<p>Suze, I have to agree. I am sure you feel you are "telling it like it is", and for the most part you probably are, but sometimes you do come across as cruel and a bit snide. Hopefully, that is not your intention.</p>
<p>No it's not, but I am rendered speechless by this board this season. Someone has to tell the truth while kids have time to retool. Instead of waiting for acceptances that aren't coming, I'd want to be the first calling the schools with space.</p>
<p>As for 10th grade, just ask the schools. Many parents do not have a spare couple of hundred thousand for high school but reconsider after a year at the local public.</p>
<p>At Andover, it is fact that the higher the grade you enter at, the higher your GPA is on average. Reason? They can more effectively cherry pick as your high school career progresses.</p>
<p>Sorry if you lost respect for me Jonathan, but it's time to get real. You 75% number for applying to top schools makes no sense. You'll be wasting your time at AESD and need to choose realistic schools. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>Jonathan, there's a reason I'm not c;earing my PMs. The number of "I thought you were mean but now I know you were just trying to help" PMs are too many to answer.</p>
<p>I'll probably regret weighing in here, but -- among the various data to consider when deciding whether it's harder to get in during 9th grade or 10th grade (an altogether silly thing to argue over, but I digress...) -- remember that many of the strongest datapoints have been eliminated from the pool that competes for 10th grade slots. This occurs through admission, attrition (the many motivated and focused kids who entered the field only to decide "nah"), and inertia (kids who wound up somewhere else for 9th grade and got too settled in to re-enter the fray).</p>
<p>While the numbers themselves may show that the odds are longer, I'm not sure the overall field gets stronger by replacing those people with the people who enter the process for the first time in 10th grade.</p>
<p>But, honestly, the real silly part about this is that you have to look at the individuals. Otherwise everyone would say, "Gee, 1 in 5 is less than 50-50, so I give up!" And then there'd be no competition!</p>
<p>In fact, a candidate who did not get in to (or chose not to attend) a BS for 9th grade may greatly enhance his/her credentials. The candidate may find a place on a varsity team and suddenly become hooked. Or the candidate may wind up in a class with a high school math teacher who has a better appreciation for giftedness than a middle school teacher who wrote the recommendation in a foul mood because the same student didn't take notes with good penmanship in her class.</p>
<p>It may be interesting to speculate as to which is more difficult, but to argue over it? Puh-leeze. Of what relevance is it to "win" the argument? If you're right about 9th grade being more competitive, is the point that everyone should wait until 10th grade to apply? Or if 10th grade is more competitive and you're in 9th grade, should you just resign yourself to the fact that you blew your chance a year ago?</p>
<p>Gee whiz. Have fun with the analysis but don't get all testy about it or defensive about the side you choose. It's just not a useful exercise.</p>
<p>Im sophomore now applying for junior year and i was accepted to milton and emma willard, the only 2 schools i applied to.</p>
<p>i think it really just depends on what the school is looking for more: athletes, artists, brains</p>
<p>How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four; calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. -Abraham Lincoln</p>
<p>Suze knows the difference between a leg and a tail. Thanks for the candid honesty.</p>
<p>Overall, I'd have to agree in principle with Maker's sentiment. There is absolutely no reason to be agitated. </p>
<p>At this point many of us on this board have gone through a lengthy, time consuming, costly and stress laden process. The original intent of the post was to try to gauge whether or not to proceed with the "process" again and more to the point if the bar, e.g. are stats requirements "higher" for 10th grade admits vs. 9th. </p>
<p>It is simply part of a fact finding process many folks need to do in order to make a well informed choice as to "what to do now?"</p>
<p>So, one person's interesting speculation, may be someone else’s input into an informed decision making process.</p>
<p>well first, i deliberately put that "slightly" part to not start an argument.</p>
<p>to answer: cuz people looking for entry in ninth grade includes everyone who wants a shot at boarding school, but in tenth, (note that this isn't supported by facts and stuff, but my reasoning) there are people who don't feel challenged by their high school.</p>
<p>Please, I don't want an argument on ninth vs tenth, and i think that the differences are so small that they don't really make a difference.</p>
<p>Jeez. Seriously. That's all I have to say right now. Will post my advice later. But in the mean time, lets not tear apart dreams with insufficient data, shall we?</p>
<p>How do you define dreams blairt? Then define delusion..</p>
<p>Seriously, suze. You need to just stop right now. Many people have said it^^, and it's all very unnecessary right now. I think it's best that, if your real motive is to inform 2008 applicants, then you should come back on April 11th and give us your much anticipated advice. Really. It's what would be most helpful to FUTURE applicants, if that's your motive.</p>
<p>heyheyhey, :( lets not start that. </p>
<p>just a few more days before we find out for sure from those last schools... :)</p>
<p>I applied to St. Andrews for soph year, I got in and recieved 24,000 in scholarship money. I had a 3.7 GPA and a 89 SSAT overall</p>
<p>woot, thats quite a generous package george13. :)</p>
<p>During last year's admissions cycle, I asked an Andover admissions rep if there was a difference in acceptance rates between 9th and 10th grade. I was told the percentage was close to the same - more apply for 9th and more are admitted, but the PERCENTAGE admitted is virtually the same for both grades. So there was no advantage to applying for one year over the other. Perhaps another poster asked the question this year and received a different answer. Things do change.</p>
