Hey there! I’m a 9th grader applying to 10th grade at Andover, Exeter, Choate, Deerfield, Lawrenceville, and Milton. I need full financial aid. Chance me if you dare ;))
Essays:
My writing skills are pretty decent. Unfortunately, I was put in a circumstance in which I didn’t have the resources nor time to write my essays and thus, my essays were not as good as I would have liked them to be. However, I had a few people go over them. My main essay was about overcoming internal struggles. Another that I submitted to Milton, Exeter, and Lawrenceville was about failing an audition and growing from it.
Extracurriculars/Awards
I’ve played the flute since 4th grade. I definitely really emphasized on that in interviews and my overall application. I have a decent number of awards and accomplishments.
I listed a few awards about singing and public speaking.
I heavily emphasized on volunteering as well. I am an English tutor, both in Reading and the English language itself (i teach english to children in Korea). I also volunteer every Saturday at my local Korean school.
At school, I am a Student Leader for Asian Student Union.
I listed that I got 99th percentile for the PSAT 8/9 (Math 99, Reading 98)
Grades
My GPA for our first grading period this year was a 4.16 weighted. My school doesn’t do unweighted GPA but I’m pretty sure it was around a 3.64. In 8th grade, I moved mid year. At my new school, I had straight As- nothing below a 95.
At my previous school in 8th grade my grades were not optimal. 7th grade was good but not great.
Recs
All of my recs were fairly last minute which may have influenced them negatively. However, I made sure to make a fairly good impression on most of my teachers. I met with my school counseler and she called me a hardworking, mature student who’s wiling to learn and grow. My English teacher once mentioned that she appreciated my zeal for learning and my grades. I was placed in a really easy math class due to unforseen circumstances so I never really connected with my math teacher, but shes nice and seems to like me. For Deerfield, I asked my ISS teacher who’s my favorite teacher. I think she likes me as well. For my Special Interest Rec, I asked my flute teacher who I’ve always shown my more mature side and I think she wrote a good rec. For my personal rec, I asked my math tutor who’s a retired chemist and my mentor. She wrote a glowing rec, theres no doubt about that.
Interviews
My Groton and Milton interviews went AMAZING. We talked a ton and I connected really well with both interviewers. (Is it a coincidence that these two were the only female interviewers I had?)
I woud say my worst was Exeter and possibly Choate. For Exeter, it didnt neccesarily go bad but I definitely rambled a ton. For Choate, my interviewer was an alum and… quite the unique individual. I asked him a question and I remember he flat-out answered something along the lines of “I don’t have an answer to that question” in a kind of mean tone :((
This is a LONG post so thanks so much if you read to the end! I would really appreciate your input :))