<p>My son, a runner, had a lot of help from coaches in his admission process to boarding school. He had some non-academic things that needed to be overcome for admissions and the coach-advocates went above and beyond to aid his admission to several schools.</p>
<p>hsmomstef- Take an online look at Western Reserve Academy outside of Cleveland. It is an awesome school and off the radar of this site.</p>
<p>My daughter pacticed SSAT using several of the SSAT practice books. We then reviewed the areas she had trouble with. She also used a silly song SAT vocab CD review that was helpful. I think just practicing taking the test is a good foundation.</p>
<p>oh but maybe i was just talking about the very top BSs. maybe the coaches have more pull at lower tier schools like Peddie or Hill or Loomis... but at top BS, we barely have enough spots for the football, boys hockey and Lax team...and boys soccer too (they recruit mainly from jamaica, which is smart..recruit people both for sports and can boost diversity)....but other than that, you really have to come in the package with on par test scores, grades and ECs or the coaches cant help you even tho they always tell u they'd try</p>
<p>paleo: That's exactly the kind of insight and advice that will be most useful to a parent. Picking up on trends like that can save time (and money) and greatly improve the chances that the school(s) ultimately chosen will be well-suited for the child. As you look at viewbooks and other information, there will be some schools that attract you and others that don't. As you start forming preferences...with regard to the kind of learner/person your child is...you should go back and see what things those schools have in common. There may be qualities/traits/factors that they share that you may not have been intentional about seeking the first time through. That may help identify other schools worth considering...and winnow down the list you're working with. Great advice, and tailored to hsmomstef, too! Just don't send her the bill, even though it's worth it! :>)</p>
<p>I am not sure about the humanities emphasis -- he may be copying older brother. I would say that his writing skills are average (he is in IB program -- so they do alot). He was tested as gifted in math and tends to claim that he wants to do math and science -- but I don't see his personality/interests/talents in the science and engineering field (maybe medicine -- but I don't see research science). He is just so young and interested in so much -- that is reason for the wide net. </p>
<p>What I am going to be looking for is what sparks his interest when he looks at the viewbooks and what doesn't he like (big brother will not be here -- so the influence should diminish). When we visited Fountain Valley -- he loved everything (even the arts, which he usually says he hates) and disliked nothing.</p>
<p>We will be requesting some more info from schools today!</p>
<p>I am sure the Coopers (18 years at Hotchkiss, Christy - JV girls hockey coach and Dean of Dormitory Life, John - girls varsity hockey coach) and Robin Chandler (Hotchkiss alum, Athletic Director and assitant varsity hockey coach) will be glad to hear that nobody at Hotchkiss cares about girls hockey. Speaking of Robin Chandler, how successful has her field hockey program been? Was that done without any input in admissions process also?</p>
<p>I was wondering when you were going to chime in biffgnar.</p>
<p>The way bearcats puts it, you'd wonder why they'd bother to field a girls hockey team. But Hotchkiss actually has one of the best girls prep teams this season. Perhaps bearcats should stop by and watch a game?</p>
<p>I think the bottom line is that a school that worries more about its average SSAT scores than the quality of people they bring in would very quickly become a school full of grinders and a very grim place to study. I honestly don't believe that Hotchkiss is such a place. </p>
<p>And having a competitive girls athletic program at a prep school is very important in placing your graduates at many of the top LACs where womens athletics are every bit as important as mens (think Title IX here). And with small enrollments, athletes make up a significant percentage of the student population.</p>
<p>It is well documented that there are lots of kids who can perform very well at the top prep schools even with mediocre test scores. Some kids are bright but just don't obsess on gaming the standardized tests. Is that person any less likely to perform well than a kid who spent their whole summer prepping for a 3-hour multiple guess test? Now granted a low test score must be checked into further to assess whether a student has the necessary educational background, but the adcoms at prep schools know how to identify the kids who will succeed (and bring athletic success too!)</p>
<p>Thanks biffgnar for putting a face on a part of Hotchkiss that some may overlook.</p>
<p>I think what Bearcat meant is that girls hockey doesn't have the pull with admissions that boys hockey, lax, and football does. Same at many of the other top tier schools. The girls hockey coach might be able to pull a couple of girls in but not as many as the boys sports mentioned.</p>
<p>Based on our visits and the coaches we have gotten to know I do agree that coaches input with admissions varies from school to school. And it may be true that that influence generally increases with "lower" schools. There was only one school we visited though (and it wasn't Hotchkiss) where it felt like the girls hockey coach had almost no influence with admissions, although even at that school I have been told by parents of current students that he does have influence. I guess some might argue that it is just coaches being better sales people at those other schools. I do find it hard to believe though that when these schools have interscholastic competition in approx. 25 different sports and success in those sports does have an impact on a school's "goodwill" (reputation, admissions pull, college matrics, etc.) that it is only a material factor for a 3 boys sports. Girls hockey may be what I and goaliedad care about, but I would think there are schools and applicants where swimming, basketball, cross country, field hockey (Hotchkiss?), crew, etc. come into play.</p>
