Chance me for Exeter!

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

Hey, all!

I know March 10 is coming up soon and I’ll know my results soon, but I couldn’t resist making a “chance me” thread. As many of you can tell from the title, I’ll be applying to Exeter (and only Exeter) this year. Personally, I have absolutely no idea how I fare in the application process (this is my first experience with applying to regular session boarding school), so I’m curious on how the CC community will judge me. Now, without further ado, here are my general statistics:

Gender/Ethnicity/School/Financial Status:
Female, Asian, private day school, full pay

Applying for:
Grade 9

SSAT:
98 percentile overall. 97 on verbal, 96 on reading, 95 on quantitative.

Essays:
I think I did a “good” job on my essays (if I was to grade them going strictly by a school grading rubric), but content-wise they were quite bland and I wouldn’t consider them very eye-catching. They certainly weren’t bad in any way, but they weren’t super special or outstanding. I wrote them all by myself, but my mom did look over them to make sure they sounded as fluid as possible.

Interview:
I had a really nice interview! We had a really good time talking about Exeter life and comparing the Exeter campus to how it was before when he was in school to how it is now (I attended the Exeter Summer program, so I’ve been on campus before). I also made it clear why I wanted to go to Exeter: I had never thought of applying for a boarding school until I went to Exeter Summer, and I loved almost every aspect of it - the amazing students and teachers, opportunities, and the Harkness method. We also talked about extracurriculars and I asked questions about Exeter life and his life after Exeter.

Grades:
All in the A- to A+ range.

Recommendations/School Report:
I got recommendations from 3 teachers: my math, English, and band teacher. For math, I should’ve gotten a good recommendation. I do very well in class, and I’ve gotten great comments from him on my report card. The same goes for my English teacher, but I know him better than I know my math teacher. I participate often in class, and he also left a great comment for me on my report card (but a report card comment doesn’t determine their recommendation for me when they know I’m not going to see it). My band teacher is the only teacher I know will give me an outstanding comment, since she regards me as the best player in my section and I’ve been in the band program at our school for 4 years (I also have an A+ in the class).

I’m a little scared for my school report since I don’t know my counselor very well at all. I’m not sure how that’ll affect my chances, but I think getting to know my counselor more personally would’ve helped her get a better idea of who I am.

Exeter Summer:
I’m not sure if going to Exeter Summer affected my chances at all, but I guess it showed how I could be independent and could survive in a boarding school type of environment. During the summer school, I did well in all my classes and contributed a lot during discussions. However, I didn’t get honors in any classes (in my final comments from my teachers, my literature teacher said I did a great job and would have gotten honors if I spoke up a little more near the end of the summer session). But overall, it was a was a life-changing experience and motivated me to apply for Exeter’s regular session.

Extracurriculars/Achievements:

  • Tennis (5-6 years)
  • MUN (school travel team)
  • Orphanage Club (community service)
  • Student Council
  • Theater (School Musical)
  • Trombone (4 years)
  • Visual Arts (I sell my art online, and wrote about the significance of art to me in my essay)
  • 6th Grade Math Award
  • Honor roll in 6th and 7th grade
  • Won 1st place in a magazine cover contest in 5th grade, 1st place in a t-shirt design contest in 6th

Overall, I’m really hoping to get in, but I know there are many more qualified applicants than me. I wish the best of luck to all the other BS applicants out there :slight_smile: No matter our admissions results, remember that everything happens for a reason, and to make the best out of your situation!

2

Hi!

I’m not applying to Exeter this year, but I applied to a lot of other top schools (including the forever-superior Andover :smiley: )

Obviously, test scores and grades are up to standard, along with recs (I’m assuming).

In my opinion, Exeter Summer should definitely help you in the process! I’m guessing that they would look back into your files or “report cards” or whatever they do from the Summer Program, and use that as an opportunity to get a description of you from an Exeter-teacher’s standpoint: potentially super helpful in my opinion!

Are you possibly an “impact athlete”? Have you spoken to coaches?

Have you done any out-of-school ECs? I know that they like to see that you’re motivated out of the classroom, as well. Was the magazine cover award outside of school?

