<p>When I see schools that have acceptance rates of >15%, I get a little confused. How is it that if most people who apply to these school have very similar grades, only a few get in? Are a great percent of people who apply to these schools completely under-qualified? I understand no one really knows for sure what goes on in the admissions office, but does any one have a clue? Sorry for all the curiosity, I'm new to the idea of boarding school.</p>
<p>The idea for admissions officers is to create a well balanced class. They don’t want to fill their entire class with Canadian, Male, Rich, Legacy, Varsity Hockey Players for example. They want people with different ethnicities, extracurriculars , socioeconomic statuses, creeds and genders. Everybody is different, so often the reason why you get a waitlist instead of a acceptance can be because of a factor you can’t control.</p>
<p>Thank you, and seeing that you go to Hotchkiss, was Hotchkiss always your first choice of school?</p>
<p>Yeah. Hotchkiss and Andover were, but a bit more Hotchkiss. :)</p>
<p>I agree with @prepschoolplease.</p>
<p>Stargirl3, will you be applying to any schools this year?</p>
<p>What other schools did you apply to?</p>
<p>When it comes to prep school (heck, even college) admissions, it’s good to try to stand out. The admission officers have probably read forty essays about playing violin or being in the school math club. The school is interested in getting capable, interesting students. If the school only had violin-playing math team students, where would it be? :D</p>
<p>If you don’t want to read that entire long paragraph, just remember, prep schools love diversity.</p>
<p>the school is looking to fill spots of those that have graduated. lets say you have two students and one spot. they have pretty much the same grades and SSAT scores and are the same ethnicity one plays tuba one plays violin. if they are looking to fill a tuba spot in the band they’ll obviously go with the student that plays tuba. the same situation can happen with race, financial aid, even geography(you don’t want a bunch of students from the NE)</p>