<p>Wow this is a hopping thread. My goodness.</p>
<p>Anyway, I just wanted to say that College Confidential really pressures prospective students into looking at the very top (in terms of prestige) boarding schools, and I have noticed this being ubiquitous in all the threads in the Prep School Admissions section of the forum. </p>
<p>When I was in 8th grade, I was a very solid student with straight A's, and I did apply to a variety of schools, although none were in New England, one could definitely consider Lawrenceville and Peddie to be among the top boarding schools in the country. They really are very competitive environments, and I noticed it as soon as I made my visit to Lawrenceville. Even though I was a very good student, I am inherently not competitive, and I liked the school more for its facilities than for the academic atmosphere. I'm not saying these schools have bad academic atmospheres, but some students will love it and some will not, finding it more of a nuisance than an advantage. </p>
<p>You must find out, if you don't already know, what kind of student your son is, because 8th graders don't often communicate that sort of thing to their parents. The ooh-ah factor might mislead both of you. </p>
<p>Don't even worry about how many kids go on to Ivy-League or similar schools. First of all, at this point you have little idea which colleges your son will want to attend, and schools with great academics may send less students to the Ivy League for other reasons entirely. Trying to judge a schools academics off of top college matriculations is a mistake. </p>
<p>Here's something that your son WILL care about when he starts out in boarding school:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Student body size/ % Boarding students - Small campus feel, big campus feel? % boarding is important because for one, nobody likes a dead campus, and two, more boarding students usually means that the student community is much more tightly-knit. It also suggests that faculty will interact with students more.</p></li>
<li><p>Courses offered - This should be tied with #1, because its so important. A bigger course selection means that the school has 1.) More faculty or more talented faculty (who can teach a variety of courses on different subjects), 2.) More choices for your student to choose from, 3.) Courses with smaller class sizes exist (you want to take smaller classes), and 4.) more AP selection </p></li>
<li><p>Athletics/ Athletics-requirements - If your student is not an athlete, then I wouldn't recommend a school that requires students to participate in sports unless he/she is open to starting a new sport. See how many levels there are; Freshman, Junior Varsity, Varsity, intramural, etc. Schools with more levels won't be forced to 'cut' students in the traditional sense. Also see how many sports are offered. Some sports aren't available at the middle school level, so this is an excellent opportunity to begin a new sport on the same level as everyone else. </p></li>
<li><p>Dormitories - Make sure you see the dorms. </p></li>
<li><p>Unusual opportunities - Opportunities to travel within the US or abroad, outdoor programs, study abroad, etc. Do many students participate in these programs? Does the school substantiate the costs for them? </p></li>
<li><p>How newbie accessible is the school - Similar to the thing about athletics, is it easy for students inexperienced in visual arts/music/theatre/dance to get involved? Does the school offer music lessons? If a students doesn't make the cast of one play, can he/she try for another production? Does the school care about learning or performance more? The best programs will have a balance of the two. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>These things might be kinda fuzzy compared to the concrete endowment size/average SSAT score/ college matriculation thing, but I encourage you to keep them in mind. Ask a lot of questions, even if you don't get to visit in person.</p>
<p>If you have any more questions, you are welcome to PM me as always.</p>
<p>JW</p>
<p>My advice: read past posts. The collective wisdom will gather and you won't need to answer explicit questions (other than new ones that none of us have come up with).</p>
<p>I think this is a great thread. Many posters on all of the different threads have asked some relevant questions (and some not so relevant!). But to have in one thread advice on how to evaluate the different schools with what a student wants, is great. I really like seeing the broader discussions moving away from the select few schools that have dominated.</p>
<p>On our initial list, we had a variety of school sizes. It was very strange that every time I drove into a boarding school with a student body under 375, my son immediately said he didn't like the school. In our case, we would not have known that without some visits.</p>
<p>Here are some other things that were important to my son: no coat & tie for boys, no required or minimal formal church services, everyone new in 9th grade (no middle school or entering 8th grade), sports team opportunities at a variety of levels, minimal fine art requirements, private music lesson available and classes in Chinese and computers.</p>
