<p>thacher would be a problem.
i have a very low rate of allergic-ness, if you could call it that
but after visiting i had horrible rashes and weird allergic reactions that's still around after a frickin month
it's getting better though so.. yeah.</p>
<p>i don't think SPS would be a big problem. thacher would, just cuz they integrate with nature a lot (don't get me wrong.. i love thacher. i just hated visiting and having it ruin all my dreams ): )</p>
<p>The uniqueness of Thacher is driven largely by its combination of world class academics and a love of the outdoors. The horses, the mountains - these are a huge part of the experience. If you're allergy prone and not equally comfortable outdoors as you are indoors, I'd never recommend the School.</p>
<p>Some on this Board don't like Cate, but it has a less intense outdoor emphasis and no horses. Perhaps that would be a better option for you.</p>
<p>westcoast_ .... you had horrible rashes and weird allergic reactions! :) I have not known a single student, visitor or parent at Thacher who ever suffered such maladies. Yikes!</p>
<p>westcoast_ .... you had horrible rashes and weird allergic reactions! I have not known a single student, visitor or parent at Thacher who ever suffered such maladies. Yikes!</p>
<p>XD
my mom especially hates thacher after visiting. i don't know why, it was a pretty good school but she's not looking for the lax school that focuses dually on academics and outdoor integration. she (and i as well i guess) is in loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeee with groton. she is in love with the admissions office, the chapel, and the students.
funn XD</p>
<p>Freshie123, which International School do you go to in Korea? I live in Korea so I know all the international schools.</p>
<p>yea freshie! :P</p>
<p>it's confidential! XD
you might go to my school or lk a rival school, and then you'll ask your friends who know kids at my school at etc etc.. i dnt want everyone to know~!</p>
<p>if you really really really really wnat to know, pm me</p>
<p>( few days on this board, lol i already talk cc language XD)</p>
<p>freshie123: Hey there!! Umm actually you need to say whether you are applying for financial assistance or not too (this is important because you're international). I am sorry that this is kinda case-sensitive here, but to be frank, if you can pay 50% or more, then you should go for those schools. But, if not, then I strongly recommend you not to apply to more than 3 schools in the same ranking. If you have 10 slots to consider, well then that's a good thing, maybe you'd like to pick 3 top-tiers like Exeter/Andover/Thacher etc. and then 3 less-challenging like Loomis Chaffee/Lawrenceville etc. and then 2-4 safety choices too. Speaking from my own experience, it's no use you apply to 10 schools in the same rank, bcoz once you get rejected/waitlisted at Lawrenceville, the chances are that you get rejected/waitlisted at Choate, Loomis Chaffee etc. too. So, g'luck with everything! (Although there are exceptions that some ppl get an R at Andover did actually gain acceptance to Exeter! - but that's rare)</p>
<p>fa + international = total armaggedon flames</p>
<p>im sorry lawrenceville is up there in 1st tier in my opinion :D
loomis still has a high acceptance rate (if they cut down their day student numbers or even their boarding numbers, it would be such a selective school ugh)</p>
<p>but binhnguyen is right. use his example. 3 reach reach schools. 3 schools that could be reaches but are in between that and matches, and then 2-4 safety/match schools.</p>
<p>hey guys-
thanks for all the input!
