Rec'd First Rejection from NYC School

@abiriba St. Ann’s didn’t know where else she was applying. And while I would have liked to have told them that St. Ann’s was high (if not top) on our list, they uniquely don’t interview parents for high school applicants. Maybe DD or I should have written and said they were her first choice, but DD feels she won’t be in a position to say before revisit day. It could have been foolish in the end to think a school that prides itself on its renegade ways would seek a child who primarily has high test scores and a few awards. Maybe, even though we don’t think of her this way at all, they saw her as too mainstream. Maybe they thought moving from the boonies to Brooklyn wouldn’t end well for us; they even asked her in the interview how she saw herself making the transition and she rightly told them she’s been going to NYC regularly her whole life. Anyway, I’d like to think they rejected DD simply bc they were afraid DD would reject them. Yes, I think I’ll choose to believe that ;).

Thank you @ChoatieMom. I’m sorry I didn’t see those posts earlier but yours was very eye-opening. Glad I’m seeing it before DD applies to college, although it’s too late to follow the instincts that said instead of moving to an elite high school, we should just move to Indiana.

“instead of moving to an elite high school, we should just move to Indiana.”

@bookwormsmom It does beg the question of why, if you are willing to move for an education, you don’t seek out a community with good public schools since you and your spouse have the flexibility given your work setups? Or is that the backup plan to applying to private schools?

I don’t think a good public school can reach bookwormsDD. A child like that is 3 to 4 years ahead of her peer group. Even the prep schools bookwormsDD applied to won’t reach her in many of its offerings.

In terms of boarding vs. day, I know that at Milton the acceptance rates are higher for boarding, as the pool of day student applicants is incredibly strong and there are current (day) students coming up from 8th grade. I’m not sure about Concord or Andover, but if your daughter would be willing to board at Milton, that might increase her chances there. FWIW Milton has an incredibly strong writing program.

That’s patently ridiculous. A good public school as well as most Prep schools will be fine for her. Unless we aren’t being told about her genius status we have to stop putting all these kids on pedestals. With the exception of math and music most excellent public and prep schools are fine for most kids.

@doschicos We have considered it. Our experience in the public school system was not great. She either felt intellectually out of place or wasn’t working hard in order to fit in. I guess we could have handpicked a top PS in MA or NJ, but BS seem to offer a unique blend of well-rounded students, high academic expectations, excellent teachers, critical thinking over memorization, school spirit, connected college counselors, etc. etc. Plus I do hope she eventually boards and I just think the residential lifestyle of BS would be super fun, even for day students provided they’re at a BS that integrates the day/boarding student populations effectively. I hear Milton is really good at it.

@gungablue , @Center and @laenen – We were told by the SET people that even at these top schools some classes might feel rudimentary. 750 on the SAT critical reading is 99th or 98%tle for a high school senior, and she also tested “profoundly gifted” on the WISC-IV years ago. For that reason, if we have options, a school that allows English electives earlier would be preferred over one that makes you wait until 12th. I’d hate to go through all this only to have her be uninspired in her English classes. However, her expository writing has room to improve, and I think the learning in the other disciplines and opportunity to work on a literary magazine, great school newspaper or an outstanding debate team would be worth it.

Level of English instruction at 9th grade was never a concern for SculptorKid who aced a community college composition class last year. I figured that, with such a small class, each kid will be encouraged to further develop writing skills based on her own level, and list of books discussed in class seemed high quality and interesting.

Also, bookworm will probably have to take the grade level English, but she might be able to take some of the electives for upper grades or join writing based clubs. When it comes to choosing elective at one’s strength area, all the schools I talked were rather open and flexible.

I know Andover accepted kids as day students who lived outside the radius for day students and families said they would move if accepted. Concord accepted day students from a wide radius but I know one who switched to boarding after acceptance because the commute would have been too much.

@MA2012 Andover told DD she has to apply as a boarder but that it wouldn’t be a problem to switch to day in the spring/summer if she is accepted and we move into the radius. Where would the Concord student have been commuting from? Concord said they have a lot of day students from Boston but winter commuting can prove difficult (especially last winter, I imagine). I am curious how difficult it would be to switch from day to boarding if moving ends up being more problematic than I imagined.

As I’ve said before, the admissions process is opaque at best, and downright inscrutable in cases like bookwormsmom’s and SculptorDad’s. I hope this thread brings you both some measure of comfort.

From what I see, one should not discount the importance of a child’s “fitting in” to a boarding school community. I suspect this notion of fit is much more critical with boarding schools than it is with day schools. Boarding schools seem to be looking for kids who can easily mesh with the group–and hence the emphasis in every view book on “community,” along with the countless photos of kids embracing each other. I sense that some schools would be reluctant to admit a genius if they suspected the child might not be happy and wouldn’t thrive–which includes finding a congenial group of friends, eagerly participating in sports, and interacting smoothly with adults.

An unhappy kid at boarding school–genius or not–is still an unhappy kid.

Interesting about Andover. 3 years ago we met a family from Newton who was moving to Andover so kid would be day student. Perhaps he applied as boarding then switched. I know you can’t board of you live in Andover/North Andover. For Concord the commute was going to be from Sharon. I know people who do have long commutes around Boston especially for day schools.

@Center – Are you familiar with the CTY SET qualification that BookwormsDD qualified for? She tested as profoundly gifted by Johns Hopkins. That signifies that she is at least 4 years above her peers. A SET Math kid is often doing Calculus in middle school. They often get a perfect score on their SAT at 12 or 13. What high school is able to provide 4 more years of challenging studies of Math? Most of these kids often enroll into Early College like Washington U, Bard or BUA. Or they go right into MIT at 15 year old

http://news.mit.edu/2015/ahaan-rungta-mit-opencourseware-mitx-1116

There is a whole level of education above the BS offering for those profoundly gifted students. BS and other great day schools are not the academic pinnacle.

@bookwormsmom – A couple of questions

  1. Have you looked into Dual Enrollment?
  2. Have you considered home schooling?
  3. Have you looked into early college like BU Academy or Bard at Simmons?
  4. Or Stanford On-line HS?

Laenen you are describing a small percentage of profoundly gifted. Majority are not ready or don’t want end high school early.

Are you saying that there is only a small percentage that is PG or are you saying only a small percentage of PG kids skip HS. If it is the latter, PG aren’t the only kids that skip HS. I think there are a lot of EG or even HG kids that are skipping HS.

I am also in a homeschool community and there are quite a few in dual enrollment. I agree that the majority are not skipping their HS years, however if you connect with Hoagies or Davidson, you will find quite a vibrant community that are skipping. And I think this trend is increasing.

I also agree with @DonFefe – BS is more about a community with a strong academic focus vs. an elite academic challenge.

We are also mainly looking into community in bs and not academics.

Sorry to hear of you daughters rejection. Our PG kids found community and peers at prep school. Lifelong friends and a community of kids who are passionate and love to learn.

@vegas1, we are hoping and believe that that will happen to SculptorKid too.