<p>Chaos, is there really no way you can visit the schools? IMO it makes a big difference both for your own interests and establishing your interest for the schools. When there are so many incredible candidates to choose from this becomes an important factor. With good planning you can do those 4 schools in 2 days. </p>
<p>I'll also mention that your list is like applying to HYPS, even with a 4.0/99 SSAT and great ECs, you can't count on getting into one. Sure you don't want to add a safety? 10th grade is not easy, they get tons of applications from "feeder" schools in the NE that go through 9th grade. My brother decided to add a safety at the last minute because he is hooked on the idea of bs after his visits. Good luck!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I can't. If I did, I would lose a lot of valuable time that could've been spent on my application. All my schools are in the Northeast, at least 750 (+) miles from here. I could arrange visits over Thanksgiving, but I am planning on devoting all of it to my essays. I also feel strongly that I should add a safety now (after realizing my application pales in comparison to *quite *a few :p). I took the SSAT on the 11th; is it too late to add another school? What school would you recommend? I am looking into Blair, Loomis, or Mercersburg (which I partly applied to last year :D).</p>
<p>The only other time I would be able to schedule visits would be over Christmas Break. That could work out, provided Massachusetts weather isn't 16ft of snow and counting. :D</p>
<p>ChaosTheory--another school to keep in mind is St. Mark's. It's my safety/match school, I found it to be quite excellent, just not quite as well known/prestigious, and with a lower average SSAT.</p>
<p>And don't curse out the snow over Christmas. I'm visitng my grandmother in Boston and I love snow.</p>
<p>St. Marks... I will need to research it.
Basically, I am looking for a school with a strong math and science program, with a wide range of courses in both.</p>
<p>Yes yes, I love snow as well, just not 16 feet of it. :D</p>
<p>Chaos, i think many kids here don't understand how important the visits are. Time to rethink your priorities. From what I glean, you have a much lower chance without a visit at top schools, a slightly better essay isn't worth not going.</p>
<p>Peddie and Hill are schools I'd look at, I've heard good things about Brooks too.</p>
<p>I see. I will talk with my parents about scheduling visits. How is it done? Since most of the schools are within close proximity of each other, we should rent a hotel and visit over a period of two or three days? </p>
<p>Peddie seems to have a strong math and an excellent science department. I think I'm going to find out more about this school.</p>
<p>I don't know that visiting will improve your chances that significantly, because it is so difficult for a lot of children. I suppose they consider where you live, but for me visiting schools would cost over $2,000, just in plane fare. If I get accepted to a few schools, my mum has promised that we'll visit them (on my grandmother's insistance), but for my family it would extremely difficult to get their before then. I think that the schools realize that how difficult it is for some people to get there, and don't count it against students who can't visit.</p>
<p>Pretty, $300 RT fares from W Coast to E are common. I put up many visitors during my years at Andover. Statistics have taught schools people that don't visit are less likely to attend. Demonstrated interest is VERY important. If you find it difficult to visit, your parents probably will for family weekends and you'll be less involved as a family in the school community. This matters. My own experience and tagging along with my brother this year has shown me how much the visit matters. At one school, the head of admissions commented to my brother that all their best CA applicants reject them (a top school) for Thatcher and Cate. Yield matters and it was great to be able to say my bro was applying to neither. That would not have happened with an alumni interviewer or a teacher enjoying his quick trip to do half hour interviews on the W Coast.</p>
<p>That's very interesting and important. Thank you for telling me; perhaps I can convince my parents to take me, but I really doubt it. Travel is very complicated in general (my mum lives somewhere else, and we're visiting different places all the time . . . I'll spare you). Luckily, I was actually able to visit Andover over the summer. I MIGHT be able to travel to Boston to visit my grandmother over Christmas--would the schools let me visit?</p>
<p>Good luck pretty. you need to really work the schools you love. I know so much more know than I kenw when I was applying. My brother is much better presented than I was which is good because it has become harder every year. Do your best to show your love!!</p>
<p>If the score were only 10% below I wouldn't be too nervous. Unfortunately it is 20%+ below. Overall is right about average of strong schools and other two are high. Sort of weird results. I guess that section is just not her thing. It is zip code of where her practice tests were consistently coming out, so I guess shouldn't be a surprise. Even with tutoring it didn't move, although the tutoring did improve one component materially (and the other one was strong to begin with). Given all that and the stress it would be for her to retake we are just going to go with this score what she has - decent grades, good recommendations, athletic hook, etc.</p>
