美國升學問題

1) Each has its own (dis)advantages. Boarding house is closer to the school itself, so less time on commuting, more time to interact with other fellow housemates. I personally think is the best starting point to study aboard, because the child need some familiar faces to get used to at first. Boarding is better to make closer friends, as all people living in the house is of similar age. The negative points are that the child needs to know that he is living with a big group of people and has little (in some cases, no) personal space.

Homestay is sometimes a matter of luck. I personally studied in Britain for some years and I have been through good and bad homestays. Some "families' are not even qualified to be a homestay (e.g. broken family, bad living habits) The supply of homestays are sometimes not enough that they put more children than they should in one house. But, that is not to say all homestays are bad. I have been to good ones too. It's better for the parent to check and talk to the homstay before they place the child with the family. We are talking about one or two years here. If the child does not like the homestay, it might affect their later development.
Homestays are good if the child wants a smaller household and some private space.

2) You need to pick a school located far away from big cities (small cities are OK) Because we know big cities have too much temptations. It's ideal to be located in rural areas, where the child can only go to these cities, once or twice a term. So that he can only concentrate on his studies.

Yes, agents in HK can give "one stop for all" services. Of course, you need to pay for that too. Getting their opinion should be free, but conducting ability test is chargeable.

There are many problems no matter going to boarding skl or going to homestate. There may be some homestate that are not very good. They may treat the kids badly. Bt of course, there are some good family. For living in boarding skl, the kind will become very very independent. They hv to handle a lot of problems by themselves......
Dun go to some big cities like NYC. They'd better go to some quiet places.
As he is citizen of America, the skl fee is very cheap if he goes to public skl. Bt if u choose private skl, of course, the skl fee is quite expensive.