Phillips Academy Andover; what is my chance of getting in as an international student?

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
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Hello, I am a international student who is from South Korea, but currently attending 9th grade at California. I want to apply for Philips Academy Andover and Deerfield Academy, etc. as a 9th grader next year.

Academics
I came to US this January and I graduated middle school from here and currently attending great public high school.
In Korea, I was accepted to the most prestigious boarding middle school and went there for one year. I got all A’s there. I also got merit scholarship given to top 10 students. My school divided math and English class from S(the highest), A,B,C,D to E(the lowest), and I maintained both as an S class.
Here in America, I attended Math B Honors in 8th grade and got all A+ except A’s in English and History.
In 9th grade currently, I am attending Math Honors, and English Honors. And I am getting all A+ except A in English.

I won the first place in Essay Contest among middle school students in California in my 8th grade, and I am currently studying for AMC 10 right now.
I was in top 10 teams in the math contest held by near high school in my 8th grade.
In 7th grade at Korea, I won 1st place and 3rd place in Current Issue Scrap contest in our school. Also, I won 4th place in Essay Contest about globalizing Korean. My team won 2nd place in Creative Math Structure Contest in school.

My TOEFL score was 101 in 6th grade, so I am pretty sure I can get over 105 this year.
I haven’t done SSAT, but my goal is to get over 90%.

ECs
Sports - I did swimming for 8 years, and won first place in the competition in our city in 6th grade. I was also involved in track team in 5th and 6th grade. I went skiing for 9 years every winter but did not participate in any competition. I am currently in the basketball team in the high school. I also can play golf, and learning surf these days.

Instruments - I played piano for 9 years and played violin for 6 years. I have been involved in Orchestra as violinist for 4 years. I was violin section leader in each 6th grade and 7th grade in my Orchestra.

Art - I won enormous art competitions since I was in elementary school.

Contributing to society - I was class council president every year in my elementary school, and was also involved in ASB in 6th grade. I was involved in lots of campaign at school, and I also volunteered for homeless people. I also volunteered in library.

Clubs - I myself made a mathematic and astrophysics club in 7th grade with my friends after I was impressed by what I learned about dimensions in my math class. I was also involved in Global Leader Club and our club hosted model United Nation meeting about COVID 19. I participated as a staff.
I participated in debate club at 8th grade, and I am currently in leadership position as freshman in Medicine & Anatomy club in 9th grade.
I’m going to join Science Olympiad club soon.

However, I am desperate about financial aid. Is there any chance that an international applicants can get financial aid after accepted? I cannot afford the tuition without financial assistance. I know it is tough, but usually how many international students in Andover gets financial aid? I don’t have any U.S citizenships or green card.

What is my chance of getting into Phillips Academy Andover and getting financial aid?

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You are a solid applicant. You need to focus less on all the things that make you exactly like every other ORM girl and more on the things that you will do to make the school better/help the school shine. This resume needs to be re-done with the relevant information front and center and the things like skiing last. If you are not going to be on the ski team it is the least important part of the application. Skiing is just an example - this applies to anything that is just a hobby vs a sport that you will play at the school and are really good at.

I cannot comment on the financial aid piece - aid to international students is murky and I am no expert.

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Andover is the only boarding school I’m aware of that is need-blind towards admission. This means that they don’t take into account financial need when determining admissions. All of the other boarding schools are need aware. This means that the financial aid budgets are used for students based on need. They obviously cannot fund 100% of all students full tuition, so they selectively choose which students to give aid.

I attended an Andover admissions event about 4 years ago when my son was accepted. There were quite a few international students at Andover. I don’t know how many of them were on financial aid however. My son ended up choosing another school. Most boarding schools use the international pool because they are rich and can pay in full.

But give it a shot, you never know. Good luck.

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