NCSSM Chances / Advice?

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

<p>This is mainly for advice, actually, but well.. yeah, I hope I don't come off as pretentious but I've been trying to accumulate a list of everything that may or may not affect my chances of admission into NCSSM.
I'm currently a sophomore in CD 3.</p>

<p>I skipped 4th grade (if that matters at all). I took Algebra 1 (100), Earth Science (100), and Algebra 2 (100) in middle school.</p>

<p>Freshman year, I had:
Spanish 1 (98)
Honors Geometry (100)
Honors World History (99)
Honors English 1 (98)</p>

<p>Spanish 2 (100)
Honors Biology (99)
Honors Pre-Calculus (98)
Honors Debate (98)</p>

<p>I have a 4.0 unweighted and 4.75 weighted gpa and my class rank is 3 out of 381.</p>

<p>This year, I'm taking:
Honors Chemistry
Honors Spanish 3 (I have a 100 as of right now)
AP Psychology
AP Calculus AB</p>

<p>Honors Civics and Economics
Honors Spanish 4
Honors English 2
AP Calculus BC</p>

<p>I might switch Spanish 4 to AP Stats or AP Human Geo, but I'm not sure since my sister tells me not to.</p>

<p>I've participated in math competitions throughout elementary and middle school, and I've placed in the top 5 every year. I did science olympiad in 8th grade and placed 2nd and 3rd for my events. I volunteered for 25 hours at the library the summer before freshman year.</p>

<p>Freshman year, I was on the varsity swim team and I was in Mock Trial (1st runner up at regionals), SGA, Anchor Club (service club), Dream Team (another service club), and Health Sciences Academy. I also volunteered with EC kids at my high school on numerous occasions.</p>

<p>This past summer, I volunteered 16 hours at the library, 28 hours at the Red Cross, and 48 hours at a speech camp for autistic children. </p>

<p>Sophomore year, extracurriculars I'm doing include swimming, Link Crew, Mock Trial, Anchor Club, Dream Team, SGA, Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society), Health Sciences Academy, Debate, Science Club, and possibly HOSA and Science Olympiad.</p>

<p>The average SAT score for my school was in the 1470's and I scored higher than that in 7th grade as a part of the Duke TIP Program, but I'm aiming for a 2200 or higher for the October SATs. I've taken 6 complete practice tests, 3 from the College Board Official Study Guide, and 3 from PR. My scores have ranged from 2190 to 2340, and I gave myself a 6 for the essay because that's what I scored in 7th grade and I figured I should be able to get at least a 6 again. </p>

<p>and uh, I think that's it. Any advice or anything would be appreciated!
and if anyone else from the class of 2016 applying to NCSSM comes across this thread, post your stats!</p>

2

<p>Your stats look so much better compared to mine. I don’t know what district I’m in but I live in Durham. Do you know what district this is?</p>

<p>9th Grade Classes -
Biology Honors A (99)
Health Team Relations A (98) <em>A required elective in my school</em>
World History Honors A (99) <em>Combined w/ English 1 Honors</em>
English 1 Honors A (99) <em>Again, look above.</em>
Algebra II Honors A (100)
Pre-Calculus A (97)
Office 2010 A (100) <em>Required in my school</em>
Health/PE A (99)</p>

<p>10th Grade Classes -
AP Calculus AB
AP Environmental
AP Psychology
Health Science 1 <em>Required/Like Anatomy&Physiology</em>
English II Honors
Chemistry Honors
Fundamentals of Business and Finance</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (9th) -
HOSA
Taekwondo (5 years now) (Instructor)
Lipdub Committee
Yearbook
AHEC
Student Body
Total Youth Ministries (Youth Church Group) 5th year
Fitness Club</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (10th) -
HOSA (Secretary)
AHEC
Student Body (Class President)
Taekwondo (Instructor)
SOS (Volunteer Club) (Co-Founder)
SIT (School Improvement Team) (Student Representative)
Total Youth Ministries</p>

