<p>is anybody worried that they won't be smart or be able to manage the workload at the top boarding schools?</p>
<p>yeah i suppose. but then again i worry alot. </p>
<p>hey has anyone else had problems w/ adcoms actually receiving ur entire app? for ex. for some frightening reason andover claims to be missing my canidate statement or something like that (!) but exeter says theyve gotten everything from me. oh and lawrenceville's login thingy said that im missing everything but the application fee, (AHHH), but how could that be if I sent in all my recs/essays/ in the same envelope as my app fee? </p>
<p>no seriously anyone else out there confused too? oh and hotchkiss, i havent gotten any sort of a response from them in regards to my app. >>.<<</p>
<p>It's only natural to worry. Just remember though, someone has to be on top!!</p>
<p>Not sure. I know it will be a hard workload, but I'm not worried I'll fail.</p>
<p>Yes, very much so, but for the time being, I shall worry myself with the prospect of March 10th itself. And then, I suppose all these types of questions and doubts will arise. :D</p>
<p>Excellent question! I am a parent and have known of students from magnet schools with straight "A"s being asked to either withdraw,repeat or repeat some courses over the summer. These were not minority or underprivileged students. Boarding schools look primarily for two qualities in an applicant: 1. maturity and 2. ability to handle the demanding workload and intellectual challanges. If you are the type of student that cannot handle getting less than an "A",then do not apply to the top tier because you may lack the necessary maturity. Maturity means accepting that sometimes others are just more gifted and driven in certain areas and that you can't always be number one; maturity also means willingness to grow-which is not easy,that is why they are called "growing pains". And,of course, you have to be willing to leave your comfort zone to grow and mature. Hopefully this perspective will aid you in understanding admissions decision which,initially,may seem wrong based solely on grades and SSATs. The schools are evaluating much more,thus,teacher comments and interviews are very important.</p>
<p>march 10th is on its way.....cross your fingers Chaos! :D I'll do it too.</p>
<p>dont worry, if a school takes you..that means they think you are able to handle the work, or they will just reject you</p>
<p>Bearcats is right. Only about 5% of each class leaves during the first two years for academic reasons. Boarding school admissions officers are very good at what they do.</p>
<p>and most leave not because they cant handle the work, most leave becoz they did something stupid and get kicked out..such as dishonesty..last year, 90% of the kids who got kicked out was caught lying ..how dumb</p>
<p>I suspect that most students would be concerned about this...or have good cause to be concerned...as I doubt few who are attracted to the top tier schools have experienced a workload or coursework that's stretched them to their limits. So, without having found the breaking point already, how do you know where it is? And when a school claims it will be more demanding than your previous experience, it only makes sense to wonder..."Will I be pushed to new heights or will I go over the edge?" EDIT: But while it's rational to wonder, bearcats' point should ring true: your acceptance is a vote of confidence from the experts -- people who know what's going to be thrown at you and who have read your file, met you, and have seen hundreds, if not thousands of applicants and how it's all worked in the past.</p>
<p>Talking about workload, how much time do you guys who go to prep school spend everyday doing homework?</p>
<p>i have 3-4 a night and im from a public school. Most of it is heavy loads of reading, so I can only imagine the load for boarding schools</p>
<p>I have between 45 min. to an hour and a half per subject a night. On nights that I have every class I usually have between 4 and 5 hours. However, my workload is usually between 3-4 hours. Of course this mumber changes for everyone depending on their strengths, courses, and teachers.
I think that another issue that needs to be raised with the workload is the type of work. I felt very prepared coming from my old school because we had a lot of homework there as well. However, I never realized that most of that was busy work. At bs I found that even though I only had a little more homework, I had to work twice as hard on it.</p>
<p>the official guidelines for teachers at hotchkiss is 60 - 90 minutes of homework per subject per night for regular classes and 90-120 minutes of homework per subject pernight for honors and AP classes..but most teachers dont realy follow the guidelines anyway</p>
<p>on average a week, I have to pull 1 all nighter, 3 days with 6-7 hours of work and the rest with like 3-5 hours.... and most people are the same...it really depends on whether i procrastinate or not.. i m a huge procrastinator, so i sometimes have to start writing a 15 page paper the night before it's due..but i m used to it and i m happy with it..but if you plan ahead, you can minimize the nights that you have to stay up till 6am lol</p>
<p>bearcats: Sure, but how much work as a prep? They don't slam you with that level of work your first semester, do they?</p>
<p>The problem for me is that homework at my current school never exceeds 15 - 20 minutes, all classes inclusive. :D It will be a huge jump for me.</p>
<p>i started going here as a sophomore, so i dont know about preps (freshman), but the saying here is, by sophomore year, your workload increases significantly compared to prep year, then junior year workload twofolds from sophomore year...senior first semester stays the same....then senior 2nd semester, u fill the blank____________ XD.. OH I M LOVING SENIOR SPRING (well it's not spring yet..but anyway )</p>
<p>but even tho preps have less workload, the workload is still HUGE for a 14 or 15 year old kid when you think about it....they are the ones who actually have the hardest time coz most of them are not used to 3-5 hours of work a day.... and it all depends on what classes you take... there's this prep who takes 4 APs and honors english....he gets the same, or more work than an average senior does.... </p>
<p>work load at BS, where everyone takes different classes really depend more on the level of the courses than the class year you are in... but true, courses that are only offered to preps (i think there are 3 of them) - intro to physical science (the known joke class), 9th grade regular english and one history (forgot what it is) does have less work</p>
<p>but you also know that, the work you put in is well worth it...for example, last year, half of the honors (not AP) chem class kids took the AP test at the end of the school year, 17 out of 19 got 5s.....and for the AP kids, they go well beyond the AP level, scoring 5s is almost expected...you are so much more well-prepared for college after going through all these classes..</p>
<p>As my economic teacher always says, "there are trade offs in life, you come to a top BS, you trade away a lot of your free time, you might also trade away your perfect grade, but what you get, is more important...you get prepared for college life, that's what the word "prep" in prep schools supposed to mean"</p>
<p>It's the same for my S, Chaos, which makes it understandable that you and he are both wondering whether you can do what you've never been tested to do. However, this is the difference: There's a premium placed on the brightness you apparently possess over the intestinal fortitude and repetitiveness and rote learning that you've been tested at. So now, while the work gets "harder" by some measures -- they're playing right into your power suit! Mua-ha-ha-ha (<-- that's supposed to be a sinister archvillain laugh)</p>
<p>This makes me thankful for honors geometry, because I think that it's probably close to prep school standards--we get an hour to an hour an a half worth of homework, more if we have a project or a test coming up, and we have the class everyday. However, the rest of my classes take only about thirty minutes combined for homework, maybe less, every night.</p>