Chance Me :) Homeschooled Intl applying to 11th Grade (BS)

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

Hi! I’m a student from Eastern Africa applying to Phillips Academy, Blair, Concord, Choate Rosemary, Chaffee Loomis, Cheshire, Northfield Mount Hermon, Mercersburg and The Masters School NY.

Background
I’m a citizen and resident of an East African country (avoiding getting into details to prevent doxxing myself).
Was in an in-person school until 7th grade before I started homeschooling/online schooling under the British Curriculum.
I live in a small town of about 100-ish people.

FA required

Grades - Haven’t gotten 10th grade marks yet, 9th grade I had 78% - 90% , 8th grade I had 71% to 95%
(B - 70 to 74%, A - 75% to 89%, A* - 90% to 100%)
No ranking
Duolingo English Test - Haven’t done it yet but I have a predicted 140-150.
SSAT/ISEE - Will not be taking due to no testing centre in my country.

ECs:

Community Service
Founder and Administrator of a club that offers puberty education to girls at my local primary school. (1yr)
Founded an environmental club for teens in my grandmother’s town. (3yrs)
Programming Tutor at a group with over 800 members. (<1yr)

Academic
Computer Science - Programming since 2018. (Currently working at a student-founded organisation as a back-end developer.)

Speech and Debate
Member of an AI discussion/debate group. (<1yr)

Aviation
Member of 2 aviation clubs, 1 is a discussion group. (2yrs)

Out-of-school Study
I take CS courses from IBM and Lyft, all online. (2yrs)

Summer Programs
Attended 2023 GWC SPP.
Selected for an engineering summer camp in 2023 (4% acceptance rate) but I will be attending in 2024 due to the long visa-processing queue. Also was selected for the travel scholarship.

Awards / Achievements:
‘Best Coder Overall’ (2023) - In a hackathon out of 60 participants.
‘Head Girl’ (2016-2019) - It was a new school so I was in the first grade of that school which enabled me to be Head Girl.
Completion of the 8 courses I have taken in my out-of-school studies (2021 - Current)
‘Best in Social Studies’, ‘Best in Swahili’, ‘Best in Science’ and ‘Top in class’ awards. (2021)

Recs
Kinda worried about my English teacher’s recommendation; it was my first time taking FLE and I wouldn’t say she’s too close to me.
Maths teacher doesn’t know me too well either, but I think it might be good.
Comp Sci teacher is by far my closest teacher, also think it might be good.

2

I think you have a unique story. I would highlight that. Being an intl student seeking FA is hard, but because you are from an underrepresented area, I don’t think it will hurt you much if at all.

In my opinion, it would benefit you to highlight your background and story in your apps, since I think it’s very unique compared to most prep school applicants.

Good luck!

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Hey! Thank you so much for your feedback!! I’ll definitely make sure to keep that in mind as I write my essays!

4

You’d have a higher chance of admission if you apply for 10th grade, not 11th.

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Thanks for the feedback!! If I may ask, why do you say so? :]

6

There are many more spaces for tenth graders. Many people reclass when they go to boarding school so it wouldn’t be unusual.

Are you sure all of these schools offer financial aid to international students? Boarding school applications are a lot of work. Don’t apply unless you are absolutely sure. Do you know what part of the fees are being covered? Are you sure your family can cover the rest like travel, vacations, summer breaks, etc? Even coming from the West Coast to the East Coast was much more expensive than our family anticipated.

Will they want you to substitute a different test like SAT? I would be surprised if they didn’t except some standardized test. Have you checked with every school?

You sound like a lovely and talented person. Make sure you are directing your talents in exactly the right direction

7

Hi,
If you are open to it, add Deerfield Academy as well to your list. My son got in as a homeschooled international student (in person school till 6th, homeschooling for 7, 8 and 9), and I met kids in his batch who were admitted as international students from Somalia and Ethiopia.
It would be better to apply as a repeat 10th grader mainly due the number of seats available for new students in each grade. Also, since the curriculum is much more advanced in these schools, you will still not have to repeat any learning, but can take the next course from your current level exactly like if you joined 11th grade.
11th grade seats are very few in most schools, and since I was homeschooling my son, I know that it would have been difficult to find avenues for activities with peers, and 3 years in boarding school will be an advantage. You can also discuss this with your admissions officer of each school when you are interviewing, and they would advise you on which grade to apply (you can change your application grade after you submit your candidate profile as well)

We also did not have SSAT test centres in our country, so my son took ISEE online. What we didn’t know was that it can be taken only once each quarter, so my son did the mistake of taking it in December and had to submit his first try scores. Leave enough time to take the test twice before application deadline, and I’d recommend submitting the scores if you can score well in the test.

