<p>Very new poster to this board and have enjoyed all of the information everyone has been willing to share. Am a parent going through the BS application process for the first time.</p>
<p>A lot of the posts I see appear to be centered around the idea of getting your child into the most academically competitive BS with an eye on that leading to admission to HYPSM. It also seems that a lot of the postings are from parents with children who do very well (90%+) on the SSAT.</p>
<p>All of that is wonderful, there are an awful lot of bright kids out there and I wish them the best. However, I would be interested in hearing from folks who were maybe looking at BS less as an academic stepping stone and more of a life experience opportunity (I understand that the great majority of BS are academically challenging for their student population so I don't mean to suggest that BS isn't an "academic vehicle." Of course the main focus is school.). Also, hearing from parents whose child scored perhaps more in the mid range on the SSAT (45-65%) about what their application and admission experience was like might be of value.</p>
<p>Please understand I am not suggesting that one approach is better or worse than the other.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Check the Hidden Gem thread. There are some great options, many not hyper competitive.</p>
<p>Despite appearances, there are quite a few of us here in that mold. I second the motion for the Hidden Gem thread(s), as well as one I started entitled “non Hades” – I was feeling like I was the odd one out and started a thread. I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of information on some lesser known schools. </p>
<p>We are definitely in the “life experience” camp… not that academics are to be ignored, but just that we feel that there is a lot more to learning than just actual schoolwork. We have an only child, so there is a lot to be learned by her living “in community”…</p>
<p>One of the purposes of sending children to top boarding schools (including hidden gem schools) is college prep. College prep means not only ‘prep to enter college’ but ‘prep to do well in college’. As such, most parents are interested in good college entrance, I should say. If I send my kid to a good boarding school by paying huge money and say I don’t really care which college my child would end up at, I may be lying. Yes, I am interested in good college. </p>
<p>But as I mentioned earlier, college prep at boarding school is just ONE of many purposes of its existence, I believe. Your child will get good education which might not be provided elsewhere, and he/she will be exposed to much more than college prep. </p>
<p>I believe most parents here on this board have balanced approach and share the similar view. If someone is only interested in the college prep, I guess there are some better ways of achieving it than spending money for BS education. Just my personal thought…</p>
<p>^^^^
I agree with this. Why does it have to be one OR the other? There is no doubt that BS offers a life experience opportunity that would not be as readily available at a day school. But it also offers our children wonderful academic opportunities and an unparalleled college preparation program. So yes, i do hope that my child has some competitive colleges to choose from at the end of the day.</p>
<p>I must admit that I am often suspicious of posters who say that after 4 years of BS they do not care a wit where their child attends college. Frankly, in the majority of cases I just don’t buy it.</p>
<p>My take would be that it’s less about the college and more about your child’s preparation to make the most of what’s offered at the next level of education. You hear it time and again from other college students. In the majority of cases, BS graduates are exceptionally prepared to hit the ground running with time management, team building and leadership roles, resilience in the face of adversity, etc, etc. What this can mean is that a BS grad can attend a less well known college and ROCK it. Then, even the elite graduate programs are looking for diversity and cannot take only the products of their own undergraduate college, so it may actually be an advantage to be applying out of a good school less well known to the public but plenty well known to those in the education business. & BTW, yeah, it IS a business.</p>
<p>HarvestMoon: My read on the “I don’t care where my kid goes to college” is that the parents are saying that they don’t care about Ivies. There’s an often unspoken assumption that the school or program within a school that the kid eventually gets into will be top-notch because of the boarding school background. </p>
<p>To get back to the OP, if I were you I’d start with boarding school review and narrow my search by average SSAT score to begin with. The Hidden Gems thread is great, but it contains many schools that are lesser known but every bit as academically rigorous as the schools contained in the HADES acronym. Once you have a list of schools within your student’s range academically, the hidden gems thread and others will give you more insight into particular schools.</p>
<p>[Sort</a> Boarding Schools by Key Criteria | BoardingSchoolReview.com](<a href=“http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/school_ranking.php]Sort”>Sort Boarding Schools by Key Criteria)</p>
<p>Can you tell us more about your student? (Or if not declaring in public, suggest thinking about it in your own search). Many of the mid-range schools are known for special offerings (dance, equestrian, farm, sports, outdoors, snowboarding, arts, music) that appeal to students whose perspective is wider than academics alone.</p>
<p>My older D was a mid-50s SSAT student who chose a school based on their phenomenal dance program. One application, one acceptance. She LOVED the dance program.</p>
<p>2prepMom,
would you mind sharing that school’s name? My daughter has been dancing for years and i’d love to investigate it. Thanks!</p>
