I’m writing this to get some advice and suggestions for private high schools that might be a good fit for me. I’m open to both day and boarding schools, and I’m considering reclassing for the schools I’m currently applying to. Specifically, I’m thinking about Commonwealth and BUA as potential match or safety schools. I’m also applying to places like Andover, Exeter, etc but I don’t think I’ll get in this year since I got waitlisted last year for all the schools.
Here are my academic and extracurricular stats:
Academics:
-Straight A’s in 7th and 8th grade, with a few B+s in Spanish.
-A’s in everything in 9th grade except Math and Physics (struggling a bit in math, but it seems to be a common issue in my class, and I currently have the highest grade with a 78 average).
-An 88 in Physics.
-Planning to retake the SSAT and aiming for a 90+ score. (Got a 87 last time)
Academic Awards:
-Top 1% nationally in AMC 8.
-2nd place in Science Olympiad.
-Outstanding Achievement in Strings Orchestra (School).
-Outstanding Contribution to the 2022-2023 Math Team (highest scorer for my Math Team).
-Consistent Honor Roll in 6th and 7th grades; my new school doesn’t have an honor roll in 8th grade.
Music Achievements:
-In one of the best Youth Orchestras on the East Coast if not the country (youngest to be admitted this year).
-Played with many orchestras as a soloist (uncommon for someone my age).
-Participated in masterclasses with world-famous violinists like Midori.
-Winner of 6 “international” competitions (3-4 of which were truly international, the rest included kids from other states and a few from Europe and Asia).
-Winner of my old youth orchestra’s concerto competition (competing with kids 2-3 years older).
-Served as Assistant Concertmaster for 2-3 years in my previous orchestra.
-Won 2 “national” music competitions.
Sport Achievements:
Although I quit club swimming, I plan to join the Varsity Swimming team at my current high school.
-I was ranked as a top 5/20 swimmer in New York.
I’d appreciate any recommendations for schools that would be a good match for my profile and interests. Whether you know of hidden gems or safety schools, or even have some insight into the reclassification process, your advice would be invaluable. Thanks in advance for your help!
You actually didn’t mention Boston specifically. Are you north of the city, or south. For day schools north of Boston you could look at Pingree and St. John’s prep - they are both very good schools. St. John’s prep has extremely competitive athletics in addition to excellent academics. Lesser known - but very solid- boarding schools include Brooks school, Governor’s academy and Lawrence Academy. I’m sure there are others. South of Boston there is Milton academy (mix of day and boarding), Thayer (day), Nobles and Tabor. Not sure what you are looking for or if you have checked all of these out already, but those are the names I am familiar with (have friends that sent kids to some of them).
I live the south of Boston, I’m planning on applying to Milton already, I got waitlisted from them last year even though I never did a interview and I didn’t do most of it, so I think I have a decent chance to get in but I’m not sure.
Milton is extremely competitive. You might also look at Rivers (might be a trek for you) and Dexter Southfield (lots of kids that travel in from south of Boston and the bus is included with tuition)… Rivers has a better music program than Dexter.
I don’t really want to apply to places like Rivers or Walnut Hill because I’ve met several students from those schools. Of course, there are players like Keila Wakao, but in my opinion, the majority of the other students aren’t the best players. For example, in the orchestra I am in, there are no Rivers students and only one Walnut student, even though those schools encourage their students to audition. Another reason is that I don’t want to solely pursue music throughout my life; I want to attend an academically rigorous school, I know that Rivers is academically rigorous but I don’t think I’ll be a good fit in there.
I’ve thought of applying to them but I don’t think its the right fit for me, my violin teacher also agrees with me. Thanks for the suggestions though. I really appreciate it!
If you have solid swim times, even if old, reach out to swim coaches at the various boardings. If they are interested in you, they can smooth the path into school.
I think in my opinion my times aren’t the greatest except my breast times. Even my breast times aren’t the greatest, if I currently go the best times, I would only be ranked 20th in the state. Its been a long time since I trained like I used to so I don’t think I even can get close to my times.
