<p>My son is applying to multiple elite boarding schools. He is currently in 8th grade at a competitive east coast day school. The schools he is applying to include Exeter, Andover, SPS, Deerfield, Taft, Groton etc. His overall score on the SSAT's placed him in the 90th percentile. He his recent grades are mostly A's. He is a good athlete, and is captain of multiple sports teams. He sings in the school chorus etc. What are his chances of getting in?</p>
<p>36.4 percent.</p>
<p>But you should also consider this very important question: Who cares?</p>
<p>There’s a whole separate forum for prep school admissions. You should post this over there.</p>
<p>He’s certainly in the pool of applicants that the admitted students will be drawn from. Beyond that. it’s going to depend on the interviews and how he fits the intangibles that the schools are looking for to fill their classes.</p>
<p>and whether he’s applying for financial aid</p>
<p>mantori, your post count is now 1337. Lucky duck!</p>
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<p>I can accept that students ask for this type of reassurance, but I would hope that parents, even newbies, would read a few more posts to realize that:</p>
<p>a) Nobody here can give you a reliable answer, as there are no admissions folks from any school who post here.
b) Even if we had the answer to that question, what would you do with that information beyond booking a hotel room near campus before fall registration to avoid the rush?
c) It is bad form for parents to seem as insecure as their children in this forum.
d) You need a safety school so you don’t feel the need to ask this question.</p>
<p>Kudos to mantori.suzuki for being snark of the month. You’ve been quite entertaining lately.</p>
<p>I clearly need more caffeine this morning as I am normally not this way.</p>
<p>Point here is that you’ve managed to get your kid this far. There are plenty of crabs trying to claw their way out of the barrel. All of these schools can fill their classes with kids like yours several times over. Look at some non-name-brand schools and discover that a kid who is truly motivated to learn will have plenty of opportunities to rise at many fine schools where you don’t have to ask about your chances. If your kid needs the snob appeal of a name brand school to achieve, s/he as well as the parents involved need some serious help with their self-image problem.</p>
<p>Hey Dadofprep, did we tour SPS together? I think we talked about Roxbury, Exeter, Andover and the SSAT while hanging out in the lobby. Your son plays hockey seriously?</p>
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<p>Whoa, cool! Thanks for pointing that out. :)</p>
<p>Wow, thank you for the advice, you are sooo wise! Someone with your keen intellect should be should be writing on the Sigmund Freud site, not on College Confidential. How did read so much into a simple question? Oh yes, you are an expert at reading posts, and understanding the hidden meaning in the words of others etc, etc…the real meaning of my question to you, golie dad, was to ask for your all-wise advice…</p>
<p>Get a life buddy. I was just asking for some advice regarding the admissions process at certain boarding schools. It seems some of the other people who contribute to this thread understood my question. Maybe you need to grow up a bit and get off your high horse.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice. We will just focus on the interview.</p>
<p>No sir, I have not visited St Paul’s yet. I heard they have a great hockey team.</p>
<p>Yes, you are right, this was the wrong thread for my question. I will try to find the correct forum. Thank you.</p>
<p>Looks good! What percent in the 90th percentile? I would say he’s solid at maybe a 95? But then again, I haven’t seen his entire transcript. Also - be aware of if you are applying for financial aid. If he is wait-listed at his top choice and you have applied, (if you have the means) call up the office of admission and ask if you can withdraw your request. He should come off the wait-list pretty quickly. To those who doubt, one of my good friends had this exact same situation. Her mother put the request to withdraw in writing, sent it to the school, and voila! Acceptance. </p>
<p>P.S. This school was “need blind”</p>
<p>Good chances of getting in!!</p>
<p>I apologize for being rude. I honestly thought this was posted by a ■■■■■ or spammer because it was so out-of-place where it was originally posted. Good luck with prep school admissions, dadofprep.</p>
<p>Will your son be accepted by one of the elite BS’s you listed, dadofprep? Depends. </p>
<p>Having gone through this process last year with my son at many of the schools you listed, I learned a few things. First, most of the kids applying to the top prep schools have top grades, excellent SSAT scores, good essays, strong recs, and great EC’s. Second, what often separates the selected from the best are…hooks. In this regard, I discovered that legacies matter. Background matters (the fewer inherited advantages the better). Acclaimed excellence in a certain area matters. Etc. Third, does a school really believe that you will attend that school if it gives you an offer. Did you go to summer school or camp there? Have you applied before? Did you have an on campus interview? Etc. Fourth, the higher the grade to which you are applying (other than PG), the harder the chance to get in. </p>
