Need some help here......

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>Hi im posting this cuz im not sure if im gonna make it into any boarding schools i applied </p>

<p>i am male currently in grade 10 and applying for grade 10 again... (too much catch up to do cuz i live in canada) but i dont even know if any of the schools allow this but what the heck(can anyone tell me?lol)</p>

<p>i think i decided to apply to boarding schools WAY TOO LATE and i havent even done any interviews yet. i dont think i am able to do personal interviews so i might as well do phone interviews which i heard is as much effective</p>

<p>im not even applying to schools that are extremely competitive such as PE or PA or even hotchkiss and lawrenceville
im applying to St.Marks, St.Georges, Concord, Middlesex, St.Andrews(in canada), hill school, blair, webb schools, masters(just for my own safety)</p>

<p>im writing ssat this saturday and im almost freakin out cuz i dont know anything lol
on my practice exams i got
R 81~85%
M 80~89%
V 69~80%
*by the way its not percentile cuz i dont know how the heck it works.. i just counted the percentage of Qs</p>

<p>essay is one of my big problems too, i tend to write essays TOO long and get behind time...currently practicing writing faster but dont know how its gonna turn out..but its in good quality at least lol</p>

<p>im attending public school in canada and my GPA over last two years is around 3.83/4.00
also an asian(korean) and lived in canada for 4.5 years..doing great in english tho
not planning on taking TOEFL (i dont think i would need it)</p>

<p>-3 year Top Scholar honour roll</p>

<p>-Taking grade 11 courses in bio, chem(already taken in g9), physics
taking eng10, socials10, math10, PE10fitness, Planning10(completely useless but mandatory), bio11, physics11, spanish10, and band 11/12
***canada's education is extremely slow-paced and so-called "lame"; find most of the courses not challenging AT ALL. Everyone just sit and do nothing.
math honours(its the only honours program our school offer)
full-time (no spare blocks with having an extra course in morning)</p>

<p>-extremely avid musician(well..maybe..born musician)</p>

<p>clarinet for 5 years (advanced to senior band in g9 which only allows g11s and g12s in; also i was 1st chair in every band i played in including this senior band)
piano for 10 years with RCM performers ARCT degree and about 25 awards on it(also i teach kids)
violin for 3 years
jazz band for 4 years(piano)
--able to make a well-improvised solo
jazz choir for 2 years(head tenor; men leader)
great knowledge in music theory
great sightreader
also played piano in church for 4 years every week</p>

<p>-a little below average athlete</p>

<p>i always hate admitting that im not that of a good athlete so im quite worried
Track & field 2 years (advanced to lowermainland champ)
Xcountry 1 year
Rugby 1 year (for fun; but ended up placing 3rd in north shore)
swimming 4 years (only 1 year competitive; )
*would like to try other sports too if i can but im not very athletic</p>

<p>-Canadian math contest
G 8 seventh in school; 20% in country
G 9 second in school; 5% in country (this was probably pure luck..)
lots of awards in piano
and also countless misc. awards i got from korea (too old, so i probably wont put it in my application)</p>

<p>-80+ community service
-50+ Piano accompaniment in school</p>

<p>-Clubs
Yearbook photo team staff
Interact club (sub-leader)
Debate club</p>

<p>-Grade representative candidate last year but ended up becoming a 1st runner-up</p>

<p>-for recommendation im quite unfamiliar with my grade counselor and spanish teacher since everything my grade counselor do is just scheduling students timetables; nothing else. and i dont have a good impression on my spanish teacher(i need a foreign language teacher recommendation for middlesex)
good relationship with English teacher
math teacher retired; so i have to use science teacher rec.;
i have lots of other teachers who just adore me but they teach other subjects</p>

<p>-i dont know anyone who is attending boarding school</p>

<p>-im very affable and friendly with excellent personality but sometimes tend to be quite "attacking and harsh" in tone without knowing it- could be bad in interviews...and i have some korean accent in my english</p>

<p>these are my stats..and do you think that i have any chance of getting in? im almost panicking now</p>

<p>and is there any chances at other good boarding schools? please recommend them. i only applied the listed schools cuz i might have some chance to get in
im not even sure the schools i applied are good or not. Please tell me what schools i might have chance in.</p>

<p>oh by the way, do the schools see the actual converted scores or percentiles?Since i havent yet written my ssat, i dont know my percentile; the chart included dont help me AT ALL</p>

