<p>Hello all,
Darling D is considering boarding school for 9th grade and we've started doing some online research and requesting viewbooks etc through boardingschoolreview. We are not interested in the hyper competitive HADES type schools and right now her favorites from research are Putney, Millbrook and maybe Buxton.</p>
<p>D is smart, sensitive, is involved in community service and gets mostly A's. Thing is until recently middle school was a nightmare - she had undiagnosed ADD/ADHD that is now under control and she is doing much better but it took about through middle of 6th grade until the middle of 7th to get things on track. She doesn't require accommodations or special learning help as medication was what flipped the switch. How much will this matter?</p>
<p>We will require FA, she is African American if diversity matters, and she is very interested (A+) in science.</p>
<p>What other schools would people recommend we look at?</p>
<p>Lots of good suggestions already. I especially second Millbrook, given your description of your child & her interests. Recommend you also consider New Hampton, especially for the non hyper-comp and science reasons. Cheers</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses and also all the private messages. I’m thinking we should be working with a consultant but not sure how to go about finding one who works with the schools we are interested in. Guidance?
I have another question and maybe I should start a different thread but how have public school parents dealt with the teacher recommendations? Our teachers currently have been working without a contract for almost 2 years and are working to rule. I’m not sure how helpful they will be with recs. Has anyone else faced this?</p>
<p>We did. Our teachers are under assault and several were rude. But the ones that truly liked my daughter were happy to see her get out of the “Heck” hole they were stuck in. </p>
<p>So she send supplemental recs from previous teachers and explained to the Adcoms her concerns. Mostly - what the recs do - if you look at them - is help the private school understand that your child is proactive, works well with others, shows up on time, speaks up in discussions, can master the content, and is - in general - a great kid to have in class. (it’s as much to weed out problematic students, and those who are difficult or struggle or don’t do the work as it is to find the ones who are gems).</p>
<p>So don’t overload the boarding school with too much extraneous stuff, but if you feel like you won’t get full support from all the teachers, add one or two. I have found, however, if approached with sensitivity, the teachers will understand why you are choosing this path and most will be discrete about it. My daughter’s principal even quipped “Is the school hiring? Can I apply?”</p>
<p>My advice - provide the envelopes with enough postage to cover delivery confirmation (the green tags from the post office) so you can prove the recommendations were delivered (keep track of the tracking numbers you give out). A number of students on CC were still pushing their teachers right up to the deadline earlier this year. </p>
<p>In our case - we finally gave up and provided FedEx envelopes with my account number for the “stragglers”.</p>
<p>We absolutely loved Miss Porter’s when we looked. My D liked the girls, thought the teachers were warm and enthusiastic, and really appreciated the in town location.</p>
<p>It is small with a very empowering environment for young women. Most of the faculty live on campus and are involved with the students both in and out of the classroom. Good luck with your search.</p>
<p>I would highly recommend using a consultant. It was money well spent for our boarding school search. </p>
<p>Our consultant had a personal relationship with many many of the admissions personnel. When we showed up, they already knew a ton about my daughter and I think it made a difference in the interview process. </p>
<p>Our consultant was a former admissions officer at a girls school and had lived/taught at another boarding school. </p>
<p>She had visited all the boarding schools we thought we might be interested in and was able to give us her personal insights about each of them. </p>
<p>I think another key part was that she spent lots of time talking with my daughter and getting to know her, her goals, her personality and what she was looking for in a school. </p>
<p>With her help we were able to come up with around 20-22 schools to begin looking at online, that we reduced down to the 8 we ultimately went to visit.</p>
<p>Consider George School, in Pennsylvania: it is a Quaker school, committed to diversity, and was recently bequeathed an enormous amount by a rich alumna. They have opportunities for broad spectrum of students, with strong arts programs, and can accommodate ADD/ADHD students.</p>
<p>If she’s willing to consider an all-girls’ school, I can also recommend Emma Willard School, in Troy, NY. The winters are a little brutal, but don’t let Troy put you off. It’s an excellent school.</p>
<p>Emma’s winters are brutal? Its relatively mild in the NY capital region compared to…middle and northern vermont, further upstate NY, etc. Most of the buildings @ emma have tunnels so a student hardly has to go outside.
Troy is somewhat of a dump, getting a little better, but the Emma campus is a walled oasis. Seems Emma has gotten much more press ever since Guilibrand got elected to the U.S. Senate.</p>
<p>I, too, recommend Emma Willard. Of course, loving snow IS a prerequisite, but didn’t pose a problem for us :). Great curriculum and diversity and lots of ops to do community service.</p>