Hey guys,
Thank you for coming on here! I’m currently applying to a couple of boarding schools for a repeat sophomore year. For the sake of my privacy, I won’t be listing them all, but my top choices are currently Choate, Exeter, and Lawrenceville.
Here is a summary of my stats, extracurriculars, teacher recommendations, interviews, etc:
I attended an extremely competitive private school (top 30 in the nation) in New Jersey before moving to a public school in a new state this year.
With that being said, at my old school, I had a 4.0 UW and 4.5 W and took all honors and AP classes. My current school goes by a 4x4 block system (4 classes this semester, 4 next semester). I ended this semester with 100% in Honors English, AP World, Honors Precalculus, and an A in Honors Chemistry, leaving me with a 4.0 UW and 4.8 W. Next semester, I’ll be taking AP Statistics, AP Human Geography, AP Chemistry, and Honors Biology, as well as self-studying for AP Latin.
I recently took the SSAT and scored 97% overall (99% verbal, 96% math, 89% reading). I’m kind of concerned about the reading part, but I’m not going to fret about it.
Moving onto teacher recommendations, my personal recommendation and special-interest (Art) are all going to be written by teachers at my old school, and I received a few special school awards from those teachers (each teacher can nominate up to 3 students). My current Math and English recommendations should be really strong as well (9-10/10).
My interviews all went extremely well, and one of the school’s interviewer literally said, “I’m going to be your biggest advocate, and any school would be lucky to have you,” though I’m going to take that with a grain of salt because he might’ve said that to everyone.
As for extracurriculars, I was supposed to be a section editor for my nationally recognized school newspaper, and I dedicated a lot of my freshman year to journalism.
I’ve been heavily invested in art and Classics as well. I’ve won a lot of JCL awards (NJCL advanced certamen team member, state JCL 2nd place certamen, 1st at a lot of NJCL tests, gold NLE x2, gold NLVE, gold NLEE), as well as served as the historian for my school’s JCL chapter, where my t-shirt design and scrapbook won 1st at a state-wide competition. Classics is definitely my hook.
As for art, I’m attaching a portfolio showcasing my art, creative writing (which I haven’t won any awards for), and journalism. I’ve been drawing for 10+ years now, and I believe my art will be a huge boost to my application. I write for fun, so I attached a portfolio of my poetry, prose, and analytical writing.
Though I just play piano for fun now, in middle school, I performed at Carnegie Hall after winning the American Protege International Competition and also won a bunch more competitions and attended a bunch of music-related festivals that I’m not going to list.
I also ran track for 1 year in middle school, but I’m not outstanding or anything. It was just to keep myself healthy. I also participated in the school play, but discontinued that after 2 productions.
I’m more of a humanities person, so I believe my short answer questions are going to be written quite well. My biggest concern is that I’m going to be waitlisted or rejected from all the schools that I’m applying to because I don’t really stand out extracurricular-wise (as in, I haven’t won any awards in creative writing or art). Any input would be greatly appreciated because I feel like I’m just being paranoid. I know the people who reply to these “chance me’s” aren’t exactly prophets, but a little reassurance would be nice.
Thanks, and Happy Holidays!!