What are my chances of getting into Exeter, Taft, and Choate?

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

Hi! I’m pretty new to College Confidential and I was just wondering what you guys thought my chances were at these three boarding schools?

I’m actually applying to 10 total; I’ll list them down in order of importance for me: Choate, Taft, Exeter, Milton, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, Cate, Andover, Deerfield, and St. Paul’s.

Personally, I’ve established the closest connections with Choate, Taft, and Exeter, so I’m really only concerned with these three schools. Of course, if you have any advice for the other schools as well—that would be greatly appreciated!

Here are some specific advantages I have for those three schools:

  1. Exeter - I attended the five-week 2021 Exeter Summer program after being accepted and attained really close relationships with all of the teachers and faculty members there.
  2. Taft - I visited the campus in person twice, and because I’m coming all the way from Singapore, they really aren’t seeing that many international visitors often. Additionally, I’ve also managed to gain a strong relationship with all of the admissions officials there, some of them more than others!
  3. Choate - I received a very personal email from a high-position admissions official, and they were essentially saying that they thought I would be a great fit for the Choate community. I’ve checked with all of my friends who are also applying to Choate, and they told me they didn’t receive the same email. (I’m hoping this site is actually confidential as I’m writing this…)

General:

  1. Female
  2. Half-Korean, quarter-Japanese, quarter-German with dual citizenship in both the US and Germany
  3. Not applying for financial aid
  4. Have lived in Singapore for almost ten years, lived in Japan for three years prior to Singapore
  5. Currently attending a large, private, competitive, international school known widely amongst the boarding school admissions community
  6. Eighth grade applying for ninth grade

Acadmics:

  1. Advanced Math since sixth grade (when it was first available)
  2. National History Day Social Studies Class and Regular Social Studies Class (Chose to take up both classes with essentially double the commitments)
  3. Intermediate-High Chinese (one level away from the highest level offered in my school out of around 8-9 levels)
  4. Advanced Strings Orchestra (viola)
  5. Have essentially signed up for all of the advanced courses offered at my school, with a pretty high GPA (A’s or A+'s)

Sports: (all of the following sports listed were all done simultaneously at one point)

  1. Volleyball
  • Have been playing for roughly three years
  • Currently playing for junior varsity in my club
  • Also currently playing for my school’s team (no competitions yet because of COVID)
  • Was nominated team captain last year (nominations for team captain have not occurred yet this year)
  • Played in the University of Hawaii’s volleyball camp where the head coach was a former team captain of the US Olympics Volleyball Team
  • Participated in Exeter Summer’s intensive volleyball program where practices totaled to 6 hours per week
  1. Tennis
  • Played for eight years before quitting due to a leg injury (shin splints) from the overexertion of doing all of the sports listed at the same time at one point
  • Played for a club and joined various different teams while playing tennis almost every other day both on my own and in groups
  • Participated in the UCLA Tennis Camp for two consecutive years and was able to form relationships with the regular coaches at the university and with some of the people that played there regularly as well
  • Although I don’t currently pursue the sport as intensively as I did in the past, I still play tennis from time to time with my friends and family and plan to begin playing tennis competitively again once my injury improves
  1. Dance
  • Danced for an intensive dance company for roughly three years and pursued the dance genres of ballet and jazz
    • Participated in the ISTD ballet exams
  • Was asked to join the pre-teens performance team and compete amongst countless other dance teams in Singapore
  • Danced for the annual 2019 concert
  • Unfortunately I had to quit for the same reasons as tennis, but I would still pursue dance in the future if given the opportunity
  1. Swimming
  • Swam for six years independently both by myself and at a club
    • Was asked to join the club’s junior swim team
  • Swam regularly for roughly three hours per week, usually by myself or with a coach, and recorded times frequently
  • I also had to quit for the same reasons as tennis and dance, but I would still pursue swimming in the future if given the opportunity

Extracurriculars:

