What are my chances for A/E?

Prep School Admissions
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<p>I know I've posted a lot of threads regarding this, but I promise this will be my last!!! :)</p>

<p>I'm in 8th grade and I'm applying for 9th grade to Andover, Exeter, Groton, Concord Academy, Deerfield, St. Paul's and Middlesex. I was wondering if you could say how much of a chance I have to get into these schools.</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>-I'm a straight A student, and I received an award in 7th grade for being on the high honor roll the whole year</p>

<p>-I dance ballet 6 hours a week</p>

<p>-I play the piano, which I have won a "top talent award" in the National Guild Auditions</p>

<p>-I am on the school's speech team, and in tournaments, I have won 4th, 3rd, and 1st place for prose.</p>

<p>-I am vice president of the student council, and we are raising money for Make-A-Wish Foundation with a coin drive. We are also raised over $350 for a local food pantry through a single bake sale. In addition, I got student discounts for my school from a nearby Friendly's.</p>

<p>-I do some theatre, playing various ensemble parts and recently, Patty Simcox in Grease. I'm also part of a singing group, and we do performances in many public areas and nursing homes and such. </p>

<p>-I volunteer at a local nursing home for about two hours a week.</p>

<p>I haven't started my essays, and I'm not so sure how well I'll do, but I'm going to write the best I can and have many people look over them and stuff. </p>

<p>I'm taking the SSAT's on 11/08, but so far on practice tests, I got in the 93 percentile range, but I know the practice tests are a lot easier than the real thing. I'm also memorizing vocab words like crazy. ;-)</p>

<p>I scheduled my interviews for 11/4, 12/4, and 12/11 for all my schools. Any tips for that?</p>

<p>My sister went to Andover and got into Exeter and Groton, but I'm not sure how much that will help, though the Dean of Admissions at Andover was her dorm adviser, so she knew her very well. (although, if the dean of admissions hated her, I'm screwed, haha)</p>

<p>As for recommendations, I think my math and English teachers like me enough to write at least a decent one. Also, how much do recs matter?</p>

<p>Also, I'm not sure if I should apply for FA. I was thinking of doing that only for Andover and other need-blind schools. My parents say that they can support me, but my sister is in college on little FA, so I would imagine that it would be tough. Also, does applying for FA for the schools I mentioned above hurt my chances of getting in?</p>

<p>So what do you think my chances are? Thanks so much!! :-)</p>

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<p>If you continue to worry about your application after things post wonderful things every time you gotta chill. Your application is very competitive, meaning your chances are solid. If your application was airing on the side of rejection people would have told you. </p>

<p>No one will tell you 100% in or not.</p>

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<p>I agree with Italian. These schools all have exceptance rates of around 20%. Most applicants have profiles similar to yours. So you've got about a 1 and 5 chance of getting in at need-blind schools and perhaps a tad better chance at the others if you don't need FA.</p>

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<p>Some have commented that Exeter is lacking in its dance facilities. I have no personal experience, but others have said that Exeter's ballet studio is not up to par with some other schools. If you plan to continue ballet in high school, you might want to investigate.</p>

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<p>Thanks guys! You're right. I need to focus on my apps to make myself seem appealing to the schools. I guess I'm a little scared of all this... :)</p>

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<p>Thoughts regarding Exeter dance department. If your goal is to dance professionally in the NYC Ballet in your adult life, then Exeter is probably not the place for you. The facilities are abysmal (think poles in a basement). Exeter cannot compete with St. Pauls on that level, nor Andover (Or Mercersburg, or Concord Academy, etc.).
However, the head of the dance program is the most dedicated of teachers and is revered by her students, past and present. She is uniquely gifted to work with adolescent girls minds and hearts. Many have successfully gone on to strong college dance programs and small regional companies. She believes in being inclusive - that means anyone is welcome to participate who has interest in movement. The students range from those seeking exercise alternatives to ballerinas with multiple years of training. That said, the dance concerts are a mix of students with varying degrees of technical proficiency. This , actually, keeps the concerts rather interesting. Students have ample opportunity for experimentation and choreography, and are encouraged to explore movement ideas both within and outside their comfort zone. I have never been bored an an Exeter dance concert - last spring several outgoing seniors created some extremely thought provoking pieces that were mature beyond their years.</p>

