We talked a bit about it in my Chance Me thread from this year (Chance Me (again) for the new application season! - #13 by stalecookies), but I think the primary reason was that I wasn’t a good fit for most of these schools and the personal aspects of my application.
I’ve realized since then that a big, college-like, competitive high school is not one I’d thrive at. I prefer a small community that still has challenging academics, but feels more like a family and is an academic environment where you can explore and make mistakes, etc. etc. It’s very possible that the bigger and schools known to require lots of very very very hard work (Exeter, Andover, Choate, Groton, etc.) saw that in me and decided I wasn’t a good fit.
The other reason is my essays. I think I did at least decent in my interviews, but when I read them over again, they weren’t representative of my true character at all. They were choppy and awkwardly formal, weren’t personal or specific to me, and I think last year, I lacked the confidence to write about myself in a positive light well. I’ve since then learned a lot about myself, my interests, what I want in a high school, and I think I’m doing much better so far!
I also made the mistake of only applying to these very selective schools, meaning my net was decently large, but not wide at all. I think my new list is much more appropriate for my criteria (small/family-like, Latin, computer science, and exploration).
Here are the schools I’m applying to this year:
Putney (top choice at the moment haha)
Miss Porter’s
Westover
Hotchkiss
Middlesex
NMH
Brooks
Concord Academy (re-apply)
St. Mark’s (re-apply)