<p>“The bloop”? Is that a Lost in Space reference?</p>
<p>@DontClickHere: Huh. What do you know, it should be. Thanks for the heads up, (I mixed up I and [the idiot] as the subject) but I have no idea how to change that. Sorry.
@DiveAlive: That’s the sound of music to my ears; (while I sub-vocalize) that’s awesome. That sounds right on, the best of luck to you, too! Maybe we’ll meet up in a HADES one day and have no idea we’ve talked before.
@laxtaxi: Sorry, laxtaxi, it’s a reference to The Bloop, an “ultra-low frequency underwater sound detected by the U.S. NOAA several times during the summer of 1997.”, according to Wikipedia.*</p>
<p>*For the record, I approve of Wikipedia as a casual reference, but please take any Wiki quotes with a bit of salt.</p>
<p>wow, ha, great post.
you’ve got a unique writing style which may help in essays since you sound so honest.
umm… really, try not to freak out about this…</p>
<p>really, just focus on your studies this coming school year and just be nice to your teachers and try not to get in a lot of trouble w/ them.
also… ec’s are important too.
do you do any community service? oh, and it would be great if you had an ec that you’ve stuck w/ for a very long time.
if you have any ec that you consider you “passion”, it’d be great to write an essay about it and how it’s impacted your life, etc. when it comes essay time.</p>
<p>good luck!</p>
<p>@xoxohersheykiss: Not too much, I’m afraid. I won’t go into detail to avoid ID.
I like martial arts a lot, but I would have to say my passion is mostly intellectual.
Thanks for the good luck!</p>
<p>Honestly, all I can say is the following: “Kill” yourself and work your hardest for one darn semester and you should be fine. You seem like the kind of kid that also tests well. Areas to improve for you:</p>
<p>-Grades
-ECs (maybe add some community service or athletics)
-Recommendations (goes along with grades)</p>
<p>If you feel under challenged right now, just wait until boarding school! I don’t even go to a HADES school and I have nearly four hours of work a night (as a freshman). That being said, I have the top GPA in my class.</p>
<p>@Muastot: Call me crazy, but that’s sounding darn good from the other side.
Kill myself, huh.* Thanks for the advice. :)</p>
<ul>
<li>Just joking around with you there, I know what you mean.</li>
</ul>
<p>So, I’m going to assume (instead of reading 2 pages- I’m take 10 mintues out of class to browse CC) that the OP needs significant FA.</p>
<p>I’m going to Choate on a full FA scholarship, and I would DEFINITELY recommend you check out Choate next year when you apply. Please! They love diversity, even financially. I, and other FA students, bring a new perspective to the BS world, apart from the old/new money kids and the celebrity kids, which honestly, there aren’t many of.
Don’t let CC intimidate you.
My biggest tips would be: stick with what you like and BLOW IT UP during admissions. I’m into volleyball. I’m not insanely talented, but I love it! So I contacted the coach, and my God, I would credit my entire acceptance to him if he’d lte me! I also had a very good SSAT score (99% overall) and acceptable grades.
Now, your bad grades are a problem for you, yeah? Now, the SSAt is the levelled playing field. It’s not that difficult! Everyone spazzes out, but basic math, good writing abilties (which you have), and a good vocabulary (do you read? Then you’re set) will get you through with FLYING COLORS.</p>
<p>BEST OF LUCK! And apply to Choate. We’ll probably want you! (You kinda remind me of me. Which makes me sound old. So go and get into BS. Yarr!)</p>
<p>you’ll be fine my dude. everything happens for a reason. embrace it.</p>
<p>@Saer: Yes, I would say that I need significant FA to attend. I did already check out Choate a bit, but your positive review of the school makes me want to get to know it better. I do read, and I’ll check out your school, Saer. Thanks for the luck, and from reading some of your posts, I’ll take the last 3-4 sentences as a compliment. 
@ultima88: Very zen, ultima. (No offense.)</p>
<p>Haha, it was a compliment. Of a sort. I’m kind of crazy. Good luck!</p>
<p>@Saer: That makes two of us.</p>
<p>I was browsing along the Prep School Admissions category and bleh I find this:
/720769-some-insight-those-who-may-unaware.html
Could anyone shed some light on whether or not that’s true? I’ve been wanting to be academically challenged for a while, but if the Exeter experience is going to be a mind**** I can definitely do without.
And I’m kinda freaking out here. Help.*</p>
<p>*I seem to be asking that a whole lot on this website.</p>
<p>I declined at Exeter because I would rather have the nurturing yet still academically challenging environment and large student body of a top school like Choate. I got identical aid offers from Exeter and Choate, and it boiled down to- Do I want to go to a place that encourages such competition and enmity between students, where my best may not be good enough, ever? Or do I want to go to Choate, and be able to make my own path?</p>
<p>@Saer: I’m not sure what do do here. I’m an adapter, by nature; and I believe that, with time, I can adapt to just about any reasonable push in difficulty level. Do you think (if I could succeed academically in Exeter) that Choate would be a better choice for my type of thinking? Right now I’m going to go to whichever HADES school (or Choate, b/c of your post) that accepts me with FA, but if it came down to choice I want to know what’s what from the guys/gals that’s been there. (That would be you and some of the others here.) I mean, even though I’m an adapter, (it’s human nature) I still have a rigorous set of beliefs that sometimes clash with teacher and fellow students, should that affect my choice? People that know me would describe me as controversial, you either love me or hate me. They also call me the crazy genius, which I’m not sure is a compliment, insult, or a mixture of both.</p>
<p>Just wait till you get in and see what happens from there. I think anything you get will be biased from here, if you visit the schools you will most likely be able to tell if you like Exeter or Choate or wherever you visit. You can never really tell before you visit, or atleast I couldnt.</p>
<p>Visiting is your best bet. I hope you don’t mean to wait until you get accepted and attend to see if you can handle it, mpicz… That’d be a waste of a deposit and a lot of time if it ended up being a bad experience!!</p>
<p>@mpicz, Saer: Thanks for the advice. I know I should go visit and all, and I probably will when I sign up for my interview, but I’m far enough away that I’ll probably need a plane ticket, or, at the very least quite a bit of train-jumping. I’m thinking costs, but if I narrow it down too much I’m left with little or no choices in schools; I narrow it down too little, and I pay a fortune in travel fees. If you were me, what would you do?</p>
<p>I applied to 4 schools, and only interviewed at 3.
My first interview was Choate, and as I anticipated being more interested in Exeter (the first school I had ever heard of, and the one that got me interested in BS), it was a “practice run” for my mother and I. I loved it, and fell more in love with it every second I was there.
I was about to tell you to not interview at your least choices, but then again, things change after interviews.
People will also tell you to either apply to a billion schools, or practically no schools. Find a balance that fits your budget and your time commitment. If schools are close to eachother, such as Exeter and Andover, interview in the same weekend, as I did. Or, if a school is a “safety” like NMH was for me, don’t interview, but still show tons of interest and commitment to the school. Don’t sit on your heels for any school, or wait for them to reach out to you.
Space out the interviews to give yourself time to relax, improve your interviewing skills, and reflect on each school/schools you last visited. This is also easier on your parents, who won’t have to take a million days off of work.
It WILL all work out. My mom was stressing about interviews, because she is a teacher and only gets so many sick/personal days a year, but everything was fine. We got two Saturday interviews and one Friday interview and it was fine. We also live about 5 hours away for the 3 schools, so I feel your pain, a bit.</p>