Junior Boarding Schools. The Best-Kept Secret (Part 1)

 By Patrick Ho | Senior Admissions Counselor, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions

From the families who seek boarding school consultation services, the majority of them are looking at Grade 9 entry. That is the ideal entry point for senior boarding schools as it is the grade which accepts the most applicants. However, as you can imagine, if a majority of families adopt this strategy of Grade 9 entry, the number of applicants increases, making the application process more competitive, leading to entry into senior boarding schools all the more difficult. To overcome this congested path of entry, there is an alternative route that can increase your chances of getting into a top senior boarding school. That route is junior boarding schools.

Senior boarding schools typically run from Grades 9 to 12. There are a minority of schools, for example, Groton, which provide an earlier grade of study, starting from Grade 8, but these schools are few and far between. Junior boarding schools only provide education for students from Grade 6 to Grade 9.

Andover, Exeter, Deerfield? It’s Not a Dream

Since junior boarding schools ends in Grade 9, where do students go afterwards? Well, the task of junior boarding schools is to place their students at a senior boarding school and why that’s important is the reputation of junior boarding school lies in their students’ matriculation. To take one of the top junior boarding school’s matriculation for reference, on average, every year, they send 5 student to Phillips Academy Andover, 3 students to Deerfield Academy, 3 students to Choate Rosemary Hall, and 3 students to Phillips Exeter Academy. Such an extraordinary matriculation cannot be matched by any international school in Hong Kong.

The question begs, why can the top junior boarding schools enjoy such success in placing their students to these prestigious senior boarding schools? Firstly, every junior boarding school has an expert team of counsellors whom oversee the process of helping students apply for senior boarding schools, for example preparing them for the SSAT, interview and overall application process. Secondly, since they have a long history of placing students at these top senior boarding schools, an unrivalled trusting relationship has been established between one another. Senior boarding schools, upon receiving an applicant from one of these junior boarding schools, will review these applicants with the upmost confidence as they have the reassurance that applicants from these junior boarding schools are of top quality from their many years of working relationship.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Why Junior Boarding Schools are the Best-Kept Secret!

Mr. Patrick Ho

Associate Member of IECA | TEFL

BCom(Finance), University of Sydney

• 7+ years of experience in admissions consulting service with 100% success rate
• Proven track record helping students gain admissions to prestigious boarding schools including Blair Academy, Choate Rosemary School, Loomis Chaffee School, Kent School, Peddle School, Stevenson School, The Webb Schools, CA and Westminster School.
• Had over 75% if his students accepted to a Top 50 U.S. College including Yale University, MIT, Boston University, University of Chicago.

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