oh god my hopes are going to be crushed but here goes
I’m only applying to Exeter because if I get rejected (extremely likely :D), I have the option of going to local public school, which is very good anyway. It might not be Exeter-level, but IIRC it’s a top-ranked public school nationally, and I’m not really dead-set on going to boarding school.
I am a 9th grade male from CA applying into 10th grade needing FA (ouch).
Grades:
- 4.0 GPA UW, and my pvt. school doesn’t weight
- Took AP Calc AB, BC, and World History with 5s on all, if that matters at all
- Will be taking ISEE later this week. if i remember i will post my score when i get it
Extracurriculars (weakest part):
Qualified for AIME last year with what I think is a relatively good score on the AMC, and I’ve done a lot of other assorted math competitions: HMMT, CHMMC, mathleague.org (until recently), and others
Have been doing it for 2 years. Placed very high at MS nationals last year, thought I’m not specifying place, b/c that is potentially personally identifying
- Science Olympiad (5 yrs.)
Won regional medals for past 4 years and our team qualified for states for past 3 years. I have won top-5 medals all years.
not very good at this though
- Not really an extracurricular, but I'm saying this because I'm particularly passionate about it: Latin
I tutor occasionally, and I really love to read Latin literature. Part of why I love Exeter is because of their classics program/cult
- Community service: volunteer at library and with a program that holds events that help low-income families twice a month
Interview:
- Not scheduled yet, but hopefully will go well? I’ll try to practice and make sure I don’t come off as too awkward
Essays:
- I think they’re fine. I’ve been spending all of Winter Break writing them, and I’ll try to get my English teacher and sister in college to help me with them.
- not posting topics
Recommendations:
- English teacher: should be pretty good
- Math teacher: same as English
- Counselor: should be great
- Personal: probably using my Bio teacher, because I connect with her a lot outside of class, and should be the best out of all of these.
Strengths: grades and (hopefully) recommendations
Weaknesses: extracurriculars, FA, applying into 10th
Thank you so much!
Especially hard to guess without an SSAT or ISEE score.
One of your strengths may be your interest in Latin & the study of classics.
Your extracurriculars aren’t a weakness, for one. Qualifying for AIME and placing high at MS nationals???
I mean without SSAT scores it’s a lil rough to chance, but you’re very qualified. I assume you’re applying to Exeter because of their ridiculous math team? I have a friend who geeks about their math program (even though he lives in the UAE) and always talks about how many IMO/USAMO participants they have.
Thanks for the feedback. should I post the scores for a practice ISEE i took? it doesn’t have percentiles or stanines, though, so that’s a really big weakness
Are you going to take ISEE or SSAT in Jan?
@Stillwater0808 I’m taking the ISEE this Saturday.
clarification if anyone is confused: when i say “i’m not really dead-set on boarding school”, i mean that if i get rejected from PEA (which i’m trying desperately not to do :/), i’m fine; but if i get accepted, i’m definitely going. hopefully, this enthusiasm shows in my interview/essays
Yes I understand. I have heard many “go big or go home” cases from several friends in CA. Most of the cases I heard, they only applied to Exeter 
It sounds totally reasonable to me, if there are wonderful local high school choices and only pursue one or two dream boarding schools far far away.
Good luck for your test and application @egnatius
You have good ec’s and if you score well on the ISEE you will be a competitive applicant
I took the ISEE at Prometric yesterday, and I received my score report today. 99% on every section!
I do have a question, though. At the bottom of the score report, it says that “The above is a preliminary ISEE report. ERB reserves the right to amend this report before it is finalized. The report will be final no later than 20 business days. The final report will automatically be generated electronically.” ERB tends to only make minor adjustments, right?
Preliminary test scores aren’t your finalized scores, meaning that there is a chance that you didn’t actually get a 99% on every sections. The test predicts that you got a 99% on every section but you don’t know for sure until it’s finalized.
You probably did score really high since they’re predicting that you scored that high on every section. I wouldn’t worry about anything.
BTW, I thought that ISEE test takers receive stanine scores?
@YoungThriver ok that’s fine. i did think that 99% was weird and a preliminary result. ISEE reports include percentile and stanines, but stanines are the ones that schools look at, i think?