<p>Hi, I'm currently an 8th grader living in Asia. I'm applying to the following schools:
-Thacher
-Cate
-Webb
-Choate
-Andover
-Exeter</p>
<p>I've taken my SSAT's and I've gotten an overall percentile of 97%.
I attend an IB school and my teachers grade pretty hard, so I'm not sure about how my grades will turn out this semester. It's likely I'll get a few 6's and 5's and one or two 4's. I might get one 7 in math if my teacher takes the higher grades. I've talked to some of the deans of admission about how I had a hard time adapting to the IB system since I moved here a bit more than a year ago.</p>
<p>I took the TOEFL IBT in the beginning of 7th grade and got a 100 out of 120. This time, I'm not sure I did too well because I sort of dozed off while taking the test.</p>
<p>I speak English fluently and can speak my native language with a bit of an American accent. I am currently learning German in my school (though I'm not doing too well).</p>
<p>Academic Honors :
Principal's Honor Roll in 6th grade
I attended JHU-CTY for two years summers, taking the Inductive and Deductive Reasoning course and the Cryptology course. I was invited to go to an awards ceremony for scoring high on the SCAT test two years in a row.</p>
<p>Extra-curriculars :
Soccer - 2 seasons
Volleyball - 2 seasons
Yearbook - first year
Broadcast - first year
Alto Saxophone - 3 years (I used to play in my school band, but my current school doesn't have a spot for a saxophone. I played in Honor Band and was first chair in my former school, though.)
Dance - I've danced for around three or four years before, but I quit dancing after I moved here. I've emailed a few schools about it, and some told me to include it since I want to continue it.
Community & Service - I've visited orphanages and animal shelters. I am currently doing Booster Club (second year) for my school. I've created a few posters to raise awareness on suicide (and plan on doing a few more causes this year).</p>
<p>Does anyone know how to say that this is your first year doing something for extra-curriculars on the application? It says to express it in years, but I've only done around three months of it.
I'm completely freaking out about grades and my race. Will they vastly lower my chances of getting admitted?</p>
<p>Your race will not lower your chances of getting in. I go to Exeter, and your grades and extracurriculars look good to me. But if possible, I would maybe get higher SAT scores.</p>
<p>Dictionary- you posted in another thread that you were applying to Culver’s…sounds a little strange that you say you attend Exeter.</p>
<p>Anyways, to the OP, your recs seem good. And for the extracurriculars, I would just put one year when it asks you for the number of years you did them.</p>
<p>You might face a bit of competition, as you are an international student. If you need FA, that might pull your chances down a little. </p>
<p>Overall, you do seem like a good candidate, but predicting most applicants’ outcomes will be difficult.</p>
<p>WishStar12 - Thank you for the reply! Also for the extracurriculars, my school doesn’t do sports for a year, but seasons. Should I just put 2 years even if I did 2 seasons?</p>
<p>Lemona- If you only started this year, you probably want to put 1 year. If you started last year, put 2. </p>
<p>For example, if you started to play a sport in the spring of the last school year and you are doing it the fall of this current school year it would still be one year, even though it counts as two seasons. (idk what sports might be spring and fall though).</p>
<p>If you started last calendar year (2012) and you are doing the sport this year, then it would be two years. :P</p>
<p>WishStar12 - Thank you so much for all the helpful replies! My school does a certain sport in one season, then another sport for another season. I did soccer last fall and did it again this fall, so would that be two years?</p>
<p>While nobody can be certain about your chances (as we are not the AOs), you look like a strong candidate. My son applied to Thacher, Cate and Webb last year. </p>
<p>Thacher admission director once said they could fill the entire class with applicants with 99% SSAT and 4.0 GPA but they wouldn’t. </p>
<p>Pick and focus on a few activities that can explain your true passion and interest well, show how special you are and what you can bring in. It is as important as your academics and test scores. </p>
<p>My comment sounds very general but I can say that it was true at those schools you mentioned and worked for us. All the best to you!</p>
<p>fishing for an acceptance on this board is pointless, no one has the power to admit you to any of your schools. Present your best self, forget about your perfect scores and perfect grades because that is no ticket. They are looking for how you can contribute to the student body</p>
<p>And applying from Asia greatly reduces the chance of being accepted. Sorry but that is the truth. Chance Me. You have about an 8% percent chance, so sorry but that is reality.</p>
Firstgen is correct; you are in a candidate pool whose admit rate will be half the school’s over all admit rate. But it’s not bcs u are applying from Asia, but bcs u are applying from one of the 2 countries that have the most int’l applicants: China & SKorea. You would have better chances if u were an applicant from an underrepresented Asian country, like Myanmar or Mongolia. </p>
<p>I estimate that at the popular BS, 20-25% of all the applications are from Ch+SKo, and they are chasing approx 10% of the total slots, so the odds are CONSIDERABLY tougher than for other nationalities & domestic applicants. Your application will be compared to other applications from SKorea, so strategically you need to emphasize experiences that make you stand out from a very large crowd.</p>
<p>Have you visited the schools & interviewed on campus? That will help.</p>
<p>GMTplus7 - Thank you for the reply! No, I have not visited the schools yet, and I am pretty sure that I cannot visit anytime soon. I have an off-campus interview with Andover in December but have not scheduled any other interviews yet. Will it hurt my chances if I do not visit the campus or do an on-campus interview?</p>
<p>It is indeed possible to be admittted w/o visiting; it happened to us. But because the int’l competition from well-presented countries is so very, very, very intensely competitive, I do believe it will hurt you not to visit the campus. </p>
<p>When we visited for S’s interviews, there were always families from Ch and/or SKo in the Admissions waiting room, who made the effort to visit. This effort is a signal to the school that these families are serious about enrolling and have the resources to do it. The schools care a lot about yield.</p>
<p>Put yourself in the AO’s shoes: if you receive 200 applications from SKo, all high quality profiles, and you need to choose 10, which are you likely to choose? The applicants you met in person and who demonstrated strong interest by visiting the campus? Or the ones who didn’t?</p>
<p>DS was an int’l applicant and did get accepted to a school he did not visit, but he was not from Ch or SKo.</p>
<p>GMTplus7 - Thank you! I’ve talked to my parents about visiting the schools, but it will be a bit difficult to persuade them. The article was very helpful. Do you know how much interviews count for?</p>