<p>Looking for suggestions/ideas for thinking about boarding school for a girl entering 9th grade in fall 2015 (applying fall/winter 2014).</p>
<p>Will be applying for FA and cost is a big factor.</p>
<p>Looking for: predominantly boarders (and, ideally, not all boarders are international); rigorous academics; "low-key" social scene (girls aren't obsessed with clothing/looks). Can be co-ed or single-sex. Geography not important.</p>
<p>Prospective student: strong tester (not yet taken SSAT, but 7th grade SAT scores were 660/600/660), straight A student, involved in lots of school programs (science fair, school theater program, et. al.), very friendly though a bit "mature" in interests (reads the New Yorker every week and listens to NPR -- by her choice). For what it's worth, really loves her messy/outdoorsy/low-key summer camp but wouldn't necessarily describe her as outdoorsy herself.</p>
<p>No idea where to start. Not looking for "fancy" or prestigious for the sake of those things. Have been given these suggestions (without any reason perhaps): Chatham Hall, Groton, Exeter. </p>
<p>Biggest concerns are school culture; this is not a "girly girl" - not a nerd or slob, but just not into make-up, boys, etc. etc. etc.</p>
<p>Have no idea where to start. Are the girls' schools better on the social scene front?</p>
<p>Just go on <a href=“http://www.boardingschoolreview.com”>www.boardingschoolreview.com</a> and start browsing. No one can make a list for you tailored to your needs. We can try, of course, but it’s best if you look at it and decide for yourself.</p>
<p>Do not underestimate how much more challenging needing FA will make it to be admitted. A good rule of thumb for FA applicants to divide the published admit rate by 2 and for fullpay applicants to multiply the admit rate by 2. This forum has many FA participants who have had to apply in 2 or even 3 admissions cycles before they found success.</p>
<p>Some tips
To maximize your chances for competing in the very crowded FA applicant pool, apply to schools where your child’s stats exceed that of the school’s average. This could be for academic or extracurricular qualities.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The schools with a higher academic standard will require the SSAT test. Don’t be an SSAT score snob. Keep in mind that the kids who take the test are already a self-selected group. The schools with the highest SSAT scores probably also have the highest proportion of kids who retook the test multiple times to maximize their score. </p></li>
<li><p>ESL is a red-flag that the school may admit too many int’l students for their ability to pay rather than to “play”. </p></li>
<li><p>To maximize your chances, target schools that offer an interest your child is passionate about. This interest-match will help to rationalize a good “fit” to the school. </p></li>
<li><p>Don’t be a prestige “ho”. Needing a lot of FA and applying only to the most selective schools with abysmal admit rates is a risky strategy.</p></li>
<li><p>The schools with the highest endowments are not necessarily the schools that are most generous w FA. You need to see what each school’s actual FA budget is. </p></li>
<li><p>A school with a 23% admit rate is not a “safety school” for school with a 13% admit rate.</p></li>
<li><p>Single-sex schools have more forgiving admit rates-- they are real gems! Emma Willard is a star for FA generosity.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>
As a FA applicant you really need to consider logistics. The cost of traveling to a school via flying gets expensive very fast. School breaks are during peak travel times around the holidays, and parents weekends are during peak hotel occupancy times = EXPENSIVE.</p>
<p>Use Boarding School Review. Narrow down the list (for example, if your child is very gifted in the arts, you don’t want a non-arts school) to maybe twenty schools (get your daughter involved). Make sure to keep some where your child will be well over SSAT averages, where she will offer geographic diversity, where her ECs and sports are offered, to maximize acceptance with aid. If you have a viable home option, you might want to use sharper criteria. For example, we had very viable home options (that stayed in the running even after acceptances), so we only applied to a handful of schools we really wanted because we knew that it wasn’t make or break. You can then look online and order lookbooks. That should narrow down the criteria even more. Arrange for visits. Arrange for interviews. Narrow it down, apply, and good luck!</p>
<p>Take a look at the Thacher School. It’s a co-ed 9-12 boarding school in Ojai, CA.</p>
