Is there a typical candidate that prep schools look for? I see many intelligent successful inspiring kids with great attitude out there. What determines success here ? There is only a very few blind FA need schools. Any input?
Strong academics, SSAT/ISEE, good EC, Service, attitude & thorough writing skills. What more?
Does a strong feeling of ‘Yes! The interview went great’ assure anything?
I think it depends on the school, but some generalizations can be made.
Larger schools can afford to enroll high-achieving “specialists” – kids who are outstanding (nationally-ranked, even) at a particular sport, art, academic subject, etc. Small schools can’t. Smaller schools need well-rounded kids who can wear multiple hats: Edit the newspaper AND play the saxophone in the band AND lead the debate team AND make the costumes for the play.
All boarding schools are looking for a certain degree of independence and the ability to get along with others.
Rich legacy?
OP: As asked, your question is too broad.
You asked about “prep schools”; did you mean “boarding schools” ?
Not always. I know two of those who got rejected this past admissions cycle.
BS look for kids whom they believe will be successful in their lives. They need doctors, theatrical folks, people in education, CEO’s, doctors, inventors and philanthropists (especially!). They are in the business of predicting success way down the line. Usually some characteristic are apparent. Self-motivation, good grades and personality, good tests scores, an involvement in the community, a sport or the arts. Most have an interest in life. Some are extroverted and some are not. But the AO is looking for the best class they can put together. It isn’t one thing, it’s is many. Kids wear many hats, at every school. Rarely are kids unidimensional at any school. Large schools and small schools are looking for great kids. And many kids attend BS just so they can have access to lots of great resources: Whether they be in the arts, music or sports.
Elite boarding schools try to build a class around various talents so needs may vary somewhat year to year.
Yes I meant boarding schools that have very few day option
Information from speaking with AO’s:
I’ll add to @Golfgr8 ’s list:
Resilience
Intellectual curiosity
Kindness
And I will addto the above , do we already have someone “just like you” who can fill that bucket. If so, who would be the best fit for our school? That person will get the acceptance.
Our experience has been often that they are looking for unique individuals that complete their community instead of “Typical Kid”.
Character truly does count. How will you contribute in the classroom? Will you be open and supportive of classmates? How are you in your current community? Have you shown leadership but also compassion? Will you challenge yourself and grow at BS? Perfect test scores and all or mostly all As is kind of a given at most BSs. NMH told us,now many moons ago, that when handing out FA they make filling special buckets which vary slightly every year a priority like hockey goalie or violin player, but they also look for what the then FA Director called “sticky kids.” These are applicants without a major hook who just stand out for their own individual strengths. Ultimately teachers want to have students in their classes that love to learn and actively engage in that process.
These are all very valid. Thank you for the time. Are these personality traits & qualities perceived from the essays, recommendations & Interviews? Does the interview play a greater role then as it is 1-1. Not sure what the recommendation letters ask for → Like will their be specific questions that let the teachers talk about some of these or just generic recommendation. The links are sent to recommenders directly. so we have no idea on that.
Is this a precursor to college application? Is that how that works as well? FA is a whole another story.
Thanks all
For recommendations we were able to see the form last year. Most have a series of qualities and ask the recommender to rate the student as “one of the best I’ve ever taught” “top student” and on down. Then there are specific questions and an area to add whatever the recommender thinks is relevant.
RESILIENCE. They are looking for resilience. Kids with anxiety/depression/having to take a medical leave are what they are trying to avoid.
Hello,
The boarding school that my son attended provided parents access to a school directory. When he started in 9th grade, I was curious about his other classmates and had a look through. This is what I remember.
From this, I was able to see several patterns:
The 5 categories above probably made up about half of the class. The rest was filled with bright kids who didn’t have a hook. Boarders were about 70% and the rest were day students. About an even mix between males and females.
In terms of geography, about a third of the class were kids from local area (NJ/PA). The rest was filled with kids in the north atlantic region (CT/NY/MA). There were a sizable number of international kids (probably about 50). But the majority were US residents.
@sgopal2 You could tell all that from the online directory? I peeked once before my kid started 9th grade, but they just had kid’s photo, address ( some listed some not) and grade. No way to tell if they were legacy or any of the other categories. Maybe URM, though I’d be careful there ( and honestly who can tell).
My kid tells me about the uber-famous/ wealthy ones and many would fly under the radar as parents own a famous company you never heard of.
In our student directory parents are listed with their year of graduation so you can tell which kids are legacy.
I don’t know how you’d tell who’s rich unless you happen to have just read an article about so and so’s grandfather donating umpteen millions to a school near you and then thinking “holy smokes, that’s the granddaughter of that billionaire I just read about.”
Its pretty easy to figure out who the uber wealthy are. My son’s dorm had a weekly feed, where the parents took turns providing food. We also had a cocktail hour twice a year. So I got to meet at lot of the parents in his class.
Legacy kids were easy to spot. During parents weekend, the parent name tags had a class year on it. The school also posted a statistic in their magazine with the legacy admit rate. So it wasn’t hard to figure all this out.