Information Session: International Students

Good afternoon, good evening, good morning and welcome to the International Student Online Information Session. My name is Dana Brown, director of admission here at The Lawrenceville School. I wish to thank all of you for taking time out of your schedule to be here this evening. We will wait for a few more families to join us. I see currently we have some from the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan.

New Jersey as well and so thank you so much for logging in and just to sort of test out the information that we have or the ability to connect with me. one-on-one. Would love for you to just pop a hello or good evening. Good morning in a chat and tell me in the chat box and let me know some fun things that you did this summer for the rest of you who are just logging on from Hong Kong of welcome. And again we're going to get started by just having the students or the families if they have a chance.

To just drop a little bit of a chat into the box to indicate you know what were some fun things that you had done over the summer and then we will get started. And with that I'm just going to wait a few more minutes for other families to log in and I'll be back with you shortly. Thank you.

OK, let's get started again. Thank you so much for joining us and we will have. I promise that we will get as many questions answered for you as possible and I want to make sure you understand that this time is dedicated to you. This time is actually all for the questions that you may have regarding our our process, but I'm also going to provide you with some helpful information to navigate your way through the Lawrenceville process as well as.

You were perhaps travel to the US, or if you're not able to travel to the US, I'll give you some helpful hints and tips to get a better sense of who we are as a school. Just to give you some to begin, we want to give you some housekeeping items first. This presentation is being recorded and it will be made available on the tours and events website of our under the Admissions tab on our website. Closed captioning is available for those who need it under the CC button and in your top right hand.

Corner belief and if you need to refresh your window at any time, please feel free to do so and then any questions that you have. Again, this is a time dedicated to you will be posted in the chat and thank you so much to Jeremy, Esther and Mao for already reaching out in their questions in the chat.

Here's a session overview and the things I want to ensure that international families take away from today is that preparation does count, and we'll get into that in just a little bit more. But also there are some tips for success that I'm going to share with you, and to give you an even further encouragement to get your interviews done early. We do still have a few more appointments available online. For those of you who wish to do a virtual appointment. And so I I encourage you to take advantage of that.

As well.

So the Lawrenceville School, you know, we are at school through which Hartness from through House, and Harkness, Lawrenceville challenges a diverse community of promising young people to lead lives of learning, integrity and high purpose. But the the line that I I take away the most from this mission statement, and I've worked at now 4 three different boarding schools, mostly in New England, and certainly right here in New Jersey as well. Petty starting out my career. Hotchkiss choke was the longest. And now here at Lawrenceville is the director of admission.

What I would resonate to the most to me is that we are a school that has it included our in our mission statement that it's our mission to inspire the best in each to seek the best for all, and I think that's incredibly important as we move into being more face to face in this during this pandemic. Is that even during our time when we were completely virtual, we still held true to this mission. It was important for us to inspire.

The best in each to to seek the best for all. And doing that in a virtual world was very challenging, but I think that's at the core of what the Lawrenceville School represents and has been so since the beginning of of its its time here.

We are a school that is conveniently located in the New Jersey in New Jersey in Mercer County, but we're also very accessible by way of rail, air bus, even Uber you can get in and out of this area very quickly. We are lucky we have the luxury of having a local airport as well as international airports between New York, Newark, NJ and Philadelphia, and then many rail lines also run through here from the local New Jersey Transit.

Is in the Amtrak as well, so families can reach us at any time. Students feel as though that they have the best of both worlds, even where you can go into New York City for the weekend or even Philadelphia to catch an art performance or just have lunch in downtown Princeton, which is all of a 10 minute Uber ride away. So that is one of the best things about our extension. The reach of our campus does include two major cities as well as an amazing college town.

Within the village of Lawrenceville, students have the ability to walk across the street and get a Starbucks even. And so this morning on my way into work, I was able to walk off, walk across the street and get my ice cold. Brew Vanilla Latte with an extra pump of vanilla and it was. It's one of the major conveniences again of Florenceville, but students enjoy Starbucks, a pizza parlor, as well as ice cream, all directly across the street from campus, and so that also becomes an extension of maybe even to study there in the morning.

Or to grab a bite after a practice or some ice cream just to decompress for a moment with friends. And so you'll find that right here in the Lawrenceville community.

The next piece of information I want to share with you includes our numbers. It's important for families to see how these numbers play out across the boarding as well as the day community and States and countries we are proud to represent. Over 40 different countries on our campus with a total of enrollment around 8:16 at the moment with an 18% international student population.

