So Choate was the only school I applied to (I know, I know, in hindsight that was a bad idea), but I only wanted to attend as a day student, and the only other option was Loomis which I didn’t really like. So as you can imagine, I was pretty upset when March 10th came and I received a waitlist letter. Can anyone offer any advice as to what I could do now to get off the waitlist, or just give me any insight as to the chances of me actually getting into Choate?
Stats:
• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: 99% SSAT
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted: N/A
• Rank: N/A
• Other stats: Straight A’s, taking Geometry (9th grades honors course) as an 8th grader
Subjective:
• Interviews: interview was on campus, I thought it went fairly well. I had a very good discussion with my interviewer and I would say I was well prepared.
• Essays: organized, personal and well thought out. I put lots of time and effort into them so they should be pretty good
• Math Rec: should be very good 9/10
• English Rec: mediocre/average 6/10
• Personal/Extracurricular Rec: should be very good 10/10
• Principal/Counselor Rec: I don’t really know 6/10
• Sports (if any): Soccer, 9 years experience, play for a top notch club. I contacted the soccer coach at Choate and he wrote me a recommendation to admissions. Also basketball, 5 years experience
• Instruments (if any): piano (8 years) and cello (5 years). Contacted head of instrumental music at Choate and also got a recommendation to admissions from him as well.
• Other ECs (if any): Taekwondo (4 years?) but I quit a while ago and I have played chess competitively but nothing really to show
• Hook: I’ve played soccer for 9 years and play for a US Soccer DA club. I’ve been invited to many regional identification camps and have attended training centers for US soccer.
Location/Person:
• State or Country: CT
• Current School Type: large public
• Ethnicity: Asian
• Gender: male
• Grade Applying For: 9th
• Age: 13
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: FP
Strengths: I am hard working and have a great drive. Also I have an rather good at interacting with people
Weaknesses: idk lack of academic ec’s, bad recommendations?
Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?
You will probably never know why you were waitlisted. Your sport was not a hook. Let Choate know that it’s your first choice and that you wish to remain on the WL and prepare for plan B. That’s all you or anyone can do. There are no tricks to coming off a WL and chances are you won’t. I don’t mean to be harsh, but that’s the reality. If you really want to go to boarding school, you can try again next year and apply to more schools.
Wow. Surprised to see you were waitlisted. Looks like the soccer didn’t help much at all. Can you call the coach and ask? Sometimes the coaches can get info on why you were WL
Asian and white males are probably the toughest pools these days. There are just more of you applying. Sports are never a hook unless you are slotted to fill a team or two for varsity /JV. I dont mean you are a recruit. I mean you are slotted for varsity or JV. Recruits are typically 11, 12th and PGs who are actively recruited. As a non recruit you need to play two sports just to fill teams. I think you were waitlisted because there were too many applicants like you: high scores and good grades and soccer is a pretty common sport. Maybe they were flush with soccer players.
My kid has been waitlisted at Choate and I spoke at length with coaches and AO. Day students have lowest priority and they over enrolled day students last year. Coaches this year did not have as much influence as previous years. If you needed financial aid as a day student it was very hard to get in. Looks like you are FP so that shouldn’t be an issue I think it’s probably the day student issue. I can’t seem to figure it out myself!! Hope this helps.
If there’s anything that I’ve learned from this process, it’s that decisions can be extremely confusing. I know each school has their own things that they look for in students, but you’d think that if someone got into Andover, they could get into a school with a 30% acceptance rate: that’s wrong! Honestly, I have no idea why I got into any of the schools that I did: I don’t play a sport, have never won an award in my life… What I’m trying to say is: don’t think too much into it. There’s no possible way for you to exactly figure out what was going through the AO’s minds when they waitlisted you. It’s honestly so confusing: just hang in there, you’ll do great no matter where you go for high school!
Yeah I agree with Nico.Campbell. They literally go through a thousand applications and probably spend 3-5 minutes on each one so it could just be that the AO had a bad day.
Also: these schools are dying for URMs, athletes and other various special populations to make up their classes for both optics and diversity of student body. Far fewer qualified applicants in some of those pools. There is an overabundance of asian males/females.
It’s not confusing at all. Schools want diversity, so they’d love to have at least one student from each state per class --that’s about a third of the class right there. Then, the athletic machine has a voracious appetite. Legacy students are represented well, as are URM’s/first gen to college kids/and poor kids who will apply through Questbridge. It’s not mainly about GPA, SSAT or essay that many think its about. More and more its about diversity and trying to ensure a diverse group of students will make use of given opportunities and a community where each student has something very unique to offer.
