Chances for Phillips Academy & St. Paul's School (NH)

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

Hi! I’m applying for the 11th grade. I’m female, from a Muslim refugee family, and applying for aid.

Grades – Last semester was tragic. I was averaging around a 3.5ish – however, I was going through immense personal issues (heavy stuff), and explained that in the “Additional Comments” section. However, other than this past semester, I’ve been a solid student. I received my school’s Academic Award for receiving above a 4.0 freshman year, as well as the Scholar-Athlete award last season for maintaining above a 3.5 during field hockey season. I am bouncing back from a rough first semester.

Extracurriculars – I am an avid member of my school’s Model United Nations team, which is nationally ranked in the top five. I won best delegate/1st place at ILMUNC (Ivy League Model UN Conference) my freshman year, and a number of other awards at both local and collegiate levels. I served as the Activities Coordinator for our South Asian Student Association and Advertising Chair for our International Night. Moreover, I am a regional organizer for Students United Against Gun Violence. I’m also a member of the robotics team!

Sports – I play goalie in field hockey, with a clean sheet playing for our JV team this past season. I’m also an avid boxer, trained in both boxing and kickboxing.

Interviews – How much do they really mean? I interviewed with the Dean of Admissions at St. Paul’s and a PA alum, and both went extremely, extremely well. I feel like I’m getting my hopes up solely because my interviews were so frickin’ awesome. Someone calm me down.

SSAT – I was in the 95th percentile for both reading & verbal, but someone ended up in the 51st in math (probably shouldn’t have skipped so many questions – I was wary of the guessing penalty!) I averaged out to around a 2200 and in the 90th percentile overall. Does this spread look strange to schools/is it a turn off? I didn’t think much of it because I was happy to be in the 90th percentile, but am now a little uneasy.

I have a chance, right?

2

clarification: did you get the 51th percentile for math? if you did, im afraid that will be going against you highly. if not, then you should be fine. ive met with a few other applications for 11th grade and they are all past the 99th percentile for psat/ssat. (this is for pa).

hopefully your grades won’t affect you too much. a 3.5 is a bit low for schools like sps or pa, but they may take your additional comment for consideration.

i would put you at a 3-4/10 chance at this moment because I don’t know how well you wrote your essays, how good your recs were, etc

3

somehow* not someone, in the SSAT pararaph

4

I honestly think that you would be an easy accept if it weren’t for the test scores and that 3.5. You have awards, great EC’s, and you’re from a Muslim refugee family which makes you a type of URM (whether it’s racial or religious), I’m assuming. Now due to your scores and that 3.5, I’m less sure; but, I still think that you have an above-average chance! Good luck :)>-