Hi, I have recently received my decisions for the schools I have applied to for 9th grade and the results were not what I was hoping for, although I was lucky to be accepted to a few schools, they were not as academically challenging as I hoped to be, few weeks after my decisions were out, I had an idea of transferring from the school I was accepted to another more rigorous school such as Loomis Chaffee or Choate Rosemary Hall. Academics were not the only reason I wanted to transfer from the school, I had several other factors as well such as sports, college, courses offered, etc. Although this does not mean I will 100% transfer from the school as I may end up enjoying the time there, I will prepare over the summer to have a higher chance of gaining admission to the school I am applying to. I am also planning to repeat 9th grade but I am still not sure.
My questions are: What are the pros and cons of repeating 9th grade? Do I have a higher chance of gaining admission if I applied from 9th grade? Will repeating 9th grade affect my college application? How are applicants from another respected boarding school trying to transfer seen from admission officers? What are some things I can do over the summer and during my first semester at the boarding school to improve my chances of gaining admission? I have few friends at the boarding school I wish to be in, will their recommending me to the AO improve my chances?
Background info of me:
I go to a less academic private school but only moved there a few years ago.
My ethnicity is fully Japanese and my family lives in both Tokyo and Hong Kong.
My grades are mostly 5/7 and 6/7 (IB) as Covid and moving to a different country heavily affected me.
I play soccer and golf
I do not have any extracurricular as Hong Kong has been on lockdown for a few years and my school offers mostly no extracurricular activity.
I have an educational consultant.
This year I was rejected from Loomis Chaffee, Lawrenceville, and Taft.
I am not a FA student and my family does not mind paying an extra year of tuition.
I am first-gen.
oh and i forgot to mention, I might be returning for lawrenceville summer camp for creative writing or loomis chaffee writing summer program. Also I can speak Japanese fluently and Chinese at conversational level. My plan was to kind of show how I will be much more engaging at boarding school instead of at Hong Kong where being with other people were limited.
Yes, students can - and do - transfer from one BS to another. It is done for a number of reasons. It may be because a student is asked to leave their school for disciplinary reasons of academic failure. It may be done because a student is unhappy at their school – usually because the fit was wrong. There are a number of people who have posted in this forum who have transferred and have been much happier as a result.
With that said, it is a terrible idea to start at a BS or college with the idea that you will transfer. It is very hard to make the commitment to the community – make friends, develop relationships with faculty, get involved outside the classroom-- if you don’t see yourself there for very long. You need to give the school you are attending a real chance. Move in with plans to have an amazing 4 years.
If you still want to transfer, the first hurdle you need to overcome in the process is being cast as a kid who will never be happy. No school is excited about admitting a kid who is going to be miserable – why are you going to be happy herr when you couldn’t be happy elsewhere? So you will want to frame your interest about what you want from the new school that you can’t get at your current school, not what’s wrong with your current school.
Reclassing when moving from one BS to another is not so common. (JBS to BS, more common, but that’s not your situation. ) In general, kids who do 5 years at BS add a PG year. Without knowing the details, this part of your plan seems off. If you expect to transfer as a strong student, you will probably want to transfer in as a 10th grader. When you interview next year, you can mention that you are open to reclassing to get in and ask if that would help, but really, it runs contrary to a narrative about being an excellent student and wanting more challenge.
Friends at those schools won’t help you. The recommendations you will need are from teachers at your current BS. Having excellent grades will help as will being an involved, positive member of the community. So again, you need to start strong at your current school. Your essays will need to show growth from where you were last year. If the only difference from your last application is the persistence of interest, it’s unlikely to be enough.
OP, you don’t say where you are headed. It’s easy at this point to be sucked into the prestige game and mourning being away from friends. Whether you ultimately decide to transfer or stay, you need to start next year exactly the same way – positive. Good luck!
I think I might have been misunderstood, of course, I am very excited to start at the new school and am willing to take advantage of every single opportunity available and I also stated it’s not 100% I will transfer as I may like the boarding school. I wanted to make clear I was interested in Loomis Chaffee school as it has a writing department and I am interested in writing, I am not attracted by the prestige of the school at all. But if the school was way too relaxed or not the fit for me, I am thinking of transferring as an option. I planned to enter the new school I am going to this year as a 9th grader and apply to the boarding school I am transferring as a 9th grader to get full 4-year experience and meet new friends. Thanks for the advice!
You never know… you could fall in love with your current BS and not want to leave. You can also stand out easier, ace classes, be 4 years cum laude, be loved by teachers, get all the extra blah blah blah and kill it in college admissions. I would NOT dismiss it out of hand just yet. You got in. They want you. Why not go with an open mind/heart and see how it goes? I would not go to a new school in a new country with the mindset of leaving. If you decide to transfer after 9th, they might get insulted and not give you great recs (which is probably incredibly important when transferring to another BS) which would kill your transfer opportunity. Then you’re stuck at a school that thinks you don’t want to be there, and POOF! you are persona non grata (IMHO… I might be wrong… but I might be right!). Either go and embrace it or stay where you are. My 2¢. Good luck!!
I don’t want to burst your bubble or anything, I have a thing or two to say about the academics and classroom instruction when I went for revisit days at Loomis (you are welcome to take this for a grain of salt).
The academics seemed pretty lax at Loomis. I was ghosting a freshman and a sophomore during my visit and they both made sure to come to their Algebra 2 and Humanities classes a bit late as “the teacher is pretty chill”.
Then during classroom instruction kids struggled to read fluently and even break down and analyze the text except for 2 to 3 people. I didn’t see anything revolutionary or comparatively different academic wise to any “lower tier” school.
Love the school that loves you.
May I ask what school you will be going to, and why do you feel like their course offerings are not enough, and what other factors except for the ones you listed make you feel the way you feel?
Oh, I didn’t know that about Loomis, it was the school that excited me the most because of the strong soccer team and golf team, beautiful campus, friends there, and overall the entire feeling there. Maybe the laid-backness of the school also attracted me, I’m not sure how the laid-backness affects the work-load or preparation so that’s a part I’m a little bit gray about.
I am going to a school a little bit above Loomis (you can probably guess, I’m not comfortable saying it lol). I feel like the course offering for me looked more attractive at other schools as they offer more courses and perhaps more unique and intriguing, the school I’m going to does offer enough but looks normal(?), of course, it’s probably more than enough but that’s just how I feel. Another factor was the sport, I play golf and soccer, and although the facility for the soccer team was amazing, their team is not that strong, this year their record was 4-13-1, not only soccer but other sports as well including golf are not very strong. I am not sure how this will affect me as a player though. College was also a concern as their matriculation list does not look strong, again not sure how this will affect me as a college applicant. Some other small factors were the size and town (There are more factors but these were the 2 that popped up in my head, not a big factor though), the school has 400 students which I feel like it is too small for me, I was looking for a larger school but this is not a large factor.
Because I am so naive at these stuff, I am going to ask my consultant about it though.
I feel like you should focus less on the courses “looking interesting” as your classmates and your teachers are going to be what is largely going to determine how your classes are going to feel. The school you’re going to also has a large course offerings when it comes to Math, English, etc.
On college matriculation, this is an extremely deceiving statistic at most schools because you don’t know whether the student has legacy, is a recruited athlete, etc. The college counseling program at the school you will be going to will get you into the college that will fit you, and also has a decent amount kids going to top schools.
I feel like you’re going into this with the wrong mindset. If you tell yourself that you’re going to do well academically, you’re going to do well socially and make some of your best friends for life, and you’re going to crush it all around, your fears about course offerings, matriculation, small school, town will all go away.
