Wilderness Therapy?

We are considering sending our daughter to a “wilderness therapy” program in the middle of her junior year of high school and wonder how that decision will ultimately impact her college choices down the road.

Background: she is very bright but her grades do not reflect her intellect, in part because she lacks intrinsic motivation (we suspect depression or another similar condition). She started HS at a prestigious boarding school before voluntarily withdrawing mid-way through freshman year before returning to the local public school which was decidedly less appealing to her than her boarding school. She has a lot of gifts and skills and our thinking is that she should “conquer her daemons” now and repeat junior year, likely at boarding school next year.

I would welcome thoughts from other parents who have already been through this or college admissions professionals who have dealt with candidates like her. Assuming she turns things around and lives up to her academic potential before she applies to college, will she be able to explain this without it being viewed too negatively.

I think your focus should be on figuring out your daughters issues and addressing them. College will always be there.

My D took two years off before college and while it was painful at the time, she needed to get herself and her health together. She is now thriving at college and I have no doubt she would have crashed and burned if she’d gone straight off.

She also left a demanding boarding school in sophomore year.