<p>And, am i suppose to change my SSAT application status as grade 9 and put my grade as grade 9 on the test paper? or should i just put grade 10?
I'm worried that writing grade 10 on the test paper would automatically put me as grade 11 enrolling student next year.</p>

<p>man,...sorry for asking too many questions; i just have no idea what is going on </p>

<p>Thanks :)</p>

2

<p>So many questions! I'll try to answer/comment on what I can. I just learned how to do quotes, so let's see if it works!</p>

<p>(quote) im applying to St.Marks, St.Georges, Concord, Middlesex, St.Andrews(in canada), hill school, blair, webb schools, masters(just for my own safety)
(/quote)</p>

3

<p>I didn't do the quotes correctly so I used the "edit" function to answer/comment on your questions. I spent time on this (while doing other things at home), but there is a time limit of 20 minutes. I sent an email to the administrator requesting that they post the long response. Let's see if they do it.</p>

4

<p>Stop panicking! Breath for a moment, and look at your own stats. They're good. You're obviously involved in a lot of extensive activities and seem dedicated. Your atheltics are quite good, especially for someone who considers themself below average. Those schools look good for you, depending on your SSAT score they're probably mostly matches, which means you have good chances of getting in. The only thing that might be an issue is not getting your interviews done, so try to schedule them as soon as possible. Now get off of CC and call and email those schools right now. :)</p>

5

<p>If those are your percentage scores, not percentile, they're great. My percentage for Reading was 90 percent, but I scored in the 96th percentile. You'll probably get in the nineties. Good job. :) </p>

<p>As for the TOEFL, I recommend you take it, because even though you don't think so, because you learned English as a second language, you won't be as adept as you could have been and they should realize that. If you take the TOEFL, you'll probably ace it because as you said, you're good at English. :) </p>

<p>As Prettyc said, have you taken your interviews? Go and do them NOW! If not, you can schedule a phone interview or an alumni interview, but those don't count as much.</p>

6

<p>I'll try to reconstruct what I tried to post earlier.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>You have a good mix of schools. If you looking for additional suggestions, please state what your criteria is for school selection. </p></li>
<li><p>Take a few timed essay practices. You might try doing a fast outline before writing the essay. Try opening idea, 2 - 3 (3 probably better) supporting facts and closing statement. I suspect that your ideas don't have to be brilliant, but they do expect the essay to be well organized and credible. As you probably know, the essay is not graded but it is given to the schools for their review. </p></li>
<li><p>You might want to contact the Head of the Music Department where you are applying to learn more about the program. I think these contacts are made through Admissions. You have a strength in this area that can be showcased. If the school has a math team, you should also contact that coach through the Admissions Dept.. </p></li>
<li><p>If you want to substitute the science teacher for the math teacher, you should contact Admissions first to be certain that they sanction the switch.</p></li>
<li><p>Boarding schools generally offer at least two (and sometimes 3) levels of sports. The fact that you have participated in sports with some success is good.</p></li>
<li><p>Your Korean accent should not be a problem for the phone interviews as long as you can be understood. Try to soften your tone if some people interpret it as "attacking and harsh." Unfortunately, they won't see your smile and sparkling eyes. </p></li>
<li><p>You should email or call the people at the ssat to ask about your grade. I suspect that you will need put down 10th grade.</p></li>
<li><p>You should contact your schools about TOEFL. The fact that you are able to get high grades in english-speaking schools should speak for itself. However, I don't know the policies of each school.</p></li>
<li><p>The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) has developed a common application which you will find here: <a href="http://www.schools.com/apply/forms.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.schools.com/apply/forms.html&lt;/a>
Some of your schools will accept this form. You should contact the school first to verify this. You may need to do this because it is very time consuming to do the applications individually, and you don't have that much time.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>My son goes to Blair, and it is a great school for him. If you have any questions on it, please feel free to pm me or just ask here. They have 23 students from Korea, but only 2 from Canada.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

7

<p>Where in Canada do you live? (PM me if you want to).</p>

8

<p>i live in north vancouver BC
used to live in richmond hill ON few years back tho</p>

9

<p>you applying to st. andrews college in canada?
i went there for 3 years, and i know the school very well, but with the stuff you've done all those things, you are basically a shoo-in because their admissions pretty much accept everyone.</p>

<p>PM me if you want some details on how to get in, or what the school is like</p>