This is intended as an FYI for parents with younger gifted students who are feel they are out of options.
Cym and possibly Ania have mentioned in the past that their (7th or 8th grade) sons had received a lot of solicitation from college prep boarding schools after scoring well on a either the ACT or SAT for a Talent Search. My ds did pretty well on the math section of the SAT last Mar while in 7th, but lower than many kids here, by the way. He must have cleared a particular threshold because he is receiving one or two offers per week to compete for scholarships from east coast and midwest schools.
I know these solicitations are primarily to generate interest and recruit qualified paying students for these schools. However, the full and partial scholarships are real. They also offer financial aid, which is as good as a scholarship in my opinion. Some schools give out millions in financial aid each year as they have a long established endowment just like the colleges. This is how President Obama received his education, right?
Advanced planning and action is required to gain acceptance to these schools with even more required to compete for a full scholarship, but your child only has to take the ISEE once and could apply revisions of the same essays to different applications in many cases. Also,the interview experience could be great practice for college.
