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The number of organizations offering scholarships for private school students is limited. In addition to the list of organizations below you should also check to see if your state has and Scholarship Funding Organizations. Apptoximately 14 states have SFOs. Most admissions officers will be able to advise you about scholarships available in your area.

• School CHOICE Scholarships, Inc. (KY)
• Vermont Student Opportunity Scholarships (VT)
• YES Opportunities, Inc.

You applied to several schools. But your first choice didn't accept you. Instead, it waitlisted you. What exactly does this mean? And why do schools waitlist applicants? What do you do now?

What does waitlisting mean?

Schools typically offer places to more applicants than they have places for on the theory and experience that they will receive enough acceptances to fill all their seats. Calculating the actual yield from the acceptances which they have sent out is something that experienced admissions officers know how to do almost instinctively. For example, let's say the school has places for 100 students. It could send acceptance letters to 100 applicants. But what happens if only 75 of those families accept the places which have been offered? Having 25 empty seats will wreak havoc with any private school's finances.

That's where the waitlisting comes in. The admissions officers know that if they offer a certain number of applicants over the actual number of places that they have available, that they will receive the necessary yield of acceptances. For example, using our hypothetical 100 places available, the admissions office sends out 125 acceptance letters. The admissions staff know that historically they will receive 90-100 acceptances when they send out 125 acceptance letters. But what if circumstances conspire to produce the number on the low end of the yield scale? Say they only receive 90 acceptances? That's where the waitlist comes into play. The school will send out 125 acceptances. It will make up

Many famous people have attended private schools. Here is a sampling of schools and the famous folk who graced their hallowed halls.

• Ashley Hall, Charleston, SC: Alexandra Ripley, Barbara Bush, Madeleine L'Engle
• Baylor School, Chattanooga, TN: Arthur Golden
• The Brooks School, North Andover, MA: Steve Forbes
• Canisius High School, Buffalo, NY: Tim Russert
• Cardinal Hayes High School, New York, NY: George Carlin
• Choate-Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, CT: Glenn Close, Ivanka Trump, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jodie Foster, John Dos Passos, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Michael Douglas
• Cushing Academy, Ashburnham, MA: Bette Davis
• The Dwight School, New York, NY: Paris Hilton
• Emma Willard School, Troy, NY: Jane Fonda
• Episcopal High School, Alexandria, VA: John McCain
• : Prince Harry, Prince William
• : Andrew Litton
• : Enrique Iglesias, George Prescott Bush

• Harding Academy, Nashville, TN: Reese Witherspoon
• Harvard-Westlake School, Los Angeles, CA: Tori Spelling
• The Hill School, Pottstown, PA: Oliver Stone
• The Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, CT: Archibald MacLeish
• Horace Mann School, New York, NY: Eliot Spitzer
• Kent Denver School, Englewood, CO: Madeline Albright
• Kent School, Kent, CT: Ted Danson
• Lakeside School, Seattle, WA: Bill Gates
• The Madeira School, Mclean, VA: Stockard Channing
• McCallie School, Chatanooga, TN: Ted Turner
• Mercersburg Academy, Mercersburg, PA: James Stewart
• Milton Academy, Milton, MA: Edward Kennedy
• Miss Porter's School, Farmington, CT: Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
• Northfield Mt. Hermon School, Northfield, MA: Natalie Cole, Uma Thurman
• Phillips Academy, Andover, MA: George Herbert Walker Bush, George

A Teacher's Influence

If there is one thing that I have learned over many years of teaching, it is that our students learn by example.

• They learn not only the lessons that we try to teach them but also lessons that, by their very nature, are perhaps more subtle and implied.
• These are the lessons that children often learn by osmosis or example.

I also know that the lessons learned and the impressions made when a child is young last a lifetime.

• This is one of the most significant responsibilities that we teachers and parents have as adults.
• Young minds process information quite differently than adult minds do.
• We have to be aware of that constantly. That doesn't mean that we have to dumb down information and concepts.
• It just means that we can assume nothing when it comes to how a child's mind will process the information it receives.

The following is pure fiction, of course, but it makes one wonder how things might have turned out if some of these teachers had tried a different approach. Perhaps if they had framed their arguments differently or taken the time to ensure that their students understood what was taught, there might have been different results.

40 a.d.

Setting: High on one of the seven hills of Rome

Aurelius Flagellus Horribilis looked up from his table. The three discipuli in his charge were supposed to be working on their times tables.