Chance me for BS: SPS, SAS, Hill, EHS, G-prep ("rare" humanities asian)

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

Hey there,
I’m a sophomore from an international school in Shanghai applying to repeat 10th grade in America.

As indicated by the title, my academic interests are writing, reading, geopolitics, history, and philosophy. However, I’m not too shabby at STEM either.

Grades: I’ve had alright but not spectacular grades in the past 3 years with usually 1 B+ mixed with A-, and A+s. The grades won’t be done by February 1st and next week is finals but here are my grades as they stand.

Precalculus: 90
PE: 99
Ap World History: 90
Honors English: 92
Jazz Ensemble: 93
Chinese: 95
Accelerated Chemistry: 87 (this class is pretty much universally agreed to be more difficult than AP BIO)
I’ve always taken honors courses and skipped Geometry in 9th grade.

My SSAT hasn’t come out yet but I have a PSAT of 1330.

My Rec letters should be strong as I am quite friendly with my teachers. A cool thing I should mention is that I actually contacted one of SPS’s trustees and called them up for a good chat as I actually first knew him for being a political pundit. I’m sure the admissions office will ask him about me.

Essay: I am definitely an above-average writer and can successfully connect interesting personal examples and stories. I would like to think I am an interesting character lmao.

Interviews:
I’m still waiting on some interviews but most of them went well. I do have some regrets about my St. Pauls one as I couldn’t form a specific personal connection with the interviewer (different personalities) and she cut me off once due to me “sounding scripted” when going off on a slightly unrelated tangent. (I drew a mindmap). The rest of the interview was fine and we had a few laughs with decent responses…

EC (past 2 years and some of them will overlap categories) :

  • Soccer player, played for regional clubs and won an individual achievement award in JV last year (submitted video for this)

  • Saxophone, I own both a tenor and alto and am the lead alto sax in the audition-level jazz band at my school. I also participate in regional honor bands (submitted video for this)

  • Theater, I’m a relatively outgoing person and played both a lead role and a side role in recent HS/MS productions. (submitted video for this)

  • Debate, I won a regional Debate competition and was the Best Speaker in the tournament. Currently on the varsity debate team and competes in other categories too.

  • MUN (Idk if I should mention this) Most improved delegate for my council at the citywide conference.

  • Academic Quiz Team. I do history bee and bowl

With Leadership:

  • Executive of Investment Club, another student and I won an investment competition last year and received around 700 USD cash prize

  • Student Representative, Elected as 1 of 3 reps out of 17 candidates

  • Co-Founder and President of a Political Discussion Club (very interesting as we have many different nationalities here)

Community and Misc:

  • Our school doesn’t have any mandatory community service programs here and I regret not applying for the National Honor Society after a recommendation.

  • During a 3-month long covid lockdown, I lead friends to clear the local pond of algae and played saxophone for stranded workers

  • I submit poems to the school literary magazines

  • I won a local photography competition (not mentioned in apps)

  • Nominated to give a speech on perseverance at an end of school assembly (MS)

The past 3 years have been laden with Covid lockdowns which really restrict competitions, foreign travel, and just a normal high school experience in general. I sort of use this as a sentimental hook for interviews and essays. I’m an adaptable and affable person that’s hopefully well-rounded. Feel free to ask me anything pertaining to my BS app!

Some insecure self-doubts I’ve been having are:

  1. Have I made as much use of my high school experience as other 10th-grade applicants?
  2. Does being an Asian interested in humanities make me special to the AO?
  3. Are my ECs sufficient and in-depth enough?
  4. Should I stop refreshing this page and just back to studying for finals?
2

Not sure how much of a hook it will be to use covid experiences. More like a crutch at this point. It’s not unique and everyone has their swan song about it. The committees may very well be sick of reading about it. It likely won’t help you stand out which is what you are looking to do especially applying as an international student from Asia which is a tough group to crack through.

1 Like
3

You have a shot somewhere. It’s hard to tell specifically. Your psat score is not particularly strong (nor is it terrible) are you sending it to all the schools?

Unless you had no internet during Covid lockdowns, were food insecure, all while taking care of your younger siblings your Covid story is not helpful. I’d strongly urge you not to lean on it. There were kids in the US who were out of school for 1.5 years or more and sat in fast food parking lots to use wifi to attend online classes.

You have a lot of ec’s. It’s hard to tell what you’re focused on, if anything. Make sure your application is cohesive and paints an accurate picture of who you are.

2 Likes
4

Definitely stop refreshing this page and go back to schoolwork!

You sound like a great candidate! No one here can chance you, but your personality shines through your writing, and I am sure you will go far, wherever you land. One thing you didn’t mention is whether you are full pay. If you are that will help. Good luck!

