<p>It's in Delaware...</p>
<p>blefghfhg.</p>
<p>I want a school that's in a nice location.. lol</p>
<p>nothing wrong with Delaware. St. Andrew's is very nice. Wasn't the movie "dead poets society' filmed there? Maybe take a look</p>
<p>I loved that movie!!</p>
<p>If you like small and 100% boarding check out St. Andrews. it has about 198 million dollars for about 275 students. A rather large percent of grads come back to SAS to teach. I think that shows some love, don't you?</p>
<p>Wooo.</p>
<p>I've been selected to be in an honors band at the local community college! I'm so excited. It's two hours every wednesday night for "advanced" students in grades 7 - 9. I'm also taking private lessons starting in a few weeks. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if this would affect my chances or not? Regardless, I'm happy for getting selected. About 25% of the band was asked to participate. Not to brag or anything, but our band was first in the state. lol. We're awesome. ;)</p>
<p>JK that's very nice for you. It certainly can't hurt.</p>
<p>Congratulations!</p>
<p>thanks.. .</p>
<p>My experience as an 8th grader was that although these elite prep schools say they are need blind. I'm not sure it's true. I got a 99% on the SSAT, straight A student, good extracurricular activities, 1260 on the old SAT's as an eighth grader and applied to Andover, Exeter, Groton, Middlesex and Concord Academy. I got one no thank you, and four waitlists. Of course we never heard from any of the waitlists. It was all about the money. We applied for financial aid. The schools know who is applying for financial aid. I am not an under represented minority. It was very discouraging.</p>
<p>I have just started my senior year at my local public high school. I am first in my class, still in the national merit scholarship competition and I won first prize in the State essay contest last year, so life goes on.</p>
<p>I can only truly hope that applying to top tier universities will be better. I am kind of jaded, but when I hear a school is need blind, I really wonder. Schools can tailor make their financial assistance to let you know whether they really want you.</p>
<p>So I'm guardedly hopeful.</p>
<p>i applied for financial aid at andover. i was waitlisted. i dont think its a coincidence. but then again i was proud to just be waitlisted.</p>
<p>hsseniorlooking, you're story seems really discouraging.</p>
<p>Hopefully that me being from Michigan will matter a little. I've heard so many situation that are similar to mine, (Good grades, EC's, test scores, applying for fin. aid) and have been rejected.</p>
<p>I hope my interviews go really well. I've had a lot of interviews with the local newspaper and the yearbook so hopefully that has prepared me. :)</p>
<p>The schools are "need-aware" not need blind. As an FA applicant you are in a much more competitive pool than someone who does not need FA. The system as near as I can figure out works like this. The school has a fixed aid budget and admits FA applicants in a rough order of need and merit. This means it gets tougher as you need more aid. If you have no diversity hook, legacy connection or sport you would have to be pretty brilliant to avoid the waitlist.</p>
<p>Thank you for sharing your sad story. I wish you success in your college search! Although it seems to be more likely to happen when you need FA, the situation you were in can happen to any applicant applying to very competitive schools. They really do have more qualified applicants than they have places. Perhaps you live close to Boston, and they were looking for geographic diversity. During your college search try to find colleges you love that are not just reaches, but also matches and safeties. I use the word "reaches" for you only because some colleges have such low acceptance rates now that they are reaches for everyone. You sound like a great candidate, and I think that AdComs will give serious consideration to your application. Good luck!</p>
<p>
[quote]
If you have no diversity hook, legacy connection or sport you would have to be pretty brilliant to avoid the waitlist.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm counting on my geographic location, music, and swimming and soccer. </p>
<p>It's not like I need all of the tuition paid. My parents could pay $14,000 per year. So I would need around $20,000.</p>
<p>Jonathan, good luck. My parents financial picture was similar to yours. Perhaps you will have better luck than I. My only sport was soccer, but it wasn't like I was going to be all league or anything.</p>
<p>hsseniorlooking, Groton and Exeter tell you on their web site that they do consider your ability to pay when they made their decision. So it should not have come as any surprise with G and E. I have a d at Middlesex, and their policy was to accept regardless of ability to pay. They then divy up the money. Your stats look fantastic on paper, however, they are like alot of prep school applicants. Not knowing you, could it be that your essays or your interviews were maybe not as good as your grades?</p>
<p>It is my opinion that the elite colege's and UNI's will be worse when trying to make sense in how they choose their accepts. I wish you much success on your next level.</p>
