I haven’t seen this thread yet, so I thought I’d take it upon myself to create it. It’s the middle of application season, and as the class of 2027 is settling into their new schools, the class of 2028 is hard at work.
I wanted to create a thread where parents and applicants could talk about how everything is going, share advice or insight and connect - just like the BS Class threads of years past. As for me, I am vigorously tackling interviews but frustrated by essay questions (being a perfectionist, I have to make sure every character is perfect haha, and the open-endedness doesn’t help). Any general advice on how to tackle essays?
I was just thinking about starting this thread this AM. Nice that you started this for the parents in the community. TSAO has been going around the country and it was nice to see them. Regarding essays what I heard is that they will read every essay. They want to know more about the character of the student in the essays and LOR’s. Hope this helps.
For your essay: Find your authentic voice and use the essays to highlight different things about yourself. The schools want to see how you write and to get to know more about you. Check the characters and the word count as they sometimes conflict from what’s in the directions with what you are able to load in the system. Better to know this beforehand as it is very hard to retool the perfect essay after the fact. Also find similarities across school essays where you can so that you can be more efficient with crafting (my daughter had 54 short and long essays to account for even with the common forms). Leave plenty of time for the stages of writing with fresh eyes.
My daughter learned a lot about herself throughout the process. Embrace the journey. Good luck!
My DC has had a few interviews and is sending thank you notes to the AO’s and communicating with faculty who oversee his EC interests. When AO’s write back asking us to get in touch with them for any questions etc. How do we show that we are interested and the same time dont waste their time asking superfluous questions? How have some of you who applied in the years past kept in touch with admissions? Thank you for your responses.
Some great advice already given in other comments.
Just keep this in mind any time you’re tempted to hit Send. If you have actual questions that cannot be answered by the school website, course catalog, or whatever, feel free to send. Applying, interviewing, touring/visiting (if you can) are ample ways to show your interest!
Hey, everyone! I have some questions about recommendations: Around when would be a good time to ask my teachers? Do they have to submit recs to each individual school (that would mean my teachers would have to send the recommendations around 9 times) or does gateway allow them to only submit once which sends the rec to all the schools? If that last question didn’t make sense, feel free to ask for clarification as it’s kind of a specific question.
They should be able to simply upload to Gateway once. As for timing, ask them yesterday, and perhaps be ready to supply them with a cheat sheet to guide them to the extent you feel like they don’t know your full picture.
Our daughter’s school required that recommendations were requested by the end of October at the latest. In general, I would say to not wait much longer and to make sure you have asked and explained everything to the teacher by the beginning of December at the absolute latest.
The reason for not waiting is not just so the teacher isn’t rushed when writing the recommendation, but also because it’s polite to give them at least four weeks of lead time (and that four weeks does not include vacation time, which puts you solidly at the beginning of December to hit January 15).
Okay, good to know. My parents had been nagging me about how since I’m applying to a number of schools, my teachers would have to send in a lot of recommendations.
Also, another question that came up after reading the responses bc apparently I should start asking for recs now. I live in an area where people don’t apply to boarding school unless it’s as a punishment. How should I go about asking my teachers for recs in this case? I have a teacher that I like and would probably write me a stellar recommendation but I am worried that they’ll think I was just being all friendly for a good rec when in reality I genuinely like the teacher. Has anyone experienced this? If so, how did you go about asking them for a rec?
For our daughter last year, she was required to have her current math and current English teacher write recommendations. There was an optional rec from someone else. So, for two of them, she didn’t have a choice and had to ask her 8th grade math and English teachers. Do the schools you are applying to give you the option of which teachers to ask?
Yes. I think there is the mandatory math and english but I have to have another teacher for some schools or a personal rec. I think my teacher (she is my homeroom/history teacher) would be great for either one. I would say though, I like science better than history but my science teacher just likes hanging around with the ‘jocks’ (I guess you would say) at my school and doesn’t really like me.
My daughter used her homeroom/wellness teacher as her “other” recommender and asked her super late in the process as it was optional for all of her schools. She asked her after the teacher wrote extraordinary comments on her report card about her leadership and community building in her class, her strong sense of self, and ability to communicate with people of all kinds. So, I wouldn’t worry about a teacher feeling weird about you asking them to write a recommendation because you have a strong relationship.
I would approach your teacher in person, explain why you feel boarding school is the best option for you and why you are excited to potentially attend on. Explain the process and that you would really appreciate that teacher writing a recommendation. It’s even okay to say that you feel you have developed a strong relationship with them and you would appreciate their support through the process. I think it would be quite rare for a teacher to take offense or think you had somehow faked a relationship to get a recommendation.
My daughter met with her teachers several times throughout the semester so that they could get to know her. She waited till before the holiday to ask for them to do her recos to allow teachers time to get to know her as a student and as a person. She then confidentially took the time to explain to them why she wanted to go to BS, what she wanted from the experience and why it offered something she felt was missing. She also provide background on the other important things in her life so that the teachers could speak to her holistically. The system allows basic teacher recos to submit once and then send the recos to all the schools. My daughter sent some additional information based on her interests. Those teachers needed to send to each school, but were happy to do it for her. My advice - build genuine relationships and make it as easy for your recos as possible.