i won't be needing financial aid, but I ain't no rich snob. My family's in the upper middle income family- can't apply for financial aid. (my school tuition's actually comparable to bs tuitions.. it's about half of most bses.. and so you can imagine everyone in my school comes from about the same income family)</p>
<p>if you haven't read, i've got my safety~~ I really think I shouldn't be traveling half way around the globe to attend school that is really not the "best" for me. Not saying schools that are not top are really bad, just that I think I should go for reaches instead of safety schools.</p>
<p>There's a standard form for the teacher recommendations. Make sure that they keep a copy for themselves. There have been more than a couple instances in the past couple of years -- recounted here on CC -- in which schools have not received recommendations that teachers have claimed were sent. It's much easier to ask your teacher to send another copy of the one s/he kept for his/her records than it is to ask your teacher to start from scratch. Plus, by then, time's a wastin' and you'll want that resent application in the mail a week ago, not when the teacher can get around to it again. I save copies of all recommendations that I write. I assumed that teachers would do the same. Apparently not. So tell them to keep a copy for their own records.</p>
<p>The school forms are uniform but they come with some personalization. That's where you get into a quandary and the psychological chess games start playing themselves out. You may like (just for example) Mercersburg the most, but Hotchkiss (again, just for example) might have had an earlier deadline, so you gave your teachers the recommendation form from the Hotchkiss materials which has the Hotchkiss name and seal on it. What do you do? Let Mercersburg see that you're probably applying to Hotchkiss? Use different forms for each school so that they all think they're the bomb in your book? White it out...so they know that you're using another school's form but not which one? Choose lots to determine which school's form gets used? It's a very tricky business and that's just the beginning of the self-doubting, second-guessing and psychological thrills that await you this application season.</p>
<p>The process for completing recommendations and school reports -- and understanding exactly what goes in them -- is very mysterious. It's like one of those episodes of Seinfeld in which everybody could get out of trouble instantly and there would be no hard feelings if only one character took a moment at the outset to explain to another character what was going on. The script writers don't do that, of course, because then they'd have 18 minutes of time to fill and it's really very funny to keep that key piece of information out of the script. I'm not sure why the boarding schools aren't more explicit in explaining what they expect -- though I suspect it's to make you spend more time and create lots of comedy (at your expense).</p>
<p>freshie123 I know what you mean, Im going for all "reaches" also.</p>
<p>I agree that the concept of "safety" is generally speaking a concept best left for college admissions where the failure to gain admission to any college at all means you're in big trouble. </p>
<p>By contrast, failure to gain admission to BS simply means you're going to avail yourself of other alternatives: the school you're currently attending, a public school, a private day school option, or possibly home schooling. Thus, you already have safeties. In fact, nearly everyone has at least one "lock" (public school) and your BS application choices should be of such a calibre and fit that they exceed your non-BS "lock" and "safeties." Then, factor in the cost components of BS (not just financial, but travel/distance, other stresses, etc.), and I submit that your BS options ought to offer advantages that exceed your local "lock" option by a longshot. </p>
<p>Of course, many boarding schools do that if you bear in mind that you're not comparing apples to apples. There's a full array of offerings and experiences available bundled with BS that isn't part of the local day school experience. How much you personally value these experiences may determine whether BS is so important. For the most part, though, these other offerings and experiences, as rich as they may be, are not things I would regard as "needs" for a student. That's why, for the most part, I don't see any need to keep any "safeties" on a list of boarding schools you apply to. </p>
<p>Be realistic in what you shoot for. But don't apply to any schools that are anything less than what you want. If one or more of those schools have a high rate of admission, that's terrific. It probably means you're ahead of the game because you're focused chiefly on what you want and you aren't letting the tail of admissions competitiveness wag the dog of which schools will best suit you as a student and member of the BS community.</p>
<p>As for the number of schools you finally decide to apply to...that's largely a factor determined by your intestinal fortitude for application processing and your parents' willingness to pay $100 or so for each fishing line you cast when, in the end, the most you can keep is one fish. Recommendations and school reports are replicated by the photocopier...so that shouldn't deter you. </p>
<p>What should keep you in check is the fact that a large number of options should tell you -- and may tell the interviewers who ask you where else you're applying to BS -- that you may not have a very clear idea of what you're looking for out of a BS.</p>
<p>In this regard, returning to my point about you already (probably) having safeties and at least one lock for next year...I would be amazed if (even with unlimited time and other resources) you could find 20 boarding school options that are so exceptionally well-suited to you, individually. I know some people apply to as many as 10, but even that stretches credulity. My son applied to less than that and, in retrospect, I realize it was as high as it was because we were so clueless about so many things. Fortunately, you can only actually attend 1 (at a time) and, as a rule, I think admissions officers can sometimes save you from yourself if you start grasping at straws (which includes applying to "safeties" and absurdly out-of-the-question "reaches" as well as other schools you would have no business attending even if, on paper, you could gain admission).</p>
<p>As long as you work hard to create a list of schools that you believe seem custom-made for the type of student and person you are and are growing into, your list should pretty much shake itself out of its own accord without your having to resort to a mathematical expression for "reaches," "safeties" and "matches" -- the latter term being abominable in that it refers to nothing other than admission prospects yet the word is suggestive that such schools hold some additional kismet or magical attractiveness with you as an individual that very likely does not exist (i.e., a "match" does not a "fit" make).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>