I am an 8th grade student applying for Andover and Exeter, as well as several schools in California. If you could chance me for either/both schools, that would be great. My SSAT scores were:
Last year I got a perfect score on both Math and English Language Arts for standardized state testing. I have received a 4.0 GPA for as long as I can remember, and I’ve taken the most advanced classes available to me. (No high school classes except for French I and Integrated Mathematics 1, which is basically half of Geometry I and half of Algebra I.)
Some other things I do at school:
-I participate in an annual district wide mathematics competition, and our team has won all three years I’ve been there.
-I participated in the school geography bee and spelling bee, and I placed in the top ten for both.
-I took Advanced Robotics in 6th grade, Advanced Art in 7th grade, and currently I am taking French 1.
Things I do outside of school:
-I compete at archery tournaments, and I took third in my division at the California State Games.
-I have plenty of experience with art, and I took a ceramics class for a number of years.
-I have been on a robotics team for four years, and we have competed at the national level. We have won several awards, including one for design, one for programming, and one for outreach.
-I have done quite a bit of community service, including some with a local STEM nonprofit and with a children’s museum.
-I enjoy the digital arts, and I went to several summer programs for this. I have and actively use a 3D printer at home.
I got good recommendations from everyone. It helped that they rarely do them, as not many from a public charter school in Southern California apply for somewhere like Andover:
-The principal has given me student of the month for all three years, and my teachers have been bragging to her about me since sixth grade, so she probably left me a good recommendation.
Sorry, I accidentally posted instead of saving. Here’s the rest:
-My English teacher thinks I’m a natural leader, and loves how I make connections between literature and history in our humanities class.
-My Math teacher has told me to slow down and give other students a chance at solving problems, so that’s probably a good indicator that she will leave a good recommendation.
-My PE teacher left me a great recommendation, telling me that if there was anything else he could do to help he would.
-I’ve never dropped a single point in my French class, so that covers the academic performance checkbox.
-My special interest recommendation came from the person that coaches my robotics team, and she also runs the STEM nonprofit I volunteer with.
Interviews:
I talked with the alumni representatives from both Andover and Exeter for about 40 minutes, and both said that they'd leave me a strong recommendation. I have a lot of experience with face-to-face interviews, so they both went pretty well.
Essays:
-I’m pretty good at writing, as indicated by my SSAT scores. I wrote an essay for Andover about robotic integration in their Nest makerspace, and I wrote one for Exeter about my experience with robotics and digital arts.
Other:
-I live in Southern California just a few miles from Palm Springs, if that matters at all.
-I am applying for and will most likely need financial aid.
Overall, I think I’m a pretty strong candidate, but I just want some outside opinions. (Sorry and thank you to those who posted before this!)
I know I’m probably obsessing a bit, but M10 feels like it’s years away and I’d like an outside opinion on my application. If anyone would be kind enough to take a look and give me a rough estimate of my chances, I would really appreciate it. (And if @Center or @AppleNotFar are out there, I’ve seen some of your comments and they seem to be well thought out and insightful, so it’d be awesome if you could leave a comment here!) B-)
Do you offer any diversity or are you an over represented applicant pool? i.e a white male. Do you do any team sports or group activities? i.e things you would do as a student at one of these schools to be part of the school’s community as opposed to just building your own resume? You seem like a very competitive applicant however lack of team or group extracurriculars may be a negative.
Unfortunately, I don’t offer any diversity, but I was on a robotics team for a several years working with 9 other students. The fact that I don’t do any major team sports, ie. football, might be a negative.
Somewhere else I posted that we attended a local Exeter open house last admission cycle and not one student or former student on the panel was involved in sports. All nevertheless were admitted, and are doing or did very well at the school. So I guess that’s my long way of saying that it seems that not being into team sports isn’t a deal breaker. Archery sounds like an interesting sport to me. AppleKid2, who has serious attention challenges, attends a camp where they teach these kids target sports because of the tremendous focus and composure that archery and riflery require. Hopefully the AO’s will appreciate those characteristics.
Andover makes a big deal about their Nest, so that may bode well for your PA essay.
Academically and EC-wise you seem very solid, as mentioned elsewhere above. I think your chances will come down to a matter of fit. Best of luck!!!