<p>I see that many of you have gone or have children attending top boarding/prep schools in the country so all of you have gone through this process. SO WHAT IS THE DEAL? Some of these kids in the chances forum are not normal kids. Some of these classes these kids take I couldn't even take in college. These kids with chance me here...chance me there...
Let's be realistic. As many of you have pointed out, there are only so many slots.
Although I did not attend a boarding school, through sports, descent grades, I attended one of the top Liberal Arts college in the country and went on to have a Dr. in front of name, wear a white coat...you get the picture.
But, reading things on CC, I realized things have changed. When do these kids have time to be kids. In junior high, my EC was playing outside. Some of these kids resumes would put my resume to shame now.
So parents...since you are our surrogate AOs, what is important?
Some, no, most of these kids are taking classes like Algebra 2 to pre-calculus, honor this...honor that... in junior high, yet they score 50% on the SSAT.
With thousands applying for a few slots, there must be a cutoff. I know for graduate school, we start with numbers. Grades and MCAT. There was a cutoff number. If you didn't have the numbers, you were cut. Weed out the weak first. General to specific. Although many want to believe that everything is weighed equally, I think this only happens after they gather the strongest candidates. Am I wrong?
I keep on reading about this "Hook." There are only so many prodigies. From my experience, as an athlete, I was recruited. I'm sure its the same for musicians, artists, etc.
If you have a special talent, you have already spoken to the schools, coaches, etc. You know you'll get in. But, for the rest, what is important?
Do they have a cutoff pile? Do they start with GPA and SSAT then move on to essays, recs, etc.
So, if you are in the final pile, what puts you into the accepted pile?</p>
<p>Hockey? Don’t mean to be facetious, but the sports thing really helps. Exceptional academics, like winning national math completions for middle school students also help get you out of the pile. Having both sports or music AND academics also seems to be really good from our experience.</p>
<p>At my kids’ school, at least 3 people (admissions officer, faculty member, senior) read each application. There’s no initial score cutoff (they can’t have a GPA cutoff, for example, since it will mean different things for different middle schools). School transcript and recommendations are the most important thing they consider, but they look at everything. Some fraction of applicants get advanced to the next round; they repeat until they have the target number they want to admit. Being exceptional in some area will get you to the final file (as long as it appears you can handle the academics), but that can include having a great match with the school culture.</p>
<p>As the aforementioned child, I don’t feel like I’ve “missed” anything about being a teenager. I think I have an impression application and I’m praying to cookies that I get accepted, but I still do teenager-isk things. I stayed out at a friend’s house on New Year’s Eve and had to rush back before my parents got home. I’ve drank a little here and there. I play video games (it’s actually one of the things I put on my app cause I play competitively). I have a girlfriend and she’s my first love. Part of selecting the best applicants is selecting humans. Not robots with achievements. I think my hook is that I’m the board member for the American Association of Buddhist Education and my competitive video gaming. It’s unorthodox and I’m passionate about it. I play varsity tennis as well and I won a few art awards, and I take high level classes, but I’d consider the gaming and volunteer work my “hook”.</p>
<p>OP, it might be helpful for you if you read these two student newspaper articles linked from the following threads:</p>
<p>[Exeter</a> admission decision](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1436051-exeter-admission-decision-process.html"]Exeter”>Exeter Admission Decision Process - Prep School Admissions - College Confidential Forums)
[Choate</a> admission decision](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1436451-choate-admission-decision-process.html]Choate”>Choate Admission Decision Process - Prep School Admissions - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>My daughter fell in love with a few NE BS last summer and begged to apply. She attends public school, and has done well (straight A, 99%th SSAT). She was recently accepted to a nationally ranked magnet high school and will be working on high level math (beyond calculus) as a freshman. She has great extracurricular activities …</p>
<p>She is considered an exceptional student on the public school scale, but it’s interesting to see how she will be evaluated by the most selective BSs. If she doesn’t get accepted, I hope we can get some feedback as to what aspects of her application are not as good as the others. This probably will give us a early taste of her college application process 3-4 years later.</p>
<p>A caution - since this comes up often. A rejection is NOT a reflection of a student’s weakness. This is, for the most part, a competition among the best and the brightest with not enough room to accommodate them all. </p>
<p>The schools are not just recruiting bright, hardworking students - but also a class diverse in interests, backgrounds, aspirations. A student’s success - with all things being equal - may depend on who else is in the pool that year.</p>
<p>My extreme example is that a school might desire a Tuba player to fill out the orchestra. But if that’s the year they get a lot of applications from Tuba players and one happens to live in Wisconsin (or Montana or…fill in blanks for state with low enrollment) the nod might go to the one who lives in the underrepresented state. Or if the school gets a lot of applications from urban kids, they might favor one who lives on a farm.</p>
<p>Does that make sense? So many people fixate on stats (grades, scores) that they miss the aspects of an application that might tip the scale - and even then - it works only if no one else in the applicant pool has similar attributes - otherwise the Adcoms will argue with each other until one of the students is chosen. The other - who will be declined, is still a strong candidate and might have gotten the nod in a different year.</p>
<p>They’re still a good kid. The universe just had a different path in mind.</p>
<p>Many of us advocate choosing a broad range of highly selective schools to maximize the student’s visibility.</p>
<p>@ExieMITalum well said. In most Asian countries, acceptance is based solely on grades/test scores. They are now working on changing that, but it was like that for a long period of time. There was no regard for anything except your academia. Things are done a bit differently here. Being part of a Native Indian tribe really goes a long way. Or being from Alaska. Even gender can sometimes affect it. I’d assume (with no evidence) that when most schools went from all boys to co-ed, there was some competition to enroll more girls and receive a 50-50 ratio.</p>
<p>The higher the school’s average SSAT score, the more the test score matters. That is not to say it is the single make-or-break factor.</p>
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<p>Stating the obvious… :)</p>
<p>@ExieMITalum - thanks and we will sure to keep that in mind. Since she has options to go to a good local public school and a great magnet school, we are very relaxed now, but I am sure she will be disappointed at a rejection letter on M10. If that happens, I will show her these posts.</p>