<p>oldfort - what do they do for one year at a boarding school if they have completed high school already?</p>
<p>It is a post graduate year at those prep schools. I am not familiar with what courses they would take, but I know of few kids who did that and re-applied the following year. I think more athletes do it for better chance of getting recruited.</p>
<p>You have to be a varsity athlete to do a PG year at a BS.</p>
<p>Many times the boarding school is more academically demanding than the student’s original high school, so taking any kind of senior courses there will be fresh and challenging. It’s also good practice for college for a student who could use more maturity before moving into an environment with little supervision.</p>
<p>You do not have to be a varsity athlete to do a PG year at a BS. There are a number of kids whose high school records and years were badly disrupted by some event or other. For that reason they may truly be at junior level the end of their chronological senior year but able to make graduation with a truly lackluster record with some major problem. By going for a PG year at a BS, that year’s grades are looked upon in isolation, and if that school is truly a rigorous college prep school, doing well in those AP or AP equivalent courses and getting good grades there can be a plus. </p>
<p>The PG programs at a number of these schools are deliberately structured to showcase these kids and the main purpose is to give them the best presentation for selective college admissions. That is what these private schools do the best. Their teachers are well trained and capable in filling out those rec forms, the counselors often have connections via friendships and professional pasts with adcoms from colleges. The whole thrust of that year is solely to prepare that kid for college admissions. I know many parents who have been jealous and upset that the PG kids seem to have that focus on them more than their seniors at the same school. That’s because those kids have just the one year, really one semester to achieve their purpose, so everything is accelerate for them. </p>
<p>In my excellent school district (excellent by all national ratings I have seen), to get into certain AP classes, get certain activities is a highly competitive thing. That’s partly why my kids did not go there. You also can’t mix certain activities, certain courses; the whole culture is about finding ways to get those goodies, high powered ones. If you have a kid with a B average, s/he isn’t getting into the oversubscribed AP courses, for instance. And if you just moved into the area, you are likely to get overrun by the savvy kids and parents who know the system.</p>
<p>Go to a school that offers a PG year, they have that program specifically to meet your childs needs. He can get that AP calculus, English, Latin. If he’s interested in Photography, the art department will take him in hand, and help him with a portfolio and there will be a ready made situation for him to make his mark. No where else can you get the whole package so neatly wrapped.</p>
<p>Now the kid has to perform. You aren’t going to gain anything from a PG year when the kid is sick of school and ready to leave which is the case with most kids who could use that PG year. So unless a kid is an athlete or has some other striking reason that motivates him/her to really bust tail that year, it is not going to be beneficial. The schools I know who offer this don’t give one quarter in terms of what the student has to do do. The only give the opportunity and support. </p>
<p>It is not an easy go at all. It’s also an option for people with money, a lot of it because the cost of that year is what a year at a top private school would cost. Truly outstanding athletes and those with true economic hardships due to challenging home lives can get scholarships, and PG programs do also serve that function to those kids who were in a dysfunctional homes, inadequate high schools undergoing some rough circumstances. PG years often work hand in had with ABC, Prep for Prep and other such programs. So there is a social benefit for these programs as they do provide a bridge for those kids who need it to have a chance at a rigorous college both in terms of admissions and retention.</p>
<p>You do not have to be an athlete to do a PG year at a boarding school. I know someone from my town who did a PG year at Andover (after graduating public school here in our community). She was an excellent student. While she plays sports, she is not a recruited athlete. I don’t know the family’s exact reasons for the extra year, but I do know that this girl entered K early (like my D did) and was ahead a year in school from where she would normally be by age. I think they opted to give her an extra year before college. She landed at Middlebury.</p>
<p>Very interesting about this- the GC at our D1’s private High School gave us the wrong information. If we had wanted to pursue, we should have called the BS.
Why did the girl go to Andover? Was she a PG? Did she repeat her senior year?
