Rate me for private school acceptance!

Hi everyone! My name is Andrew and I applied to a couple private schools this year. I’m an asian-american boy living in the US and currently in the 8th grade. Here are some of my stats.

Applied to four schools(Philips Exeter, Philips Academy Andover, Concord Academy, Nobles and Greenough)

Stats:
SSAT-91st percentile
A’s and A+'s with the occassional b+ every year

EC’s:
Student council-4 years and now sc president
Creative writing-was top 10 in a statewide award in 6th grade and I submitted work to all schools
Visual arts-won a minor award and sent my art portfolio to schools
Community service: project 351 member(where 1 student leader from every town in massachusetts comes together to do service)
Speech and debate-school model un team and won a conferance committee award
Soccer-I play club and town soccer at a high level
Swimming-Have been swimming competitively for 8 years, sent times to pea coach
Piano- play at a prep conservatory and have been playing for many years
Had good relationships with my teachers and also got a recommendation from my soccer coach and student council advisor

Interviews:
Overall felt decent. Tried to bring out student leadership and how I solved problems at my school, and expressed interest for the english programs at schools

Essays: most essays focused around an experience i had performing at chinese cultural night for my town, and how I learned from my service. The other 2 were writing about how the quote “early bird gets the worm” influenced me, and the final one i wrote about my history in reading and writing interest and how i recovered from bullying.

Any caviats:
Went over the suggested word count on my concord academy essay
Philips andover essay was not my strongest
During my philips exeter interview i misheard the word “harkness” and the interviewer had to explain what it meant.( i learned from this experience and researched more)

Thank you for reading and I hope you comment! I also wonder how much optional documents play a part! Also sorry for my bad grammar as I’m typing on a phone

I’d go ahead and contact all sports swimming coaches where you may be competitive. Who knows what the coaches need. Since it’s application review season I’d move fast.

1 Like

You are in tough competition at these schools. If you reached A or better in USA swimming time standard, PEA is a possibility. You would probably need an AA for the coach at PA to notice you, I think. Nobles doesn’t have a swim team.

Not much you can do at this moment. Relax and focus on other more important things. M10 is only a month away. Good luck!

Ive already contacted the pea coaches. Im at aa level and have been swimming for many years. Do you think its too late to contact coaches?

Better late than never. You are at AA level or above, so you should have a good chance.

If you are with one of the bigger clubs in MA, you may already know some kids who got in last year. See if you can get in touch with them.

2 Likes

You should contact all the coaches ASAP. Soccer and swimming. If you are good enough to make two varsity teams as a freshman/be a starter you have a huge admissions advantage.

There is a blackout period where coaches cannot respond but they are still reading emails. Send times, send soccer highlights. If boarding school is important to you get on this because otherwise you are a competitive applicant in an insanely competitive applicant pool.

1 Like

Hello and thanks for your feedback. Do you know if the blackout period is occuring right now? Also, is the rest of my application alright? Thanks!

The rest of your application is acceptable if you are a prospective varsity athlete, especially in two sports with different seasons.

Is my application still acceptable if not a prospective varsity athlete within my freshman year?

1 Like

Definitely competitive, but most applicants are competitive.

The athletics would be your differentiator.

But varsity doesn’t have to happen Freshman year; it will be an advantage for you even if they can project varsity in future years.

AA cut will likely place you on the PEA V swim team, at least this is the case on the girls side. I assume boys is no difference. I know a boy on the team who has mixed AA and AAA cuts.