TaborTalk Blog

The search for a private school should be an exciting, thoughtful, and fun journey for each student and their family and other trusted adults. The private school search and application process is most likely to be exciting, thoughtful, and fun when you are prepared! While looking at schools is an evaluative process on both sides, the goal is for each student to ultimately find the right fit. 

If you are reading this, you might already be thinking about the next exciting step of your education. Good for you! 

What to look for in a high school experience is important, and taking that next step to find that perfect school is exciting. Your high school experience should be so much more than just going to classes. High school should be a special time in your life — a place that you look forward to going to every day and that you will want to have in your life forever — and these four tips just might help you find the best private school for you. 

It’s the time of year when I start asking the juniors I work with what their plans are for the summer.

At this point, college decisions are almost all in and some students have been placed on the waitlist.  It must feel something like “I want to date you, but I’d like to see how this other person responds to my request to go out before I commit to you.”  What?  That doesn’t feel fair.

A year ago, my colleague Mary Kate McCain and I had just arrived back at Tabor following a week-long tour of colleges and universities in Louisiana and Texas, which we went on in early March.  We knew about COVID-19, but the idea of it becoming a pandemic hadn’t really struck home for the majority of Americans.  I remember looking at an infographic on my phone once we were seated on a flight heading from Boston to New Orleans, announcing to Mary Kate that there were 11 known cases of COVID in Texas.  Eleven.  What a difference a year makes.  On the college counseling front, the past year has felt a little bit like the wild west, but both college admission and college counseling offices have adapted.  Changes include virtual college rep visits and interviews, the offering of an optional prompt on the Common Application related to the impact of COVID-19, and major changes in the world of standardized testing, the most dramatic change being the surge of the test optional movement.  

We are in the midst of preparing for our second year of virtual programs for accepted students, and we are excited about the opportunities we have to offer. Tabor’s 2021 accepted student programming will be highly customizable and personalized. Families will be able to choose from a wide variety of events and programs repeated over multiple days of the week and times of day. We have named them Red Carpet Events this year--- if you’ve seen our Taborflix site, or received a special something from us in the mail, you’ll know why. 

Throughout the application process, one of the most frequently asked questions is what there is to do on weekends and during free time. Part of the beauty of boarding school is that each day is filled with purposeful commitments, activities, and free time. The free time is actually as much a part of the structure as classes, co-curriculars, and clubs. 

Whether you’re new to the college process or a seasoned veteran, there’s always something to learn, especially in these topsy-turvy times. That’s why it’s important to hear from our colleagues at colleges and universities around the US to help us stay current. Tabor’s College Counseling Office invited four admission professionals to share some thinking with us for the Junior Family College Kickoff on December 2. Our guests were Deanna Dixon, Dean of Admission at Smith College in Northampton, MA; Bob McCullough, Director of Undergraduate Admission at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH; Amy Cembor, Senior Associate Dean of Admission at Providence College in Providence, RI; and Chris Gruber, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at Davidson College in Davidson, NC.  

Normally, the Tabor Academy admissions office spends the fall planning and executing a Tabor tradition, the annual Fall Open House for prospective families. This year is no exception. The admissions office is still planning an open house. It just so happens that we will host this year’s open house on Zoom. Tabor’s first ever Virtual Open House will take place on Thursday, October 29th, from 7-8:30 p.m. Eastern. 

Community Service is in full swing this fall at Tabor… it just looks a little different than usual.  We had to think a little more locally and plan a little more strategically, but both the faculty and students involved have done great work so far, focusing on issues around food security, building a good sense of community, and the local environment. 

Please help us in welcoming the newest members of the Tabor Academy Faculty! We hope this blog post will allow you some insight into our newest hires, why they have chosen to work at Tabor and what they are excited about in the coming year!

The "Superman" pose, the picture that everyone who flys on the KC-135 takes