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<p>Wow. Thanks! After someone commented on it's dance program on another thread, I had second thoughts about Exeter. However, I don't plan on pursuing ballet after college, high school even, so Exeter still seems very appealing to me in the dance area. </p>

<p>By the way, what is wrong with their facilities?? Is it really a basement??...with poles?? lol Just wondering... :)</p>

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<p>Have you considered St. Paul's? You sound like a strong applicant for both E & A. Just be yourself.</p>

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<p>Well, I don't do dance myself, but looking at the Exeter facilities, they seem quite small. It's not really a basement (ie it's not underground), but it feels like it is due to a lack of windows. If you want, I can give you the email of a dance student here so she can answer any questions you might have.
For your other credentials, I don't think you'll have any problem getting into any school you want to. You do a lot of extracurriculars (YES! A speech recruit!!).
You've probably taken the SSAT yesterday, but that score doesn't matter at all. I know people in all the top boarding schools who have gotten in below the 50th percentile. I personally believe the interview is the most important part of an application. Basically, you need to make an impression as a fundamentally decent kid. Although schools want good academic students, since there are so many of them, many schools will often choose who they think are good people.</p>

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<p>Oooh, please come to Andover... I saw "speech team," and I nearly died. We have the oldest secondary school debating society in the country -- we sent 2 people to Worlds this past year. Um, not that this is a shameless plug for the club, or anything.</p>

<p>How serious are you about dance? Bear in mind that it is harder to keep up with rigorous dance training at boarding school, though Andover does provide lots of opportunities to pursue dance. </p>

<p>Applying for financial aid probably won't hurt your chances of getting in, especially since we're supposed to be need blind now. If you do well on your SSATs and essays, you're a shoo-in; don't let anyone tell you differently. Your stats are better than mine, and I got into Andover, Exeter, Groton, Deerfield, and St. Paul's. </p>

<p>Tips for the interviews: Be calm. Try and stay as composed as possible, and think up one of those fake flaws. In most of my interviews I was asked what my greatest strength and greatest weaknesses were. My go to answer was: "It's difficult for me to accept failure," which is code for: I'm driven, which isn't a flaw. At the end of the interview, you'll probably be asked if you have any questions. Be sure to have questions specific to the school, not just something you could find on the website -- demonstrated interest can be important to the interviewer's overall impression of you. </p>

<p>Relax, you'll get in. :)</p>

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<p>Yeah, if you are interested in a "speech and debate team" then Hotchkiss would be awesome for you. Andover may have the oldest debate team in the country but Hotchkiss has the best debate team in the country age means near to nothing. Andover has a fair team though I would say they are in the top 5 in terms of prep schools and perhaps in the top 20 nationwide. </p>

<p>However that being said Hotchkiss clearly has the best debate team in America by far, and one of the best in the world. The captain of the debate team was No. 1 at worlds last year for impromptu debate and number 5 overall, and the highest placed American speaker at the tournament. Each year Hotchkiss sends a number of kids to worlds we had 3 kids qualify this year. This year we were also the top americium school at internationals and the 4th overall. Hotchkiss has awesome debate coaches. If you are really serious about speech and debate Hotchkiss is the Harvard of preschools in that area. </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/554003-debate-club-boarding-school.html?highlight=hotchkiss+debate%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/554003-debate-club-boarding-school.html?highlight=hotchkiss+debate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>These are my interpretation of the debate rankings in order (the last three are relatively close): </p>

<p>1.Hotchkiss </p>

<p>(by far) </p>

<p>2.Kingswood-Oxford
3.Windsor</p>

<p>(Notable Gap)</p>

<p>4.SPS
5.Andover
6.Deerfield</p>

<p>As for dance, Hotchkiss' dance center ilooks superb. However I cannot speak on this topic with much dredibility because i do not know a lot about it's dance program or the dance program of other schools. Do check it out though if you visit. Good luck !</p>

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<p>sspixie,</p>

<p>yea. my friend told me to say something that contradicts it. say something that is bad about you but makes you look good at the same time</p>

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<p>Thanks you guys!! :) Happy Thanksgiving!!</p>