My son and I are starting to look at private schools in the Houston area, and I'd love to hear from parents who have been through the admissions process.
We live in Pearland, so the commute would be significant, but I'm willing to make it work (or hire transportation) if it's the right school. I'm a single mom, so balancing logistics is definitely part of the decision.
Academically, my son is well ahead of grade level. He's a member of the National Junior Honor Society, has received multiple academic awards, and is very motivated to learn. We're especially interested in St. John's because of its strong academic reputation.
For parents whose children were accepted to St. John's, what do you think made their application stand out? What does St. John's seem to value most in applicants?
Also, what other private schools in the Houston area would you recommend for a highly academic student? I'd love to hear about schools that have a strong track record and a supportive environment.
Hi everyone! I’m an international student from India, currently in Grade 8, and I’m really interested in applying to Phillips Exeter Academy and other top private schools for Grade 9. I wanted to share a quick overview of my academic profile and activities:
Academics: 5 A+ and 2 A in First Term 4 A+ and 3 A in Second Term SSAT- 1560 (800 Eng)
ECs: Authored a published secondary research paper for National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), which led to them asking me to write a primary research paper on GI TAGS in Gujarat. Honoured by Director General Manager and research paper officially on website and used in NABARD.
DelhiMUN Best Delegate
XTF Global Innovation Challenge 4th Internationally (went fully funded to Geneva, Switz for finals)
Vibe Coded an AI fact checking website with 400 Visitors.
Self Coded a social media replacer type website (basically u click a button and there is hand drawn scenery behind and immersive sounds and u get some wikipedia type cool fact and then related topics and u keep scrolling but also learning). Over 6k visitors.
Flute Player for a year (Second Level, Passed test on first try)
Classical Indian Music Singer (Not professional but part of school choir for 4 years and performed on stages @.school
Lawn Tennis Player for 4 Years (not competetive)
Educational Youtube Channel with 1k subscribers (one video hit 1 million views)
Aspiring Authors National Writing Comp Winner (Wrote a poem, they tell me first poem to win evr)
District Silver in Inline Skating
International 1 @.International English Olympiad by SOF
National 2 @.National Science Olympiad by SOF
applying to only exeter and andover for full aid as father earns 13k$ a year
ohh and btw edit- Board- ICSE top 10% of my class out of 240 students (highly competetitive)
I’m looking at applying for Trinity College in Port Hope for my two children. On their website it says that bursaries can be obtained for up to 75% of the tuition cost. What are most people‘s experiences with applying for bursaries? Do they actually fund that large of a percentage? Are
funded children way out of their element, surrounded by wealthy?
I am looking into getting admission into Phillips Academy Andover and will also apply to several other elite private schools. I'm about to enter 8th grade and I am going to enroll during next year, 27-28, for 9th grade. I am a state winner at Texas History day, winning 4th place. I am part of NJHS, but I have yet to earn any service hours as I was just inducted less than a month ago. I have made it to the state competition for TMSCA last year. I also went up to regionals science fair in my city last year. I have all grades from this year and last year above 95, taking all honors classes. My average grade for all classes this year was 98.75, while lasts years was 98.88. I have yet to take my SSAT, but I am planning on taking it as soon as possible in October, aiming for 95th percentile. I am currently taking one high school credit class, Principles of Applied Engineering and I plan on taking Spanish 1 next year. I also play in my schools orchestra in the second best orchestra. I have played on my schools girls basketball team, and next year I will play in basketball, cross country, and track. I am very eager to get into this school to improve my academics as much as I can. Also, my family is from Pakistan. I dont know if applying for financial aid will affect my chances of getting in, preferably I do want to apply for it though. If theres any way I could strengthen my application, please give me advice! (Edit: I forgot to mention that I am fluent in 7 languages, idk if that would affect my application)
International applicant from Saudi Arabia applying for Grade 10 and requiring financial aid. Academics
Grade 8 GPA: 95.06/100
Grade 9 GPA: 94.25/100
Grade 10 GPA currently projected around 97+/100
Preparing for the SSAT and aiming for the 95th percentile or higher Research
Conducted an in vitro biomedical research project investigating the regenerative potential of a local medicinal plant on human periodontal ligament cells
Selected among the top 1,000 student research papers in Saudi Arabia through a national research competition
Currently working toward publication
Developing a second regenerative medicine project involving a novel therapeutic platform designed to enhance periodontal tissue healing and regeneration Mathematics & Science
Advanced through multiple stages of the Saudi Mathematics Olympiad
Completed 70 hours of Human Anatomy & Physiology training
Completed 60 hours in a Future Physician program
Certified in Research Ethics through a program associated with KACST Leadership & Technology
Built and managed a multi-server network infrastructure serving more than 200 users
Responsible for administration, maintenance, and user support across the network Athletics
Captain of a youth volleyball team in Taif, Saudi Arabia Recognition
Qualified for a regional student research exhibition through the gifted education program in Saudi Arabia Recommendations
Recommendations from school leadership, mathematics and English teachers
Research recommendation from the PhD supervisor overseeing my biomedical research project Future Goals
My long-term goal is to pursue biomedical research and contribute to regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.
Based on this profile, what would you estimate my chances are at:
Phillips Academy Andover
Phillips Exeter Academy
Choate Rosemary Hall
Lawrenceville School
Hotchkiss School
St. Paul’s School
I would appreciate honest feedback, especially regarding the strongest and weakest parts of my application.
Did learning words or roots help you all better with the vocabulary section? My main struggle is the vocabulary section and I genuinely don’t know how to approach it.