[Many BS kids enter as repeat year students, but I wasn’t aware of that happening for Senior year.] Did she send in a transcript of 5 years of grades???</p>
<p>OP you’ve gotten a lot of sound advice here from parents who have been through this AND professionals. I don’t have much to add so I won’t. I would urge you to rethink some of the advise that’s been given. </p>
<p>I do want to speak to your original question regarding admission staff. Have you ever been treated poorly by someone and then been short with the very next person you spoke with? Ever had an argument with your spouse and the fussed at one of your kids? This time of year admissions offices all over the country are getting swamped with calls from students and parents wanting to know why Jack and Jill were not accepted. The callers are emotional and quite often rude, insulting, cry, even use foul language. Often times the person answering the phone this time of year is a temp to help with the added strain, or a university intern. They must take each call, handle it the best they can, take a breath, and move on to the next call never knowing what they are facing. It is a pressure cooker. People should try their utmost to be professional and polite, absolutely. Give the person a break for crying out loud!! Go in that office after decisions have been released, answer the phones for 10 hours taking the abuse with a smile on your face, and then tell us the employee was rude to your son.</p>
<p>And, btw, our instincts about D1 were right- she was the youngest in her grade, though physically very mature, and an excellent student, performing artist and athlete, great scores. She could have used more social confidence and maturity. There are not many ways to opt out. Planning and taking a gap year is actually challenging for kids like this.</p>
<p>OT:
Her approach to college apps was to undershoot by a long shot- she applied ED to a LAC that was a sleepwalk for her. She subconsciously wanted to avoid the stress of worrying about being rejected, etc. And by Nov of freshman year, she knew she wanted out of that college and also to pursue a major not offered at the college.
So, on her own, she applied to five more schools- she visited, did all the apps completely on her own. Totally independent and self-directed. A great confidence-builder.
She landed at a different LAC. Her new friends were all freshmen. She walked on to a sports team and the coach is now asking her to play all 4 years, so she is trying to figure out if she can take a semester OFF to intern while all her new friends are on semesters abroad, and finish up after a Fall term [her sport is a Fall sport]. We have no idea if this sort thing of this is allowed, but it will be up to her to find out and structure it, with our support and advice, of course.
Her coach mentioned the possibility of being a “super-senior”, but she does not know what that means… for her to investigate.
I believe that the college rite of passage does not hit everyone at the right time, so we do have to improvise.</p>
<p>And, obviously, we were fortunate to have the financial resources that transferring can require.</p>
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<p>I can’t answer the “why” aspects of what someone in my community did. I didn’t ask. Yes, she was PG. She graduated from our HS. The following year she did a PG year at Andover and applied to college. I know she is a great student. Her mom is even a teacher at our HS. As I wrote, maybe they thought she’d benefit from an extra year as she was young (entered K early as did my D2). She went from a rural public HS to an elite boarding school for a year. It is not so far fetched in such a circumstance. </p>
<p>A long time ago, my sister-in-law, who is much younger than I, graduated HS two years early (around her 16th birthday). Her parents (my in-laws) considered sending her to boarding school (such as Exeter or Andover) at that point before college. Instead, they sent her to college. She went to Williams but had gotten into the Ivies. But that is another example of someone younger who might finish HS and do PG at a boarding school. </p>
<p>My own daughter graduated two chronological years early than she normally would have. She entered K early and then graduated HS after junior year. We did not consider boarding school and she went straight to college at age 16.</p>
<p>performersmom - Do they have a masters program she can complete in the 4th year? NCAA eligibility runs 4 years and there are a lot of football kids that complete a masters while making use of their eligibility (redshirt freshmen?).</p>
<p>OTOH, if you are paying for the last year, do you want it to be the coach’s decision that costs you an extra 55k!</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I am involved via extended family in a situation that is not the same, but involves the same second choice school. The problem is it does not allow a gap year which the young man wants. It also doesn’t offer or take what my cousin’s son wants/needs. The first choice school does, as do other colleges. The need evolved over the year otherwise ED would have been a good idea as would having other schools on the list that are amenable to those situations. My cousin’s son applied almost exclusively to state schools and none of them will work with him in his situations whereas nearly every and any selective private school has provisions for this. </p>
<p>With the OP’s son’s stats, he is highly likely to get his full ride offer from his state school even next year–he will have to reapply, yes, but the chances are good. So choice 2 is not something that he has to worry much about. But they will not give him a gap year. He will have to reapply, and he is fine with that. Since he has to reapply there, he might as well try choice 1 again and add some more schools in the mix as well. It would be nice if he could get information as to how to enhance his app this time around and find out if there is a striking reason why he was not accepted this year. I don’t know how willing schools are to do this as the highly selective schools would get bombarded with the “whys”. </p>
<p>There are schools that will do this. I know for a fact, because they have done it. Most of the time, the counselors are the ones who can get that info most honestly and directly from the adcoms. My son got some very direct information as to why he was not selected for some MT programs when he applied some years ago. He also got the brush off from some schools that gave him a generic answer that was not useful at all. </p>
<p>My friend’s daughter was not accepted at her college (where mom works), and they did give her very specific reasons as to why she did not get into the college. It was not a general reason, but pointed directly to issues. They also out and out said that her transfer chances were excellent if she did certain things.</p>
<p>Thanks texaspg- that is the info that will help us. It is as if she red-shirted bec she did not play at the first LAC.
