Andover, Exeter, or Stay?

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>Hi everyone, I'm going to be in eighth grade this fall (2009) and I'm thinking seriously about applying to Andover and Exeter for ninth grade. My grandmother has been talking about it but my mom doesn't want me to go to boarding school. The school I'm at now is a good one, but I got straight A's last year with barely any work and I really feel like it's not challenging me enough. But I've done a lot of research on Andover and Exeter and I feel like I probably won't get accepted and if I do, I'll be way out of my league. Basically, it seems to me that my current school is too easy, but a good school like Andover or Exeter would be too hard. Here are some of my current grades and activities and can I please get some feedback about whether or not I might have a chance at being accepted to Andover and Exeter? Please be honest, I'd rather not apply if there's no hope. If you do think there's hope, maybe some comments on which school you think I'd be better suited to? Thanks! </p>

<p>6th grade: all A's, I was in a special reading group with my two friends who are also advanced readers and we read The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett in a month (in case you don't know, it's about 1000 pages), the same two friends and I were in a special group in math and we learned some basic algebra, I was in chorus and band at school, and I often had to do extra credit projects because I finished things before the rest of my class. </p>

<p>7th grade: A or A+ averages in all subjects, the occasional B on an assignment but it never affected my average, I was in advanced math and made it into Algebra 1 for next year because of my 97% on our 3 hour long final, I was in the school musical Beauty and the Beast as a lot of minor parts, I was in chorus and band but I'm dropping band for next year, and I took French, like I have since I was in kindergarten. Oh, and I don't mean to brag but at the beginning of the year in math, we took a test that covered a lot of stuff and my teacher said that normally people don't do as well as I did and she was afraid I would be bored in class. I really don't mean to brag but I think that might be important, especially since she was right and I didn't learn much at all in advanced math this past year because I knew everything already. </p>

<p>Some miscellaneous information: I love to read, write, and hang out with my friends so if there's no chance of a really good social life at these schools, please tell me so I'll know. I'm a bit of a procrastinator but when I need to get something done, I get obsessive and get it done. Being a night owl, I'm used to sitting through seven hours of school on five hours of sleep but I refuse to wake up before six o'clock. I've been taking tennis lessons outside of school on a weekly basis for three years (I've heard about sports being a requirement at Andover/Exeter?), and I've been taking piano lessons since I was four. </p>

<p>I don't know how much of that info is helpful/useless or if you need more but please, feedback would be really helpful. Please be honest, thanks!</p>

2

<p>You have some good qualitiies and will be in the run if you apply for A & E, but apply to a few more schools in different tiers unless these two schools are the only ones you would consider being a boarding student.</p>

3

<p>If you really want to go to A/E then give it a shot, but if you want to go to a good boarding school, ditto the person above me.</p>

4

<p>Thanks but I’m more interested in Andover and Exeter and if I don’t accepted, I think I’ll be okay at my current school. Do you think it would be worth it for me to pay for the SSAT registration and the $40 fee for the Andover application?</p>

5

<p>I really don’t think you need to play a sport in order to get into A/E. It just helps but other EC’s usually make up for it.</p>

6

<p>Your record is great especially the book reading (I like reading too) but you should add some community service and maybe a club or 2.</p>

7

<p>Also, add an academic extracurricular.</p>

8

<p>I was planning on working on the school newspaper this upcoming year, would that help? And my family owns a bookshop so I was going to start working at our bookshop for some small pay. My town is small so the best club I might have is the musical we do every year. For an academic extracurricular, do you have any suggestions? I also go around all our dirt roads with my friend for a few hours every green-up day and collect trash, would that work as community service? Or should I do something else? And I don’t know if it’s any help, but I’m doing a People-To-People program next summer where I’ll go abroad for a few weeks with a group of people. Thanks for all the help, guys!</p>

9

<p>Model Un, Debate, Mock Trial, Newspaper.</p>

10

<p>With all respect to the people giving you advice, most of us are doing it from one data point (self or kid). I can tell you that my daughter didn’t have any of the EC’s soontoboard mentions. Most incoming 9th graders wouldn’t even have had those options available.</p>

11

<p>You don’t have to have them, and yes, it’s true, some places do not offer any of them. I’m just saying they definitely help set you apart from others. Most people posting here lack an EC like that. Lemonade is right, don’t worry yourself if you can’t find one.</p>

<p>I myself wasn’t offered all of those. Only a couple.</p>

12

<p>Cleaning up trash would count as community service, but I suggest you join a community service organization. I am sure you can find many and join one, or even better, try creating a new community service program in your area. </p>

<p>But then again, I love volunteering, so I do LOTS of volunteer work everywhere I go. Your work would probably be accepted so I wouldn’t worry that much. But if you want to stand out then I would suggest doing a lot more.</p>

13

<p>Okay, thanks for all the advice. Is there anything else that might help? And if anyone has taken the SSAT, what kind of stuff should I be studying? I’m not asking for answers, just general information I could study to help.</p>

14

<p>I used the princeton review’s test prep book for the ssat, which I thought was really helpful. It’s pretty thorough, and I felt well-prepared when I took the test, even though that was all that I had used to study.</p>

15

<p>How can I get that?</p>

16

<p>I used Petersons and I am planning on using princeton but you should go to Barnes and Nobles or Borders</p>

17

<p>Oh, you can buy something like that at a bookstore? And is it called Princeton Review’s Test Prep Book or is it something else?</p>

18

<p>Princeton Review: Cracking the SSATs, 2009 Edition</p>

<p>That’s what mine says. I also have the Kaplan one. I couldn’t find it at Indigo Chapters or Coles so I went to a university bookstore… They had a lot there. :)</p>

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<p>Okay, thanks, I’ll check it out. Would you say it’s really helpful or should I look into some other books too?</p>

20

<p>do you go to a public or private school souflizzle317</p>