<p>I’m going to sound like a total booster, but it seems to tick a number of the boxes you’ve cited: good FA budget!; rigorous academics; definitely low-key social scene by your definition (extremely authentic, warm community… non status-seeking vibe) definitely not a girly-girl place (not that there aren’t very feminine girls there, of course); definitely immerses kids in the “messy outdoors” for the outdoorsy and non-outdoorsy alike (all freshmen are responsible for caring for a horse and learning to ride their first year.) </p>
<p>FWIW, we live in the northeast and it was my son’s quest to find the right school culture (in addition to a few other things) that ended up landing him at this unique school 3,000 miles away from our home. The culture, in my opinion, is really what sets this school apart. </p>
<p>Your New Yorker comment made me laugh! My son, now a freshman at Thacher, used to race me to the mailbox for our copy (we eventually gave him a sub of his own for his birthday). Same with Time, The Atlantic and whatever else our public radio pledge drive shot our way. On the first day of our new carpool in Middle School… he politely asked this mom he’d never met if she’d mind switching the radio to NPR… so, yeah, your daughter will be in good company!!!</p>
<p>Thacher sounds like a really good fit. Of course, it’s all up to you and your family. Since you do have some pretty tight considerations (including financial aid needs), I’d start searching now. Compile a list and spend a day or two researching each school on College Confidential, Boarding School Review, and the school website. Making an Excel spreadsheet of the schools can help you rule out ones without a sport or extracurricular you need. Include safety schools you’d be willing to go to, as well as matches and reaches. Also begin to think about and compile your hook or story: now is the time to compile SAT scores, CTY or other gifted program certificates, contest wins, etc. and think about what you want to focus on. Find former essay questions and study for the SSAT. Once you have a good idea of what you want, you can narrow a list down. Perhaps a road trip this summer to multiple schools would be good. You can rule out more and then follow up with an interview/tour visit, Skype/alumni interviews, or just interview there. From there, work on applications. What I would do is write rough drafts in October or November, give it some time, and then review and revise. Turn everything in before the due date so you have enough time to make sure everything is turned into the school and there aren’t any last steps. </p>
<p>Another good, high-level school might be Andover. It’s more laidback than other schools (no dress code or strict study hours, for example) but still offers amazing academics. It seems very relaxed and warm. Lawrenceville has a similar feel. </p>
<p>Thanks, all, for the thoughtful and substantive responses. For some clarification (and I hesitated to put this in my original message because I didn’t want to give away too much personal information or accidentally identify myself on the internet), this is for my niece, not one of my own kids. She is first-generation college and lives in a rural state (one of those places folks always joke about moving to so their kids have a leg-up in the college admissions process). HHI is below $100k. </p>
<p>We live in a different part of the country (and both have graduate degrees - in the dark ages I left this state to go to a ‘prestigious’ college that I applied to thanks to a sophisticated teacher and my scholarship opened doors to a whole world I’d never otherwise have been a part of). She comes and stays with us periodically, and we’ve been sending her to and funding her summer camp (it’s the same camp my kids go to) for several years (the New Yorker subscription was a birthday present from us).</p>
<p>We always figured we’d help her through the college admissions process when the time came - her local public high school does not have a high college going-rate to say the least - but when we learned that one of her teachers had arranged for her to take the SAT as part of a program and she had done really well on it, we started wondering if there might be a better high school environment for her. She is one smart cookie (clearly I am biased) and we’re in her corner trying to figure out what the best next steps for her schooling may be. (My sister and brother-in-law are rather indifferent about the whole situation though I suspect that is because they think this whole idea is crazy and not affordable so they’ll just nod and act like they don’t have an opinion as a result).</p>
<p>I know firsthand how education can be a gift and life-altering opportunity so was trying to sort out how this might work. </p>
<p>My emphasis on social life/culture stems predominantly from my own experiences, I am sure - I arrived at college totally ignorant about how poor I really was and my adjustment to the college social scene was rough. </p>
