@GMTplus7 I don’t think he needs constant supervision. He can just be like the stereotypical absent-minded professor sometimes. I’m not the type of parent who will constantly check on him or bring assignments to school if he forgets them, so his grades have taken a hit. His school has a 95-100 scale for an A, so that makes it a little harder too. As he’s maturing, his grades are getting better. Also, his school counselor and I are helping him develop a way to keep himself organized.
In my original post, I meant to say he gets more B’s than A’s. Oops.
I speak from the perspective of a parent w 2 sons in BS. One son who is organized and one who is not. Both kids are/were in intense, “most-selective” tier schools.
While the “most-selective” schools offer the greatest breadth of course offerings, these schools are academic pressure cookers. The fact that your son is not consistently achieving to potential in ALL subjects is a red flag that he needs supervision. ‘Getting organized’ will not magically just fall into place by osmosis when he is around other kids who have their act together. We wishfully hoped so, but have learned it doesn’t happen that way.
Your son might be better served by less focus on math acceleration and more focus on getting his performance up to par on the other subjects. Unless your son has Einstein-level math ability, college admissions will not look kindly upon a lopsided math SAT score w a middling overall GPA.
My other advice to you, as a parent who’s been thru the prep school admissions circus twice, is not to get too excited about any school until you have actually visited it. And don’t overly focus on one academic subject. A boarding school is not just a classroom.
@GMTplus7 I appreciate your advice. I definitely don’t think he is suited for a pressure cooker type of situation either. I also think that a school that has fixed study hours and lights out times are better suited for him.
My hope is to find somewhere that he can increase his ability with other subjects while continuing to enjoy math. He likes French. He really likes social studies. However, math is his absolute passion. He’s likely to be ready for Pre-Calc as a freshman, so I’d just like him to have room to pursue his passion.
He’s doing his best to not fall in love with one school, but he got excited when he looked at NMH because it has Harkness discussions and a block schedule. His school uses Harkness discussions at his school now, and he does well with that. His social studies teacher and his literacy teachers tell me that he’s good at facilitating discussions and getting his classmates involved.
Please continue to share your input. I never thought my son would want to go to boarding school. I feel pretty lost here, and I really appreciate hearing from someone like you who knows how it all works. Thank you!!!
The first thing daughter did when she decided to go to a BS last Summer, was completely shifting focus to address her academic weaknesses for this year.
@SculptorDad That’s a great idea. DS is really working on his organization skills and his writing skills this year. He took Algebra 1 over the summer and is repeating it this school year. That’s made it easier for him to put more effort into writing.
Don’t kid yourself. They ALL, without exception, have “fixed study hours and lights out”. But whether focused studying and sleeping actually goes on is entirely up to the student. The housemasters enforce the quiet and the hours; they don’t enforce the studying & sleeping. You can lead a horse to water…
Sounds like a good idea. DD has been heavily focusing on writing, discussions and lab science. I heard that those are important skills on top boarding schools.
Why? Just, why? Seems like a complete waste of time if he’s already strong in math. Or do u just think he’s good in math because he’s actually just taking the same class twice?
Why didn’t he focus that summer on improving his writing if that is his weakness?
Let me guess. He took Algebra 1 over Summer because he was good at math and wasn’t considering boarding schools. It turned out that Algebra 1 was too much to be done in a Summer even for a strong math kid, so decided to repeat? And now it is working for his favor as he can focus on weaker area. Sounds reasonable to me.
At that age, why even advance to the next math topic in the summer if the child is already recognized to be “underperforming” in other subjects. Is this to impress colleges w a high math level? If that’s the aim, then unless the child is a certified math prodigy, the elite colleges won’t give a rat’s patootie about atypical math achievement w a middling GPA, unless the kid is a URM.
The kids college admissions profile would be better “packaged” by developing extracurricular interests. More math alone isn’t going to impress.
He took Algebra 1 in summer camp because he thought it would be fun. This is a kid who likes to “play” on Khan Academy for fun. He did well on the summer course and the instructor recommended Geometry. His small school couldn’t make that work logistically. Since the summer course was pretty short anyway, DS was fine with repeating Algebra 1. He figured he would learn the subject much more deeply. It was the summer experience studying away from home that made him consider boarding school. He has ECs. He spends plenty of time on them. He’s working on getting A’s in other subjects. He’s working on improving his weaknesses. His B’s are generally high B’s. 95% is needed for an A. I don’t expect him to get straight A’s. It’s not about going to a top-level boarding school. It’s about allowing him to be exceptional at math without expecting him to be exceptional at everything. We’re not thinking college yet.
