hello ! I am an eighth grader in New York applying for boarding schools this year. I will be applying for andover, deerfield, choate, St. Paul, (possibly blair) and lawrenceville. Currently I attend a public school that is mainly focused on academics. I recently took the SSAT/ISEE and for the SSAT received a 97 percentile, and on the ISEE scored a 9, 9, 8, 7. Outside of school, I play table tennis competitively. I have been to a variety of tournaments, both national and international. I have represented TeamUSA at international tournaments as well. I also am on a swim team, attending a variety of competitions with my teammates.
I have also attended the United States Earth Science Organization (USESO) Junior Program, and have attended the International Earth Science Symposium (IESS), a program where students from America work with students from other countries to create an Earth Systems Project.
In table tennis, I also do community service. I have worked with my coaches to teach younger kids how to play table tennis, and just encouraging them to do better both physically and mentally, since a lot of sports rely on mental heavily.
I do not have a legacy, and my parents are not super wealthy. They are wealthy enough to send me to these schools, and it depends on my performance to see if I am able to get into these schools.
I would appreciate it if someone could tell me what my chances are of getting in, however choate would be my first choice. Thanks for reading this and helping me !
Welcome You have a potentially fun adventure in front of you and you sound like a really nice person.
You should know that chance me threads pretty much always go the same way: the experienced, informed parents will chime in and say, more or less: “You’re great. Now
broaden your list and apply to more schools, including some that are less selective but are still otherwise great fits for you, and great schools themselves.”
Why?
Every year on March 10 there are a lot of kids who are left with no BS options because they focused solely on the most selective schools. 80-90% of applicants to the schools you list do not get in. And guess what? A lot of the 80-90% who don’t get in also have super high SSATs, A+ GPAs, stellar ECs and recommendations, etc.
Beyond the resume, schools are looking for fit and how you’ll contribute to their specific community. That’s what you should search for and prepare to demonstrate in interviews and essays. The good news is that there’s definitely a school (or several) out there for you.
More specifically to you, I’d say that your chances for any given school are:
Last year’s acceptance rate…
a very small upward adjustment for your accomplishments in table tennis or a less small upward adjustment if they have a competitive table tennis program
a very small upward adjustment for swimming, or less small if your times indicate you can make varsity your freshman year
a very small upward adjustment if you are FP which I think is what you’re saying
a very small upward adjustment if you are an URM, or, - a downward adjustment if you are an ORM
a small downward adjustment bc you’re applying from a place from which many kids apply
TL;DR you’re great but apply to more schools including some that are less selective so that you’ll have options come M10.
You have a solid chance but those are very competitive schools for admissions. Would you be happy to stay in the school you are in now, or do you have a good back up?
I could be wrong but do those schools have table tennis teams? If not, table tennis gets relegated to “nice, that kid has a hobby.” Are you good enough to swim varsity - do those schools have swim teams - if yes, have you been speaking to the swim coach at those schools?
One thing I like is that you are not trying to present yourself as having 100 EC’s. Your profile is impressive and believable and coherant.
I am in New York, which means that this year I will be taking the SHSAT for public high schools. There will definitely be other options for some of the best public high schools, which is my backup plan. These schools unfortunately do not have table tennis teams, but during the admissions process I would definitely mention how I would want to bring this sport into these schools and teach my fellow peers. I believe my times are good enough to swim varsity, however due to Covid-19, I have not been in the pool for a long time.
I bet you could look into the actual times achieved by the varsity swimmers at the various schools. If you could really slot right in as a first year that might make a meaningful difference for you.
I assume you’re also looking at Stuy, Bronx Sci? Did you look at Hunter College HS?
I think that you should retake the ssat or isee as your scores are not as high as these schools require. you should also have more extra-curriculars or more outstanding awards.
@nfdjkvvdfm They got a 97%ile on the SSAT (equal or better than ninety-seven percent of all SSAT test takes) and I’m pretty sure the max score on an ISEE is a 9, which they got for two of the categories. That is higher than the average test score for every single private school you will come across. I’m not sure what made you think that it wasn’t high enough but generally we say as long as you have around the 80s, 90s, or have generally shown that you are a good student, you’re perfectly fine in the application process. Remember, this a holistic process and test scores are only one part of the process. Plenty of students who get a 99%ile on the SSAT are rejected.
Thank you for the encouragement. How would I be able to present myself in a good way during the interview (with the information I put as my “profile”), and how good are my chances of getting in as of now? Please chance me.
Can I ask you for an advice? My son is preparing for 6th grade admission. He is using Testinnovators and Piqosity. Do you have experience in preparing ISEE with either of those? if yes kindly share your experience, especially performance in the practice tests to the actual ISEE.
@ananda1974 I do not have experience with any test preparation program. However, what I did was really simple. Practice makes perfect, and so I kept on working on questions that were my weaker areas, which was the verbal section. I repeatedly memorized words, which is what there is to it, and worked on the second part of the verbal which was filling in words. For that second part, you really just have to see the relationship between the words, as well as knowing what they mean. I did not have much trouble with math, and for the verbal section, I had gotten an 7, or a 89 percentile. It was a little bit lower than what I had wanted it to be. Then I took the SSAT, and my SSAT scores were a little better, with a 99, 97, 90, for math, verbal, and reading comprehension in that order. I received a 97 percentile overall. I would suggest to focus on your weaker areas and finding techniques that work for you. Good luck!
@ananda1974 I would say that many practice tests may be much harder, or easier than the actual ISEE. Try to find practice tests known to be a similar difficulty level to the actual ISEE, however, working on more difficult questions would not hurt.
You have a potentially fun adventure in front of you and you sound like a really nice person.