<p>Frankly I am not too confident about any of them, Deerfield was just one of the schools that my D really loved, and connected very well with a few people that she talked to there.</p>
<p>As long as addcomms do not use SSAT as a screen to eliminate applicants from consideration, she may have a shot, otherwise no</p>
<p>So far I have only heard of Choate accepting low % applicants, and that gives me some hope</p>
<p>Why do so many people wait for the January SSAT? It is really a last chance offering and gives you no chance to choose your range of schools appropriately, or to retake it if you want to. </p>
<p>I think most people have weaknesses in their candidacy. Most people also feel like they are wandering the dessert through this process. You have a lot of company.</p>
<p>actually for my D that was the only time she could take it, they do not offer it in Bahrain and Jan was the only time that she would be in US to take the test</p>
<p>Here is another long shot: See if the isee if being offered in Saudi Arabia in the near future. It is a test similar to the ssat that tends to be used by independent day schools. Many boarding schools will accept it in lieu of the ssat. You will need to check on 1. Is it offered and in a timely manner? 2. Will her schools accept it?
After that, I'm out of ideas except to use the common application (she only has to do this once) on <a href="http://www.schools.com%5B/url%5D">www.schools.com</a> and apply to a few less selective but great boarding schools with Feb.1 application deadlines. There really are other great schools out there.</p>
<p>AliJ</p>
<p>Don't sweat it and don't worry about taking the SSATs again. Your daughter will stand out because of her background and ECs. Also, with good interviews she will get into some of these schools and maybe even some of the most selective ones! These schools LOVE having international students and with her leadership experience I really would be surprised if she didn't get in to one!</p>
<p>Thanks burb parent</p>
<p>We were bombed out of saudi and now live in Bahrain and the do not offer ISEE here.</p>
<p>My wife will only let our D go, if she gets into THE TOP schools; so less selective schools may accept her, but she will run against motherly Veto.</p>
<p>I guess there are only few things left to do</p>
<h1>1 Send her updated (improved) transcript</h1>
<h1>2 Highlight some of the achievements since the interview (launching of school paper, proactively engaging Home Land Security and getting invited to sit on their panel)</h1>
<h1>3 Asking alum for one of the schools to write on her behalf</h1>
<p>can you think of anything else to help her case?
Thanks</p>
<p>Ali J .... as I said I really don't think you have to worry. Being international is a 'hook' in itself. Especially since her reading and verbal scores are decent. It sounds like she has already made good connections at the schools. Be careful about being too pushy....they really don't like pushy parents. Just send her improved grades and let the rest speak for itself!</p>
<p>Might be easier to influence Mom than the admissions committee :)
If my child's school was bombed I'd be looking for options...</p>
<p>lol you have not met her... well we did move but now my D wants to go to a boarding school and her mom has relented (she went from "over my dead body... to get into the TOP schools and I will consider it")</p>
<p>trust me add coms are nothing compared to a mother's wrath/love</p>
<p>Kind of off topic, but...</p>
<p>I'd love to go to visit the Middle East one day, especially Dubai, Jeddah, Tel Aviv, Cairo, and Alexandria. It looks so beautiful!</p>
<p>You should it is a great experience, completely unlike Fox/CNN version </p>
<p>PM me and I will give you my contact details, would love to host/show you around</p>
<p>"Being international is a 'hook' in itself." Not at all</p>
<p>international students find a lot more competition in the admissions process, i think i mentioned, "as someone who goes to hotchkiss from hong kong, last year, hotchkiss took 4 out of around 70 applicants from hong kong... that's around 5 %, all 4 of them had 97+ percentile on SSAT"
and the international yield for us this year was so good, almost everyone who were accepted from hong kong and korea (like 15 of them) chose hotchkiss it overflew the international cap (i am guessing this because we see a HUGE international proportion this year), and rumors are that we are gonna cut back on internationals.. but this might not be true at another school, so being international might hurt more one year and hurt less the year after, but it's never a hook itself...</p>