<p>I have to agree with what I think suze is saying - just because people post on this board that they "feel" something, or "it looks like" does not make it so. I am astounded when people ask questions on this board about such things as admissions rates, or admissions policies and seem to believe the answers they get are authoritative or that one person's experience with one school necessarily applies to all. All this board can provide is anecdotal evidence, and even then you have to make a leap of faith and trust the poster is being honest. I feel very badly that some students post their 'stats' and have numerous posters reply "oh, you'll get in everywhere" - the posters have no authority for saying so, yet they are believed. I feel badly because it leads to a false confidence in the outcome. If things do work out well, then celebrate, but how does anyone here think the kids who've been encouraged by well meaning but ill-informed posters feel when they aren't admitted? These decisions are not made by concensus of anonymous forums.</p>
<p>By the same token, lefty, one has to assume (or hope) that the kids who post here have actual real-life parents and maybe an educational consultant who will give them a good dose of caffeinated reality. I'm not sure that the kids who frequent this site regard it as much as a place for definitive answers as a place to be entertained, come together in a cyber community, escape from the rigors of the admission process and even fantasize and dream. Nothing wrong with that as far as I'm concerned.</p>
<p>I'm not sure a consensus reality check from anonymous forums is any more authoritative than the consensus fantasy "chances" games. All of it should be viewed with a jaundiced eye. And, in the end, one assumes that there's some adult guidance -- from trusted adults -- that the kids use as their final filter before taking action...even in the odd circumstance where a kid might say, "But jonathan on CC told me..."</p>
<p>The whole notion that kids don't give enough deference to the adults around here is, if anything, heartening. From that I have to assume that if they give short shrift to the adults here and don't give props to those who show their "tough love" and harda$$ view of the admission process, then they're doing the same with the La-La Land "chances" threads and other admission-related advice they get from fellow 7th and 8th graders.</p>
<p>If not...if this is really the place for kids to take in the harsh realities of life...then God bless the children: they'll need it. I just don't think that's the case. I'm not saying that parents shouldn't share their wisdom and spell out what things are really like. I'm saying that it's fine if the reaction we get is laughed off, ignored or debated. In the end, I think real-life filters will kick in for these same kids. At least they better.</p>
<p>suze's points generally make sense. But the insistence on having the kids here expressly agree to live by those words can be a bit much. If anything, it suggests that the kids need to give more credence to this anonymous forum than I think we agree they shouldn't be giving it.</p>
<p>Quite true, d'yer. I probably don't have the right frame of mind for this kind of exchange - I'm very much reality based, attributable to advanced age and not having grown up with computers. I'll take your reminder to heart - it's just instinctual when you see a truck bearing down on a kid on a trike to yell "get out of the way!" And then suze inhabits that world between most of the posters and the oldsters - not so easy to negotiate.</p>
<p>I'd have to agree with Lefthand. D'yer, most of the kids here do not seem to have consultants or very involved parents. From what I've observed, they tend to believe each other's overly optimistic advice. When you realize there are still kids waiting for a UPS truck you realize there could not be active parent involvement.</p>
<p>Lefthand has shared her/his experience in a very helpful well IMHO. I hope all of the parents here will. .</p>
<p>If that's the case...about the kids here going about this mainly on their own with CC being their parachute...then, as I said above: God bless 'em!</p>
<p>In fact, if that's the case, then the results I've seen here since March 10 are downright extraordinary. Maybe God (or the Prime Mover, Buddah, Allah, Karma Fairy, Zeus or whoever one prefers as their top dog) answered my request for intervention/intercession before I got around to making it! Cool!</p>
<p>Agree that you, lefty, suze and others give top drawer advice here. I'm not arguing that point at all. I'm just saying it's all good if the kids seem to brush it off and prefer to indulge in their fantasy experiences here. There's a place for that, too.</p>
<p>D'yer Maket, I really do agree. This board changed dramatically this year. In years past it was an anymous place to get information. This year it became a support group, a social destination. And it should be what the majority wants it to be. I think this happens to a lot of boards and blogs with growth.</p>
<p>What passes for kindness here scares me. "Of course you'll get in", "no news is good news". And I agree with Kirmum, these kids don't seem to have very involved parents this year. Everyone here avoided pointing out that all Andover acceptances were sent overnight Friday. The involved parent in my office knew that from one call Thursday. Is it really kind to participate (however inactively) in prolonging pain. </p>
<p>In the last couple of years I hosted several CC poster's kid's visiting Andover. I would have never been able to have picked them out of the crowd by what was written here. Yet this has become such a club that parents like you D'yer feel you can't tell us your whole process because of you son's privacy.</p>
<p>That statement alone made me understand there is not much to learn here anymore, for me or the spplicants! As my friends here know I'm leaving for Hong Kong to work for an ed consultant for 3 months. I really want to learn more about BS FA, but I think there will be little open, honest info here.</p>
<p>Anyone else notice new posters with 1 or 2 post with salient advice? Regular posters I'd bet who need to get it out but won't under their name!</p>
<p>So anyone with info on FA, especially as it effects Asian Internationals, please PM me. In hindsight, PMs have been where I've learned most.</p>
<p>But as for the prep school board, as the People's Court judge says, stick me with a fork, I'm done.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Suze -- Enjoy your time in Hong Kong! It is such a vibrant city. And don't stay away from the board. Your thoughts have been very helpful. After working with an educational consultant, your ideas will be even more valuable.</p>