How does this work?

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>Hello, I am a graduated senior attending college this fall.
I am here to help my rising 8th grade brother for prep school admissions.</p>

<p>Could someone help me here?</p>

<p>Stats:
(Due to privacy reasons, I left some parts out)
1. Most difficult courseload: 14 subjects, As and A-s. One C+ in Art (GPA around 3.5-3.6)
2. Played an instrument from third grade, played in school orchestra
3. State sports champion (I won't mention which discipline this is, sorry :P)
4. Taking 2 APs this year (Self-studies)
5. Prepped PSAT from 6th grade
6. Student Government President: 6th grade</p>

<p>My questions:
1. We are looking for very good to average ** boarding ** schools which are ** need-blind **
2. We are internationals, and ORMs (Asians). But we are applying from Europe.
3. When should my brother take the SSAT/ISSE? What are they?
4. Does he have to take the TOEFL?
5. If he wants to enroll starting 9th grade, could someone post a good schedule for applications?
6. Will the admissions officers take a look at his elementary school stats? Or only one transcript? (Only 7th grade)
7. Interviews... My parents can't speak English, and we live in Europe!!
Are they a "must"?
8. I really don't understand this process at all. They will only judge my brother by his 7th grade transcript and extracurriculars?!</p>

<p>Thank you so much. My brother has no idea, and I want to help him out, since I am going to college this fall already. Unfortuntely, our parents are supportive but they have no idea about this process (father's job makes the family travel a lot around the world; and we don't want my brother's education to have any gaps,..etc)</p>

<p>Thank you once again!</p>

2

<p>Also, he started his 8th grade curriculum today.
He is enrolled in MYP (Middle Years Programme) in the IB program.</p>

<p>Other than that, if he gets accepted, do you think a 9th grader can get used to a boarding school setting?
Please share your two cents!</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

3

<p>May I bump this?</p>

4

<p>Here are the learnings from our experience with the BS application process, as an int’l applicant:</p>

<ol>
<li>We are looking for very good to average boarding schools which are need-blind </li>
</ol>

<p>This website is a good starting place to sort the schools by different selection criteria:
[Find</a> Schools - Boarding School Review](<a href=“http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/researchschools.php]Find”>Find Boarding Schools)</p>

<p>After you make a short list of possibilities, then visit the schools’ websites and contact the schools directly to clarify issues. EVERY SCHOOL IS DIFFERENT in their application process, so don’t assume that 1 school’s rules applies at another school.</p>

<p>Does your mention of “need blind” means you need require Financial Aid? Generally, it is very difficult for foreign students to get financial aid.</p>

<ol>
<li>We are internationals, and ORMs (Asians). But we are applying from Europe.</li>
</ol>

<p>I see 2 issues here: LOGISTICS and DIVERISTY</p>

<p>LOGISTICS
Ideally the school should be located within reasonable driving distance to an Int’l gateway airport (e.g., JFK, BOS, LAX). Many schools arrange taxi/bus service to the major airports for school breaks.</p>

<p>Europe to U.S. east coast is easy flying distance. Asia (if your family moves back there) to U.S. west coast seems logical; however, the time zone difference makes it more convenient to call the east coast from Asia. Plus, there are a lot more boarding schools on the east coast.</p>

<p>Have you considered boarding schools in Europe?</p>

<p>DIVERSITY
The schools want to enlist a diverse student body. My personal view is that being an ORM hurts your admissions chances. However, being an int’l student may help. Some schools classify their int’l students on the basis of NATIONALITY, while other schools do it on the basis of COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE—check with the school. For Asian int’l students, I have noticed from some schools’ published info that the most represented east asian nationalites are: S.Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore. It will probably help you to stand out from the crowd of applicants if you are a Cambodian citizen residing in Lithuania…</p>

<p>Another issue to aware to consider is if there is a large proportion of int’l kids with the same nationality/mother-tongue, the kids tend to hang out together and converse in their mother-tongue rather than in English. Not that that is a bad thing, but is may be counter to achieving English fluency if that is an objective.</p>

<ol>
<li>When should my brother take the SSAT/ISSE? What are they?</li>
</ol>

<p>The SSAT is very similar to the SAT, but the scores are normalized for age.</p>

<p>Check with the SSAT website for test dates. As many schools have a mid-January application deadline, the expectation is that the test be taken no later than January.</p>

<ol>
<li>Does he have to take the TOEFL?</li>
</ol>

<p>Check with each school. My guess is that TOEFL is required if the student is not fluent in English.</p>

<ol>
<li>If he wants to enroll starting 9th grade, could someone post a good schedule for applications?</li>
</ol>

<p>See answer to #3 for SSAT.
For most schools, the application deadline is in mid-late January. The admissions officers review all the applications and make their decisions during February. Then the admissions decisions are mailed our in early March. Check with each school for their timeline.</p>

