Age: 13
Grade applying for: 9
Ethnicity: White
Gender: F
Current School: Public Middle School
State: Rural North Carolina
Financial Aid: yes
SSAT: 97 overall
GPA: 4.0 unweighted (Lowest final grade: 98)
Sports: Volleyball, Track (emailed all the coaches, sent in volleyball skills video)
Arts: Chorus (light blue ribbon in the Royal School of Church Music, submitted a video vocal performance)
Other ECs: Teen Ambassador for the North Carolina Aquarium, NJHS, helped organized a red cross blood drive at my school
Interviews:
Exeter-Went pretty well, lasted almost 50 minutes. I spoke with an admissions officer, we connected pretty well but it was my first interview so I was a bit more nervous for that one than the others.
SPS-Went very well, really connected with the admissions officer who interviewed me, around 35 minutes.
Hotchkiss-Definitely my best interview. I loved the AO who interviewed me, and genuinely had a good time speaking to her.
Taft-Got the impression that the AO was impressed with me, spoke for over 30 minutes.
Lawrenceville-Probably my least favorite interview, didn’t connect that well with the AO.
Episcopal-Felt the most casual, the AO and I joked a lot but also had a very good conversation.
Overall, my interviews were pretty great and felt very conversational. I’m a very outgoing person.
Essays:
I’m a strong writer, I spent a lot of time on my essays and feel that I developed good themes in all of them. I’d say they were a strong point in my applications.
Recommendations:
All blind, but I have good relationships with everyone who did them for me so I feel pretty good about them.
Is North Carolina considered an underrepresented state?
I think you have a good chance of admission in at least a few schools. NC is not one of the most underrepresented states, but it is not overrepresented either. At SPS, there are 18 NC students, from 2 to 7 per grade. Most are from the Charlotte or Winston-Salem area. BTW, your profile is strikingly similar to my daughter’s when she applied two years ago.
@GoatMama Thank you for the feedback! I’m from a different part of the state, in a much smaller town, so I hope that helps at least a little. Where did your daughter get in?
You could be admitted to all or some. It may come down to whether or not you need substantial financial aid from Taft or Episcopal, less of an issue from the rest of your targeted schools since scholarship funds are abundant.
If applying as a full-pay student you should be accepted to all save for yield protection (W/L usually) if a particular school feels that it is not your first choice school.
I’d say you have a pretty good chance of getting into all of the schools listed. Your sports, SSAT and academics are very strong. I’m not too sure about the other schools, but at Exeter, NC is definitely not underrepresented. Currently, there are 14 students from NC and 8 of those were accepted last year.
Your application is really strong, but you can never know for sure what decision the admissions are going to make when it comes to who they’re going to accept.