<p>Uh. I know that I am not good enough yet, but I would like to be better and could you guys please give me some suggestions as to how I can improve myself? Thanks! </p>
<p>Schools I want to apply for: Blair, Concord, NMH, Hill, and Western Reserve.
I am an Asian with a USA passport, currently living in Shanghai, China. I go to an American school here. I am thirteen, going into eighth grade. So I'll be applying for ninth. </p>
<p>My grades are usually in the 80's or 90's. (I had two 70's. Yeah I am hopelesssss. ¬¬) </p>
<p>Uh. Extracurricular stuff. Right.
Flute: 3 years. ABRSM 5th grade. First flute in band. First flute in Musical Band. Played at EXPO, Shanghai.
Piano: 2-3 years. ABRSM 4th grade...
Golf: 1 year.<br>
Badminton: 1/2 year. I am pretty okay with it. </p>
<p>Sadly, that's the end to my short and pathetic list of extracurricular activities. </p>
<p>I am in Habitat for Humanity at school. Got trophy for Chinese debate competition at school. Uh. For volunteering... well I am thinking of something now. Uh. Yeah.</p>
<p>I didn't take the SSAT yet. Yeah.
I'll work on improving my grades at school more in eighth grade.<br>
(I am thinking about submitting an article for my school newspaper-ish thing. Since I am in Habitat for Humanity I might be able to write something... Oh well. We'll see.) </p>
<p>@clairee,
First of all, having two 70’s isn’t the end of the world. If your grades are usually in the 80’s and 90’s, you’ll be fine, especially for Western Reserve. Second, your EC’s aren’t as bad as you think. You actually do sports and music, which isn’t as common as you might think. How good are you at golf? Even if you have little experience, if you’re good enough to make a school’s Varsity or even JV team (yes, some schools have JV golf), then you have a really valuable EC right there. </p>
<p>Find the EC’s that you have and pursue them the best that you can. If you discover that you really love Habitat for Humanity, than pursue it with a passion. Also, don’t put yourself down. Don’t say “I’m not good enough” or say that you’re “hopeless.” Believe me, that doesn’t help you at all. In fact, that kind of self-talk will hurt your self-confidence, and make you do worse at what you attempt. Just believe in yourself.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what percentile that SSAT score is, but if you own a Princeton Review test prep book, there’s a chart in it which converts raw scores (e.g a 2105) to a percentile (e.g 72%). Anyone know what percentile this is? </p>
<p>Anyways, good luck, and don’t beat yourself up too much. The application process can be painful enough without you putting yourself down.</p>
<p>Girls:
7th Grade: The number only goes up to 2130, it would be at the 99th percentile
8th grade: Around 97th percentile</p>
<p>Boys:
7th Grade: Again, the number only gues up to 2130. 99th percentile
8th grade: 90th percentile</p>
<p>You have better ECs than me, so don’t even worry about it. You picked good schools, which is a mistake that many make; they go out and pick HADES, and then they just wish they would have picked different schools when they dont get accepted. Look around at some of the older posts and there are some new ones about application advice that I would check out. Good luck!</p>
<p>Hello! @ifax108 Thank you! For golf, I can play… but I haven’t been to the course yet. Although I haven’t really paid attention to golf, I think I’ll try to do so from now on. @overandover98 Thanks for the percentiles! Haha I’ll look around in the forum then…</p>
<p>Hey, uh, I have done some community service before (now that I think about it), and I’m wondering if they count.
6th grade: Went to the Great Wall to pick up garbage and carry firewood to local villages.
7th grade: Installed solar power things to people’s homes to they can use a stove to cook. And played with kids at a local school that was founded from donations. Uh donated books. Planted trees for them… Hm. Yeah that’s probably it. ¬¬</p>
<p>Thanks for making this thread! I am also in a similar situation! I don’t feel like I have enough ECs and such… we’re in the same boat. But I’m not applying to the same schools as you… so yeah.</p>
<p>How to improve, how to improve… well I feel like it’s late to start a new sport or extra curricular in order to use it to show it off for boarding schools. Just to start for knowledge of new sports is fine, but for boarding schools: I feel like they want to see long term things. They want to see your commitment and such… eh but at the same time, starting new sports could mean a new, sparked interest in that area. Ah my goodness. I’m so confusing… well anyways, good luck. I have no idea what to do about improving in time for boarding school purposes. >.< </p>
<p>I know that didn’t really help your question, but I just find it more reassuring if someone’s in the same boat as me. Great minds think alike, right? (Is your school hard? Then your grades are great. If the school is okay, then you’re still good. Occansional bad grades is natural. Learning process.)</p>
<p>ithink you should atixck 2 ur acs use ur personality to shine through at the interview and ur grades arent horrible. ur human ur allowed 2 make mistakes :)</p>
<p>@HADES98 YEAH! and the pollutions horrible. sometimes the chinese ppl are really rude. (not to b stereotypical or anything.) but i love this city since iv lived here pretty much my WHOLE life. @XDthinker There’s this New Thread thing on top of Threads in: Prep School Chances. @doomedforfailure Well yeah it’s really too late for EC’s. Unless you start on something that you’re just excellent at. That would be hard though… I think that maybe we can consider joining clubs at school or something. Not much commitment there, but its better than nothing… And I am not really sure if my school is hard or not. I’ve been here for so long so I don’t know how to compare. I don’t really know about American schools since I moved away so long ago… Oh well. But I would say that its probably above public school level but still relatively easy compared to REAL good private schools in America. Hehe. :)</p>
<p>@Clairee: Joining clubs is something my school doesn’t have. It’s really pathetic… I hope somehow the boarding schools know this. Or else I have no chance at all… they might be thinking that I’m not taking opportunities from school or something. Ugh. My private school is horrible in that sense.