<p>Some schools (especially those with high percentage of expat families), have rolling admissions.</p>

<ol>
<li>Will the admissions officers take a look at his elementary school stats? Or only one transcript? (Only 7th grade)</li>
</ol>

<p>None of the schools we looked at asked for elementary school transcript. </p>

<p>However, for extracurriculars, the schools are more impressed by depth of experience rather than breadth. If extracurricular experience extends way back to elementary school days (like Tiger Woods) I would mention it.</p>

<ol>
<li>Interviews… My parents can’t speak English, and we live in Europe!!
Are they a “must”?</li>
</ol>

<p>The interviews are usually with the student. The interviewer wants to assess whether the student wants to go to boarding school (or are parents forcing them to go) and whether the student would fit in socially. Many interviewers will ask the parents after the student interview whether the parents have any questions. </p>

<p>My personal opinion is that it makes a better impression on the admissions people if you take the trouble to visit the school and do the interview there. However, as it is a considerable effort to fly to a foreign country and drive where one cannot read the road signs, there may be the option of doing the interview abroad. Many schools have alumni residing abroad who can do the interview nearer to where you live. Contact the school.</p>

<ol>
<li>I really don’t understand this process at all. They will only judge my brother by his 7th grade transcript and extracurriculars?!</li>
</ol>

<p>The schools generally want to see the Middle School grades, but as some elementary schools include up to 5th grade and some include up to the 6th grade, that can mean different things, depending on your school system. The school will definitely want to see the academic performance of the grade your brother is presently in. Also, the applications generally want recommendations from his teachers and extracurricular coaches/leaders. At U.S. schools, athletics are a very, very big deal. </p>

<p>Many schools specifically ask for a recommendation from the present English Teacher and the present Math Teacher. The application will likely require essays for your brother to write.</p>

<p>As you mention that you are attending college this fall—is it a college in the U.S.? Do you remember the application process you went through? The BS application process is very, very similar. As with college admissions, the more selective/elite the college, the more onerous the application process.</p>

<p>“do you think a 9th grader can get used to a boarding school setting?”
I think all of us new BS parents are wondering about that for this Fall…</p>

<p>GOOD LUCK to your family.</p>

5

<p>

Thank you so much! Yep, applied to Harvard, got rejected. I am going to UK.</p>

<p>

GOOD LUCK to YOUR family, as well.
Your post has been greatly helpful.</p>

<p>Thank you once again! :)</p>

6

<p>As you are attending college in UK, would it not make sense for your brother to attend a BS in the UK?</p>

7

<p>It’s a little late to apply to a UK BS. The application process usually begins with pre-testing sometime during the equivalent of sixth grade followed by either the school’s scholarship exam or the Common Entrance exam in the last half of the equivalent of grade seven. UK BS begins in the equivalent of grade eight, not nine. D starts UK BS in about three weeks.</p>

8

<p>Only US boarding schools, at this moment.</p>

9

<p>You should consider George School or Westtown in Pennsylvania. They are both Quaker schools, and pride themselves on diverse, global student bodies. George has a very handsome endowment, and is capable of awarding attractive financial aid packages. George is only 45 minutes from Philadelphia Int’l Airport, and not much more than an hour from Newark (NJ)/Liberty Airport.</p>

10

<p>Find a good international school near where you live and reap the experience of being world citizens rather than desperately finding a boarding school and diving into an experience you’re not at all familiar with across the ocean from all the family members. A U.S. boarding school for an Asian family (where the parents speak no English) and the entire family is currently living in Europe is, quite possibly, the worst option possible. And I have no idea what your other options are…though I suspect I’m about to hear why everything is so utterly miserable where you are that you need to have your brother shipped overseas to embark on an experience that nobody in the family is the least bit familiar with.</p>

11

<p>First of all, thank you for your reply.

My brother has attended an international school all his life. We are a family of four. I will be studying in the UK. My dad, due to the character of his job, will have to move back to our native country. This is a serious drawback for my brother, since he does not have a good command of our language as I do. Our second option is that my mother has to stay abroad with my brother. Imagine a family like this. The first son studies in the UK, the dad lives in the native country, while the mother and the brother stay in an European country for education. Although we are diplomats, affording an international school is very difficult. The state pays the fees while my dad works as a diplomat, but he is returning to the native country next year.

I firmly believe that this is the best option possible. I am a multilingual and my brother is a trilingual, and we are both gifted students who are motivated to embark on the challenge. We, the sons, thought it would be best if our mother and father can unite and live in the native country while I pursue my education I the UK and my brother attends a boarding school in the US (most European schools here have no financial aid for international students).

