She just sprung it on us that she wants to go to boarding school. I am a single mom with a low income and found out that I would qualify for up to 100% FA, so it is now a possibility I would entertain! GREAT student, terrific girl, but we are from a small town in the south and I know nothing about this process. Help! We would want a fairly liberal-leaning school if that even exists! I am exited about the prospect of her getting out of here and want to do my best by her…Thanks in advance
Go to boardingschoolreview.com and use the Search Tool. That way you can choose parameters that are important to you.
And you may want to look into good schools in other regions as well…
As a student currently at one of these “Top 25 Schools”, I would highly recommend that you tour several schools because as I’m sure that some will be a better fit than others. I would recommend Andover, Groton, and Hotchkiss but their are several others that you could ask me about and I am sure that I could provide some insight on the school. However, It will be quite difficult to get 100% financial aid so it will be very competitive for the “Top 25 Schools”.
If you need full or a major amount of FA, be sure to cast a very wide net. You need to look beyond “the brand name schools”. Have some schools on your list where your daughter’s stats would make her a standout. There are many, many more FA applicants than there is FA money to go around. At my D’s school, they are usually able to only fund about 10% of the applications for full FA.
Keep in mind that a fine education can be had at a number of excellent schools not on a typical “Top 25” list. Look at the Hidden Gems School thread on this forum. If you are applying for next year, you are kind of late getting started… there are plenty of parents here with good experience who can offer advice and answers to specific questions.
You’d be better off making a list of what you’re looking for and seeking a match. Only New England? Some of my favorite liberal leaning BS are in the mid atlantic states. FA a must but what can you contribute? Sports? Arts? Size? Single sex? Learning environment? There’s something for everyone.
Hi - I think that I saw you posting on UrbanBaby. This is definitely a better place to get info on boarding schools! It would be helpful to know a little more about your daughter & her areas of interest. As I said before, and as people here will advise as well, you should apply to a wide range of schools in order to have some choices at the end of this process. It’s probably worthwhile to make a spreadsheet (using the list of schools that I gave you on UrbanBaby as a starting point) of acceptance rates, average SSAT score, size, and other criteria that you feel are important. The easiest place to get this is boardingschoolreview.com. Honestly, most of these schools are probably “liberal-leaning” although some may be more “traditional” than others. Maybe focus on schools with a more lenient dress code and fewer chapel requirements as a place to start. I agree with @gardenstategal that there are fantastic boarding schools outside of New England, particularly in the mid-atlantic states and… of course… California!!!
If you’re looking for a liberal-leaning school with a large endowment for a good FA package, check Choate out
Groton is very liberal and well-endowed! I will echo what has been said above; needing financial aid complicates things, so be sure to look at many schools.
If she is applying for next year she is late to the process. She needs to take the SSAT and get applications in before February. Many schools require interview and the applications have essays. Agree on casting a wide net and checking out the hidden gems. Remember to ask about application fee waivers. Read these boards for advice and good luck!
There are only 2 need blind schools on the east coast that I am aware of. Phillips Andover and St Andrew’s Delaware.
Get her signed up for the SSAT right away. Until you see those scores you are going to have a hard time targeting schools that she has a strong chance of being admitted.
^^ St. Andrew’s (DE) no longer calls itself “need blind”, but is need aware. I believe that the AD said that just reading the application gives enough clues as to the financial status of the applicant’s family that the designation is a misnomer. SAS promises to meet 100% of demonstrated need for all those that it does admit.
@cozymom, where in the South? SPS has regional scholarships for students from Alabama, South Carolina, and Texas. See:
http://www.sps.edu/page/admission/regional-scholarships/greene-scholarship-alabama http://www.sps.edu/page/admission/regional-scholarships/meyer-scholarship-south-carolina
http://www.sps.edu/page/admission/regional-scholarships/hunt-scholarship-texas-new-mexico-and-mexico
Also, SPS will:
• Consider a domestic household income of $125,000 per year or less as qualifying for full financial aid.
• Domestic families with an annual income of less than $250,000 will not pay more than 10% of their income toward tuition per year.
• Meet full demonstrated financial need; there are no gaps between what we determine to be your need and our financial aid award.
• To the best of our ability, we make admission decisions regardless of a family’s ability to pay.
I think many of the schools discussed here are liberal leaning. I would put Choate in that category. It is also one of the schools that will meet 100% of demonstrated need.
Last year I assumed that many of the schools are pretty right leaning and someone quickly corrected me. My DD reports that at her school the majority are pretty liberal.
unless choate’s policy has changed, they will reject you because they lack the resources to give you your needed financial aid and tell you so in the rejection. i saw it once last year and twice the year before. among the biggest schools, choate is not the best choice if you need big-time financial aid–not that you shouldn’t go for it if you really dig the school and all, but don’t count on it as a one and done or anything–all of the other peer schools are much more generous because they can afford to be.
assuming your kid is just another good kid smart kid nice kid, the key to getting financial aid is to apply to some schools for whom your particular kid will be a top prospect. even the schools with limited budgets will go all-in trying to lure certain applicants with money, so be one of those. be that standout prospect at a famous school or a lesser-known school, but be it somewhere.
all of these schools are very conservative institutions, as they should be, but many of the people populating them are anodyne centrist folks who may very well appear to be raging lefties to some folks, as they would be. that tension is certainly a useful part of the educational experience for the kids willing to see it.
It is true that Choate is not need blind, but the school does promise to meet 100% of demonstrated need for every student admitted. Choate also offers many full-ride Icahn scholarships that include all expenses beyond R&B and tuition (travel, books, school trips, etc.) Once admitted, Choate also has a generous Beyond the Classroom fund to ensure that no student (FA or not) is unable to fully participate in the life of the school. So, do not pass on applying to Choate due to unfounded fears about not receiving the aid you would need to attend. I think it is a worse bet to only look at schools with the largest endowments that also have the lowest admission rates. That endowment will do you no good if you aren’t admitted. If you are admitted to Choate, your financial need will be met, so the size of the endowment is moot.
I wouldn’t not apply based on the FA need as you just never know but I also know someone who was wait listed last year for FA reasons and they included that information in the wait list letter.