This is awfully OT, sorry all- I had thought of starting a thread about it (not sure where!), to accumulate any advice to pass along to her. But I think this will have more to do with her specific college’s rules, and will be presented more as an opportunity to get a full-time internship for a semester BEFORE graduating. Her sense is that the college would not see playing a sport as a good enough reason for it -We shall see…</p>
<p>'Twill be a good lesson for her in dealing with the bureaucracy! She has had to navigate all sorts of systems at her first and second colleges to transfer, declare her major, enter as transfer, etc. etc, and was surprised at how inefficient and unhelpful they all were- LOL.
SOOO we are sort of tying back in to the title of this thread!!</p>
<p>As an aside, we just noticed that Yale does not allow direct emails via the Naviance system, but most other colleges do!</p>
<p>Also Texas, can’t resist, but “pg” is part of your screen name, so I thought it was amusing when you asked about PG’s at BS!!!</p>
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<p>I have the same question. To me, the advice sounds direct, honest and helpful. But there was also some kind of rudeness involved?</p>
<p>OP- adolescents engage in magical thinking. That’s what makes them challenging to raise but fun to be around.</p>
<p>Although you may have wished for a more welcoming message by the person who answered the phone at the admissions office, you may want to consider that if your S’s call was the 50th or 100th call that’s come in asking the very same question- there is actually a granule of truth buried in what you perceived to be rude. Namely- this year we got thousands of applications from fine candidates and had to turn many of them away. Next year, we will get the same thousands from HS seniors, plus a couple of hundred from kids who were shut out last year and are trying again. The likelihood that you will hit on the secret sauce a second time around- with the only substantive change being a gap year to “mature”, is not likely.</p>
<p>It’s your money and it’s his time. But turning a one time disappointment into a two year ordeal strikes me as lots of pain for low probability of gain.</p>
<p>I want to stress that applying again as a transfer is a different story. That’s a straightforward way to become a whole new candidate. Straight A’s at a less selective, but still challenging, college may well get a previously rejected candidate into Penn.</p>
<p>My eyes have been opened to the fact that many students and parents of students who were rejected call these schools after the decision comes out. My kids, nor myself, ever would have thought to do that. I’m not sure what is accomplished. The decision was made and it was not in your favor. Those who apply to highly selective schools need to realize rejections go with the territory. I’m not really understanding the purpose of the call. If you wish to reapply, do so. Not sure what else an admissions office is supposed to say. There is a chance they may offer feedback to a guidance counselor but I just don’t see how they can be expected to respond to all these calls from disappointed applicants. The person who answered gave the stock response…unlikely to be readmitted but if you try, get new recs (basically is saying to send a new set of application materials because sending the same stuff again is not going to yield a new result). They don’t need to know your kid to give such feedback. More individualized feedback may not be forthcoming given the numbers who may request it. Further, even if you get an adcom, there is a chance that he/she may say that there was not something necessarily wrong with the application but odds as they are, it happens that even qualified students get rejected.</p>
<p>The energy now needs to be focused upon building an entirely new college list with a new approach and also doing the applications differently, not to mention achieving something new during the gap year that will make the applicant bring something new to the table. As I wrote about my nephew who had to apply to college during a gap year after an unsuccessful admissions process, he did an internship in his field for the gap year that directly related to his goals and were reflected in his essays and resume and a new rec from the supervisor. So, he had something new, on top of a very different college list the second time, and an entirely new application, essays, recs, and resumes and sample materials.</p>