Accepted: Hill
Rejected: Lawrenceville, Choate
Wait listed:
Likely Attending:Hill
Stats:
• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: 89% SSAT
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted: I get 90s so I think about 3.6-4.0
• Rank: 21 out of 280 some kids in local private Catholic High School
• Other stats:
Subjective:
• Interviews: Lawrenceville was quick and my interviewer kept telling me if I got in, I would take these x,y,z courses, instead of asking for my personal stuff (things you would ask in the interview). It was pretty short.
Choate: this was really short, like 20 minutes maybe. Later when my uncle came in to talk to the interviewer, the interviewer told my uncle that he was impressed with my english ( I am an exchange student). My uncle told him straight forwardly if he could see me in September and the interviewer said most likely.
Hill: The interviewer and I spent some good amount of time talking (45 minutes?) She asked questions that required thinking (like if you could sit for a dinner with 3 people, who would they be?) and stuff like that. For this visit I went with my male guardian. The interviewer told him that I was a good boy or something.
• Essays: Generally, I spent a lot of time writing down essays for 3 different schools. But the essays for Choate was really good in my opinion. I tried to be creative and informational. The essays for Lville and Hill was kind of mediocre. I got it checked with my tutor several times.
• Math Rec: This is my first year in high school, and so was for my Math Teacher, so we did’t know each other personally at all. But I was getting good grades in her class, so at least for work ethic part, I think she wrote pretty good stuff about me.
• English Rec: I don’t even talk to him outside the classroom, so we don’t have any personal connections
.
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec: I asked my Biology teacher to write this for me because for the big part I was getting 99 in the class. No personal connection or anything. I just say good morning in the beginning of the class and thank you at the end…
• Principal/Counselor Rec: My counselor flat out told me that she wasn’t obligated to write a recommendation ( oh wow thanks) because she didn’t want people to leave her school. This kind of made sense because I was on the School’s academic scholarship and I guessed they wanted something from me. But I visited her like 5 times in a week so I guess she likes me now.
• Sports (if any): Basketball, Wrestling and Baseball
• Instruments (if any): Clarinet
• Other ECs (if any): I am an assistant teacher at Korean School every friday, I serve my church weekly, and I had some previous experiences volunteering.
• Hook: Weekly volunteering, bilingual, ability to live in different places other than home
Location/Person:
• State or Country:PA
• Current School Type:Private Catholic High School
• Ethnicity:Asian
• Gender:Male
• Grade Applying For:4th Form
• Age:15
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: Full Pay
Strengths:
Weaknesses: I am an Overrepresented minority 
and although I play clarinet, I wasn’t in part of band or orchestra. And I had a broad interest in a lot of things, but I wasn’t going deep into them ( does it make sense?)
Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?
I honestly do not know and I hoped that they would told me why! But I guess other applicants had better stats and certainly my SSAT grade was a drawback.
General Comments: I thought the world’s gonna end for me when I first saw my results. However, Im really happy with myself for just going through the application process because It was really tough and I thought of just not applying to any. Although originally I intended the Hill School to be my safety school but as I learned later on, it was too dangerous to put the Hill as a safety school. I am really excited to go to Hill next year. Although it is not as famous as other schools on college confidential, it definitely is a hidden gem once you get to visit there.
For the future applicants: I think applying to 3 schools isn’t the best idea. From this experience, if I had a child going through this experience I would tell him to apply to at least 5. Also, apply like normal applicants (in 8th grade). I think I would have bigger chances to get accepted for Choate/Lville if I applied in 8th grade because the teachers probably know you well, and that’s always a plus when it comes down to the recommendations.
