<p>I am going into 8th grade and am applying for 9th grade. My safety school is Williston Northampton School. Here is some information about me:</p>
<p>Grades - I get straight A's, but I get a B on my report card every now and then. These have been my grades since 5th grade (before that, we didn't get letter grades.) My test averages are:
Language Arts - 99%
Science - 96%
Math - 92% (this was only after extra credit, so math is my weakness! But to be fair, last year my teacher was a reeeaaalllly bad teacher and really uninspiring. My teacher for 8th grade is really good, though!)
Social Studies - 97%
Latin - 93%</p>
<p>Academic achievements - I have placed 1st in writing competitions at my local library in 3rd and 4th grade, and in 6th grade, I won 1st overall in every age group (the competition was open from 6th-8th grade) in a writing competition that had thousands of entries. I also won two Magna Cum Laude awards at a Latin competition - one for a dress inspired by the goddess Aurora, and one for a short story. I am going to send a short story and a few poems with my application.</p>
<p>Athletics - Athletics are not my strong suit, but I am taking tennis lessons in the fall and I am trying out for the field hockey team. My friend, who's AMAZING at field hockey, has been coaching me all summer and we have been working hard, so I hope to make at least the JV team.</p>
<p>Arts - I am a competitive dancer. I quit my competition team for the 8th grade year, because it was getting really catty and the teachers aren't so good, and I also want to be able to have more time to do other activities and study more to help keep my grades up. However, I will still be taking 3 dance classes, and I plan on choreographing a modern dance, video taping it and sending it along with my application. I play guitar - I had a teacher in 5th grade, but then I started dancing really seriously so I couldn't do it any more in 6th and 7th grade. I have kept on practicing, though, and I also sing and am a lead soloist in my school chorus (since 5th grade). I'm going to video tape myself playing guitar and singing a song I wrote to send along with my application. Another passion of mine is fashion design, so I'm going to send the schools photocopies of my fashion portfolio (I need to keep the original!). Last but not least, I have always loved photography, and I'm about to start an intensive photography camp so I hope to collect a few nice photographs to send as well.</p>
<p>Community service - My little sister has epilepsy and is severely delayed, and I go to her school and help out with the kids there. Every week, I go to a very under-funded inner city school for mentally and physically handicapped children, and I love it there. I am starting to coordinate a fundraiser for the school with my friend who goes there with me. About once a month, I volunteer at a soup kitchen at UPenn. I love working with people, and I plan to let that shine through in my essay!</p>
<p>Other information - I am half Ecuadorian and half British. I don't think the British side really helps much, but being Ecuadorian is something unique and I don't think many Ecuadorian people apply to boarding schools. I'm from Pennsylvania, which isn't an underrepresented state, but it's not an overrepresented state either! I haven't taken the SSAT yet, but I have already started studying using both the Princeton Review book for vocab, reading comprehension and analogies, and Kaplan for math. I hope to get at least an 80% - I don't test well, which could be a downfall for me put I am working my butt off! My Language Arts teacher for next year knows me and loves me, and I'm not going to be a kiss up or anything, but teachers tend to like me and I'm going to try and get to know my math teacher well. This should help my recs! And since I love Latin (it's my favorite subject) I am going to ask my Latin teacher for a rec too.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure I covered anything, but please let me know if you need any more information. Thanks so much!</p>