Since the vast majority (90%) of our student body is domestic, all students participate in the mainstream curriculum designed for all Academy students. We do not offer English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in our curriculum nor do we teach Humanities classes through an ESOL framework. High-quality, one-on-one, customized ESOL support is, however, available on campus for an extra fee and can easily be scheduled to work within a student’s existing class schedule. Our regular teachers are also widely available for individual writing conferences. They even encourage, if not expect, regular student conferences with each of the students they teach.
Required English Skills
Since our international students follow the same rigorous academic courses as our domestic students, they will need the necessary English skills to succeed in a progressive American classroom emphasizing intense group discussion in the classroom and substantial reading and extensive essay writing outside the classroom. Class participation is a large part of the grade! Therefore, we require a minimum TOEFL score of 80. Our TOEFL code number is 5806. If your scores are below 80, it would be advisable for you to look for a school with an extensive ESOL curriculum.
Accommodation
Since The Academy is a day school and we do not run dormitories, we find appropriate housing for our international students with carefully selected, local families who receive a monthly stipend to help defray expenses for room and board for their international guest. The selected host families often already have a child at The Academy and are intimately familiar with your school schedule, culture and routines. They usually open their homes to international students out of an interest in learning about a different culture and an honest desire to share their own American ways with their guest. The ideal international guest is therefore someone eager to become a true family member, who shares in the typical chores, plays with the younger siblings, helps take care of the pets, and finds commonalities with everyone in the family.
