Have to agree taking a gap year between high school and college to actually work in the industry, even if you don’t go overseas, is a proven path. It could be towards or away from a Pro rider career but it can answer many questions and open doors within the industry.
Of course there is a cost, maybe a better use for the boarding school tuition and future college expenses should the D1 scholarship not materialize. Family here does have some wealth but there are limits and ROI is a consideration.
I haven’t seen this question asked yet - apologies if it was already answered.
But OP - are you an only child or the youngest child in the family? Or do you have younger siblings?
If the latter, how will your attendance at this school affect your parent’s ability to fund your siblings educations? Will those siblings expect the same kind of preferential treatment (i.e, attending an expensive private prep school)?
The true reality of agriculture and 4H isn’t the sale and slaughter of the market animal, but the year after you age out and learn that in fact $10,000 (or more!) is not the market price of a steer (etc) in the real world.
Around here at least the females don’t. The steers and wethers etc., are. The females are usually kept for breeding stock.
Me, too. My gap year working at a horse farm was all it took for me to realize that I did not want to be a pro. Prior to that I could have sounded just like OP, less the parents that were willing to fund a private boarding high school even if they were able to. I’m perfectly happy as a AA. My day job funds my horses and showing. I probably own nicer horses as an AA, due to being able to fund them with my day job, than I would as a pro and have more time to ride and show that I would if I was answering to deep-pocketed clients all day and night long.
I have always hated the push for kids to know their futures and go right from HS to college. I went in to the job market and decided what it was I wanted to do. GAP years are a great way to truly maximize your education spend.
Getting real world experiences is going to result is a clearer view of what being in a profession is or isnt.
There are many educational opportunities which do not require leaving home.
There is much to be learned from a barn of any discipline as horsemanship does not just happen in the saddle.
truth to tell I would be impressed by a young person who put in time doing on line course work or Running State community college classes locally along with hands on work experiences.
I’m absolutely suggesting continuing with studies (in a non-equine field). My point is it’s still cheaper to travel to training places for spring break/summer and gain qualifications, than join this fancy school. Plenty of places will allow you to board for a couple of weeks and assess your current understanding and give you missing info, allowing you to go home and backfill the info before taking exam in your next break.
I absolutely think that continuing studies, albeit graduating a year later than some peers, is essential. Chances are, if equestrianism doesn’t work out, the work ethic, improved language skills (if travelling to mainland Europe), world view, level of maturity; will ensure she is valued highly and that year of missed earning potential won’t matter at all.
Certainly it’ll be tough in its own way, but the difficulty will be offset by the experiences and global connections.
Agreed! 
Might be a strategic pivot from Plan A. But I agree that a Modified Plan A, as it were, even a full-on Plan B, could move the OP much more in the direction that she wants to go. And cover other bases as well.
That’s a new option! Thanks for the update. Good luck on your test!
Good luck!!
Good luck!!
If you aren’t already, I highly recommend working with a tutor ahead of time who really knows the SSAT/SAT format.
There is a real test strategy to scoring well on those exams; I’d say that’s more important to master than general knowledge.
Feel free to PM me if you’ve got further q’s on finding a tutor.
Wow, that’s excellent news! There are practice tests online–study hard (or, as others have noted, “test prep” hard, since doing well at standardized tests isn’t the same as general knowledge). 60% sounds quite doable, and it sounds like they are trying to make the education more affordable for your family and they want you, which is a good sign.
Definitely do practice tests don’t go in cold.
As a Canadian my first exposure to these tests was applying to American grad school doing the GSAT which I understand is similar to SAT in structure. I don’t know what the SSAT is like. I’ve also looked at LSAT practice tests.
The GSAT I did had a language section logic section and math section. Logic included a bunch of those puzzles where you need to seat people around a table but John and Jane can’t sit beside Ted and Alice etc. On my practice tests I figured out the shortcuts to solving it for 4 variables but on the actual test they had upgraded to 5 variables. I also went to the undergrad math help.center to brush up on high school math (I was in a Canadian MA at the time). I was able to solve all the practice math at home but in the exam I wasn’t able to.finish all the questions on time. Anyhow in percentiles (not raw score, can’t remember that) I was 99% in language 85% in logic and 65% in math. This last shocked me because I didn’t even finish. I couldn’t believe I was above average in math compared to all.grad students, especially as Id assume the top spots were likely all.to STEM field candidates. If you figure STEM students likely filled the top 30% of math scores. So I was probably top tier for humanities and arts students. That is so wrong
Anyhow my point is these tests will have puzzles and testing comp and stuff that are different from regular subject matter tests and you should familiarize yourself with them.