1 Like
5

Correct me if I’m wrong here, but I feel like writing about COVID can still make a strong essay if you make it about personal experiences that are unique to you and that are also applicable in other areas that’ll make you a good fit in the boarding school environment academically or socially. However, I agree that writing about COVID isn’t the strongest hook.

6

You are not wrong! Writing about literally any topic can be great or terrible – it’s what you say about the topic (and how it telates to you) that matters.

Covid lockdowns in China were a big deal, and I’d expect Admissions Offices are not in fact tired of reading about students’ experiences. In my opinion it would be potentially MUCH more interesting than reading about how getting cut from the team was the toughest obstacle overcome.

1 Like
7

Interesting point. I guess I’ve been reading too much western media to think that the Shanghai lockdowns were terrible. To be fair I didn’t know how much the story stood out. The general idea was that for up to 3 months each school year, I couldn’t leave my compound/neighborhood of around 100 acres.

8

I wish you good luck! Although for your question 2, I am not sure your profile stands out for rare humanities Asian student. This pitch may sound like a stereotype.

9

Therein lies the rub.

1 Like
10

experiences that are unique to you

Therein lies the rub.

Exactly this.

You aren’t the only applicant from Asia and thus not the only applicant who experienced this. There are other countries who also had strict lockdowns who have students applying as well. Schools and activities in some parts of the country had been shut for over a year. It is not unique at all. You will need to go much further than “I couldn’t go anywhere” to make covid a selling point.

1 Like
11

Amazing point (Especially that last sentence).

12

Why are people piling on to a (possible) 14 year old??

We cannot know if this applicant will get shut out or if they’ll get in everywhere they’ve applied. We haven’t seen the essays, we haven’t seen the recommendations, we don’t know this international school’s record placing it’s students at us boarding schools, we don’t know their financial status, among many factors.

Given that we are talking to an anxious kid, I would ask that we take a couple of seconds to think about tone, and how what we write will be perceived.

10 Likes
13

That you experienced covid is not unique. But if you discovered something about yourself during lockdown, something that is relevant to the person you are, I suspect it’s just fine.

People have written successful essays about themselves in the context of things everyone does - cooking dinner, going camping, playing a sport.

4 Likes
14

Definitely go back to studying for finals.

Your chances do depend on if you need financial need. However, I think your mix of extracurriculars make you a solid candidate, as I believe the combination of athlete and musician is quite attractive to boarding schools, especially ones with smaller student bodies. Of course, it depends on what the coaches and music folks think of your abilities, so hopefully your videos are good!

15

I didn’t actually mention that for any app lol. I just thought it might be uncommon based on personal experience and stereotypes.

16

Thanks, our school is pretty small 80-90 students a year but I have known classmates who have gone to Exeter and lville. Of course, this says nothing about me but I think we are a decent school for the size. I am going full pay.

2 Likes
17

We live in California and experienced an 18m lockdown. Unless you are using the experience to explain your absence from school the next year to briefly discuss your massive mental health meltdown or explaining that your grades declined because you were living in your car that year I’d let Covid go. Not because it wasn’t awful and hugely disruptive and changed your life and will mark you forever and you think you have something interesting to say about it. Because it did and you do. But so do a zillion other people and they have already said it.

As for, “rare” Asian and I have no idea if that is true. But although STEM is more popular in the US there are many Asian-Americans excelling in the humanities here.

I’d stress your other assets and really excellent EC and if you want to discuss specific pieces of writing I.e. maybe the extra pieces you submitted I think that is great. Good luck!

1 Like
18

I got my SSAT back, its 2376. I’ll probably be submitting that instead. I’d say I’m pretty devoted to all my ECs and showed depth in those fields with my essays, profile, and videos. Thanks for the advice.

19

Hopefully there is room for one more Covid essay because that was the backdrop of one of my daughter’s essays.

3 Likes
20

Covid was/is the single biggest, most transformative, impactful event of the past 100 years, experienced by every single person on the planet. And people are seriously saying don’t write about it??!!

Furthermore, as I understand it, lockdowns in China were an entirely different beast to lockdowns in California – or anywhere else in the world, for that matter.

Kids write essays about how curly hair affected them, and get into top schools. It’s not the curly hair, and it’s not covid. It’s what the kid has to say. And that, none of us can know. The essay could fall flat on its face, or be brilliant.

Look, none of us knows if Admissions Offices are sick of reading about covid, or really want to know how kids navigated it. it certainly is not the clear 3rd rail that writing about one’s mental health struggles is.

Since we don’t know so much, I prefer not to tell kids how bad their topic is, especially at this late date.

8 Likes