Chances of being accepted into Exeter, Andover, Choate, Deerfield, and Hotchkiss

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

Hello,

What do you guys think my chances are of being accepted into these boarding schools are?
I am currently 14, white, male and applying without the need for financial aid.
My classes and grades are:
Geometery- A+
English - A
History- A
Spanish- B+
Biology- A+
Computer Science- A+
Theater- A+
P.E.- A+
My standardized test score is in the 98th-99th percentile(this was in the PSAT which Choate, Hotchkiss, and Deerfield accepted, but I am taking the SSAT this weekend for Andover and Exeter).

I have been a competitive tennis player for 6 years, I have mentioned this heavily in each of my applications, including videos.

I live in Reno, Nevada and attend a VERY small private school that was ranked 26th in the nation when I joined, it is now ranked 250.

At this school I am part of the Go Baby Go foundation, long story short we help kids with cerebral palsy become independent.

I have recommendations from 6 teachers and my tennis coach.
They all put me in percentiles ranking from the 1st to 25th of their career(the one who said 25th selected it once out of the 8 percentile questions, and he has been a teacher for 50 years. Him and I have only been acquainted for 5 months.

I wrote great essays for each of these schools(or so I’ve been told). My teachers strongly approved these essays along with my parents.

Now to the individual schools and what I have done-

Deerfield- Application completion with athletic form completed but no interview(none were available). I recently emailed them asking if there is anything I can do to increase my acceptance chances.

Hotchkiss- Application completion with athletic form, no interviews were available so but I emailed them several times to eventually send a 2 minute video of me interviewing myself… I just talked about what I loved about the school and how it related to me and my interest. My dad is good friends with many of the ‘successful’ alumni, and he was good friends with the former lead board-men.

Choate- Application completion, no athletic form available, Skype interview in the scheduling(I have studied everything about the school). Dad is good friends with many alumni and board members.

Exeter- Application completion and athletic form completed, interview in person at my local university. The interview went great… I think, it went 45 min past set timeline, I memorized and talked about many different facts and aspects of the school.

Andover- Application completion as well as athletic form, Skype interview in the scheduling, I am learning everything I can about the school.

My dad is fairly connected with all of these schools, just not as strong as the connection with Hotchkiss and Choate.

Thank you for reading this and please let me know what my chances of acceptance are.

Thanks.

2

Does “athletic form completed” mean you have spoken with the coaches? That needs to happen, just filling out the form is not an app boost. The form is supposed to connect you with the coach. The coach needs to tell admissions they want you. Admissions likely won’t know how competitive you are and that is why you need the coach to tell them.

If your dad is so connected possibly you will get in that way but I am surprised none of those connections told him that you need to be speaking to the tennis coaches at all the schools.

3

Yes sorry if that wan’t clear, I have spoken with these coaches and have sent multiple videos.

4

Confused about a couple of things. You’re 14 and you took the PSAT? Typically that is taken in 10th or 11th grade. Does this mean you’re applying for entrance in 11th or 12th grade?

Do you have a national tennis ranking?

Being from Nevada and not needing FA will certainly help.

5

I go to an advanced private school, formerly ranked 26th most challenging school in the nation, so I actually took the PSAT. And no I am not a nationally ranked tennis player, but I mentioned that I held number 1 and Stanford Tennis camp the 4/5 days of the week.

6

Also I am receiving 2 extra recommendations per school, along with photos of awards from this year.

7

Ok, got it. So you’re applying for 9th grade. Sounds like your test scores will be fine. Generally anything above 85th percentile is good enough for the top schools. The other factors in your application matters a lot more.

Apart from grades/scores, the biggest factor is ability to pay. Most of the schools are need-aware (with the exception of Andover). The next thing they will look for is if you fit one of the needs for that year. These vary from year to year. But being varsity level/impact player at a sport can certainly help. If you think that you’ll be able to join the varsity team as a freshman, this can be helpful. Start a conversation with the coach. Send your videos. Fill out the athlete forms on their website. If the coach wants you, then they can make things happen. Keep in mind that the coaches at these schools also double-duty as housemasters and teachers. So they are busy, and might not read things right away.

Now onto your Dad’s connections. If he just knows some buddies who are alums, that really won’t help much at all. It can even be counter productive. The admissions offices at these schools pride themselves on independent decision making. They do like to get input – but from people like coaches, Headmaster, Trustees. An alum who graduated years ago who barely knows you really won’t help your application much. Does your Dad know someone at the board of Trustees level? If so that could help, but only if the Trustee knows you well.

Last point: Did you really send in 7 letters of recommendation? Thats far more than what they typically want to read. You have contacted all of the schools, so I actually would suggest that you back down a bit. Smothering them makes you appear too desperate. A lot of the decisions will be made in late Feb/early March. So just sit tight. You’ve already done enough to show your interest. I wouldn’t bombard them

8

Agree ^^ about the recommendations. Typically you should send the number of recs requested by the school. No more no less. So math teacher, English teacher, and often one supplemental (although several of our schools didn’t have a supp. 7 is not going to help you.

That being said I think you have a very solid chance. But don’t ruin it by being annoying with the recommendations.

9

Ok, sorry I don’t know why I said so many recommendations, I have all of the required ones plus one extra for each school. The required ones reaches from 3-5.
And my dad was great friends with the lead chair on the board of trustees at Hotchkiss, but unfortunately he died a few years ago. I didn’t mention any connections on my recommendation, it is mainly last name recognition. So I haven’t directly told them anything, so it probably won’t help/ hurt my application.

10

Also, do you guys think it will hurt me that I couldn’t do an interview for Hotchkiss? I sent them a video of me essentially interviewing myself. Hotchkiss had no interviews available over any platform, so will they take it into account for my application?

11

Regarding the connections: I would say leave everything alone. Ask your dad if he has any contacts in the Development Office. If he doesn’t know what that means, then the chances of any outside contact will be minimal. Again, let the admissions people make their decision without outside influence. They tend to get pissed when being bombarded by outside people. If he does have a Development contact, then now is the time to use it. The Development people will generally know how to get the attention of the admissions people, so ask them.

The interview video sounds like a great idea! As long as you come across as intelligent, humble and friendly, I’m sure it can only help.

Overall I’d be surprised if you didn’t get into at least one of the above schools. You have good scores, full pay, and come from a geographically interesting part of the country. As long as your essays and other parts are fine, I think you have a good shot. Good luck.

Post here with your results on Mar 10.

12

Regarding the recommendations: sending in an extra recommendation to each school can sometimes piss them off. Reason is that they have a lot to read, and imagine if each student sent in an extra letter. It also shows that you didn’t read the directions carefully. Now an extra letter that shows an different side of you can sometimes help. But more often than not, its better just to submit exactly what is asked.

13

I see that, but I asked them if there is anything else they would like me to do and they suggested sending in another recommendation and any awards.

I’ll be sure to post my results, thank you for the feedback and help.

14

I just found out my transcripts weren’t sent properly to Choate, will this hurt my application or will it not matter if I get them in ASAP.

15

@Tennisplur1243 same thing happened to us with another school. We got them sent in asap and received a ‘completed’ email not long after. So just have them sent in.

16

Now Choate told me today that they will not accept my PSAT score, even though they previously said it was acceptable. So I will be taking the Feb. 8th SSAT. Choate’s average SSAT score of an acceptee is in the 85th percentile, so if I perform as well on this one as I did on the PSAT(98th percentile) will it make up for my test scores coming in 5 weeks late.

I also had an interview for Choate that went very well.

17

Good luck tomorrow