Chances for top boarding schools (hopefully Exeter or Andover) as International student?

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

I’m in 8th grade and am considering to apply to some top US boarding schools (Exeter, Andover, Laurenceville, Choate) for 9th grade and to be complete honest, I’m really skeptical of my chances getting into those schools. I’m currently studying in Asia in an international school, and being Asian/Chinese, I don’t really know who I am up against. Here’s some info:

Academics:
~ Top 10% in our (highly competitive) school

  • Average of 6.5 (out of 7) for IB MYP (52/56) (In GPA around 3.875)
  • Completely Bilingual (English and Chinese as 1st language) and also studying Spanish (will these help?)
  • In old school had awards for Top 3 in year and got them a few times
  • Old School: avg 365/400 for total score
  • Got into our school’s Honor Roll alternative (basically same thing. When converted to GPA, you need about 3.6 to get the award)

Standardised Testing:
SSAT: Around 2250-2300+ for the test, when converted around 96%ile
SCAT: ~70%ile for English and ~99%ile for Maths (doing CTY English)
TOEFL: No need as English spoken as 1st language

Sports:

  • Badminton (playing for 4 years now)
  • Swimming (a few years)
    (I don’t do the above in a competitive manner)
  • Played for old school’s football team
  • Signed up for school’s athletics team, season yet to start

Music:

  • Played Piano since 8, taking a rest from that for a while

EC:

  • Global Issues Waterworks
  • Friends of UNRWA
  • School Magazine
  • Kids4Kids (Charity)
  • Hiking-Photography Club
  • Used to do robotics (went to some competitions)
  • School’s Math Team (more on that later)
  • CTY in free time (I guess)
  • Used to do EPGY, our centre closed down
  • Used to play Chess (competitive), went to 2 or 3 competitions

Maths:
Really my excelling point, really love maths. Part of school’s team and went to a local and an international contest. For the local one, our team got 1st place out of around 30 international schools. As for the international one (SEAMC if you want to know), it was really meant for 9th graders (I went as 7th grader) and I ranked around 60th out of the 240 students (of the 80 teams) that went. Wonder if those will help.

Other stuff:

  • I went to this year’s Exeter Summer School. Would that help a load (for my Exeter Application)? Also one of my teachers wrote something about needing to have better time management (would that affect my admission?)
  • I already did an interview during my summer school, should I go and do it again (for Exeter) if I am really that desperate?
  • Teacher Recommendations: English - Don’t really know; Maths - Should be really good (best student in my teacher’s 2 classes); Principal one - Might get my head of year to do, he’s pretty friendly with me; EC - Math team teacher in charge (should be fine)
  • Just curious, would school alliances between my school and those schools improve my chances of getting into those schools?
  • No FA needed, 100% full pay

Another final question: Are the whatever percentage of international students only the ones with an international nationality, or are they just all from international countries (even if they hold a US passport)?

Well thanks for reading all that and please just give your honest opinion!

If I don’t have much chances of getting into a good BS (my school should be good enough), what would my Ivy chances be?

2

Forgot to mention a few for my EC:

  • SGLI (Student Global Leadership Institute)
  • Reboot (School hosted computer charity where we refurb computers and install Linux, then donate them to the unfortunate)
3

You seem like the typical Asian student with a little more added to it. Your EC’s seem good, and sports and everything seem fine. You could really highlight your math, however because everyone seems to think that Asians are good at math. Also, choose a secondary thing you want to talk about, something that is different as many Asian applicants have math as their speciality. Perhaps an art (or photography as you mentioned). Overall, I think your chances are pretty high and you have a good chance of making it in to Exeter/Andover/Choate
In answer to your questions:
You are up against some pretty tough people: take Austin for example. Also, having a school alliance will affect you slightly, but not significantly. Lastly, if you keep these grades up (all the way to IB Diploma level) AND continue on your math, sports, and music studies, then you have a pretty good chance for getting into Ivys

4

These schools take very few Asian internationals in 9th grade. The handful that are accepted generally have some sort of hook (athlete, legacy, development). In my sons 9th grade class there were only four Asians from Asia. Rest of the Asians were from the U.S.

The 10th grade class is when more Asian internationals are accepted.

It will be tough for you. But good luck.

5

Your resume is pretty much perfect.
Not needing financial aid, +1

The only thing I see wrong is that you really, really, really, REALLY need to have some kind of strong sports background if you are competing against several people that have literally the same exact resume as you. Also, try emphasizing in your musical development. Piano is a good instrument, but schools really like band/orchestra instruments as people who graduate and leave the program, they need new students to fill in those seats.

If you don’t get in, don’t worry about it.
Theres always next year!
Focus on what you didn’t do as well and expand your horizon of thinking and interests.

Good luck!

:smiley:

6

While that is always a nice thing to put on an application, one does not really, really, really, really need a strong sports background.

7

I guess the “really” part was a bit overdone, but if you want to stand out among the asian applicants, do something that most of them don’t.

8

There are lots of Asian kids who play sports. Mostly it is swimming and Tennis though. However if you are a decent athlete in any number of other sports – this will certainly make you stand out. I agree with @sleepworksleep on this point.