I’m currently applying for the 9th-grade program at these schools…
Groton (2nd choice)
Possibly Choate (?)
Milton (Top choice)
Possibly Concord Academy (?)
Scores…
When I superscore - 2214
SSAT - 90%
Math - 99% full 800
Verbal - 81%
Reading - 73% (Readingisn’t great, but from the first test I took, I improved by 10%)
EC-
Soccer: Captain, club and school team
Basketball: AAU and school team
Tennis: Practice with varsity, am not on a team of my own though (age)
Cultural dance
Interviews:
Groton - Really well, interviewed with the dean of admissions and financial aid. He has been emailing me back and forth about my admissions process. Said my SSAT scores were good and that I had a really good interview, which matters very much. Recommended I retake the SSAT to improve reading, which I improved by 10%, although it still isn’t the best.
Choate and Concord Academy - Haven’t had yet. It’s one of the newer schools I’m applying too and I still don’t know, depending on how long my other essays take.
Milton - It was good, but the girl didn’t seem interested a few times so I shortened it a little bit, but we talked for a good 30 min.
Please let me know what you think my chances are and what I should include in the essay!!!
Are you a boy or a girl? I’m asking because Milton Groton and Choate recruit differently for soccer and basketball and I know a bit about those teams. Milton boys soccer is top level, international recruits. Milton girls basketball is struggling, new coach doesn’t understand how to get players into the school. Choate is heavily recruiting for girls soccer. Groton girls basketball the coach has some impact. Boys basketball is terrible so if you’re an outstanding player that might boost you. Soccer at groton is rough but boys coach works for stars and does try to recruit.
What level club soccer are you? DA, ECNL? For AAU is your team generally in the A bracket? Have you been in touch with the coaches?
I think you have a strong shot but you need to be working with the coaches.
Thank you so much for replying! I am a girl and my basketball team is ok, not the worst but not the best either, but I am the starting point guard for it, and I’m looking at getting private training over the summer to boost my skill. For soccer, I’m in the NHSL, and my team has won championships. I’m hoping to get a lot more training to make my skills top-notch, but from what I’ve seen from Milton’s girls basketball team, I think I can bring a lot if I get accepted.
You should definitely reach out to both basketball and soccer coaches, and if you have any video highlights send it to them (longer clips not just scoring, they like to see how you play). It may not help but it will not hurt, and it could absolutely give you a boost if one of the coaches supports your application.
I would broaden my list if I were you. If you need significant aid, you’re going to want at least 2-3 acceptances so you can pick the one with the most generous financial aid offer.
What were your criteria for selecting schools? Depending on what you are looking for, you might want to check out St. Mark’s School, Tabor, Millbrook, Governor’s, Peddie, Pomfret, Blair, Berkshire, and George School. Try to add 2-3 from that list. We are all rooting for you but we want you to end up with at least two financially-viable options to choose from!
Our DS goes to Groton and he was accepted and offered FA from 3 of your 4 schools listed. One of the keys for us was regular contact with the coaches, we provided them video and stats on the performance of our DS. These schools are looking for kids to complete their community. The better question is, which of these schools needs a child with your DD’s profile.
On the essay part, I would say don’t be scared to be yourself, we weren’t 100% on board with the topics he wrote about, we wanted him to write things that were a bit more safe and might position him in a better light. At the end I really think we were wrong as we have been told multiple times the honesty he had about himself in the essays were some of the best they had ever seen.
We really love your list of schools but for us it was Groton, Choate, a few other then Milton. The 50% boarding was an issue for us as we have a child who is on campus on the weekends.
Thanks for sharing your FA experience @ReluctantDad. Do you mind sharing if you found that the offers were in the same ballpark? (I’d guess Groton made the best offer given their endowment per student and that’s where he is) If not, did you feel comfortable asking them to get closer to your best offer? I’m glad your DS is enjoying it!
@Trebuchet my apologies for the late reply, I’ve been on the road the last few weeks. I don’t mind sharing some details but of the offers 2 were very close to each other and one was almost twice the cost to us for our DS to attend also got a 4th offer after M10 and it was significantly more expensive than all the previous offers. Yes, Groton was one of the 2 good offers and yes we did fell comfortable to negotiate, which we did.
St. Paul’s School offers significant amounts of financial aid. Totally free (tuition, fees, room & board) for families with incomes less than $125,000 or a $150,000 (I don’t recall the exact number, but it is one of the two). SPS moved into a more competitive athletic league from the ISL a few years ago, so your athletic talents should help. 100% boarding & 50/50 male/female ratio.
St. Paul’s School has an enormous endowment. Probably the third or fourth largest after Andover & Exeter which each have twice as many students as does SPS (SPS has about 540 students in a typical year).
Also, now that your SSAT score has hit 90, Exeter is a possibility. Hard to ignore SPS & Exeter if one scores in the 90th percentile on the SSAT & needs substantial financial aid.
Thanks for sharing @ReluctantDad. I’m not looking to negotiate hard here - the value any of these places offers is worth more than 60k/year to me! But 30k out of pocket versus, say, 45k would make a big difference for the family budget. The potential for a gap between best offer for the pocketbook and where my child would most like to go seems high. Knock wood, we’ll see…