For my case, neglecting the underperforming subject was due to my disrespect to the arbitrary grade standard and maximizing my child’s interest. The important thing was that she was enjoying the subject and was being challenged. Often the subject of excellence and passion is the same. It can be wise to harness that instead of putting her into a standard box.
Daughter is now so advanced in reading, logical problem solving and art. And through that, she learned the learning skill so much, that it was much easier to catch up all other subjects. It now became necessary too, because she wanted to go to a boarding school, and thus is motivated to catch up her writing skill and etc.
Wait: I am confused… If he just took Algebra I, how will he be in pre-calc in boarding school. I must have missed something - better go back and re-read this thread from the beginning…
I don’t get this either–8th grade may be geometry and then 9th would be Algebra 2, then precalc is for 10th. Some schools combine algebra 2 and precalc so maybe he could take calculus in 10th.
Another school I wanted to mention with math beyond calculus is Governor’s Academy in Byfield MA. It has lots of history as one of the oldest schools in the US and has a very friendly and supportive atmosphere.
@PossiblePrepMom , I knew nothing about boarding schools before my son told me after 7th grade that he wanted to go to one. I still don’t know as much as many parents here with more experience. I am VERY lucky that my children ended up where they did. Boarding school provides an extraordinary experience for the right kids (although I warn you that, as you might expect, it is not easy on their parents). But instead of focusing primarily on the academics, I suggest you look into other factors first, and then weed out the few - if any - that don’t offer enough advanced math. Think of boarding school first as a home for your son. Try your best to get a sense of the adults who would live among him and guide him. Trust your instincts. Be sure you would feel not just comfortable with him being at a given school, but also happy and proud to have him come from such a home.
@london203 @mass2020mom He’s probably going to take Algebra II this summer. I’m guessing he’ll probably do something to reinforce that the following summer. I’m not sure, but even if he places in Algebra II at school, he will likely have room in his studies for more than calculus.
@twinsmama He’s not limiting himself to tier 1, top 10, top 25 or anything like that. Since there are so many boarding schools to choose from, the math has been a good way to weed out several schools. I think we started with 160 or so schools on our list. It was really hard for him to judge for fit at that point. It was too overwhelming. Several schools stop at Calculus, which surprised me.
In my initial post, I tried to put some information about my DS while still keeping him anonymous. He’s enthusiastic, but not competitive. He’s probably do best with some structure. He likes to really dig into a subject, so he likes block schedules or classes with some extended periods. I also find it hard to put into words what would be a good fit for him.
Can you suggest some of the other factors we should look at? We look at things such as %Boarding and EC’s. It’s hard to look at websites and brochures and judge fit. I’m doing a lot of reading on this site. Both of us have talked to AOs and students at boarding schools. We’ve attended a boarding school fair and some skype type of activities. We will visit schools in the fall. If you have other suggestions for what we can be doing, please let me know.
I appreciate your advice. Please keep it coming.
Where did you get a list of 160 schools? I just checked Boarding School Review and found 115 coed college-prep boarding schools in the US that require the SSAT, 51 of which are in New England, with 24 in the mid-Atlantic region. If you narrow down further by location, size, and religious affiliation, you should have a manageable list to begin to gather details,
@PossiblePrepMom , Your approach of looking at the course catalog makes sense, but you could end up missing a good fit that way because many prep schools teach outside the regular curriculum, particularly in math, if they have kids that go past their “regular” curriculum. You may want to augment your search by looking at what some of the schools are doing with their math teams – lots of the prep schools participate in interstellar, for example, so you could pull some names from there. Also, if the interest in the U.S. history, some of the schools suggested here (Peddie, Hill) are closer to Philly, where these is also a lot of history. George School (Newtown, PA) is one you might look at – there always seem to be a couple of math prodigies there who are well-accommodated and thriving – but the verbal scores won’t put him out of the running there. A friend’s son at Loomis is loving the math program there so you might want to look at that as well.
I really like @twinsmama’s advice, though. Think of this as a home. This institution will be co-parenting with you. While you want to be sure that they can offer you child good academics, there’s a lot more to those 4 years than what happens in the classroom.
@twinsmama I couldn’t remember the exact number. I didn’t search by schools that require the SSAT. Should we only be looking at school’s that require the SSAT? I think we’ve narrowed the list considerably. We’re under 40 or 50, I think. We haven’t narrowed by size yet, but he does seem to prefer a school in the 300-800 range. I know, that’s not narrowing things done much!
@gardenstategal We’re looking at all East Coast now. Philly would be awesome. Your statement about missing some potential schools that teach outside their curriculum is exactly why I posted here. I know that websites and brochures don’t tell the whole story. We will check out math teams and the schools you suggested. Thank you!