Oh coolio. And maybe you should record yourself playing instruments if you think you’re good enough. (Woah, that sounded offensive, but I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I don’t really know how to judge, especially because my school doesn’t even have a band or anything!) I’m going to do that and participate in competitions. </p>
<p>Oh, by the way, I had interviews for Exeter and Andover a little while ago. The interviews were “extremely great” (that’s what the interviewers told my dad). So you can ask me about that… I think I might be partially qualified? >_< I WAS SO NERVOUS BEFORE IT AND I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT. That was the most horrible feeling ever… I’ll make a new thread.</p>
<p>@doomedforfailure Wow really? No clubs at ALL? For my school it’s not really “clubs” either. It’s an elective. The school year is divided into quarters and for each one we get a different elective that we signed up for. For Habitat For Humanity, I had to switch to Eagle Ambassadors, which is basically an elective for people to plan events of the school and stuff~ It’s kind of like a student council, I guess?
I’m not really that good… If I find no reason from practicing, I don’t practice at all. D: Most people in bands don’t practice at all even though I personally think that we sound pretty okay together. Do you live in the states? Are you going for a competition nation-wide? O: I wanted to go to a competition but my mom was kind of like “there’s no way that you can finish that piece in two months.”
EHHHHH~ Tell me about the interview! I am REALLY bad at socializing so I’m worried about that. D: What questions did they ask? How long should the answers be? I had an interview with Hotchkiss but then I could tell that I wasn’t really an “interesting” applicant. The interviewer was kind of drifting off. Maybe from jet lag though. (It was in Shanghai.) Oh well…
Oh and is the key to the interview really that “personal relationship” thing? Did you have some personal talks with the interviewer?</p>
<p>@Clairee: Yeah, I have electives too… but they are chosen by the school every single day except Friday for the first trimester (we separate into 3 parts). In the second, we choose for 3 days, and in the last, we choose for one day (per week, I’m saying). </p>
<p>Same here–it’s just that, I feel like you are forced to play an instrument, but you are rebellious a little bit at the same time, you will never practice unless told to… I know exactly what you’re talking about, and you should practice more to make the CD or do competition. Don’t feel discouraged by your parents because you should show them that you aren’t that bad, and you really want to do the competitions (this sounds contrasting, but in the inside, most people don’t want to compete–like me! :P) so perhaps they’ll get on a good side, and they’ll support you more. Maybe? Depends on your parents. But just throwing ideas out there… :P</p>
<p>I do live in the US. I’m doing international competitions, and so perhaps you should search some up. I do warn you, though, they have insane application fees. Like, $150-$200 per competition. Plus, you might have to make a professional-quality CD/DVD, so add like… $200 to that. It’s a big expense. So motivate yourself with that! If you’re going to go for a competition, you have to devote yourself to it. Also, if you really actually manage to do so, that’ll be a GREAT learning experience, and you can write about it in your essays. :)</p>
<p>Okay… interview. I made a separate thread about that. After reading through everything, can you repost your questions, if you have the same ones? I’m trying to organize everything I know. I don’t think it’s working too well… >.< Well thanks! Or PM. Whichever you want.</p>
<p>@doomedforfailure Wow that is so complicated! (Kind of.) O.o For us the choices are given at the end of the year before, we hand in the forms indicating eight top choices of electives that we want. And they’re arranged by the school, since some electives are only available for 1 quarter and you’ll have to give up something else for it.
Ehehe yes I’ll probably start practicing like a good girl soon. I have exams in April. I love the instrument and hate playing. Haha. I don’t really like competitions, but then I feel like I should like see what other people are like and how I fare compared to them. The competition is for pianists, and my mom is a prof pianist. That’s why when she said “You’re not going to make it” I really believed her. I don’t know… I’m already like kind of busy with stuff for taking a music theory exam. And SSAT. So I’m kind of dropping the competition idea.
Okay Imma go read that thread~ :D</p>
And played with kids at a local school that was founded from donations. Uh donated books. Planted trees for them… Hm. Yeah that’s probably it. ¬¬</p>
well anyways, good luck. I have no idea what to do about improving in time for boarding school purposes. >.< </p>
I’ll make a new thread.</p>
I don’t really like competitions, but then I feel like I should like see what other people are like and how I fare compared to them. The competition is for pianists, and my mom is a prof pianist. That’s why when she said “You’re not going to make it” I really believed her. I don’t know… I’m already like kind of busy with stuff for taking a music theory exam. And SSAT. So I’m kind of dropping the competition idea.