<p>As a parent, I want to learn how the FA works in the admission process. My purpose is to help the kids like my son who are outstanding kid but got rejected from the BS. I hope all of them learn this lesson and quickly fresh up themselves and move forward.</p>
<p>Here is my son's info:</p>
<p>He is applying for 9th grade with FA needed, Off campus interview.</p>
<p>SSAT: 99%</p>
<p>GPA: 4.0 (The highest in his school) Straight A. Very competitive public middle school with 10 ratings from great school.</p>
<p>Math: honor geometry</p>
<p>Awards: State level painting awards, Local science fair second place, International Robotfest competition, many awards from his school. Continuous gold honor roll student.
Debate in the local high school when he was 7 grader and got the second place.</p>
<p>Super recommendation letters since some teachers showed him.</p>
<p>EC: 3 years baseball with the local league and one year all star team;
Basketball, swimming, tennis and skating for fun.
8 year piano
painting class for 5 years
student council member
Interviewers all tell me he is a super kid with so many interests. Sounds good:( </p>
<p>He is very sad this morning when he got rejected by exeter. As a mom, I do hope he can stay with us for the next 4 years, especially we are living in the great school district and he is very well respected by his teachers and peers.</p>
<p>sgu, I am sorry to hear that. Has your son applied to other schools? I think FA could be a factor contributing to that decision, but there are other things in play - in particular, different grades, gender and geographic areas can make a HUGE difference in the outcome to applicants with similar profiles. I hope your son and you can move on sooner rather than later from this. When admit rate hits < 20%, part of it is just purely luck.</p>
<p>You son sounds great, but exeter has MANY qualified applicants. I am almost 100% sure that if he had applied at other great schools, he would have gotten in with great FA at one of the schools! He should consider applying again next year, but try applying to more schools! Good luck and congrats on him being such a great student!</p>
<p>Really appreciated your kind words. I just checked and he got WL from Hotchkiss. He likes to go to Deerfield but so far no mail yet. I will see Groton in an hour. I don’t think I will let him doing this next year. The time needs to be used on other more activities especially in his high school year.</p>
<p>My daughter was rejected by Exeter even with a 99 percentile SSAT. She is a straight A student with activities in state lelvel MathCounts and national level Academic Games, state lelvel instrument, etc. </p>
<p>I was accepted by Exeter. I have to admit the competition is insanely fierce. Exeter could have admitted your kid in stead of me, or vice verse. There are so many things in play and so subtle, I don’t think we would ever know. Good luck.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that. Hope your daughter have applied for other schools. Otherwise, I still think the local school might be good for kids like their age. I still hope my son can choose to stay with us.</p>
<p>admissions is a tricky buisness in my opinion. No doubt your children are of the highest calibor but are competing against the best of the best.</p>
<p>(Note I hope this doesn’t offend anyone, just an opinion)-It really depends what the school needs. For instance, I applied as an upper repeat. My grades are subpar- 3.5 gpa although I am an AP/Honors student I know theres some applicant (also applying for FA)from the neighboring town who had a ridicoulous junior schedule with 6 AP and 210 on his PSAT and got rejected from Exeter. I at first pondered why I got in and he didn’t. </p>
<p>Now my hypothesis why I got in and he did not was because simply I am an athletic recruit and Exeter already has enough 4.0 gpa students who are insanly smart. </p>
<p>This is just my hypothesis on the whole admission process theory. Sorry if I rambled</p>
<p>Hmm, that’s weird. Most of my EC’s were sports related. I play club soccer and I went on to play in the Liverpool FC youth program in England over the summer. o.o</p>
<p>sgu94928; I’m very sorry that your son did not get admitted into Exeter. He sounds like an amazing candidate. I was waitlisted at all the BS’s I applied to (except for Andover, who rejected me)… Not a lot of people were admitted at all, way too many qualified people have been rejected. Like someone said above, we’ll never know how they made their decisions!</p>
<p>I honestly THINK they don’t just look at SSAT scores and just academics. They probably concentrate in the essays and if they tell whoever reading it about who they are and what they love. I did HORRIBLE on the SSATs compared to all your children! But I still got accepted. I think my essays ECs and Recs saved me xD but I’m not 100% sure. So it MAY not be about just the academics (cuz I didn’t do well on the SSAT) it could be about them finding out who your child is as a person, student, etc. </p>