<p>Volunteer -
Durham VA Hospital (50+ hours)
Taekwondo (100+)
Church (20+)
Duke Gardens (50+ hours)</p>

<p>Achievements -
Mayor’s Award (Completing 100+ hours of Volunteer)
1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place - Board Breaking, Sparring, Form (Taekwondo) ranging from nationals, locals, and internationals
Honor Roll
4th Place - HOSA State
A bunch of random awards from school.</p>

3

<p>Wow! your stats are really impressive though. not sure what congressional district durham is in but it’s supposedly the most competitive, i think. </p>

<p>are you taking the SAT anytime soon? and i hope we both get in to science and math!</p>

4

<p>I’m taking it this November but like what you saw on my thread, I doing poorly on math that what I had expected. </p>

<p>I hope we both do. It’d be really cool to meet each other there!</p>

5

<p>Awh well you have a bit of time to study! I can’t believe my test date is in 2 weeks, it seems surreal. </p>

<p>It really would; keep me updated!</p>

6

<p>You seem like you’ve got it! I’m scared to take a full practice test since I haven’t covered all the material. Should I go over the chapters then take the practice tests?</p>

<p>By the way, do you mind PMing me your email? I wanna keep in touch. The applications are opening mid-October, I’d be nice to have someone like you (:</p>

7

<p>I looked up my CD. Apparently, I’m CD 6 (rarely). If I lived a few miles down I’d be CD 4. I don’t know much about CD 6. Do you know if it’s competitive? I heard CD 4 is.</p>

8

<p>Yeah, I’d take a look at the review stuff before the practice tests. You can probably just skim through the majority of it since it’s a lot of common sense.</p>

<p>I think CD 6 is still fairly competitive but a little bit better than CD 4.
And sure! No problem.</p>

9

<p>At least it’s better than CD 4. </p>

<p>Is your region competitive? Either way CD 4 or CD 3, your stats are amazing!</p>

10

<p>Mmm yeah, I’ve heard horror stories about CD 4. </p>

<p>My region’s not extremely competitive, I don’t think. I’m pretty sure it’s behind the Raleigh/Durham/Triangle/whatever CDs and Charlotte so maybe the 4th most competitive? Your stats are just as, probably more, amazing, though! </p>

<p>How did you get out of taking Civics and Economics, by the way?</p>

11

<p>It’s the way my school runs. I go to a small school. Sometimes it annoys me -_- They make most of our AP classes, asides from APES and AP Psych, yearlong because students in the past did poorly. Plus, I wasn’t even able to pick my freshman classes, they picked it for me. They wouldn’t allow us to take AP classes, sigh. This year they gave me somewhat what I wanted but I insisted in taking AP Stat but they said no. It’s because the school is so small that juniors and seniors get the classes first before us. But what scares me is that they usually pick one student from my school and another guy pushed for APES his freshman year (they declined both of us at first but then he threatened, I didn’t wanna go that far) so he’s way ahead of me. He has APUSH, AP Bio, AP Stat, and got rid of the school requirements to graduate. </p>

<p>But anyways, asides from that off topic paragraph, they use to give Civics and Economics to sophomores but pushed it back to our senior year and made us take AP Psych instead.</p>

<p>And…you’re being way too humble!</p>

12

<p>Ahh, but is the other kid taking AP Calc? Also, I think it’ll be fine, don’t worry about the other guy. I doubt they have a specific ‘quota’ from each school, they just accept the top people who are qualified and show passion. But maybe going to a small school can be a good thing, you can start a bunch of clubs that you’re passionate about or be officers in other clubs! And maybe, if you can still change classes, you could talk personally with your counselor? Can’t hurt, and you’ll need her/him to write a reccomendation!</p>

<p>My school is one of the biggest in my county, although my county is really small and terrible hahah. We have 1.6k students, I think? They don’t let us take AP classes as freshmen, either, although one guy took AP Physics somehow… </p>

<p>Oh wow… lucky. AP Psych is an elective and doesn’t really fulfill any graduation requirements at my school. We have to take Civics this year and then American History A and B junior and senior year or something. Kinda sucks since the class of 2015 only has to take 3 social studies and my class needs 4.</p>

