<p>Good. Then filling in voids left by the school does not, by your definition, mean fitting in, and if the AO’s are admitting people to fill voids, then that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re able to fit in. </p>
<p>@mrnephew I thought you agreed with my “voids” statement earlier?
</p>
<p>Anyway, I believe filling in voids * can * mean fitting in. Filling in voids may mean being someone/bringing talents the school needs. By bringing their talents to the table, they do have the * capacity * to fit in at their respective schools.</p>
<p>I am not implicating in any way that you can only fit in at so-and-so schools if you “fill their voids”.</p>
<p>You didn’t read my entire sentence, then. “Voids, yes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the student will succeed, or even fit in.” </p>
<p>That’s where we differ. Filling in voids doesn’t mean you’ll do well at the school. If you’re a great violinist, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll feel at home in Andover or do well academically just because you are a good violinist filling in a violinist hole.</p>
<p>@mrnephew</p>
<p>As I’ve stated earlier,
</p>
<p>I think you misunderstood my previous statements. The phrase “filling in a void” means being able to bring something to the table… something that the schools lack. Evidently, being able to fill in a void does not necessarily mean you will excel– I’ve never insinuated at that in any way. It doesn’t even mean you might fit in. My point from the very beginning is that AO’s look for students who can kick their school’s standards up a notch… I’ve never said that AO’s only want students who can “fill a void”.</p>
<p>
As you can see from the excerpt above, I’ve never grouped the ability to excel and the ability to fit in with the ability to “fill a void”.</p>
<p>How do you do the quoting things, by the way? </p>
<p>“Anyway, I believe filling in voids can mean fitting in.” Am I misunderstanding this statement? </p>
<p>If so, I apologize. But I took that sentence word for word, and came up with my conclusion.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[ quote=mrnephew]How do you do the quoting things, by the way?[ /quote] without the space after the bracket.</p>
<p>Cool, thanks!!</p>
<p>Testing it out…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>@mrnephew Yes, I do think you misunderstood her statement. Based on what @boardingschoolx has said, (and correct me if I am wrong) I think she means that schools look for fit and then ability to "fill voids."I would have to agree with her there because with the huge amount of admissible applicants, this just makes sense. Schools can go through the first round and narrow it down to students who they think would fit in in the community and excel at the school. Then, they can use that second round to find the violin player or varsity football star. Therefore, that amazing violin player that doesn’t feel at home at Andover would never be admitted. I believe someone said something similar to this in a previous comment.</p>
<p>Interesting… But I do know two people who went to Andover, and one of them came home after one year due to lack of fit. I don’t see how admissions officers would be able to decide who fits the best into the system. </p>
<p>I think they look at voids first, then fitting in, because you just can’t tell how well a person’s going to do, because no matter the previous records, Andover’s a completely different beast.</p>
<p>Maybe you guys should take this conversation to another thread… you know- now that you’ve obliterated the word CLEAN from the thread title. Hopefully more people will post decisions and stats! 
</p>
<p>Haha, sorry about that. I’m really becoming adept at hijacking threads. :)</p>
<p>Rebooting the thread for Decisions and Stats. Thanks!</p>
<p>** Accepted:**
** Rejected:**
Wait listed: Lawrenceville
Likely Attending: none</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: 96 percentile
[</em>] GPA Unweighted/Weighted: All A- or A
[<em>] Rank: Don’t know
[</em>] Other stats: SAT 2050 (Math 770) in 7th grade, CTY all grand honors and such
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Interviews: My interview wasn’t that great. I just spewed random statistics and accomplishments and my interviewer wrote them all down.
[</em>] Essays: My essays were really last minute (think an hour before the deadline).
[<em>] Math Rec: I’m good at math but I don’t participate
[</em>] English Rec: Average but I don’t participate
[<em>] Personal/Extracurricular Rec:
[</em>] Principal/Counselor Rec: He doesn’t know me
[<em>] Sports (if any): Cross country, lacrosse
[</em>] Instruments (if any): Violin
[<em>] Other ECs (if any): I code a lot and do a lot of art
[</em>] Hook:
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: NJ
[</em>] Current School Type: a really good public school (15+ people from our school applied)
[<em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[</em>] Gender: Female
[<em>] Grade Applying For: 9
[</em>] Age: 13
[li]Financial Aid/Full Pay: Financial Aid[/li][/ul]Strengths: Academics
Weaknesses: no social life XD
Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?: I put little effort into my application, sadly, and I honestly don’t know how I got waitlisted. A lot of students better than me got rejected, and my application wasn’t really good. I think the part that got me considered is that I code and love art.
General Comments:</p>
<p>** Accepted:** None
** Rejected:** Exeter
Wait listed: Andover, Lawrenceville
Likely Attending: N/A</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: 83rd Percentile
[</em>] GPA Unweighted/Weighted: 3.73 unweighted
[<em>] Rank: N/A
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Interviews: They were all really good, in my opinion. My Lawrenceville one was with an alumna.
