p>
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<p>Really? Then I guess I should just be grateful that I learned anything at all at my tiny little, nobody-ever-heard-of-it, non-“high caliber” boarding school!</p>
<p>To put this in simpler terms . . . I guess it depends on how you define “quality.” In order for your statement (above) to be true, quality would have to be defined in any of the following non-standard ways:</p>
<p>(1) so well known that villagers in Tibet will be in awe of you if they learn that’s where you went to high school;
(2) having an endowment in excess of several hundred million dollars;
(3) having an acceptance rate below 20 percent;
(4) having several advanced math courses beyond AP calculus.</p>
<p>There may be other definitions, as well. None of these, however, has much of anything to do with either caliber of teaching or student intellect and interest. So, like I said, I guess it depends on how you define “quality.”</p>
<p>Thanks for the great post. Yeah, it just seems that notion just brainwashed me that repeating years is bad. Besides, it does seem a bit weird to me that you would be spending a year longer in High School when you have the thought drilled into your mind that High School only lasts 4 years, and you’re going that extra year. It would seem nice to stay that extra year just for the academics, and learning, but I think I have that notion so deep that it’s kind of weird for me. Haha, I might have to think long about it too!</p>
<p>@dodgersmom. Sorry, I didn’t mean to put it that way. It’s just that people on this forum talk about such few topics, and you hear such few topics about Boarding Schools in the world, you wouldn’t want to end up in a school that would be the same as your old one that you wanted to get out of! I could visit those schools. I could go to a local school. But, I can only visit so many. I didn’t mean to put off that “only-elite” tone to the post… but… This forum is pretty brainwashing.</p>
<p>I know just how you’re feeling 
Don’t worry about the whole notion thing- forget about it first, find some schools you’re really interested in and ask yourself what you like about it and… you’ll know how long you want to stay there for the things they offer. Even after having made that decision it’s been tough for me to stick to it… I still go back and wonder if I made the right decision, just because I’m more that kind of person and I go to my parents and friends for reassurance when that happens. They’ve actually been really supportive and nice in reassuring me that it’s only a year, things like that, which has helped (especially from my friends it came as a bit of a surprise). I really strongly advise trying schools with later deadlines though! You might also want to send 2010hopeful a PM- also 10th repeat, I got a lot of great repeat info from him</p>
<p>edit: 2010 hopeful (space :))</p>