<p>And… so are you!</p>

13

<p>No, he’s not. He’s taking AP Stat. I heard that AP Calc looks better on paper compared to AP Stat. I doubt either, hopefully not. But apparently, the guy that got in my school from the class of 2014 had around a 1500 SAT score and another applied that has a 2200. Maybe SAT score isn’t a really big factor, but either way I still want a 2000+. </p>

<p>That’s why I’m contemplating on going to NCSSM or not. Applying won’t harm me but making the decision will be hard if I do get in. I’ll lose a bunch of leadership roles since I’m not certain if I can get them if I go to NCSSM. Oh, and the counselor in my school isn’t very helpful. She hardly lets you change your schedule and is focused on the seniors. She’s behind on schedule, even with them. </p>

<p>AP Psych is an elective in our school too. It’s usually WH > Psych > APUSH > Civics.</p>

14

<p>Mhm Calc is harder than Stat. Stats is more writing, though, apparently. SAT definitely plays a role but anything over 2000 should be competitive with other scores. Well… for my CD at least, not sure about CD 6. </p>

<p>The thing is that at NCSSM, you get to challenge yourself more, I guess. But I know a bunch of people who didn’t go because they didn’t want to become another fish in a huge pond of extremely motivated people. And awh, that sucks. My counselor from last year retired and I don’t even know who my new counselor is hahah.</p>

<p>Have you had any thoughts about college? Like I know it seems far off but my parents drill it into my head that I need to be preparing now…</p>

15

<p>This whole SAT thing is scaring me, though. I’m doing poorly than what I has expected.</p>

<p>That’s true. If I stay in my current school right now, I’d be at least top 10% but if I do get in to NCSSM, I’d be average. I don’t know trying to get in is main priority right now :/</p>

<p>Um, I know I want to do premed. But I have no idea where, I’ll be applying for the usual though. UNC and Duke. How about you?</p>

16

<p>It is a bit intimidating. You’ll probably be fine on the actual test, though! Did you do that duke tip thing in 7th grade in which you take the SAT for practice?</p>

<p>Mmm maybe, but there’s always going to be people who are on top at NCSSM and the people who don’t have enough self control to stop playing video games and I suspect you’d be pretty high in the class rankings (if they did them… which they don’t).</p>

<p>Oh hahah that’s actually funny since a marine recruiter talked to me and my friend because he thought we were seniors and we didn’t realize who he was until he was 10 minutes into what he was saying. but apparently tuition at UNC and Duke is free when you join the marines.
Um, I definitely want to go out of state. Maybe somewhere in New England, but I still have no idea what I want to major in or anything.</p>

17

<p>They don’t do class ranks at NCSSM? I doubt it, I’m not as smart as I think you think I am. </p>

<p>Oh, nice! But, I don’t think I want to join the marines. Hehe. You still have time to figure out (: I don’t even know what I really want to be, it changes a lot.</p>

18

<p>Nope, I guess since everyone’s so competitive already and that would just add to the stress. I bet you’re smarter!</p>

<p>and ahh, me neither. Haha, yeah, it really does. I used to aspire to be an actress when I was younger and now I don’t even do school plays.</p>

19

<p>Then how do they know who’s Valedictorian? That’s weird. </p>

<p>I’ve wanted to be so many things up to this day that I don’t even know how many. I actually have a teacher in my school that taught at NCSSM and 2 that worked there but not as a teacher. The teacher said to stay at my school right now because “we have more resources here” but she never elaborates on why while the other 2 say that it’s a great school.</p>

20

<p>They don’t determine a valedictorian. They do a contest for a student speaker at graduation, I think. </p>

<p>Well you said your school was small, though, right? I want to go to NCSSM because of all the classes they offer, like multivariate calculus, maybe. and it just seems like a lot of freedom! Maybe that can be a bad thing but I think it would be a good experience, maybe similar to college.</p>