<p>Regarding the sibling issue... when it was time for our second d to choose which school to attend, we had to put aside our very strong feelings for Westover and instead she attended Gunnery. It wasn't a question of aptitude, she was and is every bit as capapble as d #1, but she needed a different social environment. It all worked out in the end. I also know of a family where D was rejected at Taft even though Son was a current student I think sibling legacies count, but not to the extent that Parental legacies that give money do!</p>
<p>madeinusa817
lawrenceville is a very fine school, and they do get their share of apps. My d goes to middlesex and if I went by this thread I would wonder where they get all their apps. This thread is such a small sampling that I would not draw conclusions that nobody seems to be applying to Lville. This thread is big on the Exeter, andover, sps schools. Even to the point that I believe many of these schools are not good fits for many that apply from this thread. Suffice it to say, if one has done their homework on prep schools, they would know that Lawerenceville is a top school. I hope you are enjoying yourself at L'ville.</p>
<p>Since I'm not getting any action on my original post, I will ask my question here. What do you parents and kids think about going for 3 years instead of 4? I would love for D to have 4 years boarding but I worry about leaving younger sis at home for several years before she has the opportunity to go. The house would sure feel lonely with only one kid at home. I'm back to thinking about D going in 10th grade. Any comments appreciated.</p>
<p>We have a neighbor (parent of one of my son's soccer teammates) who is a Lawrenceville alumnus and who will send his son there next year. (In a few years the whole family is moving back to New Jersey, where the dad is from, and then the son will be a day student there, as the dad was.) </p>
<p>In my part of the country, there is very low boarding school awareness in general. I attended the special talk about boarding schools at the regional academic talent search award ceremony in my region last spring. A consultant about boarding schools was the organizer of the meeting, and she talked a little about what those schools are like, and then some boarding schools that are APPROXIMATELY in our region (one is a MAPL school) gave spiels about their schools. We've been on the mailing lists of those schools since that meeting. </p>
<p>My wife is an alumna of a boarding school in another country, and as I said we know a Lawrenceville alumnus from soccer. From another son's soccer team we also know a Culver Academy alumnus. But boarding school alumni in general are quite rare here--this is public school country, and I hardly ever meet parents who want to send their children to boarding school, even if that is advised after an IQ test (as it was to one of my friends here, whose daugher is indeed very smart). I'd be glad to hear more parents and more prospective students and more current students and more boarding school alumni commenting on all aspects of the prep school experience in this thread, as the whole world of boarding schools is still very much a mystery to me.</p>
<p>I want to thank you all for responding to my sibling question. I'm thankful I still have a year before the decision will have to be made.</p>
<p>I'm curious too about how many years are enough. Certain schools presuppose a four-year program as the USUAL experience, but they also admit students for starting study at every other year, including postgraduate. Some rather advanced students, I suppose, are deciding between early college (at home or away) and boarding school entrance as they apply to boarding school.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry too much about applying for 10th grade. While most children do enter boarding school in the 9th grade, many schools, particularly the larger ones like Exeter and Andover, seem to accept a fair amount of students post-9th grade. My D is applying for 11th grade; and while it will be an adjustment in terms of meeting new friends at that stage, I think the two years in boarding school will be a great transition into college. Sure, applying earlier would have been of benefit, but I feel its never too late.</p>
<p>Both of my kids started boarding schools in 11th grade. For D it was her first time boarding, and for S it was a change of schools. D's school was unique in that a huge number of kids start as juniors (Interlochen Arts Academy). S was one of about 10 new juniors, but had absolutely no trouble adjusting. There is always a certain amount of turnover at boarding schools- financial and other reasons.<br>
Lawrenceville is an awesome school- it is in the MAPL league along with S's school. Lawrenceville has, perhaps, the best physical facilities of all the MAPL schools. I am a big advocate of most of the MAPL schools, as well as some other relatively unsung (at least on these boards) schools such as Williston, Gunnery, Cushing and Canterbury. There are also some fine schools outside of the northeast. I was very impressed with Culver. S applied to Western Reserve and considered Asheville, Colorado Rocky Mountain and Episcopal of VA. Another girl from our town (a weaker student) is at St. Margaret's in VA and is really happy.</p>
<p>Re: 10th grade admission.</p>
<p>My son's in 9th & applying for 10th. Although it's the norm to apply for 9th, I really feel better that he didn't come up w/this idea last year. He's just so much more mature now (has grown about 4 inches in past 9 months, even!).</p>
<p>I wondered about applications (we're just going through them now...).</p>
<p>Some require a reference (non-teacher) and all require teacher apps. Son is figuring on applying to about 5-6 schools in our general area.</p>
<p>It seems a <em>big</em> imposition on teachers and family friends to fill out 6 different versions of the same thing! Anyone else run into this, and is there a way around handing a teacher a huge stack of evaluation forms??</p>
<p>Thanks much for any thoughts.</p>
<p>A lot of schools use a common application - teachers just need to fill one out, and according to the directions, xeroxes will be given equal weight by all schools on the list.</p>
<p>I don't get why you would even worry about this. With summer program apps and boarding school apps I do believe that staff expects to do these forms. A nice thank you and a gift after the fact are nice. It seems to me that you aren't even applying to a huge number of programs.</p>
<p>I agree whole heartedly with hazmat....... Most teachers are accustomed to this barrage of recs. Rather than use friends, maybe try a coach or instrument teacher or............ Good Luck!</p>
<p>Yes. Good Luck tends to help.</p>
<p>The boarding school applications I have seen specify recommendations from a CURRENT English teacher and a CURRENT math teacher. The latter requirement has ended up being problematic for us, because of the bureaucracy of the math program my son is now in. Good program, but apparently not a well-thought-out system for handling letters of recommendation (all requests for letters go to one person in the program, who doesn't know my son from Adam). So we will have to use supplementary forms for coach, mentor, etc. recommendations to get a recommendation that really speaks to his interest and ability in his favorite subject.</p>
<p>Couldn't you just ask for a rec directly from your S's math teacher?</p>
<p>
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**<a href="all%20requests%20for%20letters%20go%20to%20one%20person%20in%20the%20program,%20who%20doesn't%20know%20my%20son%20from%20Adam">i</a>
[/quote]
***</p>
<p>So does the "one person" distribute the request to the appropriate faculty member? If indeed the head of the department writes all recs I find it hard to believe they don't converse with faculty members. How could they not know your student at all? How incredible....that alone is reason to leave in my opinion.</p>
<p>Well, yeah, after my son had this conversation with someone in the office of his program this afternoon (while I was at home with my other kids) it occurred to me that that system wouldn't be any better for his someday college recommendations than for his boarding school applications--which looks like a good reason to do our best to make a successful application to some boarding schools.</p>
<p>My point exactly.......many folks never come to this conclusion. It is very hard to apply to college when the school profile is poorly formatted and the letters of recommendation are poorly written and that is just the beginning. I hope you run, run, run, as fast as you can to the best prep you can gain an offer of acceptance to. Sorry you have to struggle through in this application process but remember that you as a parent will be interviewed and you can certainly make some points during that time about your process.</p>
<p>Almost all of the boarding schools use the Common Application recommendation forms. You can download it from the TABS web site. I think just one of the schools my d applied to last year had their own form. Just compare the common form to the various school forms to see if any are different.
Good luck!</p>
<p>As I recall, we used the same recs for all the schools my d applied to, I think the original forms she handed out were from Choate. Copies were made and sent to all the schools. It's no big deal to the various schools, they understand that you are applying to more then one school.</p>
<p>Hi shelley 14, hope all is well with you and family. How's your d liking bs?</p>