! PLEASE help me! my chances for andover & my profile/ssat scores

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>Hi, I am an eighth grader who goes to a private, catholic school. Unfortunately, I just applied to Andover. Going to boarding school hasn't been a dream of mine until about 3 weeks ago where it is now to late to allpy to more. If i don't get accepted into Andover, I will go to my local public school which is not that great. I am in LOVE with andover. Over the past few months, I have fallen in deeper love with it every day. I just love the campus, the teachers, the students. Everything about it gives me comfortable feelings. I was wondering what you guys think my chances will be of acceptance!</p>

<p>I am applying as a local boarder...i only live 10 miles away from the school</p>

<p>i am white, 5'4 115 red hair (irish, english)</p>

<p>i have always gotten straight A's I am one of the top 3 students in my grade at school</p>

<p>My TerraNova testing (standardized testing requried at my school) has always been in the top percentiles</p>

<p>my application was great </p>

<p>my recs were great </p>

<p>my essays were very good i wrote one about my love for helping others that could be used at Andover (non-sibi)</p>

<p>my graded essay i sent in was amazing</p>

<p>my interview was very good...my interviewer was very surprized and seemed to like me</p>

<p>i do every kind of dance there is (theatre & dance is a major branch of their curriculum)</p>

<p>i cheerlead</p>

<p>i do track & cross country</p>

<p>i won a national award for excellence in math</p>

<p>i play the piano and the cello (didn't have the chance to send them a recording =/)</p>

<p>i have a love for art (i sent them about 6 great art pieces)</p>

<p>i love science...i conduct my own experiments for upcoming science fairs</p>

<p>i'm in advanced algebra 1 this year</p>

<p>My downfall is that i took the Dec. 9th SSATS and bombed them! When i say i bombed it, i mean bombed it! Part of this reason is because a loved one of mine passed away that week and i could barely concentrate at all...i also didn't study for that one) I got 37%61%30% =//////// My essay was great though</p>

<p>but...i have taken several practice tests and studied everything i could for the three sections and have scored very high on the practice tests so i know i am capable of sooo much more than the first time
ANY MORE IDEAS FOR STUDY WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!
andover told me i could re-take the test on feb. 3rd</p>

<p>and that's about it! tell me what you think and please be honest because i am kind of worried...so many other kids applying have so many more accomplishments! o and i'm not trying to brag about anything, i just want to give you the most accurate view of what i sent andover as i possibly can! thank you all very much!</p>

2

<p>um i dont know how to phrase what I want to say in terms of chance evaluation, someone pls help me</p>

<p>but all i can say is, you have a chance, like everyone else, but dont get hopes up</p>

3

<p>study for the ssat's like a mad man. if you want it, you need to devote yoruself for the next 10 days or so.
<a href="http://www.flashcardexchange.com/flashcards/list/320840%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.flashcardexchange.com/flashcards/list/320840&lt;/a>
study all of those words.
get to know all of the math problems that usually appear on the test. just get very familiar with exactly what to expect. then do all of them, check your answers, and drill it in your brain what you're doing wrong.
-for the reading, read the questions beforehand and go back to look for answers in the passage. do not read the whole passage. you're not supposed to. concentrate during the reading. ask yourself what they're asking you and look for it in the text with vigillance.</p>

<p>what were your andover essays about?</p>

4

<p>What was your overall SSAT percentile?</p>

<p>I had a 40%. (31 M, 50 R, 50 V)</p>

5

<p>Hi Dancerx39213.</p>

<p>You sound like an intelligent friendly poerson, and you have great credentials.</p>

<p>You SSAT hurts your chances a ton in my opinion, but you never know. These school make decisions that will suprise you.</p>

<p>By the way, I am not at these schools, but an applying to Andover, Exeter, middlesex, Groton, deerfiled, Brooks, St. Mark's ans St. paul's.</p>

6

<p>Oh ya. Good luck on March 10th, only 48 days left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>

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<p>study hard on the SSAT I would say...</p>

8

<p>Andovers SSAT average is a ninety third percentile by the way.</p>

<p>I went through a similar situation to you last year when I applied to groton last year in 7th grade. Didn't get in though.</p>

9

<p>I took the SSAT last year and got a 69. This year and got as 69 again, then studied a bit and got an 81. Definetley take the test again and study like crazy. I improved my score with only one week of really studing from the second 69 to the 81. Vocab helps ALOT. And even though the math seems, and is easy, still review the tricks in the books, thay actually help a bit. Reading, I have know clue because i only got a 65 whern I got an 81 total</p>

