SAO vs. School-specific application

I’m new here and have enjoyed reading everyone’s input on lots of topics.

DS is in 8th grade and is putting together applications for four schools in our general region: Holderness, Proctor, Dublin, and Gould. We’ve focused the search on schools that would be a good fit for him. He has a strong interest in schools that offer XC skiing, mountain biking, and other outdoor activities, as well as smaller schools with decent academic/executive skills support as he’s coming from a low-quality LPS. He’s also planning to apply to a fifth school, which is a “local” semi-private school that area parents dissatisfied with the LPS sometimes send their kids to as day students (if they can make it work). He will be applying as a boarder though because the school is just far enough from home that driving every day will not be sustainable for us. The application process is different for boarders.
The school accepts its own online application and the SAO. However, their online application has different essay options than the SAO. My question is should he do the school-specific online application or move forward with the SAO version for this school, since he’s already using it for the other schools on his list.
Thank you in advance!

Whichever option is best for him is fine.

My 8th grade son has a very similar list. His is an alpine skier. Best of luck!!!

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When my son applied he thought he could represent himself better with the school specific topics so he chose to write the additional essays but I don’t think that is required or changed his admissions chances.

I’m guessing from your list you are near Kimball Union as well? They take both the SAO and Gateway so I’m sure if a school that takes SAO or their own is simply trying to make it easier for students who apply to multiple school on one system not need to reinvent the wheel. Not sure about SAO but I know Gateway allows schools to have a separate link to their own application portal/essay topics after the initial basic info is provided. Are you sure SAO doesn’t do that? Like a supplemental form from the school with those topics? If they don’t, I suspect the school is fine with either method and isn’t marking a kid lower based on application choice. They are probably just trying to get all the applicants they can having a variety of options like that.

SAO has school-specific questions if the school requires them. Suffield is the only school on my daughter’s list that required school-specific essays in addition to the SAO essays. And honestly, they were so close to the SAO questions, it felt unnecessary.

We contacted the admissions office specific about the parent essays and they said they are getting a lot of questions about them as they essay prompts are so close (for example: SAO has “Describe an experience that posed a significant challenge for your child. How did your child respond to that challenge?" and Suffield asks “Describe a challenge your child faced, and how they persevered.”).

The admissions rep said to try to answer them as differently as possible, but if we felt there was nothing additional to add to the SAO prompt, we could recycle our answer.

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Isn’t it ironic that these schools are paid tens of thousands of dollars per student every year yet they couldn’t come up with an original question to ask? They expect the kids to show something of themselves so they can make a make or break decision with their applicants but they themselves couldn’t be bothered to be arsed with uniqueness?

Good luck to your DS as well! I’m excited to see where both of our boys land - hopefully where they have a great experience both in the classroom and on the snow.

KUA was on our initial list and came recommended by a few friends, but it doesn’t have his primary sport unfortunately.
The school in question does have a school-specific question that appears on both their dedicated app and on the SAO, but it’s for the parents only and pertains to any counseling or IEPs/504 plans. I think you’re probably right about aiming to provide access to many applicants. Amazingly, they even offer a PDF app for kids to download, complete, and mail. Very “old school”, but given our remote location, not surprising.

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Dublin is the only school on DS’ list that has a school-specific short response question for him to answer, and it’s unusual (something along the lines of “dog person or cat person and why?”).

I think upon a closer reading of the essay choices for the school that has a separate application vs the SAO, they are actually quite similar questions that ask about character etc. They are just framed in the context of the history of the school and qualities they hope to see in their applicants. I think he can stick with the SAO for this school and probably be fine.

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