Some of our top countries represented within that 18% international include Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea as well as Brazil, and so those numbers again have been steady for several years, Brazil being the one that has increased the most over the last three to five years, and so we're we're very intentional about our international communities and hopefully we'll get out to the areas this this season where we can make some additional contact.

So our class sizes are on average about 12:00 with an 8 to one student to teacher ratio, and our gender breakdown is there as you see, a little under 5050. A little under 50% female and 52% male with a strong number of diverse students who identify domestically as students of color with 55% and again as I look back at my career and think about all the schools that I've had, the chance to work at Lawrenceville stands at the top.

I believe for sure of the diversity numbers, not only in students enrolled, but in terms of faculty as well. We have a very, very diverse faculty from faculty all over the world, but representing a variety of ethnic backgrounds too.

So in 2022 currently, but our our last interviews, our last application season, we had crested a little bit over 2600 applications and from that number we admitted 409 students which gives us about a 15% admit rate. I am where we are going to enroll 245 students and as I mentioned earlier, these are lists I'm listing. Listed here are some of the top countries as well.

Is over 21 new countries new countries, but 21 countries that we admitted with admitted within that four O 9 and so the numbers that I placed here under application you will see in parentheses. China at 148.

South Korea with 105 Hong Kong with 85, Singapore with 26, Vietnam at 22 and Japan at 12. And so those are the number of applications that we had from those countries during this past season.

So you all are here to find out the 15 of you who have logged in to understand how do you begin the process of applying the great thing is that you have already done a major hurdle by completing an inquiry online in order to get this information session. But there is a.

On our website you will find that the additional steps to complete the application process and so that includes required items from 2 application Form 2 application platforms, either the gateway to boarding schools application or the SA O the student application online. Through SSS we prefer to see you do the gateway application and that should be up as we speak but also know that there will be.

A requirement this year of testing Lawrenceville is not a test optional school. We require some sort of testing whether that includes an SAT, it can include some state standardized testing. If you were able to secure that, and for students who are studying at school from where English is the primary language of instruction from more than four years, we will waive the TOEFL for you. But we do encourage if you fall out.

Side of that waiver that you can even take the eyelets or the Duolingo exam that is an option for those of you who are looking who on have not been at schools that have had English instruction for more than four years.

We do require letters of recommendation, one from a guidance counselor or a homeroom teacher, or a math or a English teacher. We also recognize in many countries and states that school has been.

Schools have returned to online in some hybrid spaces, and so if you have a teacher from a previous year that you had a better connection with than we encourage you to ask that major for a letter of recommendation, and it can be a stem teacher. It can be a history teacher. It could be a science teacher. Even so, you can't. You have some options and flexibility within the letter letters of recommendation at the very top of this you will see the required items. Again, are either an online interview, an in person interview if you're able to get to the US.

Or very can't, and we'll speak more in detail about Vericat and shortly.

And then you'll find that the application will have part one of biographical information and your student statement, apparent statement, and transcript, and again require testing. Again, Lawrenceville is a school that is not test optional, and we do require the SAT or some form of testing. We have had several families already reach out to us to say that the SAT is not available in their home country. And could they use a previous year's set of scores? And the answer for that?

Yes, we will take a previous set of scores, hopefully more no more than two years out, but we really encourage you to try to get some sort of standardized testing into us. If you have any issues or foresee that being an issue, please e-mail me at debrown@lawrenceville.org and I'll give you my information again at the end of this presentation.

I thought it'd be very important for you all to see some of the dates that we are going to encourage you to adhere to as we move forward in the application process. January 15th is our application deadline and as well as the application for deadline for scholarship aid. We will take testing up until February 1. So as things start to reopen in your country, and if you're worried about finding a test site, understand and know that we will happily.

Take any testing up and that is by that is administered up till February 1st. If you cannot get testing on.

After if you if your test date is after February 1 then please contact the admission office so we are aware of.

Some of the challenges that you may face and then on March 10th we notify you of our decision and then we give you around a month to make that decision about Lawrenceville or the other schools that you may have been enrolled in. So between January 15th through April 10th is the are the key points that you know admission counselors and families are sort of reading, waiting and hopefully accepting and rolling during that time.

All right, we're going to get back into the details of our presentation, but again, as I mentioned earlier that you, several of my colleagues and I have been talking over the summer about how intense it's been for so many of you to balance this year. These last two, maybe even three years, depending on your home country.

With COVID and between lockdowns and virtual classes, you know the admission office wants to recognize all the challenge and acknowledges that you you know your resilience and perseverance and we realize that everything and everyone is not perfect and we are giving grace and room and space to those of you who are able to tell us about some of the very interesting things that you've been able to do during that time. And so I just want to acknowledge that we understand where some of the challenges have been for your home countries.

