Total newb at this

<p>ok,
I'm a eighth grader, and i have no idea how to get in to a boarding school. I understand that is to late to try out for one this year, but other than that, i'm completely lost.</p>

<p>I really didnt care about my academics til now so i don't have many extracurricular activity cept for the things my parents forced me to do.</p>

<p>For high school i'm trying out for a local vocational, but I don't know if i made it yet.</p>

<p>my "stats" are:</p>

<p>straight "A"s except for a b+ in math this marking period</p>

<p>my parents signed me up for 100 hours of community service for the summer.</p>

<p>i play tennis for like 5 years and I am pretty good but I don't know if il make it on to the tennis team next year because our school is amazing</p>

<p>and I do some CTY stuff, such as talent search, and i went to this lecture, and I do CTY online.</p>

<p>and that's about it.
and what are good boarding schools.
and beginner threads about this kinda stuff.</p>

<p>EDIT: sorry to the guy who posted below, i wasn't aware this was a "formal" kind of thing, but i'l try to clean it up.</p>

<p>Let's hope your english, grammar, and spelling are not like that on the essay (it does not show that you care when you do not use a spell check). </p>

<p>I do not even know what you are talking about half the time... If "states" is "stats" you you need to show us more. You need to show a passion, five years of tennis may be nice show that you love it. The B+ will not hurt you all too much but let's hope you are in advanced classes (btw it is worse to be in advanced classes and write like a 3rd grader, shows badly on everything you have learnt from the school in question).</p>

<p>Anyway please edit your thread, I know I am being a little rude but you sound like an idiot. If you want my, or many others', opinion on this matter please show that you care. </p>

<p>Good luck for next year...</p>

<p>I think that's a really rough answer. You don't know that he can't get in anywhere just because kids on this forum tend to post more extensive EC's. Also, there are a lot of boarding schools, not just a few that get all the ink here on CC.</p>

<p>I recommend that the original poster visit Boarding School Review and poke around there to find out about schools. Visit there websites, talk to your parents about money and distance and get your ducks lined up for next year. </p>

<p>There's no reason to fell discouraged this early in the game.</p>

<p>Sorry for the rough answer but the fact remains that he can at least spell properly. All I am saying.</p>

<p>You stated that you didn't really care about your academics until now, if your grades weren't A's or B's these past few years you're kind of in a tough situation. They DO look at your previous grades to see if your academics were stable. (Sorry if this sounds harsh, it wasn't my intent) </p>

<p>It really depends on which types of schools you are interested in. If you are looking for large workloads, large community, Exeter and Andover are great schools. If you like tighter community, smaller schools, I recommend Groton. But overall it depends on which school fits you best.</p>

<p>The application is a long process, including many of factors. You are required to take the SSAT's, a test that determines your intellectual ablity on an equal scale. Also there are interviews, recs., essays ..... Good luck next year! I hope I helped you out a little bit by giving you the basic gist of it all.</p>

<p>Can someone suggest somethings that I can do to help increase my chances of making it, such as a "DECA", which i have know clue about, i just saw it on another thread, or some type of activity that isn't sports, like math club, or something...</p>

<p>Viola is being way overcritical. This site is meant to be a place for people to get advice from people who are in the same position as them on the application process. When did posting on here become another homework assignment which you have to double check for errors. Drasagon's post is perfectly readable, that's all that should matter on a public chat forum.</p>

<p>Now, to your application itself, Drasagon. My question to you would be, why would you want to go to boarding school if, as it would appear, your not interesting in ECs and working hard unless your parents force you to. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with living your life the way you want, but I'm not sure you will be able to do that in the way that you're used to at boarding school. So, I ask for your reasons for going to boarding school and what do YOU think the school would say when reviewing your app.</p>

<p>I know this sounds like a essay question... it is, but without something like that, I can't really judge how much you care about going to boarding school, which IMO is the most important factor in the entire application process.</p>

<p>When writing under an anonymous name on a website, many people do not pay as much attention to their grammar and spelling as they might regularly... don't be too harsh :].</p>

<p>Anyway...</p>

<p>Nevermind. Istoleyournose just grabbed my ideas and posted them before I had the chance, lol. I second his post!</p>

<p>Okay,
The reason I want to apply to a boarding school, is because, in the future, I would like to go to a good college (doesn't everyone), and I'm guess going to a prestigious boarding school would help me do exactly that.
For extracurriculars, tennis is basically it. I do a whole lot more though I'm not proficient in them, they aren't very important, or I'm just doing them for fun. There are some "EC"s that i would like to get into, such as debating?, but I'm not really sure if thatwill help, or not.</p>

<p>so... ya thats it...</p>

<p>oh and I'm pretty motivated grade wise, when I say my parents forced me too, it was mostly for the things that i felt wasn't important. When I joined this forum, I immediatly recognized that they were very important, so that's that.</p>

<p>Alright, I can live with that as an answer, although it's not a very good one. This is the next 4 years of your life, a tiny little advantage in applying to schools cannot justify leaving your parents, friends, and everything you've known for the past 14-17 years. I know I'm taking everything you say maybe a little to seriously, but it's such an important decision, it should be based on a lot more than that. I would give some hard thought on whether you think you really would enjoy boarding school.
Second, you have a year to research the right school for you... you should do that. If you want us (or me) to recommend some good boarding schools based on a description of what you like, we'd be happy to I'm sure (we are just about the biggest experts, save college placement workers).
Third, based on what you've said I would say you have a good chance at most all schools mentioned on here if you put the effort into the application process. Good luck, and feel free to ask questions =)</p>

<p>Thanks for your answers guys.</p>

<p>The first thing you need to do is post a list of the top twenty schools...</p>

<p>We'll take it from there.</p>