<p>Thank you, everyone, for your helpful replies! I have had a chance to look into the UK system of education just a bit. UKgirl23, AniseedLollies, and others familiar with the UK, please let me know if my understanding here is accurate & feel free to correct any inaccuracies. It seems that, with the exception of Scotland, which is more similar to the U.S. style of education, the colleges and universities in Europe are quite different in approach than those in the U.S. As I understand it, application to these universities (including Oxford) must be for a specific program of study – one must already have decided to study to be an architect/engineer/mathematician/what-have-you. Not only must an applicant know exactly what career they want to pursue in life, there can be no changing of one’s mind. Unless DD were adamant on a course of study, this does give me serious pause about such universities, as great as those such as Oxford may be. Further, I understand that the European education system is about a year ahead of the American one, and so an American student must be very advanced to even have a chance of going to Oxbridge. I also hear that it is extremely uncommon for even the best U.S. boarding schools to send kids on to Oxbridge. I am grateful to be years away from the time that DD would apply, to give her time to sort this out.</p>
<p>@AniseedLollies, thank you for the great information and suggestions! DH did go to high school in the U.K. (day school, not boarding), so we do have some familiarity, but I had not heard of a 2 year option before. We do like the IB programvery much, and it is great to have yet another way to pursue it if her current IB day school proves problematic. And yes, you bring up a good point – I do agree that any decision to board needs to be the child’s. I attribute the happiness of our first child in a boarding environment entirely to the fact that he was the one that really wanted to board (it was us parents who had to be persuaded), along with the fact that we allowed him to choose his school.</p>
<p>@UKgirl23, good luck on your applications!! If you have a chance, I’d love to hear more about the application process and your opinion of the various U.K. boarding schools. Feel free to PM me if you prefer. </p>
<p>@GMT, I have a glimmer of understanding of the difficulties (on many levels) that you must face with a child being educated in another country. One of my son’s friends is in town spending Thanksgiving break with relatives, because it is just too far to go home for this relatively short break. I am glad he has family here, but it does make things complicated, as I am sure he misses his immediate family.</p>
<p>@Periwinkle, you bring up good points, as usual. While due to family ties, we would move to the U.K. ourselves in a heartbeat if given the chance, having only one family member there is much harder.</p>
<p>@HarvestMoon, good for you for listening to your child. If his heart isn’t in it, no point in pushing. My only observations are, that if he ever <em>were</em> to want to board, Saturday classes sound worse than they are. Such schools have Sat. a.m. classes because they get Wednesday afternoons off to attend sports (usually involving travel to games). So it isn’t “extra” school. For those boarding schools with a high percentage of boarders, it isn’t a big deal, as most remain on campus anyway (at least at the school my son attends). At his prior school (junior boarding), yes, it was formal dress, but I was shocked that the boys, including my own, rather liked strutting around in their coats and ties once they were actually in them. Maybe this was a middle school thing, but I swear they acted more grown up due to their dress (snowball fights and sledding in their formal dress notwithstanding LOL). YMMV of course, and I wouldn’t push a kid who dug in his heels on this.</p>
<p>@Axelrod, this is not the case - see post #6 for my reasoning. Yes, a consultant friend did suggest boarding school when I mentioned my DD’s interest in Oxford, but this does not mean we will run blindly to boarding school as a result of one friend’s opinion. As a current boarding school parent, I strongly believe that the boarding school experience must be an end unto itself, not seen as a stepping stone to selective colleges, much less one particularly selective college, such as Oxford. That indeed would be folly.</p>