Hi everyone, I’m applying for boarding (11th grade) for 2023. Im a sophomore!
Race (apparently its important?): Black
Gender: Female
Note: Previously applied last year for boarding 10th grade. Marked with “*”
Schools:
Choate*
Deerfield*
Hotchkiss
Thacher
Loomis
Concord
Webb (Cali)
Putney
Exeter
Suffield
Kent
St. Pauls
Grades:
8th grade: A’s,B’s, C’s and 1 D in biology. That D is stressing me out so bad that I feel like it might be a factor in rejecting me. I might lose some points because of it, my fault.
9th grade: First Sem (school district does letter grades)
English Honors - A
Spanish 1 - A
Applied Engineering Technology - B
Alegbra 2 Honors - B
Global Studies - A
PE - A
Forensic Science - A
9th grade: Second Sem (transfered to new school)
Spanish 1 - 99
Theater - 100
PE - 97
English Honors - 98
Alegbra 2 Honors - 92
Forensic Science - 99
Geography - 97
Sophomore Year (first semester):
(Dual Enrollment) College Success - A
World History Honors - 99%
AP Seminar - 100%
AP Enviornmental- 90%
English 2 Honors - 91%
Spanish 2 - 99%
Geometry - 97%
ECs:
Track and Field
Intern (Basically introduced clients to the company and what the mission and goal was)
Writer (Write Articles about social injustice to around 1.4k people on Instagram and on organization website)
Intern (First Gen Support HR intern, did Interview notes and wrote emails for outreach, big stuff I guess?)
Sophomore Student Council President (organized a fundraiser and raised 1.1k for our Valentine’s Day dance)
Standardized Testing:
SAT - 640 reading 480 math
Note: I have a cousin at Deerfield
I’m not sure about what else is going to happen later. Mostly worried about that D in middle school. Repeat sophomore is out the window by the way, hate that idea ngl
Are you scheduled to take any other test? What year is this from. Last minute SSAT? Your SAT is low and I would not submit unless required and then try and submit something else. I am worried that these schools aren’t the best fit academically . Can you apply to more test optional schools?
majority of these schools are test optional. But because of my reading score i chose to submit them. Webb and Loomis? are test blind. This is from the December 3rd SAT
I am not trying to pick on you but I don’t think you should submit the score unless required. Was this actually the PSAT10, which is using a different scale ? Or maybe I am not understanding something. But if I am not the scores does not strengthen your profile.
You seem like you have some really cool ECs – a couple of internships, writing about social justice, and being your sophomore class president. And I’m guessing that you are deeply involved in track and field since you listed that before any of those! So I think you have a really interesting profile! I hope you leaned into those items and had some takeaways and stories to share in your essays and interviews. A school would LOVE that profile I think.
The less great news is that your academics might have a few question marks, and 11th grade is a really hard grade to ask a highly rigorous school to take a risk. You must hit the ground running in 11th grade. A school reading your app is kind of left wondering: is this student super solid? If so, why did they have Cs and even a D just a few years ago? Submitting soft SATs is kind of adding to the question mark. I don’t think either of these issues is a dealbreaker, and they don’t define how successful you can be! But they do make you a bit of a risk for 11th grade, especially if the school doesn’t typically take in 11th graders beyond filling in a few attrition spots.
If you are really interested in going to BS, I might consider doing a little research today or tomorrow on finding some schools that plan for 11th grade as an entry point. You can add a school in about five minutes by just clicking a few buttons on SAO. This will do two things: 1. it will increase the number of slots that you will be competing for at that given school and 2. It will mean the school will have a deliberate orientation and on-ramping process for you when/if you do get there, which will also make admissions feel less stressed about taking on a student who has a couple of questions marks. It’s really a win-win to do this, in my opinion.
Finally, please know that none of this means anything about you as a human being! You are awesome and bright and your future awaits! I’m just thinking practically about how I would strategically set you up for a successful March 10th if you were my kid!
Optional means you can submit scores if you choose to and schools will then use them as part of your application. Blind means that they don’t want scores and will not look at them or consider them even if they have them. For example, some high schools put your SAT or ACT score on your transcript and you have no choice in the matter. If that were the case for a student, then a test blind school would receive the scores, but they would not consider them.