I would say tests do not always portray what you’re capable of academically. I have a brother with pretty severe ADHD and he cannot sit in one place, all of his teachers understood this. Thankfully he went to a school where they could accommodate his needs and when it came to tests would put him in a separate room with a monitor where he could take as many breaks as he wanted. If he were to be put with other students and not allowed to move or make a sound ( it would not work at ALL). It goes to say he graduated from U Chicago a couple years ago because of an AMAZING AO who truly understood him and his needs.
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Great to hear that AOs can see beyond a specific test score or related issue.
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We know someone in the natl level athlete category, a big legacy donor, and also a faculty kid or two. I can’t say for sure they were bellow 30 but all were completely misaligned with the expectations set forth. Our school offers Algebra I as an option - here the conversation is always pre calc/calc as a freshman, but I assume someone is taking that class if they offer it, right?
My guess is those students offer something the school “needs”.
I know of one circumstance where a student was admitted because they were “needed” by the school to play a certain position on a certain sports team. They took the SSAT many times and couldn’t come close to the lower end of the range for the school. There were many discussions between the school and the parents. The parents committed to providing extra support to help the student survive the academics and the school took the chance because he was a wonderfully nice, hard working student who excelled at the sport they needed him to play.
I know of another specific situation where an applicant who is a legacy for multiple well know BS for many generations (grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins), their family name is on a building or two and close family friends and “in-laws” have buildings at schools as well. This individual is not a strong student, very entitled, and not a nice peer. They had been bragging that they would be accepted everywhere because they were legacy and full pay. Their classmates avoided applying to some BS because of the chance that this individual would be there or at least were going to turn down any admission to a school this individual would be attending because the thought of 4 years with them was unbearable. To everyone’s surprise this student was rejected everywhere which renewed our faith in admissions organizations. Their family has been extremely upset and harassing admissions offices and so far I believe only on school has listened to their demands and put them on a waitlist.
All this shows me that it is really difficult to predict any admissions - and this randomness does help schools avoid legal risks when it comes to admissions because they have many “exceptions” they can point to if needed.
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BTW. Regarding SSATs. I believe over the long haul these will be phased out. The english/reading comprehension part of it can be very difficult and obtuse. It does favor certain kids unfairly over others.
Course catalog is helpful to some extent, but a repeat Junior who almost has enough credits to graduate this year means we don’t really know the options.
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I strongly caution you against making up reasons in your head as to why. I have two friends who are always making everything about them being FA families and I’m always pointing out that I have the EXACT same experience so it cannot be because they’re on FA. They never listen. My point is that you really don’t know, don’t assign a more devious cause.
You haven’t named the school so it’s hard to give advice. If you want to tell us, people with personal experience can chime in.
This is a mad packed time for AOs and covid has made it worse. It could be as simple as that.
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I agree with you that SSATs will be phased out. I think there is a different reason really driving this though. The organization which runs these tests make a lot of $ from the schools because they own the data and sell information to the schools. The testing organization has a monopoly on this type of data and the cost to the schools continues to increase and the schools are looking to take that control back. Boarding schools are a business and I think they have learned that perhaps they can get the students they want/need without involving/paying this testing organization.
I also agree with this. Kids in k8 day school or JBS can have a GC that will advocate for the directly and make that very clear to the schools.
Still, for the average applicant a very low score is hard to overcome in the process.
@TonyGrace , ours also has Algebra 1. And a path to get from there to Calc senior year if the placement has to do with coming from a lousy middle school.
While schools need to know who they can serve and who they can’t, there are lots of very bright and capable kids who can really excel in this environment but just have not yet had the opportunity.
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@AnonMomof2
Not to worry at all. I never met several of our AO’s since interviews were all virtual this year. A few thoughts that might assure you that you aren’t “doing it wrong.”
