I was living in the Middle East when I was in high school, and I went to boarding school in England, but most of my friends went to boarding school in the United States. This was 20 years ago, but at the time I was familiar with most of the major boarding schools. You have to understand that a lot of factors go into selecting a school:

1. Reputation & academic selectivity. What percentage of graduates go on to a 4-year college? What schools are they commonly accepted at? What's the average PSAT/SSAT score of admitted students? What's the average SAT or ACT score of juniors and seniors? What percentage of teachers have graduate degrees (masters or above)? What's the student to teacher ratio? Do they offer an International Baccalauriate degree, which will be helpful if you plan to attend university in Europe.

2. Location: What state or region of the U.S.? Rural, suburban or urban?

3. Size: Do you want to attend a big, medium-sized or small school? What's the total enrollment? Number of boarding students vs. number of day students.

4. Activities: What special interests do you have? (Sports, theater, music, etc.) Does the school offer activities that interest you?

5. Demographics: Do you want to attend a single-sex school, or a co-ed one? Are you interested in school where all of the students share a special interest (military, performing arts, science, etc.)? How important is racial diversity? How large is the international population of students? What percentage of students are from the area in which the boarding school is located, what percentage come from other parts of the United States?

A lot of posters have offered good suggestions to let you know that you'll need to be accompanied by an adult if you want to do a big tour of US boarding schools. But don't rely on us to recommend boarding schools without knowing the answers to any/all of the questions above. (And even then I'd take our recommendations with a grain of salt.)

You should consider the questions above, buy a guide to US boarding schools, review it thoroughly, and narrow down your choices after considering how each school fits your needs and wants. Then plan your trip to the United States.

Amazon.com sells guides to US boarding schools. Peterson's guides are well known and have a lot of detail:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_...Cn%3A53&page=1

Finally, there are a number of American-style boarding schools in Europe. (I attended the British branch of TASIS--The American School in Switzerland.) These schools attract a lot of American expats whose families are working in Europe, but also have a very diverse international student body. We had kids who were American, Canadian, Dutch, British, French, Swedish, Saudi, Iraqi, Thai, Malasian, Pakistani, Brazilian and Spanish, to name a few.

I hope this helps!

The suggestion of trying to find an exchange program that is already in place is a good one. There really are a lot of obstacles for people of your age -- even international university students sometimes have difficulties with things such as car rentals and it would likely be easier for then than for you -- unfortunately.

Like the others, I'm not trying to be discouraging, but you should be aware of the realities.

Why don't you try doing some research into established exchange programs. A very quick google search turned up this , which is old, but should still give you a lead. Some serious research would surely turn up more.

Good luck! Studying in another country is indeed a great experience.

Unfortunately, the situation is not nearly as simple as this. The United States and (most of) its 50 states are far too big to categorize so simplistically. Yes, New York City, New York, is ENORMOUS (and, having grown up there, I have my own problems with it), but it is very unfair to characterize all of New York State being like New York City.

That being said, I think that, as foreigners, you will probably find life most comfortable in a more urban environment. You will find that people's attitudes and values are more consistent with that of most Europeans. In rural areas, people tend to be more conservative. (Read: the leader of our government did not get the bulk of his support in our cities; this even holds for the generally more conservative Southern and Midwestern states.) Another reason that an urban environment will suit you better is that you will have an easier time exploring the area around you. Public transport is much better in our cities and, as other have pointed out, you won't have an easy time trying to find a rental car here.

Boarding schools (schools in which you can live on campus) do exist in the United States. They're mostly in the Northeast, but they are normally private and are expensive. Depending upon how much you can spend, this may not be a reasonable option.

That being said, I think that y'all are likely to find the Northeast and the West Coast to be good places to live. However, that does not mean that I think you should limit yourselves to those regions of the country; many of my favorite places in the US are far from there.

And, yes, as others have said, you should narrow down your list of schools. That would be a good place to start.

Hello again everyone.. Ive been gathering the information and tips from all of you! Now i have done a research all over the states.. and i actually like the idea of Cate School in California: http://www.cate.org/ .
It seems professional, etc. Now im abit confused about that there doesnt exist a subject named Economics?? Its a bit weired for an 11th grade no? They also say that you have to pay 100$ to aplicate :confused:

Thanks alot! Have a nice sunday ^

Just out of curiosity, I looked at that link. You are correct, it seems that economics is not offered as a course at the Cate school. That is one gaping hole there.

