<p>I am an American, but I go to an international school in shanghai,china. All my classes are in the honors class. I usually get above 85 for midterms and finals. Which school do u think will accept me? Will Andover accept me? Will Middlesex accept me? Will hotchkiss accept me?</p>
<p>The schools you mention are highly selective with a less than 20% admission rate. The acceptance is predicated on many factors other than academics. Total SSAT score – check school’s websites, e.g., Andover median acceptance is 93% SSAT. However, this is only small part of entire picture. Your extracurriculars come into play here, community service, instruments. Also, any varsity sports potential you might have. You would need to check each school’s website for the sports that they offer. Also try searching this forum for additional information.</p>
<p>Tigerlilly702 - could you post some more information, such as how big your school is. I’m just thinking that if, for example, you thrive in a smaller environment, maybe Andover isn’t the place for you. As for the thing about honors classes, that’s great , but would you say that you are in the top 1/3 of your class? If not, then maybe that is irrelevant. If yes, then congratuations! Saying that you usually get above 85% is really good, but not amazing, if you mean you average about 88% - that translates to a high B. Maybe, you get nearly all 90s and a couple 80s and 70s, but I just assumed that you were in the high 80s range because of how you said it. However, I don’t know how difficult your courses are, so I couldn’t say. If you could just tell us what really defines you from other applicants, that would help a lot!</p>
<p>As flowers mentioned, taking the SSAT is a more reliable way of seeing where you are among other applicants. Different schools vary in difficulty and extent of grade inflation, so you’d need to take the SSAT and/or ISEE and compare your percentile to the average for the school.</p>
<p>My school has about 309 students in my grade. I usually rank in the top 45 in the grade. In the class, I usually rank the top three. I do lots of extracurricular activities such as tennis, basketball, soccer, swimming. I also played the piano for almost nine years. I am part of the school swimming and tennis varsity team. Also, I have won awards in piano, swimming, and tennis. I was also rewarded excellence in sports in my school. I am currently a seventh grader. My school’s academic is very challenging. For math, I am learning algebra and some ninth grade geometry. For English, I am learning high school stuff. Every subject I learn in my school are similar to American high school courses. I haven’t taken the ssat, and I’ll take it in November .</p>
<p>Also there’s about thirty students in my class</p>
<p>Wow, nice! I’d say you could get in. As you are in a rather large school, I think Andover may be a good fit for you.</p>
<p>Thanks very much. Wat do u think is most important to get into good boarding schools such as Andover, Middlesex , and Hotchkiss?</p>
<p>@futureboader so do u mean that Andover is a better school for me to be in than Middlesex and hotchkiss? What grade are u in? I am currently 7th grade and is learning probably 9th grade stuff. The worst grade I got on the midterm and finals was 85. Do u think that would hurt me alittle bit to go to Andover?</p>
<p>Tigerlilly702, would you mind either posting here or PM-ing me with what school you go to? I also live in Shanghai currently, and no school that I know of allows 7th graders to learn 9th grade material on campus. It’d be interesting to check out that school! </p>
<p>Anyway, some of the most important factors of admission IMO, would be
a) the interview
b) the recommendations
c) the school transcript
d) the essays
e) the extracurriculars & community service
f) the SSATs (which are very much skewed) and the grades</p>
<p>Those were in no particular order, but I think that even though the SSATs and grades do matter, their idea of you as a person matter more. Good luck!</p>
<p>@Aaralyn the school I go to is shanghai high school international division. U have to be in the highest level for every subject in order to learn really hard stuff like me. The academics are really challenging. We have like two monthlys, one midterm, and one finals every school year. Also there’s tons of hw everyday.</p>
<p>@Aaralyn Wat school do u go to now?</p>
<p>High school? As a 7th grader? Gosh, I think I’ll be seeing you in the news someday. 
Wait that’s a public/government school, right? I go to Shanghai American School, have been for a while now.</p>
<p>It’s called the shanghai high school international division but it is from grades1-12. Cool, Wat grade are u in at SAS. I heard SAS was really good also, but our academics is way harder than SAS.</p>
<p>That is a public school. The local division of our school is one of the four best schools in china . We get taught the sane way except un English.</p>
<p>Oh, that makes much more sense. I was wondering. xD I’m in the 8th grade. Yeah, SAS is an AMAZING school and I wouldn’t want to change my experiences here for anything in the world, but it is pretty easy–precisely why I’m applying to boarding school. Oh, I see. That’s interesting… Are your teachers Chinese or American?</p>
<p>Wait… how are the SSATs ‘skewed’?</p>
<p>Some are English and some are Chinese.</p>
<p>I meant some are American and some are Chinese.</p>
<p>@Craysian;
This is a debatable and frequently discussed topic on CC. I’ll quote & link some posts.</p>
<p>“Well, it is doubtful that the overall SSAT pool of sixty thousand would be less selective than the overall SAT pool of two million. Thus the above top 20% (at least) would carry over to the SSAT. Also, there is quite some crowding on the high end of the SSAT, skewing the overall percentiles. Both tests are easy, but while the SAT casts a wide net, the SSAT does not. Therefore the SSAT as a test may perform best mid-range, and in raw scores; not with “scaled” scores (which nobody cares about) and definitely not with percentile ranks of a small, elite pool, further divided by grade and gender into ever-smaller test populations.” from p43531’s post at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/583667-ssat-scores-low-help-4.html#post12062245[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/583667-ssat-scores-low-help-4.html#post12062245</a></p>
<p>“Math percentiles are just really skewed. It might be due to the fact that more asian students are thinking about boarding schools, and are taking the SSATs, and they always get 99% for math. And trust me, there are A LOT of asians taking the SSAT.” from vivster’s post at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-chances/1089169-very-strange-ssat-scores.html?highlight=skewed+ssat#post12039670[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-chances/1089169-very-strange-ssat-scores.html?highlight=skewed+ssat#post12039670</a></p>
<p>“When people refer to the percentiles being skewed, they are referring to the fact that the results of the test-takers are tightly clustered. The effect is that missing even a small number of questions can result in a disappointing percentile, since a small change in scaled-score can move you ahead or behind of a large number (percentile) of test-takers. This seems to be particularly true of the math section.” from kraordrawoh’s post at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1065902-philips-exeter-academy-advice.html?highlight=skewed+ssat#post11802232[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1065902-philips-exeter-academy-advice.html?highlight=skewed+ssat#post11802232</a></p>
<p>this thread gives much information about skewed SSAT scores, specifically in the math section, at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1074018-ssat-math-scores-skewed.html?highlight=skewed+ssat#post11861682[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1074018-ssat-math-scores-skewed.html?highlight=skewed+ssat#post11861682</a></p>
<p>and check out p43531’s entire original post at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1085401-who-apt-pupil.html?highlight=skewed+ssat#post11976449[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1085401-who-apt-pupil.html?highlight=skewed+ssat#post11976449</a>
—it is very informative about the SSATs and such</p>
<p>In conclusion, I think that SSAT’s percentiles don’t completely accurately measure a student’s abilities. On CC I have read of people who’s raw scores were only 30-50 points apart, but the percentiles were 15%+ apart. I still think that the SSAT does indeed provide a source of reference for AO’s, but I don’t think the percentiles are that… parallel, for lack of a better word. I don’t completely understand the “skewed SSAT scores” issue, but this is my understanding. After all, I’m just a 13 year old voicing my opinion. :)</p>
<p>(by the way, sorry if I bored you with this extremely long and post.)</p>