What confuses me the most is that allenz0607 is a star athlete and has a strong, well rounded resume. What else do those AOs want? IMHO the bar is high for the AOs to justify their decision without being inconsistent.
Asians have a higher bar. Additionally, they may feel they already have several like him. To take this paradigm to the next level, when my dear student (Choate) applied ED to Amherst, she was denied. When her college counselor checked in with ADCOM, they said, “We already had one of those.” Our student had grades/SATs/Rec’s all in the stratosphere, and she was also a NE Championships track athlete.
Yeah, that is an unfortunate norm. Yet this raises more questions on AO’s possible mindset. Are they pickier to kids with near perfect stats? Have to point out that kids with similar, perfect stats are very different persons. If there is only a small pool of slots for these kids, that is a waste for the society. Still I think any school of Choate’s size, should have room for kids like Allenz0607, given the level of excellence shown in his resume.
There are gifted magnet schools and there are elite boarding schools. They serve different purpose to the society. The same will happen when he applies to colleges, where top tech schools and IVY schools will have different purposes and apply different criteria. Being wait-listed means that he could just have been accepted, but there were too many who are also as qualified as he is. Mine was flat-out rejected by Choate last year, so I believe that him being wait-listed means at least something.
Generally the part that different schools serve different purpose is true. But we ARE talking about elite boarding schools here. Specifically, academics, athletics, service to the community, leadership potential, personal passion and general contribution to the school, not just STEM. None of these seems to be missing in this young gentleman’s case. I agree that the school may have its consideration. It is easy to accept what it is than to question. But as parents I hope by questioning it more we introduce a bit more predictability into this seemingly random process, which eventually will benefit our own children, be it a boarding school or an elite college.
In my opinion, even super qualified people such as Allenz6107 can totally be waitlisted or rejected. Of course, the admitted people need to have a generally high SSAT score, grades, good recommendations, etc. BUT after they’ve determined that you’re academically capable, things get a bit more abstract and unpredictable. They want to see something in you that they want: whether that means that you’re a URM, or that you’re just a genuinely kind person. Honestly, I don’t have the most outstanding stats. My test scores were fine, along with my grades. I think that I got in because I’m someone who loves to express my views, and I think that that showed in my application. I wrote a Choate essay on how to deal with my personality type (INTJ), and I think that they really liked to hear about what makes me annoyed, what I like, what I hate, what I’m good at, what I’m not good at, etc. Most students tend to find a way to fit their accomplishments into every essay: that’s not necessary! Mention your accomplishments once or twice, and spend the rest of the time making them laugh with an essay that really shows off your quirks/personality! In summary: yes, Allenz6107 is obviously admittable to Choate, but there’s also another half to your application: who you are as a person. If they only let in the kids with the best stats and ECs, it would just be a school of smart kids that may be lacking in kindness, empathy, etc. You need to show them that you’re more than just a test score and some sports awards! I know that this is kind of a rant at this point, but I really think that it’s important for applicants to understand that schools care about more than just stats.
Actually, @Allenz6107, discussion here has suggested what you might want to do to get yourself out of the wait list. In your previous post, you second guessed what your weakness might be in your stat. It is normal after being wait listed. It looks like everybody here agreed that you have a super qualified stat: you have no weakness in your stat. What might be missing is for the AO to see the rich personality you have. As the parent of two soccer playing sons, I am pretty sure that a captain of a US soccer DA team has a lot of characters to offer. Maybe write the school a letter to talk about that.
Choate admitted all the “Allenz” they had room for. His resume is not unique, and you have to understand how few seats ANY applicant is chasing. I’ve posted this before, but I’ll post it again until people understand how few slots they are really competing for:
Allenz was in the unhooked/domestic/Asian/male/full pay/day-student bucket. His top grades/scores only indicate to the school he can, along with a thousand others, do the work. He plays a few sports and a couple of instruments(again like many others) but was not recruited for any, so no hooks. We don’t know how many “Allenz” were in the pool this year, but Choate could only take so many of them and, rest assured, they took all they had room for – we just don’t know why they admitted seemingly-identical applicant X and not Allenz. His WL tells him that he was fully qualified and an attractive candidate. If Allenz re-applies, he will add “reapplicant” to his list of traits and showing Choate this love may be all that is needed for him to nudge out another unhooked/domestic/Asian/male/full pay/day-student in next year’s pool.
If it’s any comfort, there is still a smidge of a possibility that he’ll get off that WL if one of the other Allenz’s doesn’t choose to matriculate.