My sibling is a straight A student with an above avg SAT score and applied to do his senior year at boarding school. He got in on a full ride on the condition that he repeats grade 11. He has top grades and has participated in multiple extracurricular activities throughout his HS career. Being a first-gen student, financial aid will be a must where ever he goes. He’s also concerned about the age factor because he’s currently a year older than his classmates In his current HS.
With that in mind, is it worth investing an extra year to attend a boarding school or should he plan to go straight to college?
In the majority of BS, 11th grade is the last year of entry (unless someone has graduated HS and is doing a PG year). That is, you can’t start BS in 12th grade.
For a full ride? I do whatever (within reason) they want. This is “within reason”.
Remember; going to a new school is an adjustment, and the coursework may be more rigorous than at his previous school.
What do you want or expect out of the boarding school?
My brother and I both jumped from “B” students at a respected public school (never worked) to a challenging BS where we repeated a year. I thought we had changed planets. A grade of 80 was very hard to find and many 9th grade students were already well grounded on Shakespeare. For the first time in our educational experience we really had to study.
One hour of homework morphed into four hours. Throw in mandatory sports and our lives had clearly changed! It was called the English system!
What are you hoping to accomplish? What are your goals?
No Its not worthy. College is what matters. Not 11th grade High School
It depends on why your sib applied in the first place. If this will be much better preparation for college than 1 year where he is, it could be an amazing opportunity and it could set him up foran even better college career. BS also tend to have great college counseling.
Because he got a full ride, cost isn’t an issue.
But it all comes down to what he wants from it.
If college is what matters, then one should do what it takes to:
- Get into a better college, and
- Succeed (get better grades) in college.
If repeating 11th grade will result in improved collegiate prospects, then yes, it’s “worthy”. Colleges will have transcripts of both high schools and know that 11th grade was repeated for reasons other than OP’s sibling being a slacker.
If the boarding school offers a PG year, then his age will be less of a concern.
Assuming that the school in question is Andover, Exeter, Lawrenceville, or a similiar boarding school, then yes it may be worth repeating a year on a full ride scholarship depending upon your brother’s goal in attending a boarding school.
Is he an impact athlete trying to mature further in pursuit of an athletic scholarship to college ? Or trying to improve his academic readiness for an elite college or university ?
To the OP - Congrats! Please be assured that there are many students attending BS who have already repeated a grade. You won’t be the “oldest” in your grade. This is an exceptional opportunity to broaden your college preparedness, as well as experience living with students from all over the country (even the world).
Are you an athlete? One thing to check on does concern sports - especially if you are registered with NCAA and are hoping for recruitment. There are faculty/staff members at BS who are the point people for this information. If you have already played on a Varsity team and are accepted to a BS in NY (or maybe California), do check on transfer rules. Also, are you seeking to join a local club or travel team?
Be prepared for a possible shift down in your GPA. Most NE boarding schools we know of don’t give a bump or boost for AP & Honors courses. So, your GPA may fall on paper. Also, review the graduation requirements for the BS. Are there mandatory classes or projects you need to complete? Try to connect with an advisor before the start of school to ask some of these questions.
I would not do it. A straight A student from a “normal” public high school can get into very good universities. Also, a straight A student from a “top 100” or even “top 150” university can get into “top 10” graduate schools. I understand that elite private boarding schools get a higher percentage of their graduates into elite universities, but this is probably largely because of the type of student who chooses to attend private boarding schools in the first place.
I also see quite a bit of risk. A student who has straight A’s at a public high school is not necessarily going to get straight A’s at a boarding school. They might struggle to get straight B’s and not even be in the top half of the class. The environment will be different. There will be clique’s who do not want to admit the new kid. It might turn out to be an unpleasant experience.
There are a lot of students who graduated from normal public high schools with straight A’s attending the top universities. I met a lot of them when I was in university. I agree with @Gjakub01, focus on colleges.
One week after you have started in university no one will care where you attended high school.
Depends upon OP’s brother’s reason or reasons for wanting to attend boarding school. Academic, athletic, both or ???
Also, earning straight “As” in some public schools is not the same as being well prepared for an intellectually demanding college experience.
Depends on his SAT score. If he is scoring above 1500 already, honestly as a first-gen student he will be in the catbird’s seat when it comes time for college admissions. (Because of the full ride, I am assuming low income as well.)
My experience, having been a low income, first gen student at an Ivy some time ago before there were the preferences and support systems in place that there are now, was that anyone from that sort of background who could score highly on the standardized tests found college quite easy. Schools have only become easier in terms of grading since. Additional preparation at BS should not be necessary and would not be worth the extra time imo.
If you feel comfortable, the SAT scores and the BS in question might be helpful for additional advice.
TOS prohibits asking questions for someone else. Please have your sibling get their own account. Closing thread.