High School

More and more private schools are adopting dress codes as opposed to uniforms. You will still find uniforms in religious, parochial and military schools. Perhaps the most famous school uniform is the one worn by boys at Eton College. While it is still worn everyday, the uniforms worn in American schools are a lot less formal, if, indeed, a uniform is worn at all.

One of the reasons a dress code is more popular is that it gives some modicum of self-expression while at the same time maintaining a standard of dress. Oversize clothing, all black outfits, extreme hair styles and other symbols of gangs and fringe activities are simply not on.

This dress code from Foxcroft School is typical of the sort of dress code you can expect at a girls' school:

"Foxcroft's dress code is fairly simple – khaki or black pants or skirts with solid-colored, collared blouses which are tucked in. Shoes (which may not be athletic shoes) must have closed toes and backs. Dress code is required during the Academic Day."

McCallie School offers a quite detailed description of what's acceptable and what's not at that fine all-boys school in a Dress Code Letter:

"Regular school dress requirements/prohibitions are as follows:

1. Students are expected to wear a solid colored dress shirt with tie (tie should be within one inch of top button on shirt), long pants with a belt, visible socks, and shoes.

2. Students

Many students find that a PG or Post Graduate year is a wonderful solution to several situations. Perhaps they feel that they are a little young to go off to college. As Kim Chorosiewski points out, a PG year offers time to grow and develop without taking a year off. Maybe they want to perfect a sport or artistic activity. A PG year offers a well-focussed span of time in which to accomplish that perfecting. A PG year also offers a chance to remediate any small gaps you might have in your high school transcript. Or maybe you just want a year before you head off for five years of pre-med or bio-kinetic science. The PG year can suit a variety of purposes.

The PG Year is sometimes referred to as a Gap Year or a year off. Implicit in either description from my point of view is the fact that a PG Year is a structured program of study, not simply a year off where you sit around and do absolutely nothing. Over one hundred private day and boarding schools offer PG Years. It will be worthwhile to explore a couple of programs to see if they fit your requirements.

When you are in high school, there is obviously a big push to complete your academic studies with the best results possible in order to get into the college you want to attend after high school. A gap year gives you an extra year to

In What is AP?, we looked at the organization that has created one of the world's most popular college prep programs. This companion article will look at the other college preparatory program known as IB. The organization behind the IB program, the International Baccalaureate Organization, was founded in 1968. With its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IB Organization serves over 1.3 million students in 147 countries.

What is the IB?

Most people think of the IB or International Baccalaureate as the organization which sponsors the highly-regarded college preparatory IB Diploma Programme. Indeed the IB Diploma is where it all started. The IB Diploma is the college preparatory component of a curriculum that begins early childhood and ends with pre-college and pre-career programs.

The International Baccalaureate Organization has grown into four programs: Primary Years, Middle Years, Diploma, and IB Career-related Programmes. This, then, is one of the major differences with Advanced Placement. Practically speaking, Advanced Placement encompasses only the college preparatory years in the academic continuum, although it now offers a Pre-AP designed to encourage students. The IB Organization offers programs that begin with 3-year-olds and end with college preparatory and career-related diplomas.

The IB Diploma Programme

Since you are interested in finding out the similarities and differences between the two top college prep academic programs, let's look under the hood of the IB Diploma Programme and find out what's

What is AP?

AP or Advanced Placement Program is a three-year sequence of high school coursework offered by the College Board in over 34 subject areas. The idea behind offering AP courses is to provide college-bound high school seniors with a level of academic playing field. You see, it doesn't matter whether you are a high school student in Dubuque, Iowa, or Darien, Connecticut, AP courses and the end of course examinations are the same wherever they are offered. The course content is the same. The teaching objectives are the same. The preparation for the final examinations is the same. Because the standard is the same everywhere and the final examinations are proctored and graded by the College Board, college admissions professionals can compare student academic achievements with confidence. They know exactly what AP means when they see it on your transcript. They know exactly what your AP scores represent.

This brief video explains the impact of AP credit and placement.

That is the intrinsic value of AP Courses and their examinations from a college admissions point of view. Admissions professionals want to know that the math courses that an applicant took at a public high school in Kansas are the same as those an applicant from a private school in Tennessee took. In other words, they want to compare apples to apples. When one applicant is offered a high school math course