From what we have seen/heard, the international students didn’t have any issues getting to school this year. One girl in my daughter’s freshman dorm came from Hong Kong and was a few weeks late, but there are several other international students that were there on day one. The only International student she knows, who ended up staying remote, is from the Bahamas and she feared she wouldn’t be allowed back into the Bahamas at Thanksgiving break.
I would not count on admissions being less competitive, in fact, it may be even more competitive given boarding schools opened in the Fall whereas many local schools are still closed.
How are things coming along to make the Prep School threads more clearly marked so people don’t wander into them accidentally and comment anyway. Asking for a friend.
@dadof4kids: Many people use Latest Posts as their primary way of reading threads and don’t pay much attention to what subforum those threads belong to. Not much you can do about that as all threads look the same. Even if the new version adopts color-coding, I doubt that will change any behaviors.
I’m pretty sure I am guilty of accidentally posting here a few years ago when I used latest threads. I do think color coding, or some big banner at the top or something would be helpful. It’s a bit annoying from both sides frankly. There is a lot of overlap, but prep school admissions is kind of a parallel universe to college admissions. Enough similarities it is easy to mistake one for the other, but enough differences that good advice in one frequently is bad advice in the other.
That is a great list @dadof4kids! ?? It looks very thoughtful- wide range of options yet there is a common thread. That’s a lot of interviews to schedule- whew, thank goodness you don’t have to factor in travel time.
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And now my response to the other stuff that has nothing to with the purpose of the thread and I shouldn’t bother but can’t help myself:
Based on no knowledge whatsoever, I would guess bs will continue to be super competitive, domestically and internationally. Public schools in Cal are pretty grim right now. I would have to guess that people with resources would consider bs now when they never would have before.
The international kids were able to get back to campus just fine. A few of the freshmen needed some extra help getting the visa situation figured out, but the school was able to help. That said, it is sounding like some kids aren’t going home for winter break.
Our experience with bs has been the complete opposite of Lord of the Flies. I have no idea what Romney did in high school 50+ years ago, but boy is it irrelevant.
Yes, but for you it was/is probably obvious, you are coming from faaar away and coming to the “land of education” (I am pretty sure this is how NE thinks of itself). I mean those interviewers probably thought “of course this smart young man cannot languish in the southwest education desert…”
We already live in the land of education and in a “good” school system so the answer to “why BS?” was maybe less obvious?? I put good in quotes because while it was and is fine, fine has become good/excellent in the American education mind as far as I can tell (and in the rankings).
Oh, and if you get a chance to ask, imo it is a great good-humored parental question to ask - how does the school handle it when a kid accidentally sleeps through class?
It is a gateway question for a conversation about the discipline system as a whole.
Sometimes the most profound contributions to a thread come from a parent who has inadvertently clicked on the wrong box… I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss contributions that you think are irrelevant or not grounded in facts.
The most valuable help I ever got on CC was from a prep school parent who had accidentally clicked on a discussion about college payments, fees, timing, etc. One of my kids had an outside scholarship whose payment timing did not work with the university billing timing. I was kind of tied in knots (put it on a credit card and wait to get reimbursed? pay the tuition bill and use the grace period on every other bill? I had already tried calling the outside scholarship folks to ask about moving up payments but they had refused) until a CC prep school parent- with absolutely no experience paying college bills yet- suggested "why don’t you call the bursar’s office and ask them to change the “due date” on the bill?
I thought this was borderline ridiculous- who ever heard of a large university just willy-nilly changing the due date on such a ginormous amount? And I didn’t want a late fee, or my kids registration blocked, or any of that stuff.
But I went ahead and made the call. Got the nicest woman in the world who said, “hang on, just give me the full name and date of birth” and after a few seconds-- I actually heard her clicks through the phone. She said “I’ve moved the due date by 6 weeks- do you think you’ll need a longer time just in case?”
So the prep school parent- used to dealing with a tiny institution where “everyone knows your name” accidentally fixed my problem. The large university could not have been nicer about it-- it’s not the kind of thing most people ask about.
Call me crazy, but sometimes you get great advice from unexpected sources!!!
