Hello everyone, I am currently a new sophomore at a very competitive boarding school in California. During the first few months, I felt lonely, sad and very depressed. I was begging my mom to send me to another school as I did not think I would be able to fit in here. This place had terrible food and terrible accommodation. I started getting used to life here in the next few months and felt a bit better. I tried to make more friends and get more involved in community events. However, being a 16 year old boy, I am still homesick. I miss my parents and I miss my country’s cuisine.
My current teachers at school are amazing and this school’s curriculum is very challenging. Despite having to take very rigorous classes, I have only got 2 B+s so far and the rest are all As and A+s. My grades are great and everything seems to be fine.
Nevertheless, when thinking of college application, I am not very optimistic about staying here. My school has very limited time for students to do their work outside of class (roughly 2-3 hours a night). In addition, there are not many opportunities for doing community services. Most ECAs offered at my school are sports. I am also afraid that I would not have enough time for preparing for the SAT as I am planning on taking a lot of APs next year and I have very limited time for studying.
If I return to my home country and attend an international school, I will have more freedom and of course more study hours. I would have more opportunities for community services as well since I am from a very undeveloped country. The international school in my country offers even more APs than my current school and there are so many SAT tutoring services in my country. (My current school does not offer SAT tutoring). More importantly, I will be able to live with my parents.
So should I return to my home country to attend an international school or stay at my current school? Would attending a boarding school look better on college app than an international school?
It sounds like you chose to attend a boarding school because you wanted to make your college application seem better.
I don’t think that college admissions officers care much about where an applicant chose to spend their high school years. They probably care about what they do during those years, both in school and outside of school.
If you believe that you’d be much happier at an international school, go for it. Not only that, you’d have more extracurricular opportunities and have a life outside of school (according to you). If your goal is to attend a U.S private college, it seems as though your odds are stronger at the international school.
By the way, you primarily spoke about the cons of your current school and the pros of the international school. It seems as though you’re leaning towards the international school.
You should go where you will be happier and able to do more. I can’t imagine any scenario where being unhappy and limited in your ability to achieve would work in a high school student’s favor. Recently, a friend was admitted to a top boarding school on the eastern shore. The school had a lot of requirements that monopolized her spare time, her grades dropped, and she couldn’t run the business she had started. She went to a local school and resumed her volunteer and business endeavors, and she’s a lot happier and more productive. I’m confident she will look far more attractive to any college she wants to attend now than she would have with mediocre grades from a fancy boarding school. JMO.
@momolo I would really say it depends on the school. I am pretty familiar with California boarding schools (having gone to one for all of middle school) and I can tell you that they are pretty different from the one’s on the east coast that are mostly discussed here. Ultimately, if you are at a school like thacher or Cate, I would honestly advise you to stick it out until graduation as the opportunities, electives, and prestige, alumni connections, etc. gained at these two schools are incredibly helpful as you move on in life (particularly if you decide to stay in the US for college and your future job). However, if you are at other, less known boarding schools in CA, ex: Athenian, woodside priory, etc. I think it shouldn’t affect you very much whether you stay or leave. If you want to go back and have good opportunities in terms of academics there then go ahead and do it because some schools may not be worth an extra two years if you REALLY don’t like it there.
@lostaccount I think it really depends on whether they plan to stay in the US after boarding school ex: for college and for future jobs. If that is the case, I would say that it is incredibly helpful as you will be much farther ahead than other immigrant groups that enter in college or after college, that is just my opinion of course.
Not sure what this means.
OP may very well be an American citizen - born in the States.
OP sounds like he/she is doing very well in school. I would look into your school’s Naviance to see how they are at placing students. I think unless your current school is so much better at placement than the International School, I would go back home.
I did a lot to help my kids get into a good college, but I never wanted my kids to be away at a boarding school because I believed my kids needed me around when they were teenagers. I also thought they would be out of the house soon enough that they didn’t need to do it 4 years earlier.
It is difficult to offer advice without knowing more information about you, your current school, your home country & your college plans & career goals.
That won’t matter assuming OP is not a US citizen. An international attending a BS in the US does not have a better chance of college admissions than an international attending a HS abroad, all other things being equal. And job prospects will be more dependent on having (or getting sponsored for) the correct visa than what HS one attended.
That may not necessarily be true. For example, MIT supposedly accepted 6 applicants from China in this year’s EA round. All 6 are from US high schools; none from HSs in China (including international schools). Similar results in prior years too.
Perhaps.But the plural of anecdote is not data. And 6 “supposedly” accepted students is not a large enough set. Regardless, there is no evidence that the OP’s home country is China, and the issues with, how shall we say, less-than-honest applications emerging from PRC has given some AOs pause.
As with most things, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. But I’m OK with my earlier response covering “most.”
There are LOTS of graduates of international schools overseas at all of top colleges and universities. That shouldn’t be a concern.
OP: Do what makes you happiest. You are the best judge of where you will thrive. But remember that sometimes the reasons we think we are leaving a situation are not the REAL reasons for our unhappiness and we discover that we bring those issues/problems along with us instead of leaving them behind.