<p>First of all, I apologize, because I haven’t read all of the posts in this thread, so I may be redundant here.</p>
<p>My son, who just applied this year, was in the enviable position of having some great SSAT scores. He didn’t study at all, (just showed up, really) and managed a 96% overall and a perfect 800 on verbal. Great news, right? He got rejected at 3 top tier schools, waitlisted at one, and accepted at 2 “second tier” schools. </p>
<p>My sense, after the whole interview/admissions process, is that great SSAT scores matter, but they have to match up with a sincere effort at excellence across the board. He had a B in English this term. How does a kid with a perfect verbal score get a B? Perhaps by resting on his laurels, and being used to not having to work too hard. The problem with not working too hard is that it snowballs, and you may not have a chance to resurrect your grades from a poor effort earlier on. All of the kids here are smart. Work to your best potential! Also, get involved in your school and in local sports. For a variety of reasons, my son couldn’t and didn’t, but he could have done more. I think schools want to see well-rounded kids with a potential for excellence. If they see that potential, but also see it wasted, you could have trouble. Best of luck as you embark on this process!</p>
<p>I’m also getting a B in english this term. I got a 99th in reading and a 98th in verbal. I lost important stuff and didn’t work hard. 'nuff said.</p>
<p>For SSAT - Buy SSAT Kaplans and Princeton Review. Kaplans has a whole vocabulary list of words that commonly appear on SSAT and Princeton Review has several practice tests. Memorize as much vocabulary as possible and make flash cards. I would say strive to get a 85%+ on the test as this is the most commonly accepted score that “puts you in the game”.</p>
<p>Keep your grades up, and learn as much as possible about the schools. act poised, interested, and if you ever go to an open house etc. speak up! Admis. officers want well rounded, well spoken, enthusiastic kids!</p>
<p>Paobs12, Interesting post. I am not quite sold on this well-rounded student thing that the schools are looking for. I think your son doesn’t have to play sports if he doesn’t want to. I’m not sure Einstein would have made a great foot ball player even if he wanted to, as there could be physical limitations. I have a feeling a lot of kids are forced to make a laundry list of ECs for admission purposes. If I want to be a mathematician, why do I need to play foot ball? I can keep in shape by just exercising. I think this well-rounded concept is taking kids too far into doing stuff they may not like or enjoy, but just to make a list for admissions. May be the admissions focus should be on ones math scores if he/she aspires to be a mathematician and English scores if he/she wants to be a writer etc. I read a lot of successful newsmaker stories of students that come here from China, Taiwan, and other countries who seem to have a singular focus on academics and not so much on EC lists. Just a thought…</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice but It’s gonna be a hard year for me next year, 5 Honors Classes, AP French, Crew, Self Stufying for AP Euro and a few more sports + SSAT studying… Wow How Am I going to survive ?</p>
<p>Pulsar,
Some schools that my son applied to had a stated preference for well-rounded kids, but I think they all appreciate students who truly excel in a particular area. I think they’re also looking for kids who use their free time wisely…actively pursuing their interests, regardless of whether that’s sports or music or poetry. Best of luck!</p>
<p>He’s talking about his 9th grade course load. If I was going o public school next year (Swissbrit and I are zoned for a great PS-swiisnrit, you’re right it was confirmed today it’s BEAST) mine would be similiar.</p>
<p>Any suggestions on improving reading comprehension, vocabulary and analogies skills for SSAT quickly, say over 3 months, as opposed to reading a lot of books over a longer period of time?</p>
<p>Well there aren’t any prep courses in Sweden so I just bought the ETS TOEFL guide and received a score of 114 (that’s the 99,7 percentile ). It is however important to note that I was already fluent in English so the book didn’t really do anything but helping me getting familiar with the test.</p>
<p>Did you take the SSAT’s as well? My daughter will be similiar to you-fluent in English but lives overseas. She will need to take the TOEFL and I’m sure that She will score very high on the TOEFL. I’m wondering if she should take both or is one sufficient.</p>
<p>Sorry as far as I know only DA (Deerfield Academy) of the schools I applied to accept that you supplement your SSAT with your TOEFl all the other schools demand that u take both. And if u do I don’t see any reason not to send it to the schools that don’t have it as a requirement. The verbal section (which is the hardest for internationals) will be overlooked and instead they will look at your TOEFL score and see if you’re academically prepared to enter aa US boarding school.</p>
<p>I have started to think about going to BS only recently. Any suggestions on improving reading comprehension, vocabulary and analogies skills for SSAT quickly, say over 3 months, as opposed to reading a lot of books over a longer period of time? I like to get this done on a compressed time scale, if possible, with a target score of >90%.</p>
<p>I was turned down from two of the HADES schools, and when contacted they informed us that they believed I was “not ready for boarding school.” Any idea on what this means? (Besides the obvious) Am I not mature enough? Or did they think I would not be able to handle the experience?</p>
<p>^ worlds vaguest “reason” haha. maybe you’re too young (born in october of 1996, for example) or not mature enough… be sure to show a lot of maturity in your interviews and essays in the future, i guess… :S so vague, lol!</p>