<p>HOWEVER, OP's from saudi, and that's an under-represented international sector at top schools (not true in the lower tier school where the oil tycoons put their spoiled little kid), so I am guessing that OP's D might get a pull in this process and get special attention within international applicants, but it's a real crap shot for anyone below the SSAT average, maybe less so for SPS, surprisingly, since they have the lowest SSAT average (88%) among all (except for concord) (and dont bite me on that i was surprised too i checked peterson)..but then it's hard to say becoz they hav so many legacies, others are all well into the mid-90s dipping with less than 20% admit rate</p>
<p>"Be careful about being too pushy....they really don't like pushy parents"
VERY TRUE. ALL YOU CAN DO IS APPEAR AS A SUPPORTIVE PARENT, all contacts should be done by your D. remember, independence and personal skills are HUGE qualities that schools look for..</p>
<p>p.s There's only 1 girl from saudi at hotchkiss, so it's very underrepresented, and I would love to see hotchkiss diversify and accept your daughter</p>
<p>Bearcats, I didn't mean to offend you....I still think it helps being international. I guess it just depends on which school and how many applicants from the specific country. I honestly didn't realize schools get that many applicants from hong kong but I guess if I looked at the enrollment, I should have surmised that. </p>
<p>As far as SSATs go...I don't think they have that much influence on the decision (unless of course they are ridiculously low). If they want you...they want you! If the SSAT average is 90% for a school, that means for every kid with a 99% they can take a kid with less than an 80%...It's an average. My understanding is there are no minimums SSATs at any of these schools, and I am sure kids get in with 70%s or even lower, not a lot but some. I think AliJs daughter has that something else that will help!!! She has a lot to offer that most applicants will not have - I think she stands out! That's all I'm saying.</p>
<p>AliJ....I don't think Andover/Exeter are out of the question. Good Luck!</p>
<p>"I still think it helps being international. I guess it just depends on which school and how many applicants from the specific country. I honestly didn't realize schools get that many applicants from hong kong but I guess if I looked at the enrollment, I should have surmised that. "</p>
<p>it depends on demography, whether it's overrepresented or underrepresented, hong kong and korea? tough tough..... middle east or places lacking representation, hell yea...</p>
<p>I think they will accept your daughter because it would be interesting to have someone with a different perspective on the war on terror. They would be extremely, extremely lucky to have her.</p>
<p>Wow. I had been off CC for less than 24 hours and this thread is already on its fourth page . . . quite impressive. :)
Ali, it is possible that your daughter's scores will hurt her. However, she is so different from the majority of candidates that I think it keeps in the running. Not all hope is lost; your daughter sounds very interesting, and her essay seems like one the adcom will slow down to really read.</p>
<p>my friend, from afghanistan, didnt take the SSAT, and got in... i hope it's almost the same circumstances,,but his brother died in a car bomb and all those stories....</p>
<p>being asians from typical asian countries hurt, just like in college admissions, we get nailed the most by affirmative action and colleges hold higher standard, but being from other underrepresented part of the world really would help...</p>
<p>i hate doing this being the bad guy and stuff, i think your D has a chance, but remember, BS admissions is almost like college admissions, they compete, unless they like you a lot, they wont accept a candidate just to lower their mean SSAT and stuff that they post on their leaflets they use to brag</p>
<p>hopefully some adcoms will make the right decision and accpet such an interesting girl (one of them is my floor faculty), we hav a floor feed tonight so I will go talk to him and mention about this girl whom I met on CC who has such intersting experience but unfortunate SSAT</p>
<p>heyy when i visited milton idk there was a girl from bahrain too! i didnt get to talk to her or anything- she just seemed serious lol. was that ur D by any chance, AliJ?</p>
<p>I have to agree w/1PSMOM.... When you factor out 11th grade admit %, 12th grade admissions % and non-boarders... your true admissions percentage is 1/3 or so. Factor in the requisite that the schools want to be well represented from multiple regions etc... and you have excellent chances IMHO.</p>