PEA/PA/SPS Chance Me

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

Hi, I’m 13 years old and am applying for the 9th grade for Phillips Exeter Academy, Phillips Andover Academy, and St. Paul’s School.

I am not an international applicant; I am from the US. And yes, I will need financial aid…which I’ve heard lowers your chances.

I have some strong community service EC’s (NJHS, volunteer at the local non-profit pet shelter), have a first-degree black belt in taekwondo, and write reviews for several literature websites/magazines. I’ve won a few competitions (speech contest, Battle of the Books, and a writing competition) I also send letters of positivity through a program to help people suffering with depression. If it helps, I’ve had straight A’s my entire life. I am also in my school’s CSI club.

My Phillips Exeter interview was my first interview, and I was so nervous, so I think I did ok, but not very well. St. Paul’s was pretty good, in my opinion, because the interviewer seemed pretty impressed (not to sound conceited or anything, sorry if I come off that way!). And for Phillips Andover, I think the interview went pretty good as well.

The thing that is really concerning me is my SSAT scores. I did ok on the Reading and Writing section (96 and 92 percentile respectively), but on math, I was in the 53 percentile. Overall, I scored in the 85th percentile. I know that these schools are highly competitive and the average score is above or at the 90th percentile (correct me if I’m wrong).

I know that SSAT scores are only a part of it, but somebody said that if I don’t get a 90th percentile or higher, the admissions board just throws away the entire application. …Ah, I’m getting nervous just thinking about that.

Just wanted to hear advice/thoughts from seasoned prep school parents/students. Thanks for reading this!

2

Very few people on CC are 'seasoned prep school parents/students’. Rather, most of us are eager, hopeful, and uninformed applicants.

I’ll give my opinion though. You grade areYour SSAT is below the average of PA and PEA. Especially, your math is pretty low for a school like Exeter. Your ECs are mediocre, with nothing really standing out, ie. there is no clear passion or focus (maybe writing, do you have any results from prestigious competitions?) Remember that most applicants have what they consider ‘great’ interviews; all interviewers want to encourage as many people to apply as possible. I don’t think these three schools don’t factor in taekwondo very heavily, I don’t believe it is a competitive sport for these schools. Finally, you need FA.

From what you have given us, I’d estimate your chances to be

3

Very few people on CC are 'seasoned prep school parents/students’. Rather, most of us are eager, hopeful, and uninformed applicants.

I’ll give my opinion though. Your grades are fine. Your SSAT is below the average of PA and PEA. Especially, your math is pretty low for a school like Exeter. Your ECs are mediocre, with nothing really standing out, ie. there is no clear passion or focus (maybe writing, do you have any results from prestigious competitions?) Remember that most applicants have what they consider ‘great’ interviews; all interviewers want to encourage as many people to apply as possible. I don’t think these three schools don’t factor in taekwondo very heavily, I don’t believe it is a competitive sport for these schools. Finally, you need FA.

From what you have given us, I’d estimate your chances to be around 10-15% for A/E, a bit higher for SPS. I would encourage you to apply to a much broader range of schools if you’re really intent on attending boarding schools. Do you have a hook that you haven’t spoken of, ie. URM, geodiversity, etc.

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@babymalcolm First of all, thank you so much for your honest opinion. It helped give me a better image of my chances, so that I wouldn’t get my hopes too high on March 10th. :slight_smile:
Sorry, but I’m not really sure what geodiversity or URM stands for. I’m new to prep school admission lingo.

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@randomfloridian I disagree with @babymalcolm -there are tons of seasoned parents. And certainly some current and recent graduates. (Mostly parents). What is the rigor of your coursework? Describe What your grades? Do you play any sports? Are you white, black, asian etc? What makes you special in your opinion? Lastly–did you apply to other schools?

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@Center There are many seasoned parents, but not many of them are keen to respond to the chance threads. @randomfloridian They can however, provide plenty of insight on school life, academics, etc.

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And you guys can’t guess why? Chance threads are a waste of time at best. Parents are more eager to answer specific questions about boarding school life, academics, etc. because this can help you make good decisions whether or not to apply, and where. We are eager to answer questions about the admission process and share experiences about what it takes to get in. We also keep encouraging you to use the search option of CC and take advantage of years of good advice by students and parents alike. If you do that, you will know that applying to acronym schools with below-average SSAT scores, FA needs, and no real “hook” (URS, URM, legacy, development case, impact athlete) is a gamble. A fellow applicant telling you otherwise doesn’t change that.

I hope my rant helps. Here is some more on the topic: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1796843-applying-to-selective-boarding-schools-in-2015-16-app-cycle-read-this-p1.html.

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@Center To answer your questions, I would say that my coursework is very rigorous-I take about 13 courses (7 standard middle school classes, one high-school language course outside of school, and six very challenging courses that do count as credit). It takes a lot of studying and hardwork for those classes. My grades at school are fine; I have straight A’s and have maintained a 4.0 GPA every single year at school. I’m Asian. I guess the really large amount of classes I take make me stand out, and I have a really strong passion for writing. Last of all, other than PEA, PA, and SPS, I didn’t apply to other schools. Thank you for taking time to reply to my thread!

@babymalcolm Thanks for the information! It’s great to know that I have the ability to ask questions about dorm life, schools, etc. and have prep parents answer them.

@GoatMama I’m really sorry if I annoyed you by posting this chance thread. I’m new to CC, and going into the Prep School part of CC, I saw a lot of chance threads, so I kind of jumped onto the bandwagon and went along with that. As a prep school applicant, I knew that applying to such good prep schools would be, as you said, a gamble, but I decided to take a chance and I’m really nervous. I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high, so I just wanted to see a rough estimate of my chances. I’ll definitely utilize CC more wisely in the future. Thank you for your thoughts, and I hope you have a nice day!

9

Oh, geez, I never though that admitting into Andover would be so hard

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@Andoverguy Neither did I, when I started the application process, but Andover is so elite that it seems like I’m applying to Harvard or something. There are so many qualified candidates.

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There are probably about 20 schools of near equivalent quality at the very top. There are probably 40 that anyone should feel proud and fortunate to gain acceptance too. Probably more than that if we include day schools etc. The word elite is dangerous and misleading: I think a more accurate word would be competitive. Is Chicago = to Harvard? It doesn’t have its storied history and bragging rights but they both take some of the very best qualified students. Just a word of advice from an adult–these schools are not the be-all end-all. If you don’t get into the one you want or any of them, you can still go to a great college and be successful. There are many paths.

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Well, but their college matriculations are so much greater

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@Andoverguy where is your data?

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First time applicants and parents are always surprised how competitive it is for unhooked students. It is.
If you have to apply again, cast a wider net. An excellent unhooked student friend of my daughter’s got on 10 WLs of 10 top BSs. Yes, and didn’t get admitted to any one of them. But her parents were smart and she was full pay and they pursued a top day school and got in, ready and willing to move to NYC.

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Just saw your name. Florida is actually a state many NE boarding schools seek applicants from. You have geodiversity going for you. Your chances are better than many students from NE. Good luck!

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Florida is WELL REPRESENTED in the top boarding schools. The coasts are not under-represented. It is the deep south, the midwest and the south west that are underrepresented.

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@Center: If I live in WI but will be moving to NC the year before applying, will that affect my chances?