But we also look forward to hearing about that, either in your interview, or maybe perhaps your essays.

There are several online opportunities after this admission session to give you some specific tips, particularly on how to interview. I'm very proud of this office because we have now offered for the second summer in the row interview Tips and Overview on how to prepare for your interview. That'll be on August 9th next week as well as August 16th, so hopefully you'll be able to log in and get some more details from my colleagues who will work during that time to give you some more.

Insight to the interview tips. I promised you a list of tips for success and I pulled this from former applicants. You know, we always look back at those families who have gone through the process and these are some really great tips that I thought I'd love to share with you on how to approach this year's process and you, 17, of you have already made that commitment to use this summer to inquire and fill out the online forms. Please understand that.

Do not have to have the entire application completed before you'd schedule an interview. You do not. We prefer to see you fairly early for your interview, so please take the time out to interview early in September. Take time out to try it online if you can. Our interview dates will be published after September 5th and so you can check back with us then we do have to.

You know, open school up and money. If my colleagues are responsible for things within the houses and so we are trying to get our schedules together. But you can expect to see Lawrenceville appointments scheduled online and available to you. I will say after September 5th.

I families have also in in said that you're watching all the video content and write down what you like and don't like about the different schools that you're looking at. That is incredibly important, so with as much information that we are providing for you through these webinars, you can also go back to our library and look at some other information sessions that we've had for athletics, arts, dance, and and and even living here in the house. And what does Harkness mean? We have some of that in our.

Library as well.

If you are traveling to the US, make an appointment to see. Campus family said that they fell in love with us during the campus tour, but we also have found that families who are not able to make it to campus will send a relative a loved one or even a sibling who may be studying at a local university to do the campus tour and FaceTime. The family in. We've gotten very creative in this time and space to ensure that people make that connection, and so we will allow for that. If you are not physically able to get to campus.

But you do have a friend in the area who would be willing to take a tour for you. Then we will happily give you that option if you are coming to the area. And perhaps there are no more toward spaces available. We are an open campus and we encourage you to take a self-guided tour. You can e-mail us ahead of time and our visit Coordinator will try her best to get you a map or something prior to your arrival.

The last tip that I want to share last two are have to do with the application and rolling back to how to prepare for that. Because you all are looking probably at a wide variety of schools and it's important to try to hit submit before January 15th. There are so many families who go through this and and are.

Between the holidays travel things get very, very busy and we found that families who start the process early, like yourselves have found it very good to finish. They found that finishing ahead of time and letting the sitting down to draw up the essays and then going back to it a few weeks later have made a difference and help them focus a little bit more. So I can't stress enough the ability that the the benefit of starting early.

I at the very top of this I mentioned that we have a few interviews available for students online right now and that will be up until August 19th. Now this is where things will change after August 19th.

So beginning in September, students from the following countries, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, South Korea and Brazil. If you are an international student who attends school in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, South Korea, and Brazil, then we are encouraging you to use vericat. This will be your official interview for Lawrenceville.

This means if you are a student who is at a junior boarding school or attend school in the US, you are more than welcome to schedule an interview here on campus. But for those of you who are in these following countries, we are giving you this video. The option to work with Varicam to get a video interview done and our team will review that and count that as your official interview for the school.

Berikan is a trusted service and is how to register for. It can be found. I'll put this in our chat box in just a moment. Pull that up and we'll try to send you the video tutorials that Farrakhan has already set-up.

The reason why we've chosen to go with hurricane, and we have found this incredibly useful as we have gone through the last.

Application process is that students are actually very comfortable online. We know that they've adapted very well to being able to express themselves. For instance, this morning I interviewed a student from Western Academy of Beijing Web and the young man was able to jump on on in the last five minutes of our interview, he played a beautiful piece of Chopin piece of for about 3 to 5 minutes and I thought that was incredibly beautiful. That's something that you know, I would never be able to see in my small office.

Like he's not gonna bring his grand piano from Hong Kong from Beijing over to New Jersey, but he can easily swing around and move into his space and play the piano. So online or very can't interviews do give you an opportunity to showcase something different in American interview. Certainly you're not don't have the luxury of doing that at home. However, I'm sure if you did wish to have that as an option, some of the counselors there can do that and work with you on that. At this point, we were at the end of the information.

Session and there are a few questions in the chat that I'll answer, but I'm going to give the 17 of you on some more time to think about what has just been said and I will go back to over and review anything that you wish for me to do. But this concludes the the information session for international students on the process by which you need to use. If you are applying from the following countries of China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, South Korea and Brazil.

