My child's chances?

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

Hi. We have been kind of flying blind, so I am no sure how realistic we are being, and was hoping to get some feedback on our child’s chances.

8th grade girl, applying for 9th grader boarder, full pay, at St. Paul’s, Milton, NMH, Berkshire.

Grades: All A’s at local private school.

SSATs: 75% in Oct, retaking it in Nov. and Dec.

Sports: Coaches at all four schools have said our daughter would be a strong varsity contributor in her sport as a freshman, and the coaches, at least, are all eager for her to attend their school.

ECs: President of Student Council as an 8th grader (current school is K-8). Academic clubs at school.

Arts: Has participated in 12 theater productions over last six years as an actor, including leads and solo roles, and has served on tech crews for four additional productions. Member of competitive local choir.

Academics: Has several honors/awards from her school and from a national academic organization.

Recommendations: Should all be great.

Interviews: Have all been great. She really is a very comfortable conversationalist, and interviewing AOs have raved about her.

Obviously, the SSATs are a little low for some of these schools, but any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you.

2

Really, no one can give you this information other than the AOs at the schools she applies to. There are always a ton of surprised kids posting here on M10 – some elated, some terribly disappointed. Being full pay is certainly an advantage. Good luck!!

3

Being at a K-8 school, will they get feedback for you? You have applied to a good range of schools, which is great, but do you have other local day options? 4 schools seems like a low number. My friends at various K-8s have been encouraged to apply to at least 6 schools in total.

4

Hi thanks for your responses. We do have a local day school option that would be fine. Perhaps not as good as these boarding schools, but fine. So that is our backup plan. We are also applying to Choate where we have a legacy hook, but not the sport hook (Choate doesn’t offer her particular sport).

5

Based off the info you have given, both Berkshire and NMH sound like great options. Both have really unique programs. I am a Berkshire alum who graduated 5 years ago. A application piece that can really make or break the applicant is actually the essays so be sure to start those in advance to make sure that they are good. If you don’t mind me asking, where do you live? This can sometimes impact your chances. Also, what sport does she play?

6

Hi Cababe97. We had an awesome visit at Berkshire last week. What a beautiful place! And all the people we met seemed genuinely nice and happy. We are from a neighboring state, so I don’t think we would add much geographic diversity. Our DD sport is alpine skiing, which I know they have a commitment to at Berkshire. We have met with the coach there, and are really impressed with the work he has done to develop that program at Berkshire.

7

To update this a bit, we just got back the Nov. SSAT and our DD went from 75th% up to 88th% percentile! So maybe Milton and St. Paul’s are now more in play now? Not sure what this all means, but the scores going up seems to be a good problem to have!

8

@Hulahoop45 I’m so glad that you liked the ski program at Berkshire! They have a beautiful mountain to use as they own 420 acres of land:) If you don’t mind me asking, who was your tour guide(s)?

9

@Hulahoop45 That is an impressive SSAT score increase! Congratulations! To what do you attribute the jump?

10

DD took it in Oct. and Nov. She hadn’t prepared much for the first test. Then we looked at those Oct. test results and saw she didn’t do very well on the analogies or higher math sections. So she worked on those two sections out of some books, and boom, scores went up. Everything else was about the same. Is that much of a jump unusual? This is our first time through all of this.

11

Do the schools look at the % for the whole grade or for gender? My daughter got 87% for the females and 85% overall.
Also, her verbal was 79%. Do you guys think she should retake it if she is a FA candidate?

12

@westerngirl, our daughter had a similar split, and I had the same question as you regarding which scores schools look at, so I posted it in separate thread about income ssat scores. There haven’t been many responses to that post yet. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20069674#Comment_20069674

13

Thank you @Hulahoop45. I wonder if you need a higher score if you are a FA candidate, assuming grades, ECs etc are strong. Any input is appreciated

14

Strong EC, meaning impact in the program day one, and I would those scores are just fine. All with the caveat IF the schools seeks what your child excels in. If it’s a sport, is the school graduating someone that plays that position? Do they seek to fill a spot where your student excels in playing a particular instrument? Is the student an URM from a far flung state?

15

Thank you @MAandMEmom . Not URM. I am just trying to understand if she needs to retake SSAT to increase her chances or it won’t matter. Applying to the highly competitive schools and needs FA

16

Since its much more competitive when asking for a FA, how much weight SSAT has for a FA candidate? Total score 2160. 85% for the grade, 87% total for the gender

17

Hi hulahoop 45! I am pretty sure your daughter should be fine as long as she has good ec’s. If not, try to get the ssat in the 90+ percentile