<p>My son is a 7th grader and will be in 8th grade in the coming fall. </p>
<p>He has been in the public system in the past. He is gifted student in the district. We have been living in the 10 rating schools and he is the top student in his schools. </p>
<p>His homework and projects were copied to use in the school district for example.
He is in 8th grade advanced math when he was in 7th grade.
He enjoyed the little league baseball and his team won the district champ this year.
He got first place award in local painting competition. And the second place in the state level.
He got the second place for the local science fair.
He was selected to attend the Robofest competition and got the ninth place international. </p>
<p>He is really well round boy and seems balance in all subjects. However, the only drawback was he got B+ once the baseball season started (that only test counts as the third quarter result) but he brought that back to A- in the end of the school year. (This is his math grade) Other than this, He got all straight As no matter PE or other subjects. </p>
<p>We want to go to Exeter but not sure his chance there. We didn't take the SSAT test yet.
Any comments and recommendations would be highly appreciated.</p>
<p>Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Look into other schools, I say at least 9 more. You have a lot of time to plan.</p>
<p>I am a 100% believer in FIT. Exeter was truly my daughter and my first choice…initially. Once we did our visits and interviews are minds got changed. She was accepted into Exeter but selected Deerfield Academy…not because it was a “better” school, but because Deerfield was such a better fit for my daughter and it met her needs and wants more closely.</p>
<p>Search for the threads including the word “fit” for long and detailed comments about the topic.</p>
<p>Agree completely with Alexz825Mom. Get information from lots of schools. </p>
<p>You are starting to think about this at the perfect time. Your son should take an SSAT practice test now to see how ready he is. My daughter (straight As and gifted program in public school) was very surprised to discover how much of the SSAT math she had never seen before.</p>
<p>On the SSAT, make sure he takes the test for 8th graders. A good friend did very well on the test for 7th grade and younger, but was very surprised by poor results on the test for 8th grade and above.</p>
<p>sgu, you shouldn’t worry about that one B+ he’s getting. If he can keep up his grades in 8th grade, he’ll be fine in that area. He sounds like a competitive applicant for Exeter. </p>
<p>That being said, there are other things that can strengthen or weaken his application. Among them, things you can control at least to a certain degree include: 1. test scores; 2. recommendations; 3. essays; 4. interview; 5. you (not messing up. 
refer to the threads in parents section - “parents application” and “parents interview”.)</p>
<p>Things that you have no control over: 1. Geographic area you are from (over or under represented in the school); 2. Full pay or need FA; 3. Luck - with an admit rate of less than 20% in Exeter, someone with “perfect everything” can be turned down.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>