10

<p>If you improve your SSAT score by a lot, then I think you have a pretty fair chance (considering the competitiveness for day students, of course). If it doesn't improve by quite a bit, though, it will definitely hurry. I echo those on this board--study! :)</p>

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<p>thank guys. i'm definately busting my butt. i reallllyyy realllyyy need to go to a prep school & i dont want my chances to be shattered because of my ssat scores. Well i've got a little while before the test! nothing like last minute cramming! Good luck to you guys too, and maybe (if i get extremelyy lucky) we might be going to school together next year! ha! that is so weird seeeing i just found this website a couple days ago and found other people actually applying. well thanks for the advice and ttyl <3</p>

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<p>do you think the flashcard website stuff really helps???</p>

13

<p>If you somehow got into Andover with SSATs that low, I think you would find the curriculum quite difficult. Although you do well at a small Catholic school, your SSATs indicate in comparison to your competition you are not nearly as well prepared. If you're a minority or socioeconomically disadvantaged it might help. It sounds like you might all ready be involved at the school?? If so, that might help too. Good luck on your next test date.</p>

14

<p>The single most important factor regarding boarding school admissions is maturity of the student. It is highly unlikely that a score of less than 75% on the SSAT would or should be admitted to the top tier boarding schools. Even matriculated students with a 90% SSAT can and often do struggle academically at Andover, Exeter and St. Paul"s.</p>

15

<p>Maturity is important for a variety of reasons. Living away from home, accepting and dealing with others from a variety of backgrounds, discipline to do demanding workloads in highly competitive environments, accepting that others will be better than you academically-even if you come from a magnet school with straight A"s, as even these students fail at Andover, Exeter and St. Paul"s. You must learn to accept yourself, your talents, gifts and limitations- as well as those of others- at a very early and sensitive age.</p>

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<p>If you really want to go to boarding school, be prepared to do what it takes to get in. Your profile while very good would not look all that different from 90% of the kids applying to Andover and the low SSAT obviously doesn't help. If I were you I would consider this year a write off--you applied to only one school and that among the most difficult to get into. You never know with these things but speaking from my own experience your odds would have to be very low. What to do? Focus on next year. A grade 10 entry is eminently possible at all Andover equivalent schools and ask your self "Why Andover?" What makes me stand out from everybody else, my passion, passion for what--languages, classics, mathematics? Suppose it is mathematics, have you looked at Mathcamp to get a flavour of what passion for a subject looks like? Suppose it is languages. Can you muster a very high standard in a modern language or latin? It is not all that hard to do. My suggestion would be to get some advice about going about the application in the next round--lots of people on this site willing to share experience--preparent, gaoliedad, suze--all give excellent advice. As for this year, do what you can, buy 10 real sats or whatever the new equivalt is and 1. do a diagnostic test without time limit,2. do the same test against the clock. 3 do another test under exam conditions. It is more than likely that the format of the test and the time pressure threw you off. You can recover the ball Feb. 3 but have illusion, even if you do, your chances of getting into Andover would still be only 20%. Next time develop a list -- application is to some extend a numbers game. Good luck</p>

17

<p>well, i just got my results for my second time around taking the ssats...</p>

<p>all were improvements...which is good</p>

<p>verbal 68%
reading 82%
math 97%</p>

<p>uhhhh better than last time...but still, i'm not so great at these one-day test things. oh well. i might not get accepted this year... i tried. =/</p>

18

<p>Great improvement! There are many schools that would find you an appealing candidate. I have no idea about Andover because so many qualified candidates apply. Good luck!</p>

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<p>I think the Verbal score is the one I put the least stock in. You miss a couple words and CRASH your score plummets. Instead, you get a test that happens to have a couple more words that are in your vocabulary and ZOOM you're soaring! It's more like a lottery than a measure of intelligence or reasoning skills. Your other two scores impress me.</p>

<p>Unfortunately...what I think makes no difference whatsoever.</p>

20

<p>i totally agree with you about the verbal thing!</p>

<p>there were questions that i just couldn't answer both times. i kept going back to them and the downfall is i ended up guessing on some of them both times. then i was thinking "awww man! i wish i spend more time in my life memorizing the dictionary!" because when it's test time, you either know it or don't know it.</p>