school chances

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>Hoping to get into at least one of these schools. If anyone can tell me what chances are at these schools, i would appreciate it.</p>

<p>9th grade male applying to:
Choate
Exeter
Andover
Loomis Chaffee
Suffield Academy
Middlesex</p>

<p>SSAT - 99th percentile (99, 99, 97)</p>

<p>Grades:
Honors Bio: A-
Honors Geo: B+
Latin II: A-
History: A-
English: B+</p>

<p>Extra-curricular:
Good, i have 1 sport, 1 music, 1 computer, and several community service</p>

<p>Interviews:
went extremely well at suffield, Choate, and middlesex; well at exeter; fine at middlesex (not really interview, just essay writing); badly at loomis</p>

<p>Teacher Recs:
Very Good all subjects</p>

<p>Essays:
Well written, not amazing, but very good</p>

2

<p>What is your race and what part of the country are you from? (Unfortunately, this matters).</p>

<p>Also, are you applying for aid?</p>

<p>Pretty good chances, I'd say.</p>

3

<p>really? well, i am white and from fairfield county connectitcuit (like greenwich and new canaan) - no aid</p>

4

<p>I think you have pretty good chances, especially because you applied to a variety of schools--not purely top-tier ones. Connecticut is an over-represented area, which could count against you, but not severely.
Choate--reach
Exeter--high reach
Andover--high reach
Loomis--match
Suffield--I don't know the school, maybe safety/match?
Middlesex--match
Very nice stats. :)</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
really? well, i am white and from fairfield county connectitcuit (like greenwich and new canaan) - no aid

[/quote]
</p>

<p>That's probably one of the most over represented areas in the country, so you definitely won't get points for being in a diverse location.</p>

<p>Choate - Reach
Exeter - High Reach
Andover - High Reach
Loomis Chaffee - Match
Suffield Academy - Safety (avg. percentile SSAT is 45%, 36% acceptance rate)
Middlesex - Low Reach (avg. ssat is 84%, 28% acceptance rate)</p>

6

<p>That's neat, Jonathan. Our ratings were almost identical. I guess probably that Suffield is a safety if those are it's numbers. Excellent for you, espex. :)</p>

7

<p>yes, applying from the gold coast is a downer. you have good stats and good chance. legacy?</p>

8

<p>god i wish...im getting kinda worried, cause there are all of these kids at my school who are underqualified but have legacies and money. How can the schools expect donations when it costs so much to go there</p>

9

<p>Do you go to Greenwich Country Day?</p>

10

<p>but you don't need FA right?</p>

<p>if you're against slacker kids w/ legacies, you might stand out (in a good way)..esp. if your family is below upper-middle class.</p>

11

<p>If his family is below upper-middle class then he would need financial aid. </p>

<p>He said he doesn't need it in his original post.</p>

12

<p>Too bad you think your interview at Loomis did not go well. Does your school terminate in 9th grade? In that case, you must have someone there working on secondary placement, and your teachers are probably trained in writing appropriate recommendations. It looks promising for Loomis (except for the interview) and Suffield. The remaining schools are reaches for almost everyone, although you certainly have chances there. Greenwich/ New Canaan area is over-represented, but your school may have some pull if they are a feeder school for the schools to which you are applying. Good luck!</p>

13

<p>where do you find out what the average percentile SSAT score is and what the % acceptance rate is?</p>

<p>I am just starting to look at BS for my son and that info would be helpful.</p>

<p>thanks</p>

14

<p><a href="http://www.boardingschoolreview%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.boardingschoolreview&lt;/a> has the most useful information. The problem is that some of the information is not kept up-to-date. More accurate numbers can be found at <a href="http://www.petersons.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.petersons.com&lt;/a> for the class entering the fall of 2005. They do not have average ssat scores, but they do have sat scores. Another source is <a href="http://www.schools.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.schools.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

15

<p>thanks, burb parent. </p>

<p>I have yet another question (sorry). One of the schools my son looked at said that he would need to score in the top 15% for his grade on the SSAT. When I see averages and what some other kids scored, I get a little confused. Are they saying that they scored 44%, 80%, 99% for their grade or on the test overall? Some of the boarding schools seemed to have some pretty low percentages if it is for their grade. I guess I was assuming that boarding schools would all have pretty high SSAT average scores.</p>

16

<p>When people write what looks like "90 per cent" they mean "90th percentile". If the schools told your son that he would need to score in the top 15% for his grade on the SSAT, that probably means he would have to score in the 85th percentile or higher.</p>

17

<p>What school said this?</p>

18

<p>Jonathan -- it was Fountain Valley School in colorado (that was what they said would be needed for their merit scholarship)</p>

<p>Are the percentages different depending on what grade the child is in when they take it? I order the SSAT book from the SSAT website -- so I think that will help answer some of my questions and maybe a practice test will let us know where he needs the most work. He won't apply until next year, so he does have a year to prepare (he is increasing the amount he reads each evening, doing more independent writing and doing some more independent study in math -- like I said before, he is motivated!)</p>

<p>Since this is so new to me, I am trying to get a feel for how it all works.</p>

19

<p>The percentile they give you on the score report represents your child's percentile for his gender and grade level.</p>