Application Timeline

• If you haven’t already, consider using the summer months to learn more about a wide variety of schools. If you can, arrange for a campus tour or attend an Open House, if offered.
   
• Register for the SSAT or any other admission tests that may be required.  Test registration typically opens in early August.

Begin gathering application materials.  All of our schools accept the Gateway to Prep Schools application; many also accept the Standard Application Online (SAO) application.  Determine which application you will need to complete and if the schools require any supplemental essays. 

• Begin drafting your short answers and essays.
   
• Schedule your interview and (if possible) tour.  In a typical year you would try to visit each school for a tour and an interview.  Our schools interview at least through January. Given the current situation with COVID-19, most schools are scheduling online interviews.
   
• November is a great time to ask your teachers for recommendations. This will give them a couple of months to complete the recommendation before the application deadline. This is also a good time to ask your current school to submit your transcript.

Just beginning to think about applying to boarding schools and it is already December? Don’t worry – it is not too late!!!  Turn your attention first to registering for any admission tests that may be required; asking your teachers for recommendations; and scheduling your interview. From there work on completing your application and follow along the rest of this timeline. 

• Finalize your short answers and essays.
   
• Application deadlines vary slightly between our schools and are generally between January 15 – February 1.   Be sure to check each school’s website and complete and submit your application materials by the application deadline.
   
• If you are applying for financial aid, complete and submit those forms by the deadline, which is usually around the same time as the application deadline.
   
• Follow-up with your current school to make sure your teacher recommendations and transcripts have been submitted.

• Schools will inform you of their decisions on March 10 and ask for your enrollment decision by April 10.
   
• Schools will offer both on-campus and off-campus programs for admitted students both on campus and of. Attend as many of those as you are able.
   
• Be sure to let all schools to which you were admitted know of your decision by the enrollment deadline of April 10!