<p>Congrats Bearsgarden, I am happy for you and your D.</p>
<p>I’m still in shock about the denials. I have a very smart, articulate daughter. She did fantastic at interviews. Her tests scores were great. We were full pay. I thought we had a better chances because of full pay.</p>
<p>However, I know why she was rejected. Her grades, her motivation to succeed wasn’t great. She was ridiculed so often in her younger years for knowing the answers that she has purposely tried to fit in with her peers and didn’t push for her own personal excellence.</p>
<p>I hope she’s learned. One school accepted her and she’ll attend there at least for one year. I hope she will study during study hours. If she wants, (if her grades are better), she’ll try again next year to one of the better schools.</p>
<p>Robo - thank you for that. I think Alabama is too far away for us, but we do have a very good Jr. Boarding School right here - both my girls went as day students when they were little, so if none of the other options pan out we can definitely do 9th grade there.</p>
<p>Please know that Exeter and Andover get close (if not more than) 3,000 applications for about 300 spots. Know that your children are extremely bright, and may have made it up to the final cuts. Waitlist means the schools found a reason to want the student - but just didn’t have enough room. In a different year, the choice of students might have been different. At least that is something for the parent to hold on to. That of the the piles, thousands were turned down, but a smaller group received a “maybe” in the form of a waitlist. Fingers crossed for you.</p>
<p>Also remember that admissions people speak about “building a class”-- they need academics to be sure, but also, athletes, debaters, artists, “math-letes”, student government types, racial, socio-economic and geographic diversity, and, oh yes, tuba players.</p>
<p>You or your child may be a terrific kid and done everything right but they really really needed a tuba player not another cellist.</p>
<p>It can be that arbitrary.</p>