<p>I've gone through the college process with one (successfully) and the prep school application process with my 2nd (unsuccessfully) and I have to say I found the college process made more sense. The prep school process was very much as hsseniorlooking described it. Candidates for aid are not the same as full pay applicants. That seems obvious, but I actually feel our college experience made me overly optimistic that the prep process was similar - that and frank discussions with financial aid officers where I was told how much aid we would qualify for. The trouble is, they run out of aid and a student like that is waitlisted. "Chaostheory" on another thread sounds like (s)he's falling under the same spell - you run your figures through a calculator (or have a discussion) and feel that your contribution is doable only to find out that institutional needs mean that other worthy aid candidates are chosen ahead of you and the aid runs out. The letters telling you this are very, very nice and let you know it was not YOU; they just don't have enough aid for everyone. In other words, they do not "guarantee to meet your demonstrated need". When kids needing aid apply to colleges, you need to learn what "need blind" and "guarantee to meet demonstrated need" mean as they are critical to the success of your college search. You can be admitted under need blind but not given enough aid to attend. Read the financial aid and parent threads and you'll see many stories illustrating this.</p>
<p>I don't think there's any reason for hsseniorlooking to question whether her essays or interviews kept her out of b.s. 4 years ago. I think hssl will have a much better experience this time because there are more college choices and schools that are need blind (and guarantee to meet). I think it might happen that a student who was accepted to more than one elite prep school as a full pay candidate might find that they don't get the same reception at equally elite colleges (with the exception of development admits). Harvard, Yale and Princeton are all need blind and guarantee to meet demonstrated need so they will invite whomever they want. </p>
<p>hsseniorlooking - congratulations for persevering through your high school years and on your accomplishments. Make sure you have competent advice in the college search and I'm sure you'll have great choices come next spring.</p>
<p>I know it's been said on this forum that if you don't apply you'll never get in. I have to say I regret the time and effort we put into the process, although you do learn from any experience. The college process is not the same. There are many colleges that would fit a student. I don't think that's so true of b.s. for various reasons, including the age of the student. When I read posts by young students who don't seem to have parental support or the financial means to cover all the costs, I'm concerned that they think because they're the top student at their current school that of course they'll be accepted and given the aid they need and it just might not work out. Of course, students do get aid at wonderful boarding schools. It doesn't look like people post much after the decisions are mailed so it's hard to get a full picture.</p>
<p>lefthand read Dan Golden's book on college admissions. For you it may have worked out but for many applying to college it does not. In college self pay have a real advantage. HYP is need blind, however, there are many other special interests ahead of you. At HYP money talks........... I respectfully disagree.</p>
<p>Lefthand, if you're interested, the books title is The Price of Admission how america's ruling class buys its way into elite colleges and who gets left outside the gates. By the way, the one's who do get left out are the lower income students.</p>
<p>I'm well aware that money plays a significant role since I've lived it, but having gone through the college application process (and if you read the parents forum, you'll hear the same from others) there are ways to maximize your chances of success - the "safety, match and reach", knowing which schools might offer your child merit money because of high SAT scores or particular skills, etc. It's a labyrinthe, to be sure, but so much more is written about college admissions (books and online forums) that it's possible to learn from others experiences. That has not been the case in b.s. admissions. I think it's wonderful that c.c. has started a forum devoted to b.s. admissions. I just wanted to add my experience because it's important that students and parents realize not everyone has a favorable outcome (whereas almost everyone does in college admissions, especially if you take any time to read about the process) and hsseniorlooking is not the only student to have been shut out. Financial aid applicants to boarding schools need to know that they are in a slightly different race from those who can pay the full cost.</p>
<p>I would also add that when it comes to 18 year olds applying to colleges, there are many more suitable choices. For us, proximity to home was not something that figured into the college search for #1, whereas it was very important in the b.s. search. </p>
<p>I still believe that $45,000 at Harvard does not talk very loudly - a million would. Your experiences obviously differ from mine and that's really the point I'm trying to make - so that young students reading this board, applying to elite b.s. and dependent on significant aid are aware that it's complicated and it's not just about their academics and e.c.s. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.</p>