Econ in high school? Unless things have changed in the last 10 years, I don't believe economics is generally taught in high school. Seems that the calculus would be too advanced to take a serious macro class, especially since IIRC Calc I is usually a prerequisite. In any event, I wouldn't take it in high school anyway. At least at my college, they didn't teach "economics", they split it up into several classes that specialized in certain areas. At the very least, I believe that micro and macro should be split. They are very different concepts and some profs are better at one than the other. The Lawrenceville School is probably one of the best schools in central Jersey (few miles from Princeton) and I see that they don't offer an economics class either.

I take that back. The LS has a survey and an AP course. Just my two cents, high school kids should not be taking economics. A survey course really just looks like an overview, which I can't see being terribly helpful. An AP course will delve more into the types of concepts you will find in University, and in fact it will replace a university class if you pass the exam. But speaking from experience, a good understanding of calculus and derivatives really is necessary to have a full understanding of macro concepts. I suggest you consider focusing on your mathmatics because it will form the foundation for moving onto econ, advanced statistics, and the like.


School seems nice. Carpinteria is beautiful, if expensive.

I was going to say that there is an AP Econ course, so not having econ in your high school curriculum means that option is not available. I agree with you that a full understanding of economics would require calculus, and having an AP econ course replace a college course is not a good idea.

However, the alternative, which is no understanding is probably worse. So, if you do not intend to take econ in college, you might as well get the basics of supply and demand in high school.

And yes, it is completely feasible to go through college without taking any econ. I did. Even though I'm a practicing financial economist (former academic, now in the private sector), I didn't take any formal economics until graduate school...

Even worse, it is possible to graduate with an economics major from some pretty good schools without having any calculus.

well in spain we have calculus+economy in 11th grade and 12th ;) How is Santa Barbara comunity and how much citizens?? I think it was 100.000 yes? And is it a famous comunity, like very posh??

Thanks in advance ;)

I noticed the tuition for Cate school is $36K/year. if you have that kind of money, then your approach to selecting a school should be much more rigorous. While location makes a difference, the school itself is what you are paying for. this includes all factors listed above by other posters. The last thing on your mind should be whether Santa Barbara has 100K residents and if it's a posh area. As a student at a boarding school, you will spend most of your time at the school, not hanging out in the neighborhood.

well its my mother who is preocupied where im gone live in which neighbourhood, etc. because its my first time i will be in the states and im not gone visit her every week to spain.. every holiday i'll try. The tuition is 37K for the 2006-07... i dont know about 07-08. I have sent them an aplication form that they will send me to Spain for to aplicate before January so i can get a kindof guaranteed entry.

Cheers from Spain ;)

You may wish to look into Cranbrook It is a private school located near Detroit on a very nice campus with facilities for room and board of students. They also host international students. When I lived in Edinburgh, a flatmate of mine had previously gone to Cranbrook in Detroit for 12th grade (final year of High School in the states) after completing his schooling at Cranbrook in Kent, U.K. (a sister-school of Cranbrook in the U.S.). He absolutely loved it. Given that Cranbrook in the U.S. has boarding facilities and regularly takes in international students, this may be a good fit for you.

This will give our young poster an idea on how much it costs to attend a private school on the East Coast.

BTW: I know of the school in Andover but I did a search on Google to find the cost and landed on the comparison ;) between Andover and DC

I know people who went to Cate years ago, and it had a good reputation, but I can't speak to its current reputation.

Economics is not always offered at the high school level, and when it is, it's a fairly broad-based class. (I took it in 11th grade, and it provided me a basic understanding once I started college-level econ classes, but I didn't have a significant advantage over kids who hadn't taken econ in high school.) One thing to remember is that at smaller schools, you'll have fewer class offerings and less variety.

I'd disagree with the poster who says boarding school kids don't go into their local community and that the local community shouldn't be a major factor in your choice of boarding school. A student who's always lived in a major metropolitan area may feel out of sorts at a very rural school that's a couple hours from major cities, which few cultural institutions nearby. Similarly, if you've always lived in rural areas, you may not be happy at a school where there's very little green space and kids are heading into the city every weekend.

Lastly, it's quite typical for boarding schools to charge an application fee, and $75 to $125 isn't out of the ordinary. Schools want to discourage applications from prospective students who aren't serious about attending. (BTW, there's no such word as "aplicate." You want "to apply" to boarding school using an "application." Once you've submitted your application, you will be known as an "applicant.")

One of my college girlfriends went there.... and I wish I had done the same (a much more livable place than the prissy prep school I went to in New Hampshire...brrr!).

I also had some friends in college who attended St. Stephens in Austin. Like Cate, its academics are comparable to the best schools in New England, while the environment is considerably more pleasent.