Beginning in September.

We are requiring that you go through varicam again. We do have some virtual appointments available. I am an early bird and so I was up this morning at 7:30 and so that is convenient for a few of you. There are some of those appointments left OK, so now I'm going to go to the chat. The questions that we have here.

Umm, and it earlier before we logged on, I had asked families to tell me about some fun things that they did over the summer and Esther, you attempted to run up 10K this summer for the first time. You didn't. You said it was really great, and while you didn't hit that goal, it was really close. So congratulations to you on that. That's incredible.

I'm Lynn woo. I'm wanted to know about does Lawrenceville accept the map, the measurement of academic progress, test score? Yes, we will. So at the very beginning of this information session. And thank you so much, Lynn move for bringing that up again. We are a school that will require testing and we will take something like the map, the measurement, academic progress report, or an SATP SAT or ACT. We know the challenges that exist around scheduling some of those exams.

So our test requirement is for a test as any form of standardized testing. Please understand that that is any form of standardized testing. We have broadened that scope a bit for families to ensure that they're able to get us some form of standardized testing, but that's what we are requiring for applying to Lawrenceville.

I'm Esther asked a question about I'm.

When may I know when international applicants usually schedule their interviews?

And as well as who, the interviewers may be during the summer months we have counselors available to you for your interview. Again, I will be in the office for the next two weeks and so I am interviewing students. I interviewed a student from Beijing this morning and another young woman from Hong Kong and so those are available interviews that you have for the next two weeks. Some of that may already be taken up, and if that's the case, there's no need to panic.

Again, because you were able to interview through Ferracane beginning in September.

All right?

If you schedule your summer interview before August 19th, Rachel wants to know do I still need to do varicam? The answer is no. If you schedule after.

August 19th when we are in the office. Beginning in September, you have to do varicam. So if you the two students I saw today from Beijing and Hong Kong, they are done. They have completed their interview for Lawrenceville. That is perfectly fine. But we also know that in the in September there are.

In September, we're going to move just those countries listed here. China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, South Korea, and Brazil. If you attend school in those countries, you are required beginning in September.

To use variant.

Only the countries that I just listed earlier.

Hong Kong.

China, Vietnam, South Korea and Brazil because they are our largest countries. You'll see him again and by the numbers and the number of applications that we receive from those areas, we are trying to streamline this a little bit more. And then we have a small cohort of international readers who will review all of those interviews. And should we need to follow up, we absolutely will. But again, that counts as your absolute official interview. I do want to say that several families have already approached and said, you know, varicam is for students whose English.

Is not top notch. That is not the case. Please understand that many colleges and universities use this system and our Dean of enrollment management Mr Greg Buckles has vetted this with vetted this company and had used it previously at his as a Dean and one of the top schools in the country. And this is one of the things that we feel as though is important for us to extend that a little bit of for our high school population. So just rest assured that we have a strong team of people behind the scenes looking.

Over your application.

To get the best and we will follow up if necessary.

Regardless of citizenship, the question, and I appreciate this one, do I consider my daughter as an international student given she's a U.S. citizen but lives in Hong Kong? Citizenship is not the issue on this, is it? It's if your child attends HK IS.

SAS.

The pushy or Pudong campus web on or even diocesan, if and then schools in South Korea or Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam, and.

Hong Kong or Brazil? You must use varicam to complete your Lawrenceville interview beginning in September, regardless of citizenship. If you attend one of those international schools in either one of these countries.

We are asking you to use varicam to complete your interview again. The numbers coming out of each of these countries and we will have a strong team including myself reviewing each of these interviews on a daily basis. OK, so please schedule early and get it done early. That's why we're here in the summer time working so hard to ensure that we give you all the information. Thank you so much, Nicole for that question.

So what qualities are we looking for in an applicant?

You it varies from counselor to counselor when it comes to applications, but for those of you who are going to do varicam what I love about varicam is that we work with Vericat to send them questions that we think are very important for Lawrenceville. So rest assured that we have worked really hard with Ryan and his team at Vera came to to find what the best fit is.

I think the picture option for how students describe what's happening in a picture shows creativity, so that was one of that's one quality that we are looking for is how students creatively answer questions. I think at a hardness table you are going to be required to, you know, not only think fast on your feet and be prepared, but you are going to need to be able to think creatively and listen carefully to your colleagues and your fellow classmates around the table. I would also say a little bit of a sense of humor.

