<p>I have wanted to go to boarding school for as long as I can remember wanting anything. I applied during my freshman year to only one boarding school, Deerfield, and was waitlisted. I was going to try again this year, but instead chose to do a year abroad in french-speaking Belgium for my junior year of high school. I worry that at my current West-Texas high school, even during my senior year, I will not be able to have a well-rounded enough application come time to apply for college. </p>
<p>My question is whether or not it is too far fetched to apply for senior year at some top-tier boarding schools while I'm living in Belgium. Of course the logistics are messy, but what about the tangibility of the idea? </p>
<p>My second question is, 'Wouldn't schools be more susceptible to offering financial aid to seniors who will only need the grant for one year as opposed to two, three, or four years?"</p>
<p>otherwise my stats are pretty good.. good grades, psat scores, and ecs</p>
<p>The FA and the int’l logistics issues pale beside the social intergration factor.</p>
<p>Ask yourself whether, socially, you’d want to enter as a Senior. Even newly entering Sophomores can have issues with social integration with returning Sophomores who have bonded during their Freshman year together.</p>
<p>A mitigating circumstance for new Seniors and PGs is being a recruited athlete. In this situation you have a natural mechanism (being part of a sports team) to facilitate your social integration.</p>
<p>There is also the college application cycle timing issue to consider. You will be asking for teacher/counsellor recs from people who barely know you, as compared to the other kids in the BS who have been there for years</p>
<p>You make a good point. Since I’ve posted, I’ve considered applying as a repeat junior, although as cirriculum goes, I would be nearly on the same level as the juniors seeing as during my year abroad I wouldnt be in all the same classes or have the same depth of understanding as I normally would. </p>
<p>What do you think boarding schools would think of a case like mine? Would they see the year abroad as a plus? Would they see that the reason for me wanting to be a repeat junior being to better my application and well-rounded-ness for colleges like Yale as a good thing?</p>
<p>If you really want to go to Yale, transferring to a top prep school is not a good idea. The competition is fierce, and these schools are filled with recruited athletes and legacies. You will not graduate with leadership positions. Chances for a very top college will be small.</p>
<p>I understand, but I don’t really believe in the idea of leadership. It’s kind of the same thing as community service. Too many people participate in ‘leadership camps’ and those sorts of application boosters (as do they participate in community service) that you could never differentiate the phonies from the authentic leaders and people who’ve genuinely invested time and have a passion for community service. </p>
<p>Besides, at my current public high school, I have absolutely no prospect of getting accepted into any top-tier college at all. At least as at a boarding school I can round out my application for any college I wish to attend to, receive a great education and have a good time while I’m there. The only leadership positions available at my factory public school are those of popularity, which you don’t earn, by the way. I’d love to write an essay comparing leadership and popularity in high schools today and what the difference is. And since boarding schools do accept students for junior year, I don’t see why we should be so down on at least the idea of it. They wouldn’t do it if there weren’t advantages for the school or the applicants. So can anyone offer some positive insight?</p>
<p>The schools most frequently discussed on this forum accept few, if any, candidates for 11th grade. The candidate has to be pretty special.</p>
<p>In answer to your second question - no, it is not easier to get financial aid if you’re applying to 11th grade. The bulk of FA funds go to incoming 9th graders, with some left over for 10th graders, and little, if any, left over for 11th and/or 12th graders.</p>
<p>Also, you need to be aware that the competition for financial aid applicants - regardless of what grade they’re applying for - is significantly more rigorous than for non-FA candidates. Lots of very highly qualified candidates are turned away because of FA need. </p>
<p>So, the odds are against you both because you need FA and because you’d be applying for 11th grade. If you’re serious about doing this, you need to take a long, hard look at the list of schools you want to apply to. Your best course of action is to identify several schools for which you are arguably over-qualified - those are going to offer you the best chance of getting in. Take the SSAT or PSAT as soon as possible and use your scores to help you identify the schools you should apply to.</p>
<p>Do my chances increase any if I apply for senior year instead? And I don’t know of any schools with the capability of granting full FA that anyone would be overqualified for, but I could be wrong…</p>
<p>Also I got a 1790 on my PSAT, putting me in the 99th percentile for writing, 95% for reading and 71% for mathematics (probably because I hadn’t taken geometry yet, and can be improved). Is that pretty good?</p>
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<p>Why? Are you thinking that only the well known schools can offer full FA? That’s just not the case. The smaller schools have FA funds also . . . no, not as much as the big schools, but enough to offer you a full grant if the school really wants you. The trick is to find a school that wants you.</p>
<p>And I can’t comment on the PSAT score - I don’t know how that compares to an SSAT score . . . the reading and writing are obviously strong, although the 71% in math doesn’t sound great. </p>
<p>Again, what you have to do is make a list of schools for which the average incoming SSAT score is lower than your score. Someone else on the forum might be able to help you figure out how your score would “translate” to an SSAT score so you can identify those target schools.</p>
<p>urbangirl, I’m still not sure why you’re stuck on the idea of boarding school at this late date. Schools, even those in the top tier, do take students from urban and rural areas with the knowledge that those students didn’t have the same advantages as other students. So being at your home school - if you supplement with courses outside of it (homeschool students do that all the time) - then you’d still have as much of a shot as if you tried to be a late entry student at a boarding school.</p>
<p>What everyone is trying to say politely - and what I said on your post in another thread - is that there is little likelihood that you will get an 11th or 12th grade spot with financial aid if you don’t have a hook that they school needs. </p>
<p>I’ll give you an example - using my child’s school’s statistics for FA - they take about 25 sophomore girls total from hundreds (if not a thousand) applications and give FA to about 10 of them. That number drops precipitously for 11th grade where they might give FA to 1 or 2. Out of a huge pile of other hopefuls.</p>
<p>So your question needs to not circle around FA but instead, around whether or not you’re going to be able to beat those odds based on your application.</p>
<p>I never say never - but repeating 11th grade, or entering as a senior, is a long shot and you should plan on having back-up plans.</p>
<p>Year in Belgium is a wonderful hook coming from TX public. While in Belgium find a passion (the EU and how it will evolve? Chocolate as a lens for global trade? French authors who should not be missed?) And set up a few interviews or meetings to find out more and take advantage of your proximity. Then go back home for senior year and start your own club, either inside or outside school, or do some kind of major project, and show your passion. Come application time, you will stand out.</p>
<p>P.S. and if you want Yale then get those math scores up. This is matter of your own ambition and time applied to know the material and to practice until automatic. If you can master French verb conjugation, you can do ALL the math. Even if you are a humanities person by disposition, spend an EXTRA hour per day until you hit e.g. >88th percentile. Math builds your brain and makes it stronger for life, so you will get far more benefit than just a score increase.</p>