<p>My daughter is applying to an elite BS as a day student. </p>
<p>She currently competes at A rated horse shows. She trains 15 to 20 hours a week during school and much more in the summer. She has been riding since she was 8. She has completely trained the horse she rides. When she got him, he could barely be ridden and was going to be put down. She has trained him to the point where they now place in most shows thay enter; beating riders on other, very valuable horses. As you can imagine, this took great dedication, determination and patience on her part.</p>
<p>She had her interview and it went very well. The admissions director told me his only concern was that she wouldn't be able to participate a school sport because she had had no experience in traditional, prep school sports.</p>
<p>What is your opinion of this. Is she out of the running because she participates in a non-mainstream sport?</p>
<p>It’s possible – that she’s DOA – but it’s hard to say without knowing more of what happened in the interview. And understand that the school won’t tell you this. They’ll actively encourage you to apply.</p>
<p>The good news is that you’re aware of this being an issue and area of concern and that means you can address it if this school appeals to you and your daughter.</p>
<p>A lot of 8th graders haven’t participated in prep school sports. That itself wouldn’t be a concern. The concern, I think, is more likely going to be a matter of attitude and how she expressed her willingness to contribute as a member of the community when it comes to team sports. Smaller schools in athletic leagues – such as the [url=<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_School_League_(Boston_Area)]ISL[/url”>Independent School League (New England) - Wikipedia]ISL[/url</a>] – need (and require) their students to be engaged and competitive in some sport(s) that the school fields. Even if it’s not at the level where it would count as a “hook,” a threshold issue for some schools is whether the applicant will be a contributor to the community’s athletics programs after the academic portion of the day has concluded.</p>
<p>If your D was adamant in the interview about pursuing her unique equestrian activities to the exclusion of being engaged in the other athletic offerings that the school needs her to embrace, that wouldn’t bode well.</p>
<p>If, on the other hand, your D was effusive about all the wonderful sports and related to the interviewer how her experience in equestrian activities is going to really help her be a valued member of the life-size foosball team that was one victory shy of winning the conference title this fall…well, that would be good.</p>
<p>And then there’s all that gray in between those two points on the spectral plane. To the negative side of the center point you’d find something like, “I don’t know which sport I’d choose. I’ve been committed to my horse, but I think I would like to play a team sport…I just don’t know which ones I’d choose.” A more upbeat answer that shows she’s mentally committed to the idea of participating would be more like, “Wow! Right now, I have no idea which sport I’d select. They’re all great. I am good at being focused, thinking on my feet, I have stamina and great eye-hand coordination…so what sports would you recommend I choose?”</p>
<p>Regardless of what happened in the interview, you still have opportunities for rehabilitating any negativity or resistance she might have conveyed (even unwittingly) during the interview. The thank you note would be one such opportunity. Obviously, the essays would be another. And some sort of update about sports could help offset any negative comment that the interviewer might have noted for the file regarding team sports participation.</p>
<p>Dyer, you should become an educational consultant LOL. Great answer. And Icyf (sorry not on the original screen), are you a reporter? Why are you collecting all of this data?</p>
<p>We have a friend whose DD walked into the prep school interview and announced that she still intended to train 20 hours/week at an elite level national gymnastics program. She was also a wonderful student. They turned her down cold. She quit gymnastics two years later and became valedictorian at the local HS, with lots of great college choices. So it all worked out for the best.</p>
<p>May depend somewhat on whether or not you are seeking financial aid. If the admissions officer made that statement, it doesn’t look promising. The interviewer may also be concerned that your daughter, as a day student at a majority boarding school with a time consuming outside activity, may not become a “full” member of the school community. If you don’t need financial aid and the school is not one of the most competitive for admissions, then there is a good chance for admission assuming that your daughter’s academic credentials merit admission to the class. Boarding schools, moreso than colleges, try to build a class so that her outside activity combined with lack of time for school ECs constitutes a red flag type negative.</p>
<p>Have you considered a school that has a riding program? I don’t know where you live but quite a few schools do have riding programs