  1. Teens Leading for Change Initiative
  • Started a website independently that was aimed to provide a safe space for people to share their stories correlated to facing racial prejudice
  • Also created an Instagram account with the same goal in mind, and amassed a majority of my followers at the Exeter Summer program within the Pan-Asian Affinity Group that I participated in
  • Brought it up heavily within my interviews, and connected it to personal anecdotes in which I was a victim of racial prejudice (leading point within my interviews)
  1. Article
  • I wrote an article to publish within a well-known company (would rather not share the name of the company for privacy purposes…)
  • This article was based on current events during that time period, which is why I decided to focus specifically on Independence Day and the controversies surrounding it, particularly within Indigenous communities
  1. National History Day Competition
  • Global competition that I plan to participate in that requires contestants to submit a type of project that revolves around one specific event or person in history that correlates with a particular theme that changes annually (this year’s theme is Debate and Diplomacy)
  • Projects can range from anything of an exhibition to a skit; I plan to create a website as a part of my final product
  • My overall project will revolve around Japanese history, specifically within the transitional period between the Edo era to the Meiji Restoration and the hierarchical system that was abolished during that time (my great-great-great-great-grandfather was a samurai during this time period so this project heavily relates to my family history)
    • I will also be connecting my project to the political debates that stemmed from this social class hierarchy and how these debates eventually led to diplomacies that would influence Japan into the country that it is today
  • Although it is a closely school-related project, this project requires quite a lot of time and commitment outside of class as well, since the amount of research we need to conduct surpasses the amount of time we have that is given at school
  • Additionally, I was not able to sign up for the actual National History Day class, thus presenting me with the unique task of completing both the regular Social Studies classwork and the National History Day work on almost a daily basis
    • Still, I have found this to be incredibly insightful since I can obtain knowledge from two different perspectives of the overall curriculum of Social Studies
  1. Peer Council
  • I was nominated by my classmates to join the middle school’s Peer Council in fifth grade, where I was then able to advocate for rules and implement projects to better the overall well-being of both the students and faculty at my school
  • I currently co-lead the Peer Council’s Social Issues Committee, which connected strongly with my other extracurricular work
  • We all unanimously agreed to create an Instagram account that was set with the similar purpose of creating a safe space for people (at our school, specifically) to anonymously share any and all experiences they have faced of racial discrimination
  • We also decided to create a few slides to share in the upcoming December school assembly to further raise awareness about the account and encourage people that don’t necessarily feel as if they are in a safe space to share their stories and experiences
  1. Viola
  • Started out playing the viola as an elective, and eventually progressed from the Beginners Orchestra to the Advanced Orchestra (which I currently play for now) and have been playing for roughly three years
  • My old Strings teacher genuinely recommended that I continue playing the viola even past my education since she believes that music deserves to stay within our character throughout our lifetime, which is one of the various reasons I have chosen to stick with the viola over the years despite my somewhat late entry into Strings
  • Participated in numerous virtual concerts as well as one in-person concert
  1. Piano
  • Started playing the piano at the age of five
    • Participated in the ABRSM exams from Grades 3 - 4
  • Performed several recitals during my childhood, mostly for my family, friends, and teachers
  • I stopped playing the piano to further focus and improve my viola skills, but I would love to pick the activity up again in the future if time permits
  1. Girl Scouts
  • Advanced to a Cadette from 4th grade to around 6th grade, and earned a Bronze award by spending more than 20 hours organizing a six-hour event for younger Girl Scouts with my troop that included s’mores, outdoor games, and planning activities that involved learning something new, and donating the money to environmental conservation efforts for polar bears
  • Spent numerous hours planning countless other meaningful activities to our community, such as organizing care-bags to donate to those in need of basic necessities or baking goods to sell at the annual Roller Derby that raised money for various different charity organizations
  • Wrote for the Girl Scouts’ Girl Talk segment by writing about my experiences within Girl Scouts and elaborating on what I had learned so far from being a Girl Scout
  1. Book Review
  • With the help of my former Girl Scouts troop leader, (who used to be a worldwide renowned journalist), I was able to write a book review for the book, A Real Pain in the Class!, and publish it within a well-established magazine
  1. Learning Japanese
  • Although I am focusing primarily on learning Mandarin, I have also made an effort to learn my mother tongue, Japanese, throughout my adolescence
  • I may also consider taking additional Japanese classes alongside my daily Mandarin classes in the future, given my future free time

SSAT:

  • I took the test three times but I plan to submit a 92 as my overall score
    • 89 in verbal, 89 in reading, and a 88 in math

Recommendations:

  • I generally have good relationships with all of my teachers, but I think that the best will probably be my special interest, social studies, and science recommendations

Thank you for taking the time to look at this!

2

I’m concerned that the admissions office from one or more of the schools you are applying to could see this and be able to identify you by all of the details you have shared.

You might want to think about editing your post and removing the part where you rank your preference for the private schools you are applying to … if the schools near the bottom of your list see this and they have identified who you are, they may be a bit turned off by being ranked by you at the bottom of your list.

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3

You have too much on here that are things you used to do. Because of that it is hard to tell if you are seriously inflating your extra curriculars because there is too much here for one kid to actually do.

I am a bit confused by your recommendations. Math and English. Will those recommendations be very good? It’s great that you have a science and social studies rec but those are extra