How does a PG year work?

PG Post Graduate years are an extra year of HS. You can't do these at Public School only Private schools that offer them. I would say 80% of the very best schools offer them and they become less important for less competitive schools.

Historically, if a HS student had some setback in HS like missing a semester from illness, or a sports injury, or just not getting the marks they needed to be a competitive applicant to their school of choice like Harvard or Yale, they would either stick around for an extra year at Exeter or Andover or if they attended a different private or public HS, transfer in as a PG student. 80% of PGs today are recruited athletes that just need some fine tuning before they are game ready to impress the recruiters from Ivy, Elite and Top Liberal Arts Colleges. It is rare but not unusual to find PGs that are at top privates fort he sole purpose of learning more. But that is gaining more popularity as the COVID-19 lingers on an there is campus insecurity. Most private boarding schools are 99.9% COVID free because it's mandatory for everyone to be vaccinated including teachers/staff and everyone undergoes weekly testing.

While Ivys in fact prefer graduates of Top Boarding Schools, I'm not sure if they can impose a conditional acceptance to a boarding school. Historically, schools like Yale or Columbia might have received a legacy applicant who the admissions office thought was too young or to inexperienced or not strong enough of a writer or not quite an Varsity athlete. They may have in the past, offered a conditional acceptance to that student if they say went to Choate or Deerfield for a year. But these days, everyone who understands the connection to boarding schools and Ivy schools knows that they need to attend private school first, vs. applying too early to college. About 20% on average who apply to Ivys from TOP boarding schools get accepted. That number is about 1% on average for Public High school. So when you read the statistic that 5.26% is the average admit rate at Ivys across 8 schools its because there is a disproportionate amount of boarding school admits or private schools admits from schools like Harvard Westlake in Los Angeles. The same goes for Top Int'l Boarding schools. If you attend a Top Swiss Boarding School, you have a huge advantage over someone in public school as well.

Top Boarding School cohorts are divided into 3 groups. Lowers - 9th/10th graders, Uppers - 11th/12th graders and PGs which are essentially HS grads who are doing another 12th grade (there is no 13th grade). You can apply into any grade anytime however most apply either as a 9th or 11th. And then some apply as 10th or PGs. You can't do more than 1 year as a PG since Post Grad implies you have already graduated from somewhere else. You do get a 2nd HS diploma.

Academically, if you attend such a school most of the classes can be taken by any grade however some classes like high level classes have prerequisite's. 100 level are 9th, 200 level 10th, 300 level 11th, 400 level 12th, 500 level 1st year college, 600 level 2nd year college level. Each top school does it slightly different. Most PGs end up taking a mix of 500-600 level classes and maybe some fun ones that are 300-400. Some schools offer APs or IBs but most of them do not since their normal 500-600 level ones are much harder than those. You can always self study for APs/IBs if you want.

Acceptance rates into top boarding schools are very difficult. Currently the admit rates are about 10-15% for the Top ten schools. While that is clearly higher than the 5.26% average rate at Ivys, it's the same pool of people that are going to be applying to Ivys 1-3 years from now.

Like Ivys and Elites, financial aid is available to those requiring it at Top Boarding schools. Depending on the school the % of student receiving aid may vary from 20% to 40% and most top schools practice need blind admissions. So if you are qualified to attend Hotchkiss or Andover, you'll get in regardless of your ability to pay. And they will figure out a fair and equitable financial aid package including tuition, room, board, travel, technology and health insurance.

If you have any more questions, you should download their lookbooks or brochures directly from their websites. They are typically way more extensive than college websites since some of them have been doing this for 200-250 years already. Deadlines are typically 1/15/2022 and there is a lot of forms like financial stuff your parents have to fill out so if you start today, you will still be under the gun to get everything completed like recommendations, essays, parents essays etc.

Not withstanding, here are some top schools with PG programs

Exeter, Andover, Deerfield, Choate, Loomis Chaffee, Hotchkiss.

Cheshire, Berkshire, Hill, Kent, Lawrenceville, Northfield Mount Hermon, Peddie, Suffield, Taft, Westminster. I don't know if you are a boy or girl but there are other that are only boys like Avon Old Farms, or just girls like Miss Porters, Ethal Walker, Madeira, Foxcroft

Good luck.