<p>My mom seriously needs to make up her mind. One day she says that I can apply for boarding school and she'll back me up all the way, the next, she says that she's not and that I should go live with my dad. It's just so frustrating. I don't know what to do. I got my application from SPS, today, but I guess it doesn't really matter anymore.</p>
<p>P.S. I know all of my threads are really annoying, but I don't really have anyone else to take to about this.</p>
<p>JK, not to worry, my d went through this process with us as well. I do have some concern that there may be a communication block with you and the parents. You'll need to sometime soon sit down with each (maybe a 3-way phone call) with your Mom and Dad and figure this all out. You have expended so much energy and excitement for bs on these threads, almost to the point of someone with OCD. Time to switch gears and get with the parents and iron this out. Please understand for those who may have OCD, Iam not in any way making fun or being negative to people with OCD.</p>
<p>JK--deep breath. See your PM inbox.</p>
<p>Jonathan: do us all a favour and focus on your programme for next year. It is now 17 August, school starts in two weeks. Presumably you are going to Ashbury, since it is rather late in the day to apply to Andover. So take French and Spanish at Ashbury and once you have your act together, talk to your parents and apply to Andover or SPS or some other place where for the right reasons you may want to go. At present, as prepparent tried in his kind way to tell you, you need to back off and mend some fences with your parents. If they do not fully support your wish to go to prepschool and convey this to the school you don't have the chance of a snowflake in hell. Either they believe that the school can do something for you that they are willing to sacrifice for or they don't. In the nature of things, your parents, not just you are asking the school to make quite a substantial investment in you of time, energy, commitment, belief. Quite frankly, St. Paul's or Exeter or Andover could care less whether your parents can afford $5000 or $50,000. If they have no heart for the place, you won't get in. Get with the programme or get off the pot.</p>
<p>isnt he going into middle school, so why would he be going to Ashbury College this year? Thats one of his choices for high school. and what do u mean its late for applying to andover? applicaitons aren't due until january.</p>
<p>I think he means for this year...</p>
<p>i still dont get it. he's apply to prep schools this year. he's not too late for anything. and he cant go to Ashbury yet since he's still in middle school.</p>
<p>I could go to Ashbury. They have a middle school program as well.</p>
<p>Anyway...</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm going into eighth grade, not ninth.</p>
<p>JK, have you thought about applying to the United World Colleges? You can't go until you're 15, but it fits well with your language interest and your financial situation (students are selected regardless of financial situation and funded.) Perhaps your parents would be more positive about a plan where you stay at a day school your freshman year and then go, particularly if you're going to a school where you're funded.</p>
<p>The United World Colleges are located all over the world--I know graduates of their campuses in India and England. I believe the teaching language is always English, but the person I know who graduated from the India campus is also fluent in Hindi and Urdu now (she is originally from Norway.) They're EXTREMELY competitive to be admitted to and they have a country-of-origin quota system. On the plus side, they don't have the preoccupation with having positive parents that most strong traditional American boarding schools have. They also have an amazing alum network of really interesting people.</p>
<p>Do you think your parents would be more positive about a plan where you go away in 2 years rather than 1 and they don't have to pay much?</p>
<p>I don't think paleozoic knew that JK is only going into 8th grade. GDF, now that I look at it, I don't understand either....</p>
<p>Go to Ashbury, take French and Spanish and mend fences with your parents. To my certain knowledge you can take two languages in middle school in Canada. You cannot apply for United World Colleges until you are in grade 11. They however are all on an IB trajectory. Stay with the programme, get a first at Ashbury in grade eight and nine and apply to Andover for grade 10. That is the obvious route and you will probably get in if your parents support your application.</p>
<p>Has he ever expressed interested in going to Ashbury for grade 8? I thought he was still going to public middle school. And why shouldnt he apply to prep school for grade 9. i think thats more the obvious route.</p>
<p>Yeah, if I go to prep school I want to go to one for all four years.</p>
<p>I'm going to public school here in Michigan for eighth grade. It's too late to apply to Ashbury, anyway.</p>
<p>Now my mom is saying that if the school says that they will give me financial aid before I applying then she will fly out there and let me visit the schools.</p>
<p>(She knows NOTHING about the process. It's sooo annoying. She's not even open to listening to what I have to say).</p>
<p>just threaten to move in with your dad lol. that;ll make her more open to ideas.</p>
<p>Unfortunately it won't.</p>
<p>She told me I should go live my dad.</p>
<p>Eww.</p>
<p>Jonathan, schools will of course not tell you if you'll get aid before you complete the appplication process. You should have a pretty good idea though based on your parents' income. Remember to add in the extras when calculating cost. All the flights home, trips offered during breaks, books and spending money. </p>
<p>Also keep in mind that at the not need blind schools much of the aid goes to athletes, minorities and kids with extraordinary talents rather than just good students. Do you fit into any of those categories?</p>
<p>Really try to get your parents to buy in. Schools want to see families who really want their kid there!</p>
<p>Hello suze, hey, you make some great ponits. Wow, especially the point about kids/parents being on the same page about bs. I guess I never thought that it could be the parents who are bolting.</p>
<p>Well my mom needed a stern talking to before we headed out for the interviews! They do "interview" parents too. Heck, 4 years later my mom, though really supportive, can't help by be concerned by a lot of what I do. I'm just back from India, have a project for a few months in Europe and then head to China to complete my gap year. Mom has terrorists on her mind but she's holding back!</p>
<p>My mom has a new excuse now for not letting me go to boarding school. She's afraid of terrorists and if something happens she won't be able to get to me. I really don't know how to respond to that. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Jonathan, you're hopeless. You're simply multiplying one bizarre excuse after another. Let's rehearse the situation one last time: you are going into grade 8 at by your own account a very mediocre public school that will not give you a starting position to do languages you say you want to do. Your parents have enough means to sent you to Ashbury which is a VERY good preparatory school, academically easily as good as any of the schools to which you aspire. You can't (won't) go because your mom is afraid of terrorists? In Ottawa? Give me a break. Ottawa is not Beirut. You have a much higher probablility of being shot for jaywalking where you are right now than of being damaged in Ottawa. After thinking about it, and this is the last I will say about it, I think your chances of getting into Andover grade nine from your present middle school are darn near zero. You have no academic focus, you have no solid support from your parents, no "hook" and no sports. The only thing going for you is your zeal to experience the prepschool life. To capitalize on that you need a foundation which Ashbury can give you but your present school cannot.. This means grade 8/9 Ashbury and Andover after that. That is not only your best hand, it is your only hand.</p>