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</p>
<p>Spot on, classicalmama, but I dont limit my unconcern to just Ivies. Because I know with certainty that my kid will end up in a fine college (any one of the 97 schools Choaties matriculated to last year), I have zero concern about the quality of our sons future education. That he will be well-prepared for college is a given at any of these BS, so on to other worries.</p>
<p>Howdoipayforthis: (love your name) Its nice to have your perspective on this forum which, I agree, can appear at times rather one-sided. Boarding is a very valuable life experience opportunity. I posted on the [post=16596800]Home for the holidays[/post] thread just how transforming it has been for our son. Though I will never know just how much of this transformation is BS-derived, when I mentally bring him with me to gatherings with local families with high-schoolers, I suspect its significant. Like london, we too have an only child, so boarding has an additional family dimension for him–he considers all the boys in his form and especially those he lives with to be brothers, not just friends. He cares about them, he misses them.</p>
<p>As you investigate schools for your child, I will make another of my shameless plugs for [post=13631665]Northfield Mount Hermon[/post] as a not-so-hidden gem of school with a kinder, gentler vibe than some. As much as we love Choate for our driven son, had I been the applicant, I would have chosen NMH; I left part of my heart there on revisit day. Its certainly worth a serious look for anyone interested in excellence without pretense.</p>
<p>@HarvestMoon1: After reading this I reread my original post several times. I don’t believe I ever said I “don’t care a wit” where my child attends college. So it doesn’t appear that I was selling anything you needed to buy or not buy. Somewhat to your point, if I didn’t care where my child gained their education I would just send them to LPS.</p>
<p>@ChoatieMom: I have heard very similar things about NMH from others so looks like that’s a school we need to add to our list.</p>
<p>Perhaps I didn’t ask my question the right way in my OP: My child is a 3 sport athlete (strong in 2, plays a third) with very good grades looking to enter BS as a 9th grader next fall. We get very positive feedback about interviews. We have no reason to expect that teacher recommendations will be anything but positive. Right now the only part of the application process giving us any stress is the SSAT. So I was wondering if parents who may have found themsleves in similar situations when their child was applying to BS had any insight. Tough question I know.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the replies and advice. I did take a look last night at the Hidden Gems thread and definitely some good information out there.</p>
<p>
I think harvestmoon was responding to patronyork with this reply. However, Im one of those parents who more or less says I dont care a wit about college because I think college with take care of itself given the preparation BS provides.</p>
<p>Howdo, I think you’re looking for an answer none of us can provide. The good news/ bad news for the schools these days is there are so many qualified and competitive applicants. No matter how stellar your application looks, I don’t think you can take anything for granted. One school might reject you because they already have someone who covers the particular talents your kids brings; another might reject you because they assume you’ll be aiming higher and aren’t really likely to matriculated with them (this latter point is why it’s so important to really only apply to schools you can envision your child attending, and why it’s important to openly state – even repeatedly-- why each particular school is a good fit for your child over and against other types of schools. Having the stats and references is not necessarily enough – you need to make your own case as part of the application process.) Hope this helps.</p>
<p>howdoipayforthis, think you may have jumped to the wrong conclusion. My post was not in response to you. I think your original post does in fact recognize that BS can be an “academic vehicle”.</p>
<p>OK - thank you everyone for the responses, and HarvestMoon1 for the clarification. My apologies if I got defensive.</p>
<p>PelicanDad is probably right, I have asked a quesiton no one can answer with certainty.</p>
<p>Thank you also to the person who sent me a private reply. I can’t send you a private response, not enough posts.</p>
<p>We have reached out to the coaches at the schools of interest, and have met with all of them during our visits. Grades are excellent, and as I said we expect good recs from teachers. So right now it appears best we can do is keep preparing for the upcoming SSAT and hope for the best. It will probably all work out, I just need to keep my blood pressure in check while it does.</p>
<p>@croissant, I sent you a PM about dance.</p>
<p>thanks 2prepmom…i appreciate the info and that school was already on our list of 4…thanks for the confirmation!</p>
<p>To clarify, my following previous comment wasn’t targeting to anyone but me: " If I send my kid to a good boarding school by paying huge money and say I don’t really care which college my child would end up at, I may be lying."</p>
<p>Howdoipay, I wish I could answer your question because I think it’s a legitimate one. You’re just asking to hear from people in a similar boat. Of course there are no guarantees or promises, just a sharing of experiences, since most of us don’t have any sort of BS parent peer group to bounce ideas around.</p>
<p>Frankly I am surprised that no one really replied, just chimed in with lots of peripheral comments.</p>
<p>So, cc readers, writers, lurkers…can’t anyone share (in generalized terms of course) their experiences as OP states in post #1?</p>
<p>@alooknac: thanks. You pretty much summed up my intent.</p>