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Keep in mind that a lot of the “how it works” conversation here on the board will be largely based on a pre-covid year, at least for the many active parents here whose experiences are pre-covid. In a pre-covid year, you would have likely visited the schools for your DD’s interviews. And even though kids interview on their own, the AO certainly comes out to the waiting room to say hello. And, most AO’s then ask the parent to come back for a meeting too. So anyone who did the application process before Covid definitely knows all of their kid’s AO. But in covid app cycle, I met fewer than half of the AO’s. Don’t let the pre-covid protocol throw you. You didn’t do it wrong.
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As for after M10 and questions. With one school to consider, the question you and DD needed to answer was: should my DD go away to boarding school? Those questions might be answered (relatively) easily without digging into nitty-gritty details of the school. However, if you had been debating among 2 or 3 or 8 or 10 schools – well you might have had some more school-specific questions that required more contact beyond a few admit zooms. You are DEFINITELY not alone in sending your kid to a school that no one has visited this year! (And every year, but particularly covid year.)
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Finally, I’ll throw out there that your DD’s school is actually the AO I had the LEAST contact with last year, even in a pre-covid scenario. So I think different admissions departments communicate differently. I don’t think any of it is necessarily “better” or “worse.” We had some school AO’s (last year and this year) literally give us their text numbers, hop on the phone, and become very friendly. And some AO’s – zero contact at all. When I wrote a nice email turning down your DD’s school last year, they literally replied with an auto-generated email. Which I don’t take personally (well mostly; I’m a soft soul). They are just staying efficient, and every admissions department (and each person in that department) has a different personality.
Anyway. You are fine. It’s going to be an exciting year for your DD!
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I 100% agree. I didn’t express it correctly. It is hard to excel in the SSAT if you haven’t covered a lot of the material - I think the classes are there because the school is willing to accept a kid that is not further along on the academic road as some others, but has other things to offer. At our school, character and curiosity beats “smarts” - I think it’s the same at yours, right?
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For us that kind of stuff starts rolling in late may/June all the way until the week before school.
While course catalog alone may not answer your questions, as a Jr they might be fun to look through. These schools offer endless and very cool electives in all fields. Also, look up the department flow charts - those will help you see where you could go from where you are.
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Gotcha. That’ll be sorted out via placement tests, which of course are a down the road thing.
I wonder too if some of the <30%-ile SSAT admits are experiments and I mean that in the best way and as part of the eventual phase-out of the test. Not a truly random experiment, but one undertaken to collect a growing pool of data to point to so as to compare end-results (GPA? SAT?) between that 25%-ile SSAT kid who otherwise seemed amazing and full of opportunity with the 90%-ile SSAT kid who was born rounding 3rd base.
We already know that the data is being studied at the college level wrt the SAT. Here’s a random google collation of some of the studies: SAT as a Predictor of College Success | Manhattan Review
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@DroidsLookingFor
Not sure of that. Do they placement test kids who have successfully completed AP Calc AB? And her language requirement is fulfilled, she’s completed 4 years of science and 3 of History. Technically, she only needs a 4th year of English and probably a couple school specific requirements. She is looking forward to unique electives in science and math especially.
There may be some truth in that. I know the AOs I have spoken with at our school feel like they can do as good a job, maybe better, with a writing sample done at the interview and some information on the math curriculum. At some level, performance on the tests, outside of prep, are a huge function of the schooling to date.
Ah, but I am very familiar with 2 of the single sex schools which have no business being on a “top 100” list, let alone a “top 50” one. I agree that there are many hidden gem boarding schools, but someone would be better served by looking at an alphabetical list of schools vs the posted list, which purports to have some sort of methodology behind it.
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I don’t know, probably not since AP has a standard curriculum. I think at most places that would be followed by BC for someone coming from outside with two more years to go, then Multivariable. Arts will probably be a requirement too. Definitely look/ask for those flow charts.
No doubt. But that’s why a person should look at multiple lists. This list is full of outliers.
I think I started with boardingschoolreview, niche, some other lists from reputable sources, cross-referenced, checked admission rates and scores as a rough filter, maybe perused matriculation records, and prioritized a deeper dive on like 20 schools.
And then I found this forum.
But this is coming from someone who literally knew no one with a kid in boarding school, and am a research geek. It is hard to get your arms around how to evaluate boarding schools if you are starting from scratch.
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