My Child's Honest Chances for Top Boarding Schools (Exeter, Andover, Deerfield, Hotchkiss, etc)

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
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Hello College Confidential,

My son is currently a ninth grade attending a top-50 high school as a day student. However, he is also extremely interested in reapplying as a ninth grader to top boarding schools. (Exeter, Andover, Deerfield, Hotchkiss, Choate, Lawrenceville)

My son has actually skipped two grades because the class work was not challenging enough, so reapplying as a ninth grader would most likely benefit him socially and athletically. He had applied to Choate and Lawrencevile last year and was waitlisted, however Choate contacted his high school counselor and told that they were extremely interested in him but was worried that his age might have been a problem for boarding schools.

He consistently scores around 96-98 percentile on the SSAT so academics should not be a problem. However, is there anything he could do within the next two months to improve his chances into top boarding schools?

My son consistently has all As and is extremely interested in math. He is currently in Advanced Algebra 2/Trigonometry Honors and spends about 7 hours a week practicing math. He has been in several math competitions and has placed 2nd in states and has participated in national math competitions.

My son also plays the violin but his ability is not too impressive for his age and experience. However he loves playing it an spends around 8 hours a week playing. My son also volunteers every now and then at soup kitchens. In terms of athletics, it is a weak spot for my son. He is competent at running, making the JV team and also plays JV basketball for his school. He also enjoys playing tennis and skiing as a hobby. He also is part of the school newspaper and also loves writing, however he is never gotten more than a silver key in the Scholastic Writing Award.

We believe that being well-rounded or a jack of all trades is not a strong selling point for my son and we are looking to showcase his math skills as a big spike in the application.

He is not a legacy nor have we donated money to any of the schools to which he wishes to apply.

One of the things we are worried about are teacher recommendations. We have recently switched to a new violin teacher and my son is currently a new student at his high school. We think it might be awkward to ask teachers whom my son has known for less than a month to write him recommendation letters. What do you guys think?

What are his chances of getting into these schools? Is there anything he can do within the next few months that could possibly increase his chances of getting in?

Thank You

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EDIT: My son is also a first generation Taiwanese-American, so are these skill enough to set himself apart from everybody else?

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Your son’s stats are certainly in line for those schools. However, I feel the need to level-set you - an Asian-American math kid who plays violin is hardly something that will set him apart.

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The fact that he got wait listed last year at Choate–and the school made the effort to make a call–would lead me to believe that he would do well on a re-apply to to Choate in particular. It seems like the other schools may have had the same issue but didn’t voice it.

The issue is that exceptional academics aren’t sufficient at all of these schools. The average SSAT are 85-90, which means they have plenty of kids in your son’s range. His math is certainly exceptional, but remember, other kids are applying with exceptional math–from all around the world–are also applying.

One thing you might want to consider is approach it from the perspective of reaching out to the math departments and finding out what they have for gifted math students. It’s a narrow approach–some schools might be turned off–but others might view it like contacting a coach or music instructor, which is very standard practice. If a math department chair really wants a kid, that would be very helpful.

Skieurope is right: 9th grade Asian boys and 9th grade Caucasian girls are the two most selective cohorts for BS.

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@CML8761 Your child sounds like a very attractive applicant in many ways but math skills in general are not a hook Nor are his SSAT scores

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@CML8761 To be honest, you should take into account your child’s personality and their ability to interact with others. At many schools, they care about grades and achievements, but it’s not the only thing they care about. Schools want people that will make them look more appealing, not only success oriented around academics, athletics, or the arts. Some potential candidates can have some, if not all of these qualities, but have an unattractive personality. If they’re a good person that wants the best for others, they definitely have a better chance of getting in. If they don’t get into a certain school, then that school isn’t for them.

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I think that your son definitely has good grades/scores, of course. But don’t forget that these schools are building a community, and they want kids who will contribute. Have your son think about the ways in which he will be involved in the life of the school - dorm life, clubs, community service etc. He needs to be able to talk about his current involvement in school and how he will continue at boarding school. I have a friend who’s son was similar to yours, with a very strong math background and musical talent. Perfect scores & grades. He was wait-listed at almost all of his schools because they were worried that he wouldn’t be involved in the life of the school, based on his demonstrated focus on those two areas. So I understand that your kid isn’t necessarily “well-rounded”, but I think that it would be helpful to talk about activities like the newspaper and JV teams.