My son was waitlisted everywhere (only applied to HADES) and we are looking into schools that are willing to take a late application for this fall. DS a top student at his local, competitive private with high ISEE scores and strong teacher recommendations. He’s a nice kid, not super sporty but loves sports and loves school spirit. Full pay.
Do you see these as a fit for a student like mine? Any other suggestions on where to apply late? A lot of schools are willing to take our $ for a spot on the WL but we’ve got enough WLs going. We need schools with room who actually want a student of his academic caliber.
I don’t know much about Williston (lol, actually I know nothing) but I’m familiar with Tabor. Beyond the obvious that any kid interested in marine anything should go there it is a very sporty school. School spirit is high at both boys and girls games. Their varsity teams are sending athletes to D1 schools.
The flip side of this is that their bottom academic kids are scoring in the 30% on the ssat. Will that really matter in the classroom? Meh. Probably not. There is a different level of academic intensity between Tabor and the HADES schools (as reported to me by transfers) but you might see from my other posts that I think the academic intensity of the HADES schools has gotten out of control.
Thank you. They both seem lovely and I’m sure he would enjoy them but I don’t know if the academic challenge is there. The whole point of BS for him is to be with kids who will challenge him.
It is not easy at all. In fact BS shy away from it in general and kids need a compelling reason to transfer. Compelling is something like not being able to play their sport at one school, due to talent pool, but being an impact player at another.
Did you/he connect with any of the AOs at the waitlisted schools? Sometimes such an AO can suggest another school that might be a good fit.
I don’t know the school he’s attending now, nor the reasons for BS so I don’t really have an opinion on whether or not Tabor would be more challenging. My guess is that compared to a very challenging day school it’s not going to be a big step up.
Makes sense. My son’s sport isn’t even offered at either of these schools so maybe that’s a compelling reason. I’m torn between putting him in the local private he was accepted to for a year or a possible BS that may or may not challenge him. He’s such a good kid he deserves a great environment.
Yes we are working with the AOs at the WL schools… some are really trying to work it out and others have been cold. Our current school is working very hard on my son’s behalf as well. Just a terrible year for applications and our list was too narrow.
While this is not the spread at our school by any means, it was a concern I had.
A few years in, I have learned that is not an issue, at least at our school. The same STEM class is always offered in at least two (sometimes 3) levels (Honor, Adv, Core) and there are AP classes covering all the Humanities. The kids in the Honors classes end up with a similar schedule, and end up together in other classes too.
At the end of the day the school can be address both the academic needs of both very strong students and not so strong ones while possibly benefiting from a richer/more diverse community.
Looking into the specific options and tracks within each department might ease some of your concerns.
I thought Millbrook was on the list of schools with openings. I believe it is more academic than Williston. One of my sons with HADES level stats (but with ADHD) went there and thrived. Would strongly, strongly recommend.
I have a son who is a junior at Williston. It has been a great experience. Your son sounds like a great fit to me.
Williston has a rigorous academic program, and they have sports at a lot of different levels. The students are friendly. My son wanted a collaborative feeling in his boarding school community.
They do a terrific job helping each student find their individual way.
Please feel free to PM me. I’d be happy to talk about Williston.
I know this is a completely different path, but St. Andrew’s in Florida has an excellent tennis program and their newish head of school came from Exeter. No one ever talks about the school on this forum, but the academics and sports are excellent and they have a decent sized boarding program. Our DD was also waitlisted everywhere, and is strongly considering attending SAS. In my opinion the students are on par with those at boarding schools in the NE and have a great college placement program. Their boarding admissions officer is Charles Nolan; he worked for years in upper level admissions at schools like Boston College and brings a great New England experience to their department.
Going to be very transparent here. I applied to Tabor and was accepted. I got the vibes that the school was sporty, but looking to build their academic profile. They want more academic scholars.
I personally chose another school because it was too sporty and not academic enough.
My parents also didn’t want me to go because my current school is ranked higher.
I don’t think you can go wrong if your kid truly wants the BS experience. Both schools have relatively large boarding populations. 69% at Tabor, 75% at Williston.
I don’t know much about Williston, but I do know they have day students from 7th and 8th grade, so a few kids likely would already know each other.
While I agree that St Andrew’s (in Florida) has good academics, boarding students only represent 15% of the student population. So while it does have boarders, I wouldn’t actually consider it a boarding school.