<p>Here are a few things that were important to me: healthy endowment, 2 hour or less drive time from home, strong college counseling, caring community culture, opportunities to have fun, high percentage boarding, immediate town area nice, and faculty that watch over the students.</p>
<p>If you actually come here, you'd see that most of the girls in the field hockey and hockey team actually excel in academics; they are amazing athletes but also amazing students; yet less so for the football team and boys hockey team.... there are a few recruits but not many...</p>
<p>and Ms. Cooper was my English teacher, she's an amazing person, genuinely nice</p>
<p>and yes, during this workshop at MLK day about school spirit or something I forgot last year, this girl once said,"People at hotchkiss have to pay more attention to different things , for example, the girls field hockey team won New Englands couple years in a row and many people dont even know!" I think they deserve more attention but seriously, the boys football and hockey program gets the most attention, hey, and our boy hockey team is SO SICK this year watch out</p>
<p>If you are suggesting that members of the football and boy's hockey teams don't belong academically and are only there because of sports that is definitely farther out on the range of coaching influence than I was thinking. Any of that for any sport at the top schools surprises me, but you are there and the one who would know. I was reallly thinking more about coaching influence to get a candidate in who was qualified but otherwise might not have stood out. To me that seems like it could still be a pretty significant factor given how many qualified applicants there are for each actual spot.</p>
<p>Give your girls hockey team some credit also. Probably top 5 in Division I. Should make post-season playoff tournament and anything can happen.</p>
<p>With our experiences, I would definitely agree with what Burb Parent, Goaliedad, MOWC, biffgnar and Tokyo posted. </p>
<p>What I would add for students who would usually be flying to BS is the proximity to an airport with multiple flights to your hometown and convenient, reasonable transportation from the BS. Although this wasn't on our list, when our son went to Loomis last year, it was wonderful to have the Bradley Airport only 10 minutes from school since we flew in from CA a number of times to see his games. It was a $15 cab ride to school which he often shared with a classmate if he wasn't able to snag a ride from a faculty member. (We didn't realize how important that was until a couple of his friends from CA ended up at a BS that was 2.5 hours from the airport and had transportation issues when their flights were delayed by inclement weather.)</p>
<p>S wanted a larger school since his middle school had 1200 students and his public hs had 2400. With 400 boarders (60%), there were plenty of weekend activities to occupy his time. </p>
<p>bearcats - As for athletes, you are incorrect about Loomis admitting athletes with subpar academics. The coach of the championship lacrosse team is a Yale grade and goes for top athletes with strong academic backgrounds so that they will fit in well at the school. The coaches know to recruit athletes will be able to gain admission based on their academic merits and they stress that although the school offers many athletic opportunities, that is just one component of a Loomis or any good BS education. </p>
<p>hsmomstef - If there is any way you can swing a week's worth of school visits this summer (even a driving trip from CO to the east coast and staying in economy motels), it would be more than worth the cost. I took our S to 7 interviews/tours in a week from ME/NH/MA/CT to PA/NJ and it really made a difference in his choices. The view books are all very nice, but your sons would have a much better idea of which type of schools might be the best fit.</p>
<p>loomis?? what?????</p>
<p>and I am talking about the football team and boys hockey team...more so the hockey team, basically all PG spots are reserved for them.....and the coaches get a couple free passes a year</p>
<p>creasemonkey: One of the things you might pick up from the viewbooks for most New England schools (with Milton being a notable exception) is this: did you know that it rarely snows at these schools? In fact, autumn is the dominant season of the year. At least that's the sort of stuff one might conclude from relying too heavily on viewbooks.</p>
<p>Ha ha ha ha! That's funny. Oh Newe Englande and their autumne splendore.</p>
<p>As a parent who went through the process with my youngest last year and this year is helping 3 kids in foster care through the process, I'll put in my two cents. View books are useless. For my daughter, the viewbook (DVD and so on) that captivated her most was one of her least favorite schools upon visiting. She didn't apply. Nothing can substitute for a visit. I agree with the poster who said size became a key issue. It was for my daughter who turned out to love the smaller schools.</p>
<p>I'm not sure in your situation I'd cast a wide net. I think very few schools have much financial aid for BWRKs. In my experience most of the aid goes to achieve diversity (URMs, kids from different countries), athletes and the extremely brilliant. You will not know whether there is aid for your child or not before the envelopes arrive in March and I think schools will encourage your application by not being straight forward on the subject. I can tell you that the non minority child I'm working with has not gotten the same level of interest as my minority candidates and I'm doubtful he'll get the same aid offers.</p>
<p>That's all to say I would focus on schools with the most overall aid dollars and ones where your son would be at the top of the class.</p>