<p>GreenDay: Maybe it would help if you go to the beginning of the thread and discover that Frenchvanilla is an FA applicant applying from Canada. She is in an extraordinarily competitive pool. Where do she apply? To a school where she is in the top 10% of applicants. How does she find out what the top 10% even is at a particular school? By looking up the SAT of the graduating seniors. Yes I know she will have to sit the SSAT. I also know the SSAT will not tell her squat about where and how to pitch her application which is the issue. Looking at her performance to date it is obvious she will be in the 95-99 national percentile range. So big deal, so is everybody else who applies. She need to know whether she is in the 99 percentile and only the SAT can tell her that. 1400 is her benchmark. You heard it here first. Also, FYI a reasonably literate grade x student can easily get 1500 on the SAT. The math is only at a grade nine level and thousand of Chinese Kids with one or two years of English can master the vocabulary part so why wouldn't a Canadian with English as a first language?</p>
<p>Cool .</p>
<p>I think Paleozoic has the right thinking when it comes to positioning yourself in the applicant pool. </p>
<p>Being in the top decile (10%) or possibly quartile (25%) of applicants will greatly improve your odds of FA, so school selection will be critical.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about being too strong of a candidate for the school you are applying to. They will find a way to challenge you academically. Plus if you are in the top level classes at most schools, the class size shrinks - another bonus.</p>
<p>And being at the top of the applicant class (with hard work) will give you much better odds of finishing at the top of your graduating class which helps with college admissions - which if I am reading this thread right is the purpose of coming south to a prep school.</p>
<p>I suspect that in our case, my daughter was in the top quartile of applicants at her school academically. Throw in a much needed extracurricular skill (ice hockey goaltending) and the FA offer was more generous than we expected out of this particular school. And FA was a critical factor in our school decision.</p>
<p>Another thing to be cognizant of - FA offers are made in US dollars and tend to be stable in US Dollars over your time at a school. Currency fluctuations may affect your ability to afford a school positively or negatively in future years.</p>
<p>I should have thought of this before but goaliedad jogged my memory. Not every good prepschool is in New England. If I were a Canadian hockey player I would look at Shattuck-St. Mary's which is a clone of St. Paul's School (they have the same founder) and has a big hockey programme. You will get in, you might get money. Academically the school is pretty good--it is quite close to Northfield Minnesota which is the home of Carleton College, one of the top end LAC's in the country, just as good as Williams.</p>
<p>While on the subject of non-New England boarding schools, one that has a large endownment, a low tuition (Under $30K for boarders) a high percentage of students on FA (over 50%), and an average grant that exceeds 60% of boarder's tuition try Culver Academy in Indiana.</p>
<p>I have been there, and the facilities are second to none.</p>
<p>The boys side is military, but the girls side is modeled on the British system.</p>
<p>I've looked at their matric list and it is very solid. They are a fairly large school as boarding schools go (760 students), so they offer classes at every level imaginable and quite a few things that other schools cannot. They have an avaiation program as well as a huge indoor riding stadium (year round equestrian).</p>
<p>Goaliedad- a question, by "british system" what do you mean exactly?</p>
<p>The system Culver uses for its girls academy employs a student run self-governing leadership system with upperclassman proctors making decisions about running the many of the affairs of the dormatories. Culver's materials describe it to be similar to what is used across the pond. I believe there is more information available on their website about it. It is supposed to be about developing leadership in the young ladies at Culver.</p>
<p>Most American prep schools do not follow this model from what I've seen. Typically the dormatory parents run the affairs of the dorms at most American prep schools.</p>
<p>If I take The SAT won't my mark be lower because I've only learned grade 9 stuff and so far like one week of Grade 10??? Will it not really change my mark (in a negative way) to only be 15??</p>
<p>I was just reading another thread that said if you need a "full ride" for FA you'll probably be rejected... Since I don't think I could ever get into one of those need blind schools like exeter or Andover will this apply to me???</p>
<p>There are charts for mapping what age/grade you are when you take the SAT to what percentile of similar students you rank in.</p>
<p>If I understand correctly, you are applying for 11th grade in 2007? (Many students choose to repeat a grade when entering prep school - I know of one who repeated 11th grade now attends Yale so there is no shame) Your SAT score would be measured against other applicants for 11th grade, so you should not be at a competitive disadvantage.</p>
<p>Is repeating a grade a good idea(Yes that's what i'm applying for)? I mean could you get into a school to do so?? What school do this yale grade 11 person get into? Why did he choose to repeat? .....I know, I know too many questions;)</p>
<p>Never too many questions. Sometimes not enough answers, though.</p>
<p>Repeating a grade CAN be a good idea depending upon you circumstances.</p>
<p>The Yale student I refer to happens to be a goalie (surprise?) who attended Andover and repeated 11th grade even though she got a passing grade on the AP American History Exam.</p>
