Application, again!

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

Hi,

I am a 14 year old applying to US boarding schools as a sophomore. I am currently in a private school in India, and am studying under the GCSE board. The schools are Exeter, Andover, Choate, Hotchkiss, and Lawrenceville.
I applied last year too, but was waitlisted to most of them probably due to bad SSAT scores. The schools kept in touch, with the admission officers reaching out whenever needed.
I have good overall grades, mostly As and A+, I play basketball and have won at a national level, I have led the basketball team twice, I have been part of the student council twice and have led 2 research projects. I am part of my school’s photography club and have an Instagram for my photos.
I have a community service project too, which was helping nearly 1500 people get food for a week minimum during COVID, and was the first teenager to do it in my vicinity. After my doing, there have been a lot of other recent projects, with almost the same objectives as mine.
In my country SSAT is not available this year but ISEE is. Since the standardised scores are optional too, what is your recommendation?

Also, how will the transition from grade 9 GCSE to the grade 10 USA curriculum>

What are my chances?

2

When you say bad SSAT scores - what do you mean? That could mean a 90% or a 30%. I just want to be clear before I say anything.

3

I got a 2048 which was in the 65th percentile :frowning:

4

That’s on the low side for the schools you mention, but there are many wonderful schools where a score like that would be fine. Expand your list to include some of those schools.

5

This was last year, I plan on giving the SSATs and one ISEE this year too.

6

You should still widen your net.

Start by deciding on what attracts you to the idea of boarding school.

What would your dream school be like? Some things to consider:

  1. What type of learning style do you think works best for you? What type of learning environments inspire you?
  2. Teaching philosophy of the schools.
  3. Boarding policies. For example, some schools have daily room inspections (although more lax during Covid). Some don’t. If you’re going to be living at school, what goes on in the dorms becomes really important.
  4. Do you plan on going to university in India or US? That should be a consideration when you look at curricula.