I have looked at St. Marks and I actually have some friends in St. Marks but from what they told me, it won’t be a fit for me and my schedule since I have a stuff on the weekends like Youth Orchestra on Saturdays. The schools I’m applying to currently (Andover, Exeter, Groton, Hotchkiss, Choate, Middlesex, Concord, St. Paul, Deerfield, and Milton) all allow students to leave on Saturdays to do stuff on the weekends unless theres something important on Saturday school.
As I think you know, you are shooting a little high. Your scores are good, but your grades are low for all of those schools. Tell us about your current school?
Well, one of the reasons my grade in 9th grade is bad is that my school is trying to get rid of honors classes and some AP classes to make it more “equal”. They already got rid of Honors History and English, and last year, they got rid of Science, Math, and Language. This year they made new Science, Math, and Language tests to “make the honors classes a bit more challenging” which resulted in a lot of classes dropping out. For example 4 out of 7 math classes for honors dropped out and now there’s only really 2-3 classes left. I think they did this on purpose to make kids drop out since most of the teachers are under qualified but that’s my opinion.
I would like to believe I’m a math/science person, since I did great in the AMCs and other math competitions. I’ve also taken outside classes like AOPs to prepare for the classes I have in the future. In these classes the lowest grade I’ve ever gotten was a 91 on one of the tests. However, in my school they don’t let us use outside material like theorems we learned in outside classes or like formulas we learned in outside classes. For example if I was taking Honors Geometry right now, if I used the Angle Bisector Theorem for a proof and they didn’t teach us during class, I would get the entire question wrong, which brings down a grade a lot.
To add to this, only a few other students have a “good” grade (10-20 kids out of 170 kids who have an A- or above) in the honors class with the rest of us having at best a C+. Along with that, the math teachers who are teaching the classes we are taking are all new teachers who just graduated from college who, in my opinion, are still learning how to teach. This makes it tough for me and everyone else to stick with the class material since sometimes on the tests there are problems that the teachers never taught us and if we use outside material we will get entirely wrong.
As for my grades in 7th and 8th grade they were all As or B+ (Only in foreign language since it’s hard for me since I already know 2 languages). And one bad grade in 7th because the teacher forgot to update my grade before they were due, then I moved from NY to MA. I didn’t even know about it until I got waitlisted from Exeter and the assistant head of admissions told me about it (She understood what happened and told me to explain to the schools I’m applying to).
Sorry if there’s any grammar mistakes or spelling mistakes. I wrote this on my phone in 5 minutes.
Along with this the Milton and Exeter math teachers reached out to me last year after I got waitlisted and told me I was a strong candidate and that I should reapply or reclass to 9th grade at their schools.
Though these schools may allow you to leave campus for most of a Saturday, I doubt they make it easier on you by helping. Certainly would be best for you to avoid schools with Saturday classes, at least, as you’d likely struggle academically if you miss them on more than an occasional basis.
And a question. Do you guys think Commonwealth in Boston would be a safety/match for me? I have a lot of friends who attend there and the acceptance rate is at 40%ish. All of my friends say if I do apply, I’ll probably get in, unless I mess up the essays or the interview. Thoughts? Its also a day school.
Doesn’t Hotchkiss have Saturday classes? They also have games, and if you are on a team (most kids are) those are required as well. Plus Hotchkiss is 3 hours from Boston.
Well for Hotchkiss, I don’t plan on doing BPYO, I’m most likely going back to Juilliard or NYYS. Or just join the Hotchkiss Philharmonic Orchestra since its 20% students and 80% pros anyways.
Hotchkiss Philharmonic is perhaps three concerts a year with a week of rehearsal each time beforehand. It’s not like a good youth orchestra that rehearses once a week most weeks of the school year.
For 10th Commonwealth and BUA are both very, very small and only have a couple of new 10th graders each year (accept more than that of course). Even for 9th, they are so small they have to curate classes so there are surprises every year. I think Bs in middle school Spanish will possibly confuse them a bit (middle school languages tend to be very easy IME, but that also depends of school you are in) as will your math/physics grades- though if can get a school rec that says you are top of that class, that does change a lot!
Your SSATs are certainly good enough to be qualifying.
Those schools will very much care about you as a person, beyond your academics so interviews and recs do mean a lot. All schools care about this, but when you only have 35 students it is even more critical IMO. Their admissions definitely emphasize this a LOT.