Chance me for NCSSM?

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

I’m a sophomore ('21) from CD9, and I’m interested in attending NCSSM. I’m also in the IB MYP program at my school, don’t know if that affects anything?
GPA (W): 4.5
GPA (UW): Idk, but I have straight A’s and my school doesn’t use pluses and minuses.
SAT: 1500 (760R 740M)

9th Grade Courses:

  • IBMYP Health and PE
  • IBMYP World History
  • PLTW Intro the Engineering
  • IBMYP English 9
  • Orchestra (I was concertmaster)
  • IBMYP Math 3
  • IBMYP German 3
  • IBMYP Biology 1

10th Grade Courses

  • IB Math SL1 (the IB version of PreCalc)
  • IBMYP Physics 1
  • IBMYP Chemistry 1
  • German SL 1 (same as german 4)
  • French SL 1 (same as french 4)
  • IBMYP Civics and Economics
  • PLTW Principles of Engineering
  • IBMYP English 10

EC’s and other stuff

  • 7-8th: CmPS, we went to the international competitions for our project (tutoring kids at our language immersion school in
    the languages)
  • 7-8th grade: NJHS
  • 8th grade: tutored and read with kids at my local library
  • 9th and 10th: Part of the ACE Mentor club
  • 10th: treasurer of the sophomore board
  • 10th: speech and debate
  • 10th: pit for the school musical (most likely)
  • 7th-9th: taking ballet seriously
  • 7th-10th: out of school choir (pretty serious, going to sing as a choir in residence to a cathedral in england this
    summer)
    • 9th-10th: I was chosen from my choir (^) to be a part of the adult church choir
  • 10th: playing in my local orchestra
  • 7th-10th: private piano lessons (have been taking for a long time and I do a lot of competitions)
  • 7th-10th: private violin lessons (have been playing for a long time)
  • 6th-9th: played in my county honors orchestra and was concertmaster of the highest middle school orchestra in 8th grade
  • I can speak French fluently, german pretty well and turkish pretty well

Application Stuff

  • My essays should be pretty good
  • LOR’s should be decent

Thanks!

2

You seem to be a very competitive applicant for sure but you are in a very tough district. Be sure to get an early start on the application as the essays can be tough due to the character limits. Also be sure to identify which teachers will give you recs and be sure they think very highly of you.

Do you have any idea of kids at NCSSM now from your school? Any idea of how you compare to them?

My son is applying also this year. He has wanted to go for a very long time. We are in a less competitive CD thankfully.

Good luck!

3

Thank you so much for you advice! And no, I don’t know about my school’s record at NCSSM. Good luck to your son!

4

Looking again at your EC’s and admittedly I am not aware of some of the abbreviations. One potential issue is being sure you demonstrate your interest in STEM. Your courses are STEM oriented but it seems that the ECs maybe are not? Once again, I am not sure about this though.

My understanding is that NCSSM is trying to put more emphasis on ensuring students are very interested in STEM so be sure that shows through in your application, if in fact you are. If you are not that interested in STEM then it might not be the best environment for you?

5

Thank you for your feedback! I’ll make sure to do that.