<p>Hi, I am a rising high school senior interested in attending Exeter for a post-grad year. I want to attend because I want to strengthen my academic record and take advantage of the many opportunities offered at Exeter in academics, extracurricular activities, and networking. I've done a lot of research and I truly believe that Exeter could take me to the next level. I have a few questions. </p>
<p>1) Would I even be accepted?
GPA: 3.8 UW, 4.0 W
SAT: 770 CR, 530 M, 680 W (planning to retake in fall); Total: 1980
APs: English Lang (5), Psych (4), APUSH (4)
Senior year schedule: AP Eng 4, AP Gov, AP Euro, AP Spanish, AP Latin</p>
<p>ECs: Captain of mock trial (takes up majority of time), Latin Honor Society president & founding member, Spanish Honor Society, NHS, Academic team, 1st female wrestler</p>
<p>2) What do colleges think of taking a post-grad year? Will excelling at Exeter and receiving a diploma help me get into a better school than I would be getting into otherwise? My first choice is Georgetown which is admittedly a high reach. Would this goal be more attainable if I graduated from Exeter? </p>
<p>I have a passion for language and international relations but sadly my school offers few courses on the subject. If accepted at Exeter, I would love to take advantage of all of their courses on these subjects and perhaps pick up a few semesters of Chinese.</p>
<p>Your academic record is what it is in high school. Perhaps if you received all As at Exeter in your Fall term of your PG year (the only term the colleges will really weigh in your application), you will get a boost, but absent this, you are who you are BEFORE you arrived at Exeter. From the perspective of colleges, the prestige of an elite school like Exeter will simply not gild your lilly because your were not at Exeter long enough for the colleges to really test whether you reflect its program. So, discard any notion of Exeter (or any prestigious boarding school) conferring a substantial benefit in your college application process.</p>
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<p>Your math score is obviously a problem for the better colleges, but it should not be a problem specifically for Exeter. As long as you have all the core courses (essentially through pre-calc) at your current school, Exeter will not demand more of you in math. Of course, you can take more math at Exeter, but Exeter is incredibly quirky about how it teaches math through the Harkness method and if you haven’t been immersed in Harkness, then Exeter math is triple-flip degree of difficulty. If you are going to immerse yourself in general science or the humanities, your 770 should be fine.</p>
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<p>See my earlier observations. Exeter will not help you get into a better college (nor will Andover or Deefield or Choate or Hotchkiss, for that matter). You are really your high school record and your high school SAT. Take that one over again! Go to Exeter for Exeter and for the unique possibilities that Exeter has – do not go with the attitude of bettering your chances for college: that really won’t happen unless the colleges have recruited you already, before you go!</p>