<p>Regarding discussion about visits. I don't have any knowledge to add as to how schools view people who visit and who don't, but from our personal evaluation perspective I would say the visits were incredibly valuable. All 6 schools we visited felt different. There was a big name school that we hated. There was a good but less talked about school (that I have talked about a lot on here) that we loved. We did two schools a day for three days. Although we live in NYC area so did them as one day a week for three different weeks, not three days back to back. Some people have urged one visit a day, but two a day was fine for us. Wouldn't want to try to do more though. While the Northeast may seem small compared to some of the rest of the country don't ignore travel time. Depending on your list it can be meaningful. For example, if your list were St. George's, Kent's Hill, Hotchkiss and Deerfield, just to pick a random, but dispersed group, you could only do one a day and would have a lot of driving to do.</p>
<p>I wouldn't sweat the one low score on the SSAT - even 20% lower, if the composite score is about average. With every thing else being solid, the test score will tell the school not to put her in the top class in that subject matter.</p>
<p>Very few students are very strong both verbal and quantitative. And I've heard that the composite score on a well balanced score can be higher than any of the individual scores, believe it or not.</p>
<p>Regarding multiple school visits in one day -- unless all the schools are within a 20 mile radius, I wouldn't recommend more than 2 schools per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.</p>
<p>As to Xmas visits -- they are better than no visit, but not as good as one during school time. From the school's perspective they don't lose much - they get to see you in person and actually have more time to have a leisurly interview. We did this with the school my daughter currently attends. Not every school will have admissions staff available during the break (they deserve a vacation too!) I get the feeling that the admissions person we interviewed with came into the office that day just for my daughter, or otherwise would have stayed home (on campus) with her family. They do understand when people can't take time away from school to travel. </p>
<p>In our case, because of school district absence policies and a large number of "non-excused" long weekends of hockey travel, we could not take time off for school interview trips during school time.</p>
<p>The downside to X-mas visits of course, is that you don't get the feel of the community. You can get that at the revisit, but often that week is where the students are just back from break and are not under any particular stress and the school is full of students having revisits, so it may be a bit crowded and busy.</p>
<p>To give you the kind of idea what sort of distance worked for us to do two visits a day, we did Choate and Pomfret one day, Deerfield and Berkshire one day and Taft and Hotchkiss one day. Those worked but wouldn't have wanted to be any farther apart.</p>
<p>I'll ask about a Christmas visit. It does sound like it's very important, since everyone has such overwhelming opinions to visit, so I'll try. I hope that they realize, though, that sometimes travel just can't happen . . . Well, I'll try. I'm pleased, though, because I did have a visit and an interview that went really well at my top choice.</p>
<p>Visiting seems to be a vital part of the application process (with good cause). I'm going to try and schedule them this Thanksgiving break, which lasts until Monday. Therefore, assuming I don't leave tomorrow, I have 4 days to schedule visits. This should be ample time. Transportation and hotel, however, are quite another story. We would need to travel 750 miles by car.</p>
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Transportation and hotel, however, are quite another story. We would need to travel 750 miles by car.
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<p>Doable. I am doing the 2000+ mile round trip to watch 3 hockey games and pick up my daughter just before Xmas. Leaving very early Friday morning and returning on Sunday.</p>
<p>As in you're going to call tomorrow and ask to come Friday? Come on guys, people book months in advance! Especially if they want a "good" interviewer, read Sr. admission staff v. random teacher! Doing the homework here and getting the process down is half the battle. </p>
<p>To be frank, I sense a lot of people here who have always been best where they are and assume no one will reject them. Unfortunately just about everyone applying to AESD is top at their current school!</p>
<p>Jonathan, if you don't get into the one day school you're applying to or don't get aid, where are you going?</p>
<p>Chaos, add those safeties and don't count on overnight appointments!</p>
<p>"To be frank, I sense a lot of people here who have always been best where they are and assume no one will reject them. Unfortunately just about everyone applying to AESD is top at their current school!"</p>
<p>I agree with Suze in her post above. BTW, would someone please let me know how to highlight sections from other posts like the section from Suze above? </p>
<p>Those of you who really want to go to boarding school would be wise to select a balanced list of schools that you love which includes reaches, matches and at least one safety. I don't mean to be discouraging; I just want to lend a little reality to the situation. You won't find people on the college forums only applying to Harvard, Yale and Princeton. These top schools have many more qualified applicants than they have spaces. </p>
<p>Clearly, the applicants on cc are an exceptional group. Many of you will gain admittance to your first or second choice schools. However, some of you might not. There are many great boarding schools available. It would be a shame to miss out on the boarding experience because you did not examine a variety of boarding possibilities.</p>