Andover & other schools sophmore admission

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>Hello, I'm going to be a freshmen this fall at my local high school (graduating class of 2016), I was too late in applying to the top tier boarding schools last year, so I'm applying this year as a freshmen for sophmore entrance to maximum of 4 schools. and I have a few questions I've been wondering about. </p>

<p>1) I know I'm most definitely applying to Andover, but i haven't exactly decided what the other schools will be. My parents are middle class, meaning my household family income is 60,000 and I have 4 younger siblings. (I'm the oldest) So i need to apply to school that will give me the highest chance of getting a full ride or cover a very high percentage of the tuition. Because if I get into a good school and they don't cover for the tuition, I can't go.
So what schools would you recommend that is very generous with financial aid?</p>

<p>2) Will they require you to submit your middle school transcript or just your freshmen year? because I mean I'm applying for sophmore, but I have to apply during freshmen winter so I would only have 1st quarter freshmen year grade or at the most, the second quarter grades. So will they ask for middle school transcripts? I'm kind of worried because I have all As and one B.</p>

<p>3) This is how my "resume" is filled with. Give me an idea of how strongly I stand for acceptance to Andover and other similar level of prestige prep schools.</p>

<p>All A Student.
Model United Nations (3 years)
Basketball since 3rd grade
2230 on my SATs taken in the beginning of 8th grade.
Qualified for Center For Talented Youth Intensive Learning Program.
Took my first AP class (CHEM) as a 8th grader, and scored 4 on the AP exam.
Have not taken SSATs yet.
Best subject science, worst subject math.
class president 7th grade.
active member of student gov.
Went to Bangladesh last summer to help victims of climate change through UNICEF.
Very outgoing and social.
Currently self teaching AP Bio this summer before high school starts.
My worry is that I'm only going to be in Geometry as a freshmen, and although that is considered advanced for a freshmen considering most freshmens in my school district takes algebra and adv students take geometry, and highly adv students take alg 2, i feel like this is a huge point take off to the admission offices. it's not that i suck at math entirely, but it takes me double the time of other classes to master it thoroughly.
former cellist.
wants to become a psychiatrist.</p>

<p>what are my chances of getting in? </p>

<p>*also, i applied to one boarding school last year that was mediocre, or fairly below that. i was admitted but they could only cover for half the tuition and boarding fees, considering that i would still have to pay over 20k a year, which is something i wasn't able to afford. so as much as i wanted to go to that school, i had to decline their offer. thus, i just need schools that i'm 100% sure will cover for tuition safely if i do get accepted. basically, what i'm asking from you is to name schools that i have a chance of getting accepted to and i have a fairly good chance of getting high financial aid from </p>

<p>As much detail and advice would be highly appreciated.
Thank you.</p>

2

<p>You’ll need transcripts for prior 3 years (7 - 9th in your case).</p>

<p>If you need significant FA, then you should be applying to two types of schools:</p>

<p>(1) schools that can afford to fund you, but where the odds are against your actually being admitted (e.g., Andover)</p>

<p>(2) schools that are less well known, where you would be an exceptional candidate and have a good chance of getting the funding you need.</p>

<p>Since you’ve already dismissed the second category of schools as “mediocre,” I wish you the best of luck getting admitted to the schools in category #1.</p>

3

<p>dodgersmom, the dissing of the school as “mediocre” also made me cringe</p>

4

<p>What amazes me about that kind of attitude is that the experience of attending boarding school - ANY boarding school! - is life changing. I don’t care if it’s a school that’s famous around the world or a school that no one’s ever heard of other than the kids who attended it. You get a great education, a variety of extracurricular offerings that only the luckiest students have available to them at home . . . and you learn independence and self-sufficiency. In a nutshell, you learn how to be a responsible adult. The day a boarding school kid starts college, that experience makes all the difference in the world . . . you’re self confident and self aware, while the kids around you are still trying to figure out how to survive their first night away from home!</p>

<p>So, to all you would-be boarding school students who don’t want to apply to "School X because it’s “mediocre” . . . good. Save the places for someone who’ll appreciate them!</p>

5

<p>Lawrenceville admitted about 90 new sophomores this year, which is a lot.</p>

6

<p>I’m with dodgersmom on this one, but offer this additional advice:</p>

<ul>
<li>There are a handful of schools that offer exceptional aid to families whose HHI is under a certain threshold ($75-80k/year). Find those schools and put a few on your “apply to” short list. While St. Andrew’s (DE) is not one of these schools, it is the only school commonly discussed here besides Andover that promises to meet need/is need-blind.</li>
</ul>

<p>Also, note that there is a “Chances” subforum for threads like the one (or two!?!?) that you started in the main CC/BS forum.</p>

7

<p>oh god we have to show 3 years of transcript? I didn’t even try in 7th/8th grade!!</p>

8

<p>@abss, because middle school kids mature earlier/later, some families have a deliberate strategy to enroll their child as a “repeat”, to give the kid an opportunity to develop time-management skills and to build a competitive CV. In fact, some schools will advise the kid to apply as a repeat.</p>

9

<p>Why would anyone apply to a school if they found it “mediocre or slightly below that”?
If I have any advice to give it is to only apply to schools you actually want to attend.</p>