I’m currently an 8th grader and want to apply to a boarding school in the year of 2023-2024 as a freshman. I am currently doing math 3 grades above the usual grade level, (as an 8th grader, people usually take prealg, but I’m currently taking alg 2 which is an 11 grade course). I’m also taking Spanish 2. Currently, I have straight a’s in this academic school year but in my previous years I’ve had b’s. My ECs are piano for 7 years, violin for 4 years, soccer for 5 years, and I’m doing Science Olympiad and Mathcounts at my school (we still don’t know if I’ve made the Mathcounts team or the Scioly national team yet, but it’s an option). I’m pretty quiet in class so my recommendations might not be that great, but I’m currently working on it. Another problem I have, however, is that I see my math teacher once a week outside of school since I take math 3 grade levels ahead, so she doesn’t even know my name yet. I am also applying for financial aid.
What do I need to do to improve my chances, what would be an ideal ISEE test score I need to get, and how do I get a good recommendation from my principal/counsler or my math teacher?
For boarding school you take the SSAT, not the ISEE, which is for private day schools.
Each of the schools you mentioned is very difficult to gain admittance. Their acceptance rates are generally in the low-teens or even lower, and most applicants have high qualifications. Your chances are probably about average, which means, like those of the vast majority of applicants, they are low. If you are set on attending boarding school, you would be advised to broaden your net to schools with higher rates of admittance.
Are those the only schools you can picture yourself happy attending? If not, cast a much wider net, especially given that you are looking for FA. My son (who is attending a school that is not considered “competitive”) also took Alg 2 and Spanish 2 in 8th grade, so while it’s great that you are doing so, I don’t think it’s that uncommon.
What are your reasons for applying to BS and what are you looking for? I strongly suggest you open up to the possibility of attending a school with much higher acceptance rates or you may end up without acceptances on March 15th. Or even worse, an acceptance that you can’t accept because you did not relieve FA.
My kid was studying for the ISEE (because that’s what most private day schools near us require) in 8th grade. When we broadened our search to include boarding schools and discovered that those mostly required SSAT, I called AOs at some of the schools to ask if my kid would need to take both. Most schools were willing to take either even if they didn’t mention it on their website.
That being said, kid ended up taking SSAT and asking the ISEE schools to use that score instead.
I was going to say that the chance of admission to “Rosemary” is precisely zero since it does not exist as such
OP: please heed the advice here. Think about why you want to attend BS. Why the schools you listed. What’s Plan B if you don’t get into any of these (i.e. good local public option? local day school?) Etc.
In almost all certainty, there are many other schools where you’ll fit, be challenged, and thrive. If you want to “go to BS” then please add schools with meaningfully higher acceptance rates. Check the various Hidden Gems threads.
If it’s ACHE (my new acronym for the four schools you list) or bust, please keep in mind that these schools reject 85-90% of applicants, many of whom are highly qualified, with SSATs into the 9x percentiles, 4.0 GPAs, tons of ECs, and yes, taking many subjects years above grade-level, etc.
I say that not to discourage you believe it or not! But rather to encourage you to reflect on the questions I and others have posed. Get to know the schools in question…how are they alike? Different? What attracts you to them independent of the name on the sweatshirt?
Try your best to demonstrate that you’ll be an interesting, interested member of the community at school X. Be specific. Your reasoning for X won’t necessarily be the same as it would be for Y.
Chances for andover+exeter are not that high, so depending on how badly you want to attend boarding school, applying to other less « prestigious » schools is a valid option.
I would really check out applying to other schools then essentially the top schools. A lot of applications are luck based and trying your luck with all reach schools is a really bad idea. Apply to Lawrence Academy or CSW or at least a school that isn’t in the top 10 of the nation because there’s a very high chance that you’ll get rejected from all four schools, even if you were the perfect candidate
