Hello, your grades are pretty good for the schools you are applying to. Your SSAT score is interesting, I never knew someone could be so perfect at vocab and English but get a 33%ile in math. The math on the upper level SSAT is just 5th-7th grade basic math which is kind of concerning but nevertheless very impressed by your English scores (I did not do nearly as well last year!). I would say maybe don’t submit it because of the math part? But also your schools aren’t very competitive so it’s fine and atleast they get to see how good you are at English. No instruments, sports, or large passions/extracurricular commitments is detrimental, but also most of your schools aren’t very competitive either so if you portray yourself well in your essays it’s fine. You have a couple cool awards, so that will help make up for it. Just make sure to rip your heart out on your essays and supplements and make them really want you. It’s harder to get in since you’re FA, but I think you have a good chance at any of these schools. I wouldn’t worry about FA too much, just apply and whatever they give you is what happens, you can’t control it but usually BS provide a good amount. However, I’m more confused yet intrigued by your selection of schools. Tilton, Brewster, Kents Hill, St. Johnsbury, and Millbrook are all rural winter sports schools with very small student bodies. Considering you don’t play any winter sports or any sports at all, that’s kind of strange. I’ve never heard of Christchurch or Virginia Episcopal School before (I’m from Massachusetts and know mostly NE boarding schools so VA is a stretch). How come no Lawrenceville or Blair or Peddie (since you are from NJ?). Why aren’t you atleast aiming for a few better or more well known schools? Maybe not Exeter or Andover, but there are many schools you could aim for inbetween? If you go to a top 20 public high school in NJ, that’s gotta be around top 500 US News & World Report national, which isn’t the greatest but still definitely good (and as you say really academically rigorous). If you really want the boarding school experience, go for it, but also keep in mind that entering as a 10th grader is harder and since most of the schools you are applying to are small, less new students enter in 10th grade. You’d have to be focused on settling in, making new friends with people who have already formed cliques, living by yourself, and at the same time grades and extracurriculars for college because that should be a large priority as well. Your current high school is likely better than most of these schools, so if getting into a good college is important to you, then staying would also possibly help as you may want to know schools like Tilton, Brewster, SJA, Kents Hill, Virginia Episcopal, Churchchrist, Frederick Gunn, etc all only send 0-1 students to the Ivy Leagues each year. Not saying that’s bad, but your T20 NJ school probably sends far more and will give you better opportunities (even if your final goal is not an Ivy League), so you can think about how your future would benefit from that rather than a couple years staying away from home as a teenager (and you’d save money). For example, last year (as an 8th grader), I applied to 8 boarding schools in MA, CT, and NH and got in a decent amount, but ended up deciding to stay at my local non-admission public high school which happens to be one of the best in MA, sending from 5-10 to Harvard each year and many more to other ivies and prestigious schools. It’s not overly competitive like any of the T20 boarding schools and has better college matriculation than all the boarding schools in America, looking at it from the standpoint that none of the 300 kids in my grade had to “get in” and are just local kids while all of the T20 boarding school students all got in through a rough and very selective admissions process and still not that many get in Harvard, Ivies, etc. Although BS would have been fun, I am overall happy with my decision to stay here because I knew if i went to a top BS, I would have almost no shot at a T15 college, but now I have a decent shot at getting in a top 5 college because the people I’m directly competing with to get in are a less competitive group and at the same time my HS still is known and regularly sends to many elite colleges. Hope this helps!
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