When my daughter was interviewing nearly three years ago, she was adament about continuing to figure skate. I do think that this hurt her in the admissions process. A few schools came out and said no way. None encouraged it.</p>
<p>I can tell you why a boarding school would turn down such a candidate, even if s/he were a ranked participant in an outside sport. Simply, they want students who contribute to the whole experience at a school and if such an applicant only “contributes” skill in the classroom, that candidate would be ranked lower on the admissions list than candidates who contribute to one or more of their athletic/arts/etc programs. These schools want not just to have the best academic students but the best sports teams, best musical groups, best theatrical productions, best art shows, etc.</p>
<p>Yes, the candidate may bring publicity to the school, but the school did not earn that publicity and it would show.</p>
<p>And even in the girls hockey world, there are some prep coaches who actively discourage their players from playing pre-post club teams on Sundays because of injury risk and the time away from school diminishes the student’s participation in the community.</p>
<p>Now if the OP were looking at a day-school (no boarders), there probably wouldn’t be as much of an issue as the off-hours community isn’t as important to those institutions. Perhaps a look at the top local day-schools might be in order here.</p>
That’s why they have the “thirds” teams. And, the bigger schools have non-competitive or rec sports. Loomis for example has competitive soccer and rec soccer (for boys any way). The descriptin of many of the thirds teams (some of which are actually the 4th or 5th team a school has in a given sport) says something like “for the student with litle or no experience in this sport…”</p>
<p>That said, if she stated that she woud not WANT to do sports or would not be ABLE to because she would be training, then that is a different story. </p>
<p>On the other hand, you could turn it into a positive in the application by showing the dedication and commitment to the sport. Not many young people put that many hours into one thing for so long.</p>
<p>Is she going to continue to ride? I agree that the schools are looking for kids who will be part of the community from 8 am to 6 pm plus Saturday mornings as needed.</p>
<p>I was in a similar situation when I applied to an elite prep school as a day student many years ago. I participated in the sports program, continued to ride although fewer hours per week, and continued to advance. I was in Pony Club, passed my B rating the summer before entering that school, and passed my A rating the summer after graduation.</p>
<p>My college counselor told me however, that the strong pattern of dedication and achievement was better than a ton of miscellaneous ECs when it came to applying to college.</p>
<p>I agree about looking at schools with riding programs – look at Kent and maybe Stoneleigh if she wants to keep riding and competing and go to prep school.</p>
<p>You should view that question not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity. I suspect that the admin. officer had a couple of reasons for raising this issue. </p>
<p>First, most schools require their students to participate in after school athletics, even if they are not on a varsity team. My guess is that the school will not give your daughter a special exemption (particularly for all three terms) so that she can continue her riding and he wanted to make sure you understood this.</p>
<p>Second, as other posters have pointed out, admissions offices want students who will add to the community. Having a world class gymnast or expert rider is all well and good, but is a lot more meaningful if the student is sharing these talents with the school, rather than spending all her free time away from the campus trying to enhance these skills.</p>
<p>Third, all sports at prep school are team sports - even those that are based on individual effort like tennis or cross-country. By pursuing a non-mainstream sport on her own the admissions officer may have been concerned about whether your daughter can be a team player or rather is someone who tends to be a loner and likes doing things on her own. Again they want someone who’s willing to become part of their community.</p>
<p>Having said all this, there’s no reason your daughter’s participation in a non-mainstream sport should be an obstacle to her success in getting into a BS. Obviously to achieve that kind of success in any area requires commitment, discipline, dedication and talent. I think you should point out that she will bring those same qualities to any sport she does, even if she is new to it. Most BS have lots of different teams, including those in sport not ordinarily offered in middle school. I suspect at most boarding schools a sizable portion of the girls squash team, volleyball team, field hockey team, crew team, etc did not arrive their freshman year as experts in these sports. What they did have was a willingness to try new things, a certain level of enthusiasm and the self-discipline and dedication necessary to improve. Given your daughter’s prior successes it shouldn’t be too hard to convince the schools you are applying to that she possesses these qualities in spades and would be a great addition to their school.</p>