Exigent Circumstances, Transfer to a Boarding school as a Junior/Senior in September.

Prep School Admissions
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<p>My sister is an academically talented 16 year old, in a public school in TX. She will graduate early this year as she has already completed the requirements for graduation at this public school.</p>

<p>From sometime in middle school to sophomore year of high school, she went to Basis Oro Valley, and excelled academically. Due to trouble at home, she had to transfer to a public school in Texas midway through 2nd year of high school. She was taken by CPS, and given to her father in TX. Since she has completed most required classes and credits, she will graduate early here.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, she has lost her father, her sole guardian. I am now trying to place her in to a boarding school for her last year (or 2 if she is admitted as a junior.) Preferably the school is in Virginia, Maryland, DC area, or Arizona area, or Dallas TX area, or Boston/NYC area.. Our net is wide, but we need to find schools in these regions who can accept her within a few weeks.</p>

<p>Now she will receive help from her extended family, and I will use my savings to pay for her schooling. However, if the school had a reasonable price (perhaps below 30,000$ per year) it would be preferable. I just finished college myself in May, (graduated from Columbia University,) and scored a job overseas. I would like to keep her in the US school system.</p>

<p>Any help I can get in finding schools which will accept transfers, and would accept my sister within these locations is very much appreciated. Also, we are not Christians and my sister is quite strongly atheist. It is very hard to convince her to go to a religious school, though if necessary she will have to deal with it.</p>

<p><strong>TL:DR:</strong>
How do I find schools which will accept transfer from a public school, midway through the year? How do we get her in to these schools? How can we keep this under 30,000$/yr?</p>

2

<p>Once she graduates high school, I don’t think she can apply to another high school. She could do a postgraduate year which many boarding schools provide.
All the “religious/episcopal” schools we visited were pretty liberal wrt religion and involved no religion classes. The chapels felt non-denominational. So do consider “religious” schools.
She could apply to Early college programs like Bard? I don’t know any other but assume there are more options. Perhaps another board here on CC?
She would need to apply Financial aid to finance a BS. That would put her into a competitively disadvantageous position. </p>

3

<p>Yes, look at Simon’s Rock at Bard. Is there an international school near where you are working overseas? </p>

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<p>Your sister has a very compelling story and background. Even if you can’t afford the full services of a consultant it would probably be worth talking to one as your situation is so time sensitive. I doubt there are schools under 30K but she may get financial aid even though it’s unusual at this point.</p>

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<p>If I understand what you’re saying, you’re looking to get your sister into a boarding school BEFORE she graduates from her public school (even though she could graduate early there). If she’s 16, it’s perfectly reasonable to be looking at putting her into a private school as an 11th grader. Frankly, if she’s not about to turn 17 in the next month or two, you could even talk about 10th grade, as on average kids at boarding school tend to be a bit older (as it’s not uncommon for kids to do a repeat year when entering B.S.). One thing you’ll need for sure is to get some standardized test scores for her, and you should get that process underway even while you’re still trying to figure out what schools to even look at. I’m not sure whether you’ll want her to take the SSAT or the SAT, but the next standard test day for the SSAT is Oct. 18th. I don’t think it’s a good idea to wait that long in the circumstances. There are certain places – I think usually educational consultants, and maybe some schools – that are authorized by the SSAT organization to adminster what’s called a “flex” test. Same test as the regular SSAT, just that it can be done on any date.
Next, go to the NAIS.org and AISNE.org websites and starting using their search tools to narrow down the list of possible schools. I think some of the schools may list that they have “rolling admissions” although I’m not sure whether you can actually just search for that. I wouldn’t limit yourself to looking only for schools that say rolling admissions (and of course even that’s no guarantee that they’d consider taking an additional student for this year after they’ve already started), but at least the concept of rolling admissions indicates some amount of flexibility when it comes to thinking about applicants. Really what you’re going to need to do, though, is to just pick up the phone and start calling admissions offices to see who will even be willing to consider it.<br>
I woudl also highly recommend that you think about shelling out for a good educational consultant. They’re not cheap, but these are the people that parents go to (among many other reasons) when their kid gets kicked out of school or is wildly unhappy where they are and they need to find a new school part way through the year. It does happen, and a good consultant will know which schools are a good possibility.</p>

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<p>I would second the idea of a consultant, if only because one would save you a lot of time in finding good schools that might be willing to take a kid mid-semester.</p>

<p>Here are a couple of links to get you started.</p>

<p>The National Association of Independent Schools school search page. (Independent schools are generally not religious. Although some come from a religious tradition they welcome people of all faiths, or no faith.)
<a href=“NAIS Bookstore”>http://www.nais.org/Users/Pages/SchoolSearch.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Boarding School Review. Has good information on admit rates and SSAT ranges.
<a href=“http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/”>http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>PSAT or ACT may also suffice if your sister has taken them–would need to check with the schools. D2 got into BS as junior with only PSAT, no SSAT. </p>

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<p>I’ll second the vote for Bard…we’ve had two friends with kids going through the system there and they rave about it - <a href=“http://simons-rock.edu/”>http://simons-rock.edu/&lt;/a&gt; She would be surrounded by other 16 and 17-year-olds…it’d almost be a comforting environment given the tough times that she has gone through… </p>

<p>It is pricey but I believe she would qualify for good aid…it’s worth looking into. </p>

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<p>soxmom, you understand our situation perfectly.</p>

<p>My sister has already taken PSAT, and is registered to take the SATs in October. I think her SAT grade will be higher than her PSAT grade, as she didn’t get over ~205. I will have to check the exact score. She was in and out of courts and in the process of moving when she took that, and could not study…</p>

<p>I am going to look in to a consultant. This is something I had not considered before.</p>

<p>Also, NAIS.org and AISNE.org. okay.</p>

<p>Thank you for the help. Sorry if my original story was a bit confusing.</p>

<p>I wonder about Bard… I have to look in to it.</p>

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<p>I commend you for stepping up to help your sister; chapeau.</p>

<p>In your quest, don’t overlook your obvious resource: Columbia. Surely the CU financial aid and advising offices can offer some insights, leads and quite possibly personal contacts.</p>

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<p>You may want to reach out to Directors of Admission at a couple of solid, mid-upper tier schools that might help you with financial aid, if only a few thousand dollars. Assuming your sister is intelligent and personable, your story is compelling and there will be people who will want to help. I’d call the Director of Admissions at Millbrook, for example. </p>

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<p>You overlooked the fact that Columbia has its own affiliated high school. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.columbiasecondary.org/”>http://www.columbiasecondary.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>@sgopal2: Does the affiliated high school have a boarding option? The OP has just taken an overseas job and is looking for a boarding school for his sister. I didn’t see that in the link.</p>