Our child applied to a fairly large number of schools and was admitted to 3 (the remainder were waitlists or rejections). One school stands out as offering a fairly good financial aid package.
However, neither our child or I feels much excitement about this school. The revisit day was … fine. The school seems …. fine. The other admitted students seem … fine. There’s nothing actually “wrong” with the school, but nothing particularly “right” about it either.
The local public school is not great, so I suppose this school is an improvement. But there’s really no way of knowing which would be a better experience.
I personally preferred the schools our child was rejected from, but, obviously, I’m not wasting my time dwelling on them. But is it worth it to spend so much money (even with financial aid) on a school we’re just meh about?
What did you hope to gain from this school (boarding I assume), and in what ways did it fall short of the schools that you liked better? It is useful to articulate this aloud to yourself.
So the concern here is money vs potential benefits of BS.
if you keep your child at LPS and spend the same amount of money on academics and ECs and other things, will she be better than going to BS in four years?
Or an alternative is to stay in LPS and try again next year. She may have more choices. Many have done it.
I think you have to tease out the important stuff (your kid not excited about the academic opportunities; kid concerned it’s not a good social fit) from the less important stuff (weather was bad while you were there; nothing was in bloom, building looked shabby).
Are there ways to make the local public school a better experience for your kid? A non-school EC with a different set of kids, great leader/instructor? And what was the thinking when you applied- that all of the options were better than LPS, or you just hoped they COULD be better???
What are you looking for? What made you apply to the school itself? What do you think is missing on revisit day? Was it perhaps the RJ from other schools which clouds your judgment on your acceptances / dampens any excitement?
You can go to LPS and apply again (as 10th grader or as a repeat 9th grader) and you may have better results or you may not. You might get FA and you might not?
If you share the name of the school(s) and your specific concerns - someone might be able to help or answer questions. but if your student goes there with a negative attitude - it might not make for the best experience.
Frankly this is the same advice for anyone with kids applying to colleges - 1) dont have 1 dream school 2) apply to schools you would attend (or at least not be mniserable to attend) 3) dont go into the process with specific or overinflated expectations
Interesting questions. I guess we were pretty enthusiastic about this school on paper, but just got a less enthusiastic vibe in person. It’s hard to explain and there’s nothing I can put my finger on. But maybe “it seems fine and is certainly more challenging academically than the LPS” is good enough.
I feel for you. This sounds like a hard situation.
Can you consider the other 2 schools, even if they aren’t likely options? or visit them, even better? Perhaps that would shed some light onto the MEH feeling. Like is it boarding school in general? or is it something specific about school 3 that really should be telling you something? Have you visited other schools before and felt differently? Or, perhaps is it that this process is exhausting and the revisit might have felt anti-climactic? What are the options? LPS and apply again? How much of a problem would it be for you if student went to the BS and then transferred home next year and stayed at local LPS?
Listen to the vibe – this is coming from a BTDT parent. Do not underestimate the vibe nor the potential negative impact it could have on your child when they are living in that environment 24/7. No money in the world is worth being in a place that is not a good fit.