<p>I believe her reason for attending Andover was specifically to play Ivy League hockey, which required at least a 2 year track record of high achievement at a prestigous school (like Andover) to be used in her application.</p>
<p>Hers was a good fit story. Obviously, she was bright enough to handle the academics of an Andover and now Yale. She also brought considerable talent to the table as well. I know a bit about the family and I don't think she required significant FA.</p>
<p>Worked out very well. Andover got a terriffic goalie (they were very competitive in end of year prep school championships last year), and she got the credentials to get an Ivy League education.</p>
<p>Repeating grades is NOT for everyone, though. Common cases are with atheletes (though sometimes they will take a PG year instead at the end) and people who have to withdraw from school for a family reason or illness during a year.</p>
<p>FA and repeating a grade generally don't go together. Generally (see some of my other recent postings), the top performing students (top 10% of applicants at a school) get the better need-based FA offers. Repeating a grade to put yourself ahead doesn't generally qualify as a way to get in the top 10%.</p>
<p>The reason I suggested Frenchvanilla buy 10 RealSAts to prepare herself for the SSAT is that she can realistically assess where she sits in the FA applicant pool for a particular school. There is no point in her applying to a first tier prep if she is not in the top 10% of their pool which in my estimation is 1450+ on the old scale. The test is mostly grade school geometry and algebra, if she doesn't know this now she will not know it any better one year from now, she is after all applying for a grade 11 entry.</p>
<p>On reflection, I really do thing the odds for Frenchvanilla on a grade 11 admission to a first tier prep from Canada are too long to be reasonable. What would be reasonable is for her to apply to a United World College--Lester B Pearson College of the Pacific, which is only open to grade 11 applicants in the first place and which is free. It is easily as good a school as any of the American schools to which she is thinking of applying except perhaps for the St. Grottlesex schools. In my opinion not knowing anything else about her than what she has posted on the web, her odds of getting in would be as good as anyone else's and because of the Afro-american hook probably a bit better than average. You have no downside. The school is in a wonderful setting on Vancouver Island and of course you could apply to any of the six others in Wales, Italy, Norway, Utah...</p>
<p>paleozoic,</p>
<p>I think Frenchvanilla needs to sort out what her goals are beyond prep school before making a call on where to apply. Prep school is a means (albeit a very enjoyable means) to an end.</p>
<p>If she has a goal of say a LAC (not necessarily to pursue a music performance degree), she could get there from a non-tier1 school, provided she produces well at that school. At such a school (if they needed a trumpet player and she fits the bill), she could end up with pretty decent FA.</p>
<p>If she thinks she has the talent to pursue a professional career in music, I would say the dollars are better spent locally with good coaching. I'll say up front, that the professional musician (classical or other) is a high risk low reward venture (at least in the US - can't speak for Canada).</p>
<p>In many ways, her situation could be much like ours was last year. But instead of finding a school in need of a goalie, she could be looking for a school looking for a trumpet player (and x-country athelete IIRC).</p>
<p>Frenchvanilla, I apologize if it sounds like I'm talking about you when your back is turned. I just think more information is needed about what you want to do with your life and how you might want to achieve that.</p>
<p>Going back to the SSAT/SAT discussion -- Starting last year, the SSAT scores are reported using the SAT scale. The highest score for a single test is now 800; it used to be 350. An admissions officer told me that they are trying to project what the future SAT score will be. Therefore, I think it would be sufficient to just take an SSAT practice test. I don't know if the practice books have converted to the new scale. During the summer 2005, my son took a practice test from the book published by the SSAT organization. We did not know how to interpret the score because they only give the 50% mark. I emailed the people at SSAT, and they told me what the %s were for that test. If the practice test still uses the old scale, you might ask them what the score would be on the new scale which predicts SAT scores.</p>
<p>goaliedad: I think as you do. Our perceptions are coloured by our experience, yours being finding a school for a daughter who had an obvious hook and mine finding a school for an academic all star from Canada without a hook but who was a legacy at one school. Anyway, the long and the short of it was that she got into her legacy school and nowhere else. Had she not gotten in she would likely have stayed right where she was--a fine advanced programme at a Canadian public high school and applied to a united world college as I am suggesting frenchvanilla do.</p>
<p>I hear you paleozoic. I think we both wrestle with her situation trying to sort out what opportunities are realistic and likely to be available for her.</p>
<p>Perhaps the thread (and others) should'nt be titled "What are my chances?", but "Where are my chances of finding a fit the best?" because the objective here is to successfully get the best opportunity one can afford in education to meet one's life goals.</p>
<p>Would it help if I said what my life goals etc. are? I don't want to be a pro trumpet player, I want to go to a good University and get an MBA...But I love playing the trumpet. Does everyone who goes to Interlochen, Walnut Hill etc. come out a pro artist? Is that what the shcool's looking for??</p>
<p>Also, what do you suggest i focus on in a school based on my goals and stat's?</p>