<p>Hi,</p>
<p>Can you help us understand what role these all play in admissions? My SSATs are 85th percentile, but my grade are just not that good probably because I forget to turn in a lot of homework and am in a very intense honors program in grade 8. I have mostly Bs with some Cs in PE and Chorus. </p>
<p>I am a swimmer and also Hispanic not sure if that helps. But do I have any chance at all of getting into a decent school with Cs? </p>
<p>Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>Well, if you have a decent hook it might help you out? Do you stand out in your school for anything? Are you a really good swimmer? National team? State team?</p>
<p>I would, unfortunately, say that the SSAT is the LAST thing they look at. Grades are definatley important. Schools usually look at 1st quarter grades AND 2nd quarter grades. Are your semester grades decent??</p>
<p>I am not sure what a hook is? I am a good swimmer, JO qualifier. Do you know if Cs mean you won’t get considered?</p>
<p>that is going to depend on the school you are applying to – where are you applying?</p>
<p>You have to understand how it looks – higher test scores show you are capable of doing the work, low grades show that you are lazy or don’t want to do the work. that is not what boarding schools want.</p>
<p>If your teacher recs are fantastic – and say stuff like “her grades are low because she wasn’t challenged” or something like that, it would help a little – but it isn’t going to get you into a top ten school.</p>
<p>I’m applying to Stevenson and Emma Willard. I am not sure what my teacher recs will say. My best friend was in hospital the entire first quarter with Anorexia and the school knows about it so they might cut me some slack.</p>
<p>If you have good grades and poor SSAT scores, then I’d say it shows that your school is really easy and/or has a ton of grade inflation. If you have good SSAT scores and bad grades, it would show that you’re either lazy or you you’re school is VERY hard.</p>
<p>I think if you are in a honors program and getting B’s, that is okay. The C’s are in two sort of “non-courses”, PE and chorus, so maybe they won’t be considered as much.</p>
<p>The only C I got was in Personal Finance (elective) and my interviewer said…
“Well, if you are going to get a C its best to get it in Personal Finance :)”
Make of that what you will.</p>
<p>If you are making Bs and Cs now then moving on to a top boarding school is not going to be easy. I hear you saying that your honors courses are difficult, not that you are bored. Your SSAT would match you to some schools with tough course work as well.
Also, boarding school is going to be a tough A , but hard to fail. This means you could leave home and end up right where you started academically. The experience may offer tons of distractions as well.</p>