<p>Needless to say, others will have different lists here. The items listed here are the factors that appeared to me to make a difference between one applicant and another. In this vein and for what it is worth, I figured out that the odds of acceptance at one of the schools you listed were not 1 out of 5 or 6, as routinely propagated by that school, but really closer to 1 out of 40 once I factored into the selection equation the various hooks the school exhibited it wanted but which my son didn’t possess and the various slots (grade, sex) it was filling at the school but which my son didn’t fit . So, if you don’t have the right hooks or exact fit at some of these schools but your child really wants to attend that school, I would advise him or her to apply as young as possible and show up on campus as often as possible, while still knowing that the odds are stacked against him/her. </p>
<p>Fair? You bet. It is a private school. It can do pretty much whatever it wants to do with its admissions. If you don’t like it, apply to another school. There are a lot of other schools that would love to have your son. Find them. They are waiting for you. Still, give these top schools a shot. Why not? You never know whether or not your child could have gotten into one of these great schools unless you ask.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>You are my hero</p>
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<p>The only question you asked was what were his chances, and Sigmund Freud couldn’t have guessed that this was question about the admissions process at any school. If you want to know how interviews, legacy, athletic hooks, etc. factor into the decision making, that sir, is a question about the admissions process. Now if you had put his stats down and asked "HOW I can improve his chances, that is also another legitimate question. Big difference in questions. </p>
<p>You have much to learn about making good use of this site, first of which is to identify who around here has been through the process and actually helped other members understand and work through the various aspects of admissions and FA (hint: this message comes from one of them). One of those techniques is spending several hours (if not days) using the search function looking at old threads to see who has been posting solid advice for a number of years (hint: look at my Join Date).</p>
<p>As to the psychoanalysis, if you would read the “what are my chances” threads around here, the vast majority are written by students who for the lack of a number of years of life experience don’t realize that truly nobody here knows your chances. Most of them just want to get the nice pat on the back from other students in the same (or lesser depenending upon the level of insecurity) situation. This is a well-known and talked about phenomena by old-timers around here that repeats itself yearly as new students come on board.</p>
<p>I’ve got a life and am quite grown up, thank you. I’m not on a high horse either and don’t need to brag about which boarding school my daughter has been at the past 3 1/2 years. </p>
<p>Yes, I was a bit snarky this morning and I thought that I was admitting as much up front. You need to accept that this is going to happen to you as a learning experience in using forums like CC and pose a question that you should have put more consideration into the wording of. </p>
<p>Last piece of advice, if you are looking to improve your son’s chances at these schools, you might want to do a search on each one and note the parents who have posted a number of times on the subject and see which of those still hang around CC. Yes, it is time consuming. Those might be your best source of valid information for the specifics of the schools you are interested in. Private messaging is usually effective in getting the attention of those infrequent posters.</p>
<p>I can be quite helpful, but I do have a bit of impatience with dealing with certain things. I’m hoping that you can think about this a bit and consider putting a bit more research and care into your questions going forward.</p>
<p>The information regarding the hooks, and campus visits is quite helpful. Until now, I did not think showing up on campus, outside the interview, would be helpful, nor did I think extra recommendations from alums would be helpful, but your post has changed my mind. I am going to get my son to write the coaches at the schools and work at multiple angles, including visits to the school.</p>
<p>I was critisized for being shallow, and insecure for asking about these schools, but I want my son to have the best chance for acceptance into one of these schools, and I thought that I might gleen something from this blog. My inclination was right, and I will use your advice to advance my sons chance of success in the admission process at the various schools he has applied to. Thank you again for such a helpful reply to my question.</p>