<p>If we are willing/able to contribute some to her costs (say, travel to/from school), will a school factor that into her need-based aid? You see why I’ve been emphasizing scholarship. We’re able to help but not enough $$ to fund BS tuition (will need to put my own kids through college!).</p>
<p>A lot of people are throwing around the names of famous schools like andover, groton, lawrenceville, thacher. By all means, your niece should definitely consider these schools. But keep in mind that these schools are excruciatingly difficult to get into. They get literally THOUSANDS of applications. The competition for FA is very, very stiff.</p>
<p>Many applicants have a good local school to fall back on, so their mentality is “Go Big or Go Home”. These kids have no urgency to switch schools. It sounds as though there is urgency for your neice to change schools. </p>
<p>At this point, getting her in w FA should be the first priority, rather than agonizing over perfect “fit”. If she achieves admission at more than one school, then she can agonize over which school’s offer to pick. After 9th grade, the number of admission slots at many schools diminishes rapidly. So the time is ripe.</p>
<p>I also tried to get my bro-in-law to consider BS to get my nephews out of a similar situation as your niece, but to no avail. He wouldn’t entertain the idea. Sigh…</p>
<p>FYI there are a few schools that offer merit scholarships. D received VERY generous 4 year merit scholarship to Peddie School. Awesome science program, large endowment. Not an acronym school, but academically very rigorous and good college matriculation. Look at ave. incoming SSAT scores vs. SAT scores of graduating class. My D not ‘girly’ either. Liked Peddie a lot… Her second choice. Will be attending Cate in the fall bc/ or their outdoor/marine science offerings. If your niece is smart, look into schools which may offer merit scholarships as well. </p>
<p>You want the best opportunities for your niece, and she is lucky to have you in her corner. However, the family dynamics could get tricky here. I would hate for your niece to get deeply involved in the search for a school and then have her parents refuse to let her apply, or refuse to let her go if she gets in. Does your niece have a history of convincing her parents to let her do things? I think that it might be best to give your niece some suggestions (send her a link to boardingschoolreview.com with some schools highlighted) and let her order some lookbooks, show them to her parents, and get them on board.<br>
I suspect that location will matter to her parents. I started by looking at schools for my daughter where a friend or family member lived within a two- to three-hour drive. That might be a good way to start searching for schools for your niece, to increase her parents’ comfort with the idea.
It is hard to send your 14-year-old off to school even when you are completely convinced that it is the best thing for her, especially if you have no family history of boarding school.</p>
<p>When compiling a list of schools the best thing (and most important) is to be open. FA is tricky (and often heartbreaking) at best but GMT makes an excellent point: The best (or most ) FA isn’t always found at the big brand name schools. My friend (who is a longtime EC) always advises people seeking aid to apply to ten or more schools (if they’re serious about going). </p>
<p>If you look at my nephew’s list on the 2014 Decision Thread you will see that it was very strategic even though he was FP. Getting shut out wasn’t an option so he applied to a wide range of schools ( all schools he would be happy to attend). He was also applying to SS from a local private day school and there was the element of intense peer competition as well. The same can be said for applicants applying from JBS (FP or FA) for repeat 9th grade and 10th grade spots. So- even if you’re not applying from these types of schools, I feel (more than ever) that this mentality ( the more the merrier) will behoove you. And again, the best thing you can do is to be open!</p>
<p>Do your research and branch out. There are a lot of schools that offer tremendous value. The Hidden Gem Thread has blurbs and links for many schools not mentioned a lot here but definitely worth looking into! All the best and good luck!!</p>
<p>I’m not convinced by this. Andover has only ~35% of all admits receiving any form of FA. I am sure there were more than 35% of >3,000 applicants applied for FA. So don’t count on it.</p>
<p>Andover is need-blind. But that doesn’t mean that everyone who applies to and is accepted to Andover gets financial aid, even if they applied. Andover also has some scholarship programs- more so than the other schools- and I’m not sure whether they’re figuring that in.</p>