<p>Hey guys, this school year i will be a sophomore and will apply to a couple HADES, as well as a couple other boarding schools. I've heard that the chances are much higher applying as a retake, but just how much? I think i have a very big disadvantage because, although my ECs are good, my grades this past year were, well, terrible haha. I'm hoping to work my butt off and get the straight A's this first semester of soph year. Anyway, I need all the help i can get because I hate my public highschool and am so in love with these schools. I have never applied to any of these before so that might also be a disadvantage. I always thought that since it's Junior year, the people that are applying are people that didn't get in freshmen or sophomore year, meaning that they probably aren't the brightest. So yeah.... can anyone give me some insight on this? Thanks!</p>
<p>If you didn’t get great grades last year do a repeat year if you want a chance. The top schools won’t take a chance on someone they’re not sure can handle the work. That would simply be a waste of their time. If you do a repeat year it sounds like it will help you in many ways.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be repeating my bad year though. I am applying this year… meaning i will be a sophomore when i apply and if i repeat I wouldn’t be repeating my bad freshman year grades but my (hopefully) good sophomore ones.</p>
<p>Alright well, it’s your decision. My advice is to do it if you feel it can benefit you in multiple ways (not just better chance of admission).</p>
<p>Well, I do want to spend as many years as I can at one of these schools because I am kind of madly in love with them… haha ^^ The problem is that we will have a lot of trouble affording 3 years, and i think that it would be extremely awkward to be a year older then everyone in your grade. I understand that i shouldn’t just be thinking about a better chance of admissions… I just want the greatest chance i can get because my grades last year weren’t exactly the greatest. Anyway, thanks for your reply.</p>
<p>At most schools, it is significantly more difficult to get in as an eleventh grader. At some schools, space in the class is based on attrition, but I believe all of the larger HADES reserve space. However, they don’t set aside that many spots. The year I applied, overall acceptance was about 1 in 5 and 11th grade acceptance was about 1 in 7. Naturally I don’t know about the people who were rejected, but I’d assume after two rejections, most people would take a hint. My year, none of those who matriculated had applied before. And a disproportionately large number were “hooked,” but not in the CC definition of the word. I mean they were just insanely awesome at something. For example, we had a guy who made Physics Olympiad, a girl who’d finished high school but didn’t want to go to college so young, a guy who became captain of the hockey team despite attending for only one year prior, etc. There were also a disproportionate number of internationals. The overall percentage is 7%, and if I’m remembering everyone, we had 42%. </p>
<p>I have no idea what acceptance is like for 10th grade, a lot of this could be true for them too, but based on percentages alone, it’s easier than 11th. If your only goal is to get in the door, apply as a 10th grader. But make sure it’s what you really want to do. I never considered it, largely because I’d graduate a year after my class at home. Just don’t forget that while your friends are partying it up senior year, you’ll be working your tail off to have one last set of grades to show colleges. And your senior year, you’ll still have strict rules, like sign-in and room visiting hours, while they’re enjoying their first year of college. It’s not that uncommon to repeat, 21% of the new 11th graders did it my year as did a large number from other grades. Just make sure it’s what you want. There’s no point being accepted if you’re not going to be happy there.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s that bad (going to be repeating at SPS). You have your close friends back home (or atleast I do), then there were the people that were just sort of around. I don’t mind seeing people graduate before me, as I probably won’t still be talking to most of them by senior year.</p>
<p>Oh yea, and you most likely won’t be older than everybody in your grade. I looked at the birthdays for SPS and I’m towards the older end, but definitely not alone there.</p>
<p>Haha… Tapper, you always post the best responses on my threads! You make getting in sound incredibly tough. I have a couple of questions… Firstly, were you one of these “hooked” students? Secondly, how many of the kids you knew that matriculated were “hooked.” Were there any people you knew that were the “average” elite boarding school student and got in for 11th? or was everyone just simply amazing? thanks for the reply.</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone has any idea how many of the new 9th grade/junior/prep students at the HADES schools are repeats? I’ve heard that BS’s admit quite a few athletes as repeats in 10th/11th grade or as PG’s, but I don’t think I’ve seen any stats on the number of 9th grade repeats??</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to make getting in sound impossible, nor did I mean to make repeating a year sound like you would be condemned to a lifetime of unhappiness. I just wanted to dispel the notion that 11th grade admissions was easier than other grades and to point out that there are more important things than getting in the door. I personally suspect I would have been unhappy and never considered it for the reasons above. However, I only know one person who regretted repeating out of the ten repeats I know. The person in question was also a force repeat (ie applied for one grade and was admitted for another). </p>
<p>As for your questions…I suspect that my great love of math may have helped my admissions. I applied with two years of high school, five math classes, and as captain of the math team. So yes, I think for admissions purposes, I was. However, I was far from the best once I got there.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, I’m not an admissions officer. But if I had to guess, my year it was something like 25% hooked academically, 37.5% athletically (including the four repeats), 12.5% artistically, and the remaining 25% I either didn’t know well or don’t think they were hooked. I’m also not hugely familiar with the freshmen class, but I think the majority of the all around decent type are accepted then. On the other hand, high school is when many people figure out their passions, so maybe they just have yet to find it. <em>shrugs</em> </p>
<p>At my school, there was a preconception that people who get in for 11th are amazing at life. For the first couple weeks, when everyone is meeting all the new students we’d get a lot of “You’re a new upper? Wow.” I think this is largely because new uppers tend to be disproportionately powerful their senior year and because the percentage accepted is lowest, rather than because it’s that much harder. If I had to guess I’d probably say that admissions in order of difficulty would be 11th, 12th/PG, 10th, 9th, and since there’s a stereotype that most new 12th/PGs are either athletic or international, there seems like a giant difficulty gap. I think this is somewhat unfounded. Sure, admissions probably would have been insane not to accept 21-33% of the matriculated new 11th graders, but most of the rest of us were just lopsided (noticeably better at one thing, all around decent at everything else). Above when I said “insanely awesome at something” I may just have been displaying my new upper pride. There were a few that are insane, but most are just impressive.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I have no clue how many repeat ninth graders there are. I knew at least two. Perhaps someone who came in as a ninth grader can answer this. However, I suspect that unless you call the admissions office, you’ll get a low estimate. People on here will probably answer from experience and it’s not like being a repeat is the first thing people tell you about themselves. For most of the repeats I know, I only found out on birthdays or when age happened to come up in conversation.</p>
<p>Allowing my new upper bias to shine through once more, another awesome thing about coming in as an upper is that it makes 11th grade crazy fun. The three year uppers are tired of the rules and the work their hardest year, the two years are marginally less so, and to you everything is new and awesome. Then, when everything is old and less exciting, it’s senior year anyway, so you get senior privileges and everything is still awesome. And at my school, despite the fact that we were really, REALLY different, the new uppers were very close, partially because there were so few of us, partially because they place new students of the same grade in small groups in various dorms, and partially because we all took english together. It’s like an instant group of twenty friends, just add tuition. I’m sure this is true to a degree with new lowers, there are just way more of them.</p>