Hi guys, I would like to know whether or not I have a chance for these boarding schools and what my weaknesses are.
Schools I’m applying to:
Andover
Exeter
Groton
Hotchkiss
Lawrencville
Deerfield
St. Paul’s
A few others I can’t remember off the top of my head, but 9 overall.
-Canadian
-Applying for grade 10
-Need alot of Financial Aid
-92% SSAT
-Violinist, playing for 9 years, grade 10 RCM, provincial level violin contest 1st place, local award winning orchestra
-Tubist (Tuba) for 5 years, 5 school bands and ensembles
-Representing school for the HOSA (health occupation students of America competition) in the National Leadership Conference
-Master of Ceremony for graduation, Honor roll
-Grades all over 90% for this year (A+), mid 80’s to 100 in previous years
-robotics team and ches team both 3rd place district competition (I was head and coach for the team, don’t know if schools care)
-Helped raise awareness and money for UNICEF charity for 4 years, also part of a local food start up helping raise awareness.
-100 meter and running long jump consecutive top 5 in the region for past 3 years.
-Perfects scores on math contests, such as Gauss and a few others
-Attending the International Bacalaurate program
-part of many clubs but I won’t bore you guys to death
So what do you guys think are my chances and what is/are my weak spot(s)?
You seem like a pretty strong applicant both academically and in ECs. Just be sure your interview and essay are good. Schools really care about your personality too, not just academically. Your SSAT score seem about the same as the average of most, if not, all the schools you are applying too. Schools definitely care about leadership too, so the head and coach part do matter. I would contact the school’s athletic coaches and music teachers if I were you and submit some music/athletic supplements.
Good luck! You really seem like a competitive applicant compared to me hehe.
Could you explain what you mean by repeat 10th grade acceptance? Does that mean people who applied for grade 9 and didn’t get in and get in for grade 10, or does it mean 11th graders repeating grade 10, or 10th graders repeating grade 9? I’m confused, but overall I would presume it is harder to get in as an applicant applying grade 10 right?
I meant that a lot of the class is saved for 10th grade admissions. 9th grade is relatively small. There is expectation that the class will expand in 10th. Lots of kids are repeating 10th going into 10th. A lot of my kids’ friends at BS (although mine entered in 9th), came in 10th. I think its easier to get in in 10th, IMHO.
Students repeat at every level. 9, 10, 11 and even 12 or PG depending on school. It is much harder in some ways after 9th for most of these schools. The bulk of the class is set at 9 so successive years have fewer spots that may be allocated to filling needs like extra boys or girls, various other groups or athletes etc etc. in fact we waited to apply for 10th (maturity etc) last cycle and were advised by some schools to apply for repeat 9th as some schools had few 10th grade spots for boys. We didn’t want to repeat so we knocked a couple schools off of our list and took our chances. I would remind everyone that the variables change so much year to year that a great candidate who gets rejected one year might have been accepted a different year. So to @MisterBeluga, you are a wonderful looking applicant but you seem to lack a significant hook. You may want to reach out to the schools re your serious ECs and see if you can get any sense of interest in you via one of your ECs
@cababe97 interesting but sort of a separate point. Canadians don’t place much stock in private school. It is more of an exception. However the question raised was does being a Canadian offer geodiversity and by extension is an applicant disadvantaged as an international applicant. My understanding is that Canadians are not considered international.