Prep Schools Admission Recommendations Question

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

Hi.

I am a high school freshman coming from one of the day schools in the top 10 high schools in the United States. (NICHE rankings)

I am thinking of considering for boarding school admissions for the top schools, and I am reapplying to most of them next year, which I got waitlisted and some rejected last year.

I used to have 4.0 unweighted GPAs for my 7th and 8th grade, but in new school is hard to adjust.

The teachers are all HYPS or Ivy PhDs and generally very strict with grading inside this school. That’s why we have a pass/fail system for freshman year, but I am worried about my recommendations from my teachers, especially math.

For math I am currently taking Geometry Advanced, which is a course that focuses in mostly mathematical logic and complex proofs for theorems for Eucledian Geometry, and covers Non-Eucledian Geometry.

It is a much harder course then your average high school geometry course, negating simple aspects of geometry in most other high school geometry courses, and I would say I am doing horribly in the course (like B- or C+) in letter converted grade scale.

I’m not really worried about my grades since its pass/fail for all freshman transcripts, but I am concerned about my recommendations. I won’t be that “shining star” in recommendations since everyone else is competitive, and I am wondering if the AOs consider that, especially since our school is focused very much in academics, and generating multiple professors, Intel Science finalists, and other prodigies in the school.

For other courses, I tend to have a average of A- for the freshman year, which are Latin, Freshman Seminar, Biology I, Ancient History, and English 9.

While the names seem pretty simple and average course material for a freshman student, the course material is much harder. We tend to go through units extremely fast, and are based on non-compareable custom course material. (e.g. the teachers write their own textbooks for most classes)

Since recommendations are compared with other students in my class, which are very competitive and talented students, I am concerned about how I will be displayed in the eyes of an AO, especially since while my school is a T10 school, its not those fancy big-name schools, but we recently got added to the T10s in rankings couple years ago.

What is your views on this issue, and how can I justify to the schools that my school is exceptionally hard compared to the average high school?

2

If you really think it is a concern, do your best to ace the SSAT and submit some other standardized stuff

3

First, I am 99% sure I can tell where you go to school based on this description/your handle. You may want to take out some details (type of history, etc). Your school is notoriously difficult academically.

Re: admissions

  1. I would bet $$ that many many students are also having trouble adjusting there and your recommendations will not be “bad” as you fear. I would bet you are doing above average, if not better than that overall. (I imagine some are no where near an A- in those history/english classes with lots of writing). Even if you aren’t a star in math, doesn’t mean you will have bad recommendations. And teachers don’t expect everyone to be intel finalists. I would make sure you let them get to know you as a person, too though.

  2. Other schools likely know more of your school’s reputation than you think – even if general public doesn’t! This is especially true if you are applying to schools in the same region (cross-country may be a bit harder). Independent schools are a VERY small world.

You don’t say WHY you want to transfer from a competitive day school to BS, so having a compelling story/reason will really help your chances a lot.

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