<p>Hi I'm relatively new to CC and just stumbled across this form and decided to investigate it out of curiosity. I was wondering if someone would be kind enough to explain to me what prep schools are, how to get into them, and the main focus of this forum in general.</p>
<p>This board focuses primarily on boarding schools: which ones to apply to, how to get into them, how well the kids are doing in them. </p>
<p>While there are different types of boarding schools, most discussion on this site is about the prep school variety. “Prep school” is short for college preparatory school-- private high schools, either day schools or boarding schools, with a strong academic focus. </p>
<p>Boarding School admissions decisions were announced on 10-March. Applying is a very grueling and competitive process, and many of the posters on this site are sharing notes on what schools they were accepted/waitlisted/declined and what worked and didn’t work for them in the application process.</p>
<p>Here is a resource for learning about BS’s and why someone would want to attend one:
[url=<a href=“http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/]Boarding”>http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/]Boarding</a> School Review - College-Prep & Jr. Boarding Schools<a href=“look%20in%20the%20right-hand%20column%20under%20the%20heading” title=“New to Boarding Schools?”>/url</a></p>
<p>The concept of “prep school” would be college preparatory. And while the focus is on boarding schools, that’s just a function of this being the Internet. Private day schools are fair game, too, and they come up in conversation here. Sometimes even public magnet schools are discussed…but rarely and usually in conjunction with other options. Basically conversation about any schooling that leads one to the college search is what inspired “College Confidential” to include these forums here.</p>
<p>The reason that there’s a focus on boarding schools is because those schools can attract applicants and students from around the world. That makes the Internet a great place to exchange information about the schools and about boarding school in general. Private and public day school options, on the other hand, are very regional. This is an inefficient marketplace of information about them since, frankly, most people are not knowledgeable about any given specific region that a day school draws from. And people interested in those schools often have a wealth of alternative resources that they can – and presumably do – tap into.</p>
<p>There are frequent discussions that touch on the choice between boarding school and day school – but, because most people participating here are involved in boarding school in some way the debates usually have a heavy pro-boarding school tilt. I think that’s okay because off-line, when those conversations come up, it’s just the opposite.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in topics related to preparing for college – even home-schooling – this would be a good place. But you may have to wait a little longer for responses to questions or topics that are zeroed in on specific private schools.</p>