Female
Play tennis very competitively, ranked top 50 in 12s for eastern, 14s (still working on it lol)
3x Carniege Hall Pianist, 5x 1st place competition winner, 2x traveled to perform around the country
Won several international art competitions
GPA - Mostly As, 1 or 2 Bs
SSAT - Test probably 80 percentile
Boarding Student
My personal belief is that those schools don’t care too much about piano, because it is not an orchestra or typical chamber music instrument, although perhaps at your obvious advanced talent level they might?
Ditto for tennis. It is not really a team sport, and so you really have to shine on an individual basis. I’m not sure if those stats are high enough (I know a top 15 USTA player 14s in US who was turned down with higher SSAT and similar grades).
Full pay will help a lot imo. Do you need financial aid? Any URM hook you could exploit?
Thanks although that’s not really great news for me but no financial aid needed and what is a URM hook?
Not needing financial aid will certainly help a great deal
URM = “under represented minority.” Other people on here might disagree, but from the data and research I have done (as best as possible, since no school will really give detailed data), being able to say you are African American or Native American looks to increase your chances significantly. Hispanic can sometimes help as well but the data are much less clear and benefit likely to be much smaller.
As a full-pay, boarding applicant, you have a shot. Having said that, your profile is very typical of most of the applicants they reject…piano, tennis, ok academics. @SatchelSF is correct that these schools look for team players (e.g rowing), or academic geniuses. If you’re from south or mid-west, it may help.
Oh well I’m Asian so it’s probably going to make my chances even worse, haha, but based on my “resume” do you think I have a high chance for Lawrenceville? It is my dream school.
Being Asian is certainly going to hurt. Nothing you can do about it, play the hand you’ve been dealt, give it your all and always be grateful for the gifts and talents you’ve been born with. Not everyone has the potential to be at your level, whether in academics or in music or in tennis, that’s for sure.
And keep the faith. By the time you are applying to colleges, things may have changed. The new DOJ is finally going after Harvard for its refusal to cooperate into the government’s probe of discrimination against Asians:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/harvard-faces-doj-probe-over-affirmative-action-policies-1511260380
Best of luck!
Thank you so so much!!
I think your best shot is at Peddie…especially as a boarding applicant. Rest of the three are at different level when it comes to the competition. So if you’re seriously considering Peddie as an option, I would show some love (e.g. visit).
Hi it would be great if you could chance me for Lawrenceville! Thank you so much!
-Asian
-Female
-8th Grader
-SSAT: 76th percentile the first time but taking it two more times
-GPA: Straight A in 6th grade, Mostly As, 2 Bs in 7th grade, Straight A currently
-Piano: 4x Carniege Hall performer, traveled around the world to perform during summer
-Tennis: Really good, maybe can make varsity, top 50s in states, played a few national tournaments
-Art: Won several international art competitions
-Chinese School: Won several awards
Any suggestions or advice to help increase my chances?