SPS vs Nobles

I do have to say- my kiddo is 17. And repeating Jr. year as her first year at BS. I can’t imagine having had her leave at 14.

Thank you. As we may not have the option to go with BS now, it’s reassuring to hear this.

She could always reapply next year, or the year after :blush:

So much happens in the 4 years of high school, and I think that the idea of BS is particularly hard when you have an 8th grader. My kid started as a day student at a BS for that reason, so Ican completelyrelate to whereyouare coming from!

Over the next year or so -as he matured and I came to understand and trust the environment more - I really came to appreciate the way that BS develops independence and community. There is a lot of adult supervision and support, and the freedoms and responsibilities increase each year. It’s a very well thought out path. And for us, we loved the school’s values so we’re delighted that he could live into those. (We still support the school for that reason.)

Because we were on the fence about day/boarding (well, kiddo wanted boarding, parents wanted day), we had conversations with AOs about this. One talked about how when you are the parent of a day student, a lot of your interaction is around logistics. So true! I think you can remain close and have a quality relationship with your boarder kid, especially if you have a good foundation to begin with. Boarders spend plenty of weekends, holidays, and summers with family with an emphasis on being together.

I did want to say that day schools like Nobles are accustomed to having kids with high intensity ECs (especially club sports, which also help with recruiting and college lists!), so DO make the effort to coordinate with your advisor, dean, etc up front to make sure you’ve got everything aligned to succeed with your plan. It’s in everyone’s interest for it to work!

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DD said applying was like going through hell so she definitely did not want to do it again. :slight_smile:

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Interesting comment. Was she bothered by the essays ? Or was it something else or just too much pressure ?

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Mostly the verbal part. She ends up having 99% in verbal but it is all memorizing and she claimed she forgot them all already.

And also the essays. DD did not have a good test score until January so she pretty much did all the essays in 10 days. Those days were dark.

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Thanks! I am reaching out to Nobles to see if they can exempt DD from afternoon activates. I felt bad though because that is a big part of the high school experience.

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If there is a PE or arts required, she might be able to skip that. That creates a study hall during the day. In any case, I’m sure your situation looks like something they have seen before!

Thanks everyone for your inputs. I leaned a lot from the conversations.

Final update: we decided to stay with Nobles. It’s too late to make changes and it is a good choice for our family.

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My DD said she did her essays in the week before…. I read them and didn’t think they were great :joy:

I don’t tutor my kids or read their school work to keep my sanity. :grinning:

Hopefully Nobles will exempt her from the after school sports/activity at least for one or two of the seasons. It will be very difficult to maintain that level of commitment to ballet outside of school with the amount of homework and academic rigor at Nobles.

Just wonder how has been your daughter’s experience at Noble? I read your thread raising some concerns on sports, diversity, etc. Is she adjusting well? Does she feel left-out in a school focusing on sports? I guess not everyone makes varsity or JV so as long as you are involved in sports, it is ok, right? Thanks

DD adjusts very well at Nobles. She made many friends from all races, black, white and Asian. After first week, she already went to one birthday party, got invited to a sleep over, so she definitely did not feel left out. She made one comment that the school is pretty white, but she has her own circle of friends including all races and she is happy there. Nobles parents seemed very well off judging from what they drive but we feel comfortable driving our Honda around.

About sports, she opts out of afternoon activities for the first season so she can focus on dance. Right now this works out well. She plans to do a brand new sports (to her) with her friends next season. Although it will be hard on her schedule, I believe she will have lots of fun.

Commute is tough, we drive 20-40 minutes one way. She went to public middle school so she used to take school bus back and forth. It saved a lot time but we did not get to see her much. She took bus home then went to her room and closed the door. Now we spent lots of time on commute. She either does her homework in the car or she likes to share her daily activities. It is a new school so she has a lot to talk about. I really enjoyed our time together.

So far it is great but it is 9th grade when she is not stressed out with school work yet. I hope she will continue to have a good time and lean.

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Thanks for your feedback. Glad to hear she is adjusting well. Wish her all the best in high school

Thank you! Please feel free to reach out if you have more questions about Nobles. I am learning too but I can share what I learned.

Appreciate it!

Hi i just wonder when your daughter applied for SPS which is a boarding school and noble which is largely day school, how would Noble views kids also considering boarding? Seems two totally different paths and hard to explain - unless you tell the school at the time of interview that undecided yet but still a bit confused for Noble in terms of commitment to day program, I guess. Thanks for your feedback in advance.

OP can give their answer.

I can say, from having had several friends who were applying to both day and boarding, that there’s little problem in articulating why you are interested in THIS school and why it’d be a good fit. AND in saying you understand how competitive admissions are at most of your options and that rather than get twisted up in a choice you may not have, you’ll make a decision in the spring based on the choices available to you.