My father can speak English quite well and my mother can speak an European language. But since the diplomatic mission has ended, I believe that it is best if our parents can unite at last (we are living as a complete family finally) and we can stop sending my brother to an international school, where the quality of education is not that great and requires a lot of $$.</p>

12

<p>Bumping this.</p>

13

<p>I have to agree with D’yer Maker about this scenario.</p>

<p>Furthermore, I am a bit confused. In your original post you said:</p>

<ol>
<li>Interviews… My parents can’t speak English, and we live in Europe!!
Are they a “must”?</li>
</ol>

<p>But now you have said your father is very proficient in English. </p>

<p>In another thread you have started, you are asking about “bad” schools, which is just confounding.</p>

<p>At any rate, I agree that finding an excellent school in the same location as your parents is, by far, a much more realistic objective. As far as I know, there is little financial aid available to foreign students at most schools.</p>

14

<p>What’s your nationality?</p>

15

<p>@D’yer Maker,</p>

<p>“diving into an experience you’re not at all familiar with across the ocean from all the family members”</p>

<p>“have your brother shipped overseas to embark on an experience that nobody in the family is the least bit familiar with”</p>

<p>If all int’l families thought like that, then NONE of the schools would have foreign students. We are about to send S halfway around the world to attend BS in U.S., and we are not only comfortable about it, but excited about the opportunity for new cultural discovery for S. For many of the American families who will be sending their children to BS this Fall, the BS experience is also an entirely new “experience that nobody in the family is the least bit familiar with”</p>

<p>@jhortomply,</p>

<p>As you will be living in the UK, there are a lot of reasons why it makes sense to look at schools in the UK for your brother. Many of the int’l schools there also have boarders, in addition to day students—TASIS school comes immediately to mind. </p>

<p>“most European schools here have no financial aid for international students”
The same can be said for American BS.</p>

<p>Have you considered a third option? Is there an int’l school in your home country that your brother can attend? I’ve seen many friends opt for this solution, who repatriated with children who were not proficient at the secondary school level in the mother-tongue. I am surprised that your country’s diplomatic ministry does not help cover the cost of transitioning repatriating children.</p>

16

<p>

My Dad can speak English, but not enough for prep school interviews. Sorry if I wasn’t so clear about that.</p>

<p>“Bad” schools: I have rarely heard of anyone who got a 4.0 at Exeter or Andover: Grade deflation. I know that my brother is motivated and bright, so it would be better if he can go to a “bad” school (bit worse than Andover) where he can graduate with a very high GPA along with a top rank.</p>

17

<p>

Third option. Good idea. Well, for our family it is a bit difficult to go with the third option: I am only a high school graduate who is going to attend an UK school this September. I am not much of a guidance figure, if he stays in the UK.</p>

18

<p>I am Korean by the way.</p>

19

<p>@jhortomptly,</p>

<p>Perhaps it is a consequence of your being a non-native English speaker, but I’d like to gently point out that characterizing schools that are a “bit worse than Andover” as “bad”, is quite insulting to the other academically elite schools. I think that when most Americans refer to “bad” schools, they are thinking about scary schools with drugs, gangs, violence, high drop-out rates, very poor academics, many pregnant girls-- and not about schools that have a 15% admission rate, instead of a 13% admission rate.</p>

<p>“Well, for our family it is a bit difficult to go with the third option… I am not much of a guidance figure, if he stays in the UK. “</p>

<p>By HOME country, I was referring to finding an international school in Korea, not UK which is your HOST country. That said, Korea is a very, very tough place for a kid to go to school, let alone repatriate with a less-than-fluent language ability. </p>

<p>How about Option 4: an international school in Southeast Asia in a low cost-of-living country. </p>

<p>Many of these countries have sizable communities of expatriate Korean families (mostly mothers with the children) who are there entirely for the purpose of educating their children in English. The Korean embassies play a significant role in serving the consular needs of their countrymen there. As your father is a diplomat, he should be able to access his professional network of Korean diplomatic colleagues who can offer guidance on this option.</p>

<p>If it makes you feel any better, your family’s schooling/language dilemma upon repatriation is not uncommon for expatriate families.</p>

20

<p>

Nooooo. Not insulting, I didn’t mean one of those HADES schools. Or those Choate, Lawrenceville,…etc. I meant bad ones among the boarding schools.
I am sorry. I apologize. I should have been much clear on that. I am native English speaker, it’s just that we have different perspectives. They are by no means “bad” but “bad” compared to “Andover and Exeter”. </p>

<p>We are thinking about the Minjok Leadership Academy in Korea, which has an average SAT of 2210 (higher than Exeter!) But it is from 10-12. </p>

<p>Thank you everyone! Also, once again, they are by ** no ** means “bad”. My bad.</p>