People drop a lot of cash on coaching for these things, no.one walks into them.cold.
When I was 17, I thought a gap year was the best. idea. ever. and I explored several opportunities, which, in retrospect, I’m glad didn’t pan out… Sometimes leaving the academic bubble for a taste of the real world makes it much harder than you’d realize to go back in and apply yourself in school. I saw that happen a lot while I was in college. People who had more connections in town, friends who weren’t “school friends,” and even off-campus jobs just seemed to have a harder time buying into the whole high-stakes academic rat race — at the expense of their GPAs and academic achievement. I guess you could say, on balance, they were more well-rounded and realistic, but I’m actually glad I maintained the single-minded academic headspace I had while I was in college, because it’s so easy to lose motivation otherwise. I was just thinking the other day about how seriously I took my senior thesis and all the work and research I poured into it… and how, today, I could never summon the motivation to care about something that no one (besides the professor paid to grade it [and maybe not even him 
]) was going to read.
My friends who went the part-time student/community college route had a much harder time finishing school. Many didn’t. Gap years can be a slippery slope to gap decades and an on-again/off-again relationship with college that takes you many years to ever get a degree out of.
My parents gave me the option of a gap year (to work for a BNT). I knew that if I didn’t go straight to college I never would go to college. I ended up going to a very good college, and I hated it, but graduated without debt. I’m not using my degree, but use many ‘soft skills’ that I attribute to higher education.
possibly so, though I went from a middle of the curve HS student to a Deans List all honors all years college. Being inspired and sparked can make a world of difference
I saw this on FB and it’s really good advice:
I always tell my working students , you don’t need to be on a team or go advanced to be a pro you just need to learn to ride the horses that others can’t . Sometimes those horses will be the ones that give you an opportunity you could not have had unless you spent the time getting those skills learning to ride anything .
I read a final paper from one of my students the other day, and the last paragraph both upset me, frustrated me, and also made me think.
She had to write a synopsis of her internship at a competition barn, and although her experience with the trainers and the facility was good, she left the internship feeling jaded at her prospects of a career in this business.
Why? Because she wasn’t wealthy.
I hear this a lot from students, and I also try to warn the cocky ones of the same.
Without financial backing - things are very hard. You won’t be handed 6 figure horses, you won’t have thousands for training fees, and you certainly won’t be gifted a 12 stall barn with an attached indoor.
So - young folk who have the desire, drive, and talent but not inheritance - what do you do?
You learn to train.
Young stock. Rough stock. Broke stock. Broken stock.
The ones who were sold for $1. No pedigree, no name. The ones that won’t get you a ribbon, but they sure as heck will get you forward.
To the young riders, the high schoolers, and even the college aged - take a break from the race towards ribbons and start focusing on the abundance of horses that will teach you essential (and lucrative) skills.
Like breaking yearlings.
Retraining thoroughbreds.
Gentling mustangs.
Putting a change on,
Or taking a buck off.
And - find barns that are doing THOSE things.
They might not be at the Maryland 5*, or Road to the Horse, but I guarantee they exist. Offer to sit and learn. Tack up. Lunge. Set fences. Hack. Keep your head down, and say yes.
Ribbons will come later, but the ability to train will be the enabler to those ribbons. It will provide you with credibility, and credibility will provide you with income.
No one cares that you are not riding Grand Prix, nor do they care that you’re not on some esteemed list.
But they do care that you have desirable skills that this country is so drastically lacking, and with that, you have the financial means to lease that farm, produce that horse, and potentially even hunt those ribbons.
So, re-aim those goals, plan for the long term, and send a message to that colt starter, that retrainer, or that sales barn.
I guarantee you they’ll say yes, and I guarantee you you’ll prosper from that time.
Credit to Carleigh Fedorka!
I originally thought that the OP was talking about Foxcroft.
They still have the solid riding program a robust academics. My daughter really wants to go, and the family has a friend on the Board, but the expenses are soooooooo expensive. Maybe one year but it is hard to even think of right now.
From everything I’ve heard, it’s still a fantastic school.
Private schools in Virginia in general seem insanely expensive to me.
Some of the online reviews of The Grier School are a little concerning. Several references to drug use. Who knows though - there are drug issues at many schools, including elite boarding schools like The Hill School and Lawrenceville.
Still… if OP hasn’t made a decision yet… she and her parents might want to check out Foxcroft just for the sake of a comparison point.
Drug and alcohol use is quite prevalent at all private boarding schools. Admissions may tell you otherwise, but anyone on the inside will know the truth.
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