Is funny and sometimes that's hard to directly present, but we are is interviewers in as many schools as that my colleagues and I have worked at in years of experience. We can pick up on that lightheartedness that it comes through during the interview. I would say students who are able just to answer the question right. We're not looking for a long dissertation or a very you professorial answer, or some way. We just want you to answer the question that is being asked.

To be yourself. That is very key for us is for you to do that and so be it between the creativity and be able to directly answer the question and showing a little lightheartedness. I think that takes a little bit of the anxiety out of of the interview altogether, but you'll find several of our.

Counselors in the next few weeks who will do sessions on interviewing tips and this is where you can bring that question back to an August 9th or an August 16th session of. They'll have a very a live session similar to this one where you can ask that question directly in the chat, so I encourage you to bookmark that if possible, or go back online and review that once the session is done being recorded OK.

I I will keep the chat room open for a few more minutes here as we move forward, but it sounds as looks as though that it has quieted down a little bit. I just again want to reemphasize that our some appointments are still available online and if you are in the following countries regardless of citizenship, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, South Korea and Brazil regardless of citizenship. But if you attend one of those, if you attend an International School or a local school.

One of the countries I just mentioned you will be required to do the VERICAT beginning in September.

I'm the next question on deck is do you consider this a bit unfair? Because there will be only SAT test twice next.

Next January in Hong Kong. So Nicole, that's a great question. If it is an incredible hardship, then we will work with you again. Our testing is if you have a test that the student has done previously, we will take that if they can. If they have a map test from 5th grade, I look for those as well. We will take that too, and so we're we're. We realized that, yes, that there are some major restrictions and we will work with families to get around that and we will keep an EMA and the enrollment management.

This book and association will keep us apprised of how apprised of how they are going to manage and offer some of those things to students who are not able to take the test. If that means we have to get creative on our side and maybe look at the character still snapshot, we will consider that too, but Nicole rest assured we will see we will keep and monitor that, but we want to emphasize that while we are requiring testing, it's any form of testing. It's not just.

The SAT earlier we had a question about the map and I believe the map is offered. The map measurement of academic progress. Lin Wu had asked that question and yes, we will take that as well and so know that we are are monitoring everything carefully. But we will take scores previous from previous years.

Does applying for financial aid affect an international students chance of admission? That's a very, very good question and I appreciate you bringing that up. I we it is a very limited fund. However, there are. We are part of the Davis Scholarship. I'm consortium of schools, the schools that if you are an international student who needs significant amount of of financial aid, the Davis consortium consists of Milton and Ethel Walker.

Taft

Andover Milton Milton.

Andover Taft Lawrenceville.

And Miss Eva Walker Eva Walker. I believe those are in Westminster.

Those schools have are mentioned earlier. Part of the the Davis Scholars Program and let me see if I can find some information for you and put it in the chat.

Those of you who are applying for a financial aid and want to know more about that, I will give you this to read.

And it is also.

Ah, here we go. Milton has a better.

Let me give you this because Milton has a far better description than.

Then most they have this PDF. Can I put this on here?

What I'm going to go hold on one second, I am going to send you this.

PDF that I think is fantastic in the Milton school has done a really good job of.

Putting that together, hold on one moment, please.

So you can click on that link.

Milton has put together a PDF of all the schools. Emma Willard, Emma Willard, not Ethan Walker, Emma Willard Lawrenceville, Milton Andover Taft, Westminster, Emma Willard Taft, Milton, Andover and Westminster are schools that grant the Davis International Scholarship at select at the American Boarding School, so that hopefully will answer your question a little bit more in detail about that. For those of you who are viewing this as a reporting, I simply Googled.

In I'm Davis scholarship in Davis International Scholarship program and you can type in Milton Academy and a PDF will pop up for you to review. So for those of you who are watching this later and had questions about international financial aid.

That is the primary way in which we award that aid through to students, OK?

All right, well thank you all so much for being available. I know this is a a late night for many of you in an early morning in some areas, but again, I just want to emphasize that we are here to answer any questions that you may have throughout the process. We are going to take a little bit of a break before in order to get everyone lined up for the fall and our students return at the end of end of August end of August and the first week of September. So check back with us on September 5th, maybe even that week of September 5th where we will hopefully.

Have many of our interview appointments available and I will leave the question if there any additional questions. Thank you again. If there are any additional questions I'll hang on for a little bit more, but I just want to again thank the 15 of you who all participated in this session from around the world. UK Hong Kong, Vietnam as well as New Jersey. So thank you so much. You all have a wonderful rest of your summer and we look forward to seeing you online at some point or maybe even in person. Have a great day.