"boarding school admission"
In Defense of Childhood
I recently received a call from a mother, a doctor, who wanted me to give her names of elementary schools in the area. After offering a list of public and private schools without suggesting which was best, I was then asked what I thought the best way to prepare her child for our school. I’ve [...]
Read MoreFive Cool Things to Know About Westover School
Today I’m taking folks at Westover School, a girls boarding school in Middlebury, CT, through my social media workshop. As with each workshop, my desire is to be both theoretical and practical. One goal the workshop is to collaborate with the school to produce a finished blog post (missing accomplished!). As homework, my Westover friends [...]
Read MoreInterim Grades & Your Boarding School Application
Your boarding school application file is complete. Everything is in- application, application fee, recommendations, and transcripts and, after the admission office has given your application the once through, you get the call or note asking for interim grades. In bluntest terms, the admission office/committee wants more information behind their decision and it means they have questions [...]
Read MoreColleges Begin Offering Online Interviews
The Washington Post ran a piece highlighting the rise of online interviews in the admission process. The online interview isn’t well-established and still faces some technology hurtles. Not all families have the technology readily available and admission office staffs need some convincing and prodding to learn new ways of communicating with applicants. The web interview [...]
Read MoreBoarding School Admission Test Scores and Their Place in the Selection Process
Editor’s Note: We’re thrilled to welcome Leo Marshall as a contributor to onBoarding Schools. Leo is the Director of Admission and Financial Aid at The Webb Schools in Claremont, CA- a coed, boarding school offering grades 9-12. It seems inevitable at the end of any presentation about our school that we face questions about test [...]
Read MoreOur Boarding School Tour Takes Us to California
Both our educational consultant and the head of our daughter’s school encouraged us to visit a certain school in California. Initially it seemed crazy to us to consider a school so far away when we live surrounded by the country’s great preparatory schools. However there were some cultural sites we wished to visit, and a [...]
Read MoreHolidays Are A Good Time to Work On Private School Applications
With the break from school and the slower routine, the end of year holidays provide a great time to make sure your ducks are in a row with respect to the private school application process. This is an overview of where you might expect to be if you’re on an ideal application calendar. If you’re [...]
Read MoreTouring a School We Know Well
Editor’s Note: “A Parent’s Boarding School Admission Journal” appears every Thursday throughout the admission season. Check-in each week to read the Boarding School Mom’s latest entry. A raw, rainy afternoon found us at our son’s school for our daughter’s interview. In some respects this was the most relaxing of the school visits as we are [...]
Read MoreThe Boarding School Mom’s Daughter Provides Admission Tips
Editor’s Note: We’re excited to feature a post by the Boarding School Mom’s daughter. She offers her on the ground take on the boarding school admission process. Going through the admissions process is stressful, not only for the parent, but also for the child. Many parents add extra pressure and stress, but also you hear [...]
Read MoreThoughts on the Opening of the Boarding School Financial Aid Season
The boarding school financial process officially kicked off this past Saturday (11/15) with the opening of the 2009-2010 PFS or Personal Financial Statement completion window. The PFS- the information or form gathered and processed by School and Student Service for Financial Aid (SSS)- is used to report family financial information to member schools. The processing [...]
Read MoreCall For Southern Boarding School Thoughts & Ideas
Northeastern boarding schools tend to capture a good bit of the spotlight. They’re more well known, make more frequent sustained appearances in popular culture (movies, stories, and books) and benefit from their physical concentration in New England. The conflation of wealthy cities and deeper educational roots makes Eastern boarding schools more of an assumed educational [...]
Read MoreThe School Search Continued
Editor’s Note: “A Parent’s Boarding School Admission Journal” appears every Thursday throughout the admission season. Check-in each week to read the Boarding School Mom’s latest entry. Our second school visit with our daughter was to a single-sex school relatively close to home that has the sports about which our daughter is passionate. My optimism quickly [...]
Read MoreAn Insiders View of Dublin School
As the past admission director at Dublin School, a co-ed small boarding school in Dublin, NH, I’m now forced to look differently at the school- with consultant’s eye. I now have to think about Dublin using a consultant’s critique: “Does the school do what it says it does; what kind of students will do well here; and [...]
Read MoreStarting the Boarding School Search with Our Daughter
Editor’s Note: “A Parent’s Boarding School Admission Journal” appears every Thursday throughout the admission season. Check-in each week to read the Boarding School Mom’s latest entry. Having undergone the prep school admissions process twice with our son, we thought we knew what we were doing, but our highly focused eighth grade daughter has disabused us [...]
Read MoreOctober ’08: Time to Check the Boarding School Admission Calendar
We thought it might be a good time to take a quick look at- ideally- where you’d like to be if you’re applying to a boarding school for Fall 2009. Keep in mind that this is an ideal calendar. If you start later, the process is the same; you just go through the steps in [...]
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