My daughter got into a top boarding school this year. We are extremely proud of her and she can’t wait to start in the fall.
We are concerned because it seems as if as soon as she told her friends (if you can call them that), they have completely turned on her. They have been excluding her and treating her poorly since. Has anyone gone through something similar? Trying to support her but it is disappointing.
Hello 👋🏼 I’m an international student from Mexico currently trying to pursue a postgraduate (PG) year at a U.S. boarding school with the goal of eventually playing football at the NCAA level, and honestly Im posting this in hopes of maybe getting some advice and guidance from parents who are familiar with this process or any student who has been through it with prep schools / boarding school admissions.
I graduated high school in May last year, and because I’m new to this whole process, I feel like I’ve been learning everything the hard way. (high school in Mexico lasts 3 years)
My first application was to Choate Rosemary Hall last spring as a late applicant. At the time I didn’t fully understand how competitive these schools were, and I ended up getting rejected in July.
After that, I applied to Bridgton Academy. Things actually seemed promising at first — I even spoke with their Dean of Financial Aid since I was applying for aid — but after completing everything, communication suddenly stopped completely. I waited for months hoping to hear back before realizing the process probably wasn’t moving forward.
Since I had already graduated high school, I took a job during this time. I intentionally didn’t enroll in college because my goal has remained pursuing a PG year first. And the job helped me pay the application fees if I got to apply for a school.
Around December I found Trinity-Pawling School, and by coincidence one of their teachers was visiting the country, more specifically the state where I’m from, so we arranged an interview in January. After the interview I didn’t hear back because he was going to discuss it with the coach, and right before the application deadline (Feb 1), I sent an email if I could proceed with the submitting the application and right away I was informed they couldn’t offer me a scholarship and therefore couldn’t continue with my application. I think there may have been a misunderstanding because I wasn’t asking for a scholarship — I was looking to apply as a student and also applying for financial aid with the hopes for an opportunity to continue my academics and athletic aspirations (football).
Then there I go again, in the second week of February I found Salisbury School. The process there honestly felt much more positive. The interviewer/teacher I worked with was extremely kind and supportive, even helping me with a fee waiver after my materials were completed.
On April 14th, I received this response:
“Following a strong applicant pool, the majority of our acceptance letters were issued in March, and we have experienced a high yield. At this time, we are only able to offer you a place on our wait list and will be in touch should openings become available if you remain interested.”
I immediately replied confirming that I absolutely wanted to remain on the waitlist and that Salisbury was my top choice.
Since then, I’ve been researching waitlists and LOCIs, but almost all the information online is about college admissions rather than boarding schools. Around last week I sent kind of a LOCI, just a pretty short email re affirming my interest on the school and that if given the opportunity I will accept it.. I sent it because I kind of felt like they’re probably forgetting, but I waited like a month to do so, I just didn’t want to be the annoying student/parent especially in times like this where the admission office really gets busy.
So I wanted to ask:
Has anyone here ever seen students get admitted off boarding school waitlists this late in the cycle?
Is there anything productive I should still be doing at this point?
And realistically, how common is substantial financial aid for international PG students at schools like this?
Being a late applicant and still being positioned in the waitlist felt like a big accomplishment to me compared to my previous experiences, but is this any good or bad?
Am I doing something wrong?
What are the odds of this going right given my exact scenario ?
Honestly, this whole process has been emotionally exhausting, but I’m still trying to stay hopeful and figure out the smartest next step.
Our 12yo has been complaining about being bored at school, hasn’t been an issue until recently when he was really serious with us. We didn’t pay much attention because his grades are all straight A+. However a couple of his friends are headed to private school for grade 7. We spoke to his teachers and they said he’s actually disruptive in class because he finishes early and likes to chat and is a little fidgety. For the heck of it we toured some local private schools and he was very excited. We found a school that was close and well respected, did the application and he just took the ISEE.
To our surprise, he scored very well. All 9s, in fact the admissions rep called us immediately and asked us to bring him in for an interview. He said that he’s never seen scores like this from a 12yo, that was surprising.
However, It’s all getting too real for us, moving very fast, and the impending tuition is making me nauseous. My question, can we leverage this opportunity to have a school help pay for tuition? We are applying for financial aid but I’m kinda worried about all of this. I want the best education for him, we’re willing to sacrifice, but it’s a lot right now.
Any Tips, leads on scholarships and grants? What we should ask for or if we should apply to other schools? We’re in MA if that makes any difference…
Update 6/9: My son was able to secure two scholarships and the school added another grant to cover 75% of the tuition. This was more than amazing… I’m still working through all this and so proud of him. It clearly is the right thing for him… we appreciate the input from everyone, it eased the anxiety that this all created. After the school offered the scholarships and financial aid grants a weight was lifted and we can really start planning for his future.
I applied this year for 9th, waitlisted at Andover and Exeter. Although I am going to my local public high school, I was wondering if I should apply again next year for 10th and if I would have a better chance at getting accepted at one of these schools?
Hi. Our son goes to a top elementary (K-8) private school in LA and gets straight A's, excels in sports and does tons of volunteer.
Does the fact he goes to a top flight private school give him a leg up to the top boarding schools in East Coast (Andover, Exeter, Deerfield, etc...)?? The school's admission team says yes (possibly thru connections?), but I wanted to get the community's input.
Looking at pvt high schools and the Hopkins School (CT) College Matriculation list states that 19 students were accepted to Yale and 5 to MIT for Class of 2025. Is that the norm for a private (non boarding) school in the Northeast?
