<p>Thank you for all of your replies. This is all helping greatly. My son is a very good student. A/P placement at High School and mainly As. I just don't think that he is the best at taking tests. His teacher recommendations are all very good and he is a good water polo player on top of ice hockey - so we will have to see. I think that if I am understanding all your replies, there is no magic formula to entrance, however would you all agree that schools focus on both academics and athletics equally? They want to have the best of the crop in both fields.</p>
<p>haha no you do not have to play athletics daily. in fact right now I am "sliding" for the winter term, and doing absolutely no sport. You are allowed to do that for one term. for the rest of the terms if you do not wish to do athletics daily, competitively, or intensely, you can do after schools activities ranging from community service to yoga to beginning tennis to fencing to basics or Fit. Basics and Fit dont meet every day, and they are for people who want to stay in shape without doing really rigorous acitivity.</p>
<p>the dorms range in size from 4 to 45 people. the smallest dorms are available by request, if you want to "stack" a dorm with only your friends. Freshman get singles a lot of the time but not always. if you do get a roommate, they try to pick someone who is compatable with you; you fill out a roommate preference sheet once you are accepted. i will admit that they do not always do a perfect fit paring roommates, but it is a hard task.</p>
<p>the above was a reply to esahopeful</p>
<p>Thanks for answering my questions!!!</p>
<p>Esa,
Why not try something new when you enter prep school. It's a great time to spread your wings.</p>
<p>I will, it'll just take a lot or work. :)</p>
<p>Dude, I looked at our list, and you definitely want to go to ANDOVER!!!!! We "Andoverians" are wicked awesome! Come join us! Andover rocks!</p>
<p>So are the valedictorians at these prep schools generally all academic recluses.</p>
<p>Sorry for being off topic, but did anyone find Exeter's one and a half <em>handwritten</em> page limit for <em>two</em> essays ridiculous? (You have to fit both essays on the question sheet) That's like one page typed, double spaced, for two essays... How did everybody fit their essays</p>
<p>I edited and wrote in my smallest writing. got pretty small by the end. haha</p>
<p>oh man tekno I was just about to ask the same thing!!
I mean, the sheet says to write essays, yet the amount of space you are given is more suitable for short answers</p>
<p>mine is like 1800 words altogether, thats like 5 pages double spaced and i dont know how im going to fit it!</p>
<p>i guess we're just gonna have to write really small, luckily we can give a typed version too</p>
<p>how long were you'lls essays?</p>
<p>Yeah I wrote as absolutely small, yet visible, as possible and came very, very, very close to running out of space.</p>
<p>What I did was print out paper that had lines that filled to the end, then wrote in small, but not as normally small as I would have done, font. Mine were about, I'm guessing about 1800 words- I did a short essay on the front, then my big essay, my essay that I worked forever on, my forte essay, on the back. It was so evil though!!!! I want to scream, but it's all over!!!! Yay!!! Free til March 10, then watch me hyperventilate... lol</p>
<p>Okay, I exagerated... it was only about 1000 words...</p>
<p>Which two essays did you choose, Zafira?</p>
<p>I chose the 'jot a note to a future classmate' and an experience where you felt challenged.</p>
<p>You?</p>
<p>I chose the challenged/overwhelmed/successful one and the look out any window of your home and what would you change.</p>
<p>what did you use as topics?</p>
<p>for the personal experience (note) I talked about my mom's death and for the challenged, I did one about a girl who I taught how to read (she was an uber brat)</p>
<p>for the challenged/overwhelmed one I talked about how my mother almost died (really, really close) from double pneumonia. For the window thingy I talked about how i'd like to see more diversity in my community.</p>
<p>Give your mom my sympathy- sorry about that... I see what you mean about diversity... I mean, since the part of California, in certain parts there's lots of diversity but I want more to be at these prep schools. I always feel guilty applying to these schools because I'm caucasian, but I've wanted to go since fifth grade!!! And also, at least I'm a somewhat minority because I'll be from the west coast and am a female... though that doesn't really help...</p>