Hi @CateCAParent - your suggestion a few posts above made me think of something that we learned long after kiddo arrived on campus. We spoke with a wonderful dorm parent one night after I needed emergency surgery. Our kiddo was pretty upset and just couldn’t get their homework done that night. I know that the next day, our student was too exhausted for class. The dorm parent explained that all the schools she had worked at (including ours) had a policy in place for mental health days, a homework “pass”, a “test pass” or excuse”, or other need. Since then, I have asked about what is in place at different schools if a student is just exhausted, overwhelmed, or needs a mental health day. The reason I bring this up on this thread is that even though this was something in the back of our minds, we never did ask about this while considering BS or looking at schools. There are policies and programs for your kid.
I forget: was this the thread that included a query of if parents of prospective students were asked “why boarding school” during interviews? If so, let me say that so far I have had five such conversations after my son was done talking with the interviewer: though each interviewer asked my son that question, none of them asked me.
Many international students did not leave the U.S. when schools closed last spring. Many who went home had challenges in returning. But the short answer is that most want to return to their BS and most BS are eager to have them back.
@Golfgr8 - that is such an important thing to know. I didn’t know to ask about the mental health policies, either. These days the schools seem to get that teens are struggling with anxiety more than ever, and probably would love that parents are tuned in enough to ask about what protocol they have.
Freshman year kiddo had a similar experience- overwhelming personal stress leading to deep exhaustion the next day. As he described it, his condition was run up the flagpole. A prefect saw it, told him not to go to class, let the dorm parent know, who let the teachers know. He was given extensions on homework and slept all day. This is exactly what “you are sending your kid to people, not just a school” means.
Oh, and this may be good or bad depending upon how you look at it (I think good), they didn’t report it to us. It was up to kiddo to tell us, after the fact. I figure it helps wean the parents off of being the go-to problem solvers - there is nothing we could have done anyway.
That is another thing to ask about- what does the school report home, and how. We hear about sports injuries and health center interventions. Now we also hear about anything sounding like a covid symptom. All through a portal that shoots out an email notice to check for an update. We communicate with the advisor on an as needed basis, probably 1-2 times a trimester.
@one1ofeach “fine has become good/excellent in the American education mind as far as I can tell (and in the rankings).”
‘Fine’ is the bane of our existence. DW and I got to the point where the word had become a head-exploding trigger for us. Grrrr. Makes us absolutely nuts.
And after asking the group to refocus on my situation for a minute, I am going to provide another distraction.
I don’t think this really lends itself to a description I give people locally, but I have had an interesting discussion online with a different group about BS. The question was asked how you know if your kid should go to BS. The answer (repeated from one given years ago by an Andover recruiter) was that “you know because your kid looks like a caged lion at home/LPS.”
I think D feels more like a shark in a lion cage. Restricted and kept from her potential, but also surrounded by people who clearly don’t understand her and don’t have the foggiest idea of how to deal with her.
@dadof4kids I won’t take your bait to get distracted again. (OK I will for a quick second: neither of my kids fit into that category described by Andover AO. But maybe that is a good description for going to PA not BS in general? I don’t know if our LPS “isn’t enough” for any of my kids. But now I’m falling into your trap so I’ll stop here.)
To answer your other question: It sounds like a LOT of interviews given a few things: that DD is a bit on the fence (it would seem from your posts over the past couple months?) on the BS/no-BS call. And given we are mid-November. I have to wonder if finding a way to cut some of those schools would be wise, so you don’t end up cutting schools simply out of exhaustion in 7 weeks. If you cut now, you get to be more purposeful about which get cut. Also: yes cast a wide net with FA need, but also: you don’t have the “usual suspects” (the “HADES/GLADCHEMMS,” etc) that almost “don’t count” because they are high reaches for every single student. Perhaps you don’t necessarily need 20 schools when you don’t have any of those super high reaches on the list.
Considering the burnout, skipping those on your maybe list makes sense. I think you have to get the interviews calendared now asap, and you may not have the luxury of picking the order.
It has been touched upon earlier in the thread but I would like to add another reason why BS will be more competitive this year. It is not just international students but an NYT article titled “Private Schools Hold New Attraction for Rich Parents” shares other reasons. In CT boarding schools are more competitive as NYC parents are moving to the state and paying full price. Finally, the test optional component has also increased the pool of applicants who might otherwise not applied if SSAT was submitted.