Hi everyone, I’m an 8th grader applying to a few boarding schools for the next school year, so it would be great if anyone could give any feedback based on the info I give below. Thanks! (I’ll be applying for 9th grade)
Schools: Lawrenceville, Milton, Hotchkiss, EHS, Blair
Academic stats:
-SSAT - 99th percentile- 2316 overall, 96 M, 96 R, 98 V
-My school doesn’t calculate GPA, but I’ve had straight A’s for as long as I’ve been at school, and I’ve made honour roll every year
-Courses: we don’t get to choose yet, as I go to an international school in Asia
Subjective:
-Interviews: decent- Lawrenceville, Hotchkiss and EHS were amazing, lasted for nearly an hour each, clicked well with the AOs. However, Blair’s didn’t go as well- AO did not seem interested at all (we talked for about 20 minutes, mostly him introducing the school and not really giving me a chance to say anything)
-Essays: Pretty good, since I’m a decent writer- tried to show every aspect of myself as a person and a student, focused on my interests and ECs
-English Rec: Probably very good, since it’s my favourite subject and my teacher raves about me with my parents (blind)
-Math Rec: okay? I’m not sure since my teacher doesn’t really know me that well (blind)
-Personal/Extracurricular Rec: fencing coach- excellent/church youth leader- also great
-supplemental recs: I have these because these teachers asked if they could write them, so they should be very good as well (German and debate teacher)
-Principal/Counselor Rec: Ok, though our principal doesn’t really know any of the students he doesn’t teach
Extracurriculars:
-Sports: Fencing, Cross Country- I fence competitively and am ranked in the top 15 in the region. I regularly attend local and regional competitions and have won quite a few awards. I also train for the official national/regional team, and have fenced for 5 years. As for cross country, I only attend practices for the school team, but my running is decent. Additionally, I have done a lot of other sports in the past (competitively), so it wouldn’t be hard to pick them up again at boarding school
-Music: Piano- I’ve played the piano for nearly 8 years, and have passed the ABRSM Grade 8 exam. I’m currently working towards a diploma level exam, and have won a few awards at local and regional competitions. Also, I’ve played at a few recitals and performance around the city I live in. If it counts, I also do choir and have done performances at school and around the city as well.
Other ECs (if any): Debate, WSC, Writing- I’ve been debating for 3 years, and am currently on the school team. The selection process is really competitive, so I was pretty proud of this. I also compete in the World Scholar’s Cup competition for my school. This year, we came in the top 15 at globals out of more than 450 teams. I also enjoy writing, and have a won a few awards for that, for example first for writing in the regional round for WSC
Community service:
-Church volunteer: I’ve been volunteering for the children’s ministry at church for a long time, and I’ve gone on mission trips to teach kids Chinese
-I also help out with a local food charity, and organise fundraising and awareness-raising activities
Hook: don’t really have one and am kind of anxious about this
Additional info:
I was born in NJ, but moved to Asia after 1st grade. I’m an Asian American female, and I currently go to an international school. I’m full pay, so I think that might help balance out the fact that I’m an ORM.
Thank you so much for reading this! I’m sorry if this was too long or if I made any grammatical/spelling mistakes, but please feel free to give any comments or feedback!