Hi! I’m an international student applying (for the 9th grade) to schools like exeter, andover, hotchkiss, taft, peddie, lawrenceville, milton, kent, and loomis chaffee.
On the ssat, I got a 77th percentile for verbal, 80th for math, and 90th for reading (average of 85).
I assume my teacher recs are good because I’ve been getting solid As for the past three years. I take some advanced science, math and english classes. I speak two languages fluently and I’m also learning Mandarin and French.
Music and dance are big passions of mine. I’ve been playing the piano professionally for 10+ years and the violin for 5, so I have a lot of awards for those (+ orchestra, choir and musical at school).
I would say that my interviews went well and I’ve been told that I have good essays.
I don’t chance people because I have no special knowledge, but you certainly sound like a very strong candidate. I am sure you will do well wherever you end up. Are you applying for financial aid? That can be a factor. Best of luck.
thank you so much for your answer. I’m not applying for financial aid because I’ve been told it may decrease your chances of getting into certain schools.
Unless someone has specific knowledge of FA affecting admissions I would take second hand information with a large grain of salt. The real question is whether your family needs financial aid in order to make it a viable option for you. Getting accepted into a situation that your family can’t afford is not a good solution IMO. Our DS applied for FA to 3 BS and was accepted into 2 of them and was given financial aid to both. We will never know whether the 3rd school rejected him because of FA but we could care less because acceptance without FA was never going to be an option for us. The school he chose was terrific and he was accepted to T20 schools.
Would I be correct in assuming by this sentence that you are not from mainland China?
That might make you more interesting, geographically. Schools like to be able to say that they have a geographically diverse student body. If English is not your native language, then those scores are impressive.
I partially disagree with @jasperfant : you are an international applicant.
Financial aid is rarely awarded to international students. However, Andover admissions is need blind, so you would have lost nothing applying for financial aid there. However, the deadline to apply for financial aid has past, so the issue is moot.
I’m from Eastern Europe, so English is not my first language (I had to take a proficiency exam, on which I got very close to a perfect score). I also come from a diverse cultural/religious background.
As for the financial aid, I hope it goes to people that truly deserve it