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All the schools except Exeter accept SAT as well. Exeter insisted on SSAT or ISEE, so my son took ISEE mainly for them. He also took SAT and we submitted that as well since he had a really good score

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Hi! Thanks for explaining, it definitely makes lots of sense.

I did do some research and found that the schools I am applying to offer FA for international students. My family can cover flight costs and I have some extended family near the Mid-Atlantic region where I could possibly stay during the holidays.

I did consider taking the SAT/ACT but I am not too sure if it is too early to do so since I am yet to sit for my IGCSEs. However, I have just discovered that I can take the ISEE at-home which is something I am definitely going to look into.

Thank you so much for your help and advice [:

10

Hi! Thank you for your detailed opinion and advice on this!!

I’ll definitely have a great look into Deerfield. Thanks for explaining why repeating would be good! I was worried about was being “too old” for a class, but I think your explanation on the definitely makes lots of sense on why it’s a good idea!! I’ll keep in mind to ask the AOs during my interviews about this.

Thank you so much for pointing out that the ISEE can be taken at home/online. It is something I’m definitely going to be doing!!

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It would be a good idea to have a clarity on which grade you are applying to, before taking your ISEE. You have to enter the grade to which you are applying to, for the test and the scores will also be in comparison to the students applying to that grade.

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SAT still has about ten free tests on Khan Academy that you can register for and practice with and will automatically score. They math is no higher than Algebra II and I think that is true for the Upper level ISEE. The difference is that the SAT is scored against many high school students. The ISEE test takers are much more competitive and the scoring compares you to them. Depending on your vocabulary practice, the SAT might be an easier test but it may also be hardier to access.

13

Thank you so much!! I’ll have my interviews to confirm what grade is best then start preparing for the test. I’ve also just found out that the SAT has more resources available. What is your take on this? Would you say taking the SAT would be much better especially since I can take more tests before the application deadlines? Once again thank you so much for being open to share your advice!!

14

Thank you for pointing this out!! We have more SAT testing centres here making it a lot easier to take multiple times. It definitely does seem like it might work better in my situation than the ISEE because of that and the free resources to practice. Thank you!!

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My son used Khan Academy free practice tests alone, and took his SAT in August just before starting his 9th grade. He took SAT since it was essential for some schools like Davidson Academy for profoundly gifted (which he was applying to) and Stanford OHS said they could take SAT instead of SSAT. Also, giving SAT is never a waste since it can prove as essential practice if you are anyway planning to apply to US colleges. But he scored so well that I am not even sure if he’d have to take SAT again when applying to college.
That said, most boarding schools were willing to take SAT as the test for admissions. But Phillips Exeter Academy said they wanted to compare the student against other candidates with the same benchmark so they insisted on SSAT or ISEE. So he took that as well since he was particular about applying to Exeter. But his vocabulary score in ISEE was not as good as SAT, even though everything else was 98-99 percentile. It would have really helped if he could take ISEE again, but I went ahead and submitted his ISEE to all schools, as well as SAT results as an addendum.
If you have the bandwidth to prepare (my son took 2-3 weeks to prepare for SAT I’d say), I’d say anyway take SAT, and check with the schools you are interested in, if SAT would be enough. We’d never know which test would suit the student until they take it. Worst case, even if you have to take ISEE , in your junior year, you’d be well prepared for SAT. My son did not spend much time on ISEE, hardly 4-5 days, also, as you rightly pointed out, no free resources to prepare. So maybe that could be why he scored less as well. (again, only vocabulary was majorly different from SAT)- I think preparation for one would anyway serve as practice for the other. You’d just have to check with the schools you apply to, about their acceptance of SAT

16

Thank you so much for the advice!! I think I’ll stick to ISEE for now but the SAT is something I’ll definitely take soon. Thank you!!

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