Ivy Talent Education

commencement speaker

2026 High School Admissions Results: Andover, Exeter, Boarding Schools, and Day Schools

This year, Ivy Talent students received 171 admissions offers from more than 90 schools. The results include offers from highly selective boarding schools such as Phillips Academy Andover, Phillips Exeter Academy, Groton School, and Milton Academy, as well as competitive day schools including Noble and Greenough School, Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, Winsor School, and

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ssat vs isee

SSAT vs. ISEE: Which Test Should Your Child Take for Boarding School?

If your child is preparing to apply to a U.S. boarding school, you may come across two common admissions tests: the Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT) and the Independent School Entrance Examination (ISEE). Both are used by independent schools to evaluate applicants, but they are not the same test. They have different question formats, section

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reject, overqualified

Overqualified but Rejected? Why Top Colleges Turn Away Strong Applicants

A student can have excellent grades, strong test scores, impressive extracurriculars, and major academic achievements, yet still receive a rejection from their safety school. For many families, this can be one of the most confusing parts of the college admissions process: If a student is clearly qualified, why wasn’t the student admitted? The answer is

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Roommate

From Strangers to Friends: How to Build a Strong Relationship With Your Boarding School Roommate

For most students, especially international students, a boarding school may be their first experience of living independently from their families. This new environment can be challenging. For many boarding students, their roommate is one of the first people they get to know on campus. Friendships can naturally form between boarding school roommates in a healthy,

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recommendation letter, sao

SAO vs. Gateway vs. Ravenna: A Complete Guide to Boarding School Applications and Recommendation Letters

Most families discover fairly quickly that there’s no single application portal for boarding school applications. Different schools use different platforms, and the system a school uses affects more than just submission of documents. It shapes how many essays you write, how recommendation letters get submitted, and how much time you actually need before the first

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arts high school

Best Arts High Schools in the U.S.: Idyllwild, Interlochen & Walnut Hill Compared

High schools typically treat art as an extracurricular activity and some art classes as elective. That setup works fine for most students, but for students who are artistically inclined and plan to pursue their craft on a professional level, an elective isn’t enough. What they need is an institution built around that field as its

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High School Ranking

U.S. News High School Rankings 2026-2027: Why Massachusetts Continues to Stand Out

U.S. News just released its 2026-2027 Best High Schools rankings this year, evaluating over 27,000 public high schools across all 50 states and ranking close to 18,000 of them nationally. The methodology remains largely consistent with previous years, but the results tell a more complicated story. This article covers two things: the most significant national

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boston college supplemental essays

College Supplemental Essays Are Disappearing: What It Means for 2027 Applicants

Something unusual started happening across college admissions in 2026. Schools began dropping their supplemental essay requirements one after another, a shift few applicants saw coming heading into this cycle.  The list includes Georgia Tech, UNC Chapel Hill, the University of Georgia, the University of Miami, and the University of Washington, all fully eliminating supplemental essays

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boarding school roommate

Can’t Get Along With Your Boarding School Roommate? Here’s What to Do

Summary Roommate conflicts are common in boarding school, especially when two students with different habits and personalities are sharing the same space. The key is learning how to address problems early and constructively. This article explains how to identify the source of a conflict, communicate your concerns, establish reasonable boundaries, work toward a compromise, and

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University of Michigan

UMich Psychology Acceptance: How a Junior-Year High School Transfer Made It Happen

Student Profile Student Name: Elizabeth Current School: Darlington School Admitted to: University of Michigan Ann Arbor, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis Overview Elizabeth transferred from a high school in Beijing to Darlington School, a US boarding school, in her junior year. This left her with less than two years to

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