[<em>] Essays: The strongest aspect of my application, in my opinion
[</em>] Math Rec: According to him, amazing
[<em>] English Rec: Great too
[</em>] Personal/Extracurricular Rec: My squash coach, probably great too.
[<em>] Principal/Counselor Rec: Awesome
[</em>] Sports (if any): Squash, tennis
[<em>] Instruments (if any): Piano, guitar
[</em>] Other ECs (if any): I founded a squash club at my school, as well as a book drive for charity
[<em>] Hook: URM
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: United Arab Emirates
[<em>] Current School Type: Private
[</em>] Ethnicity: Middle Eastern
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Grade Applying For: 11
[<em>] Age: 16
[</em>]Financial Aid/Full Pay: Full
[/ul]Strengths: Essays, recommendations, interviews
Weaknesses: Grades, SSAT
Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?: Definitely my bad grades and SSAT score, as well as the fact that applying for 11th grade in itself is extremely difficult, regardless of whether or not you are holistically a good applicant.
General Comments: I will re-apply as a repeat next year and I will hope for the best.</p>
<p>@boardingjunkie This is what I’m talking about!</p>
<p>** Accepted: Exeter, Loomis Chaffee, Taft, Lake Forest, Hockaday (All-Girls), Cate**
** Rejected: Andover, Choate**
Wait listed: Thacher, St. Paul’s
Likely Attending: I will be attending Exeter this fall</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: SSAT, 86th Percentile
[</em>] GPA Unweighted/Weighted: 3.83
[<em>] Rank: School does not rank
[</em>] Other stats: 25 on ACT Explore, one of 5 students at my school to do so (?)
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Interviews: All of them were great, and I highlighted my interest in the performing arts and in social justice, and proved those interests with impressive stats and examples of what I’m involved in. I suggest anyone who is applying to really take time to think about good answers to questions. Another thing that helped was that I wasn’t afraid to talk about myself. I was comfortable letting the interviewer my achievements, though I made sure it did not some off as cocky.
[</em>] Essays: I only wrote one (b/c I am an ABC scholar), but I think it was okay??? I don’t even remember the prompt tbh
[<em>] Math Rec: Probably went fine
[</em>] English Rec: Probably my best one, she likes me and I participate a lot in that class.
[<em>] Personal/Extracurricular Rec: N/A
[</em>] Principal/Counselor Rec: Probably very good. The rec’s honestly don’t phase me as being sooooo important, though you want your teachers to be on good terms with you, so work extra hard the first semester/trimester of school so your teachers like you.
[<em>] Sports (if any): Volleyball and Track (focus in shot put). These are nothing special, though.
[</em>] Instruments (if any): Violin (5 years in school), Guitar (5 years), Singing, (a part of internationally acclaimed choir, will be touring to Latvia and Lithuania this summer)
[<em>] Other ECs (if any): Diversity Club, Gay-Straight Alliance, Build On (community service)
[</em>] Hook: URM, ABC scholar so it puts my name out there, singing
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: Midwest, USA
[</em>] Current School Type: Public
[<em>] Ethnicity: Black/African American
[</em>] Gender: Female
[<em>] Grade Applying For: 10th
[</em>] Age: 14
[li]Financial Aid/Full Pay: FA[/li][/ul]**Strengths:Very good interviewer, pretty good writer **
Weaknesses: a little too well-rounded. I’m not simply spectacular at anything, just pretty good at a lot of things. Also SSAT score is on the lower end
**Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted? I think my interviews really helped a lot in all of my acceptances. I remember in my Exeter interview the interviewer and I had an entire side conversation about social justice and how stupid intolerance is. That established an immediate connection, which is honestly so important and it will get you far. I honestly don’t know a specific reason as to why I was WL/rejected to the schools I didn’t get into, but I would say generally it’s because I didn’t make a true connection. **
**General Comments: I want to say how beneficial being in ABC has been for me, but also to clear up the misconception that it is simply trying to put underprivileged kids in these top-tier schools. First, not all kids are recommended to top-tier schools, and there are kids who don’t even get into those schools, which shows that things are in fact fair-n-square. I didn’t get into schools that didn’t want me, just like the rest of you who have gotten rejections. **
In general I would say try to have good interviews! Practice how you answer questions so it comes out naturally. Also do mock interviews with an adult in your life who can give you honest, constructive criticism. Also try to get that SSAT score up. I know that had to be a bit of a red-flag for me haha.</p>
<p>@boardingjunkie Do not denigrate yourself. Your SSAT score puts you above the average at Loomis Chaffee and at least close to the average at Exeter. Remember this is the average. This means there may have been many with lower scores but they had a hook like Pop or Grandpop donated a boat load of $$. Do not feel like you are less because people will say “Oh, you are URM so you probably got in because of that.” If this were true than Exeter etc would have only black and Latino students. So many may try to knock you but you need to hold your head high and walk through those doors that were opened by the sacrifice of those who came before you. </p>
<p>Wait just a question: What does URM stand for?</p>
<p>@mathman1201 URM is under-represented minority and ORM is over-represented minority.</p>
<p>Thanks @pdl100 :)</p>