<p>I have an 8 year old daughter and we live in the suburbs of Sacramento, CA. Recently, I came to know that sending my daughter to a prep school is a good way to get her eventually to a prestigious university like Harvard. </p>
<p>What is the process involved to get to a prep school?</p>
<p>Are there any prep schools near Sacramento, CA that specialize in preparing kids to go to Harvard? </p>
<p>Please let me know. </p>
<p>Thanks, </p>
<p>Murali</p>
<p>come back in four years …</p>
<p>@mmenon,
If you want to send her to boarding school, you should look at Thatcher and Cate. They’re both in California, and they’re very well regarded. If you want to look at boarding schools look at this site here:[Boarding</a> School Review - College-Prep & Jr. Boarding Schools](<a href=“http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/]Boarding”>http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/)</p>
<p>If you want to look at private day schools look at this site here:[Private</a> School Review - Profiles of USA Private Schools](<a href=“http://www.privateschoolreview.com/]Private”>http://www.privateschoolreview.com/)</p>
<p>I agree with the poster above. Don’t get started too early. I wouldn’t start seriously looking into prep schools until two years before she has to apply. And, if she doesn’t want to apply/isn’t the right type for a prep school that might lead to Harvard, than don’t make her apply. Don’t be one of those parents who pushes their kid to apply, and then makes them miserable. Good luck with this process.</p>
<p>Ohh and also, there are many fine institutions that have better undergrad teaching than at Harvard.</p>
<p>@MENNON:
The best schools for Harvard and such are Phillips Exceter and Phillips Andover, they are both near Boston in Massachusetts, however it is VERY early now. You should come back in a couple of years…
Something you can start NOW:
Instruments and Sports MOST IMPORTANT THING!
Then she can start with the community service…</p>
<p>If you have the money, you can take 2 routes:</p>
<ol>
<li>Look into junior boarding schools. Going to these will help get her into good college prep boarding schools. Very good junior boarding schools will look good on both her college prep boarding schools, and look good on an aplication to harvard.The Rectory School and Fay school are 2 examples.</li>
<li>Look at presigious local day schools. These will also help her.</li>
</ol>
<p>here are some things you should expose her to/do.</p>
<p>1.sports. Try some different things, see what she likes and is good at
2.musical instruments. Get her involved in at least 1, maybe more, instruments. Try uncommon instruments to stand out.
3. Languages. If her school doesn’t offer any(which it most likely won’t at that age) than hire a private tuter.
4. girl scouts. see if there is a local troupe. This is a great way to get community service and meet people.
5. Expose her. Take her to different countries, places, and monuments. During the summer, send her to camp, and when she gets a little older, or now depending on the program, apply to summer programs at colleges or boarding schools. There are a ton out there, just do some research.</p>
<p>Easier said than done. Some of these camps cost an arm and a leg.</p>
<p>True! but there is ok F.A. if you apply very early. She is still a little young for those, though. Like I said, girl scouts is a great way to get involved because it offers community service, trips to educational places, and a fun thing to do.</p>
<p>There are day prep schools as well, but remember, just going to a prep school does NOT guarantee admittance to an ivy league. Today, nothing does, and by time your child is ready, things will have changed significantly. My daughter goes to a day all girls prep school, and they are the only all girls prep school that has classes with the all boys prep school in the area for high school years. There are a lot of smart kids with perfect SAT scores and GPA’s and lots of AP classes on their resume, that also do theater (important), sports and music, that are not getting into Ivyies anymore. It seems the trend is moving towards public schoolers who work hard, as they are a bit tired of the “silver spoon” kids. It’s a shame, because they are missing a lot of good talent. We drive almost an hour one way to get to my daughter’s school, and yet our local public school produced 18 kids that went on to Ivyies last year.They want to mix up the demographics in the colleges and universities these days. And you might want your child to go to Harvard, but her interests might be in something Harvard can’t offer. We’re finding out now there are a lot of great smaller LAC’s and grad school is what really counts. You have a long way to go, enjoy her while she’s young, and get her involved in a lot of different things. This way by time she’s in 7th or 8th grade, she can zero in on one or two things and stick with them for 4 years. The colleges don’t like to see a jack of all trades and master in none. And if you can’t get into AP classes, they want to see solid A’s in regular classes (which in private school are very difficult and produce 4-5 hours of homework a night after a long day of school and sports) so they can see a mastery of classes. Good luck!</p>
<p>Murali,</p>
<p>This is what your daughter needs – read to her, love her, let her know that you love her. It is way too early to be thinking about Harvard. Don’t get caught up in the craziness that is the race to college in America. Let her do things that SHE loves! Let her grow as a human, and then when she is older SHE can think about what she is looking for in a college.</p>
<p>If you really think your daughter is that smart, she doesn’t need a prestigious prep school to get her in to Harvard. All of us here (as far as I know) don’t necessarily want to go to boarding school just to get into “Harvard”. We are looking for diversity, life-long friends, an amazing education, sports, art, and more. No one needs to go to prep school to get into Harvard, it may actually hurt your chances because you are compared directly with your class mates. As other have said, get your daughter involved in sports, art, languages, and additional education outside of school. I can imagine a girl going for her interview at Andover and the interviewer asks the girl why she wants to go to Andover. Her reply?
“My mom said it will get me into Harvard”</p>
<p>P.S “a school that specializes in sending kids to Harvard”. haha it sounds like a cult! They all must just sit around and talk about Harvard’s admission process and history. All the same, good luck to you and your daughter!</p>