Hi, I am a parent of a middle school age son in China. I am considering sending my son to the US to attend boarding school starting freshman year. There’s not much good advice on boarding school and US admissions in China, just boarding school sales agents who offer feedback, so I much appreciate any advice and perspective from parents who have been through the process.
I would like to know if there are advantages or disadvantages to attending a top boarding school for US college admission compared to attending a public high school in the US. To narrow down this discussion from a large range of colleges, hypothetically I am aiming for my son to attend the 14th best ranked college according to US News. I am using such a specific goal only for hypothetical framing. Will attending a boarding school over a public high school improve the odds of gaining admission, not change the odds, or make things more challenging?
Does the answer change if my son were to attend boarding school starting junior year?
I’m confused. Are you based in China or US? How could he possibly attend a US public school if you are living in China? Are you planning on moving to the US?
There are plenty of threads on boarding vs public school debate. The short answer is it depends. If your child graduates at the top of the class from a boarding school, this can typically help. But if not then the advantage between boarding vs public diminishes rapidly.
I am in China. One possibility is to move to the US.
The mantra on this board is for students to attend the high school, public or private, where they have the best opportunity to become the best version of themselves. Colleges admit students, not high schools. The days of feeders to the Ivies and such is long gone.
You also need to understand that the student populations at boarding schools, especially the well-known New England boarding schools, are all cherry-picked groups of very high achievers. These are the kids who will do well in college admissions from whichever high school they attend, public or private. But, grouping stars into small pools makes it hard to stand out. There are many tales here of BS students/parents who are disappointed by college results that did not match their expectations when their goal was a particular college or group of colleges. The boarding schools are “selling” a stellar high school education that prepares each of their students to hit the ground running at whichever college they attend. They are not selling any particular college result.
In the U.S., both public and private high schools can deliver a great secondary education. You choose a high school based on the type of person and student your child is and where you think s/he will best thrive. College will take care of itself.
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So it sounds like your choices are as follows:
- Send child to boarding school in US, parents stay in China
- Move entire family to US, send child to public school
If you’re asking which of these two options is better for T10 college admissions, then its a difficult one to answer. There are lots of students from China attending college in the US. Those who attend a US boarding school tend to have an easier time adapting to US culture.
I’ve seen situations at smaller boarding schools where the Chinese students have difficulty integrating, and prefer to stay within their enclave of other chinese students. But at some other (larger) boarding schools the tendency to form cliques is much less.
If money is no issue, I would suggest the boarding school route over public school, as it gives the student a head start with regards to college readiness. If funds are an issue, then moving to one of many public school systems in the US will also help prepare.
Getting into T10 is no guarantee, either from boarding school or public school. As you’re probably well aware, as an ORM the hurdles are higher. This is true regardless of school type, probably even higher for boarding students.
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There are students from China (with parents in China) who entered boarding school before COVID. I don’t know what your situation is like now with that @ restrictions. When we did the Boarding School tour several years ago, we met a “consultant” from Hong Kong who was an alum of a HADES school whose business now was to help get students from China into Boarding Schools. He charged big prices. I know that there have been some students in the past who received scholarships.
That same guy had two kids in tow who were clearly not fluent enough in English to flourish at an American school.
There is an association or some type of international organization (I will not post here because it would be free advertising) that helps foreign students apply to US boarding schools. You should reach out to individual schools. A few schools used to have dedicated representatives in China, as well as a unique admissions platform.
There are a few church-affiliated boarding schools that have offered places to students from China in the past. Like St Johns Prep in the Midwest International Students - Saint John's Prep - College Preparatory School. In the past, there were several students from China at Stevenson.
Bon Chance!
If you think your son will do a great job at boarding school, then that’s the better option. A student who gets straight A’s at boarding school stands out more than one who does so at public school in most situations. There will be a lot more resources for him to excel. Additionally, there are some “feeder” schools. For example, my school is a feeder for Georgetown, meaning we have a very good relationship with the school and therefore send several kids there each year. If you or your son have any questions about the pros and cons from a student’s perspective (I’m a rising senior), please let me know!!
Another option is for your son to attend a private day school while living with a US family. There are many excellent private day schools, including Catholic schools, that can give your son a great high school education, and could lead to admission to highly selective US colleges. For this option, you might have better success looking at smaller cities in the US, other than the major metropolitan areas, because you may find it easier to get him into good private schools in smaller cities than in major metropolitan areas.
If your son is a very high achiever with excellent English, and is able to get into a top US boarding school, then yes, it might lead to acceptance to a top university here. But if he’s not already a highly motivated brilliant student, then I think that he might be better off with the day school option, living with a good US family. I’ve seen very good results for this for kids who came as exchange students, matched with wonderfully supportive families, and then stayed on through high school.
Does he want to do this? Does he have the kind of personality and attitude that would make him a welcome addition to a family’s life? Unfortunately, high school students from China who have come to live with US families have been stereotyped as very spoiled, seeing their host families as servants rather than behaving as a member of the family would - pitching in with household chores, wanting to participate in family life. If he does not want to live with a family, but does want to attend boarding school, then focus your efforts on boarding schools.
If he is emotionally ready, the sooner that he begins school in the US, the better. High school nowadays here is about compiling the academic record that will get the student into a good college. If he wants that, he has to hit the ground running in September of his 9th grade. That would be easier for him if he were to do 8th, or even 7th and 8th, here.
I don’t recommend waiting until junior year to send him here. Too late in the process.
One of the benefits of BS is that you can access all your activities on campus – sports, music lessons, ECs, etc. If you relocate and attend a public school, you may need to put much of this together on your own, and in some cases, you may find that these are already filled. Furthermore, BS schedules are set up so that students can access lots of these activites and still have rigorous academics.
You should broaden your search to include BS outside of the group you consider “top” and make sure they offer what your child needs to be both successful and happy. I would not start at junior year anywhere if possible. There are people who do this but it really requires a kid to "hit the ground running ", and there are a lot of reasons a new school can make this hard.
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