How good are you at your instruments? Were you ever in contact with music teachers? Did you send in multimedia?

Bummer about your essays :-S : you really can manipulate the prompts to fit an answer that’s super individual! If you end up reapplying next year, note that individuality helps a ton!

Overall, I would say that you have a pretty good shot (if anybody can say that for a school as selective as Exeter)!

If you’re an impact athlete, that would help a ton!

Also: what region of the US are you from? This could be helpful too, if you are from an underrepresented state or region!

Best of luck!

3

@Nico.campbell , thank you so much for the thoughtful response :slight_smile:

Unfortunately, I don’t consider myself an “impact athlete.” I guess you could call me intermediate/advanced since I’ve been playing tennis for quite a long time, but I haven’t won any tournaments in the past (I haven’t competed before, I just play with a coach). Oh well. On the bright side, I’m motivated in tennis outside of school.

As for my instruments, yes! I guess you could call me an “impact trombonist”? However, it’s the same with sports - I haven’t had any notable achievements in the area to distinguish myself from others. And it’s really a bummer, since I didn’t think of contacting the music teachers at Exeter or submitting multimedia. If I were to reapply, I would definitely make sure to prepare something for the music teachers.

Just to reiterate what I think about my essays: I don’t know whether I’m being too harsh on myself, but I still stick to the stance that my essays aren’t brilliant or eye-catching. Hopefully, I’m being too critical, haha.

And I’m an international student, so I’m not from the U.S. at all. I live in Taiwan (Asia) and am Taiwanese and part pacific-islander (I have Taiwanese aboriginal blood in my family). Not so sure if this will be a plus for my application or not, since I’m coming from Asia, but a part of Asia that I assume would have less applicants. Also, I’m not sure if I count as an URM?

All in all, thank you so much for the response, Nico! Best of luck to you, too!

P.S., “superior” is not the word I would use to describe Andover, but it’s your opinion :wink:

4

Thank you for the thoughtful response, @Nico.campbell!

Unfortunately, I do not consider myself an “impact athlete”. I’m in an intermediate/advanced level (since I’ve been playing with a coach for 5-6 years), but I haven’t won any tournaments in the past (since I don’t compete). Oh well. At least this shows that I’m motivated outside the classroom, though.

As for instruments, yes! I guess you could call me an “impact trombonist”? However, during the application process, I didn’t think of contacting Exeter’s music teachers or submitting any multimedia. If I ever reapply, I definitely will make sure to do those things. I’m hoping that my band teacher’s recommendation will give the school an idea of how well I do musically.

To reiterate my opinion on my essays: I don’t know whether I’m being too strict on myself, but I’m sticking to my stance that they weren’t brilliant or eye-catching. This is also something I would improve on if I were to reapply, as I didn’t get much time to write my essays (not to mention, I had to re-write one 3 times just to get it to match the prompt). Hopefully, I’m being too critical, haha!

I’m actually an international student from Taiwan (Asia), and my ethnicity is Taiwanese/pacific islander, since I have Taiwanese aborigine blood in my family. I’m not too sure whether this will decrease or increase my chances since, on one hand, I’m from Asia and there are a lot of BS applicants from here. But, Exeter might look at my region as simply “Taiwan,” which may increase my chances, assuming that Taiwan doesn’t have as many applicants as other Asian countries. I also don’t know if I qualify as a URM.

Again, thank you for the response, Nico! Good luck as well!

P.S., using “superior” isn’t the adjective I’d use to describe Andover, but that’s your own opinion :wink:

5

You seem highly qualified. I think it’s a toss up. You don’t qualify as an URM.

6

@jkookie I play the baritone, so there is a chance we both will be in the low-brass section of the Exeter Band next year! Good luck!

7

@applyer1, I sure hope so! :slight_smile: Good luck to you as well!

8

Only two days… good luck :)>-

9

One day!!! @Nico.campbell @jkookie

10

@applyer1 @Nico.campbell Less than 12 hours!!!

11

@nico.campbell @jkookie JUST OVER 8!!!

12

Update: I got into Exeter! :slight_smile: Thanks for all the support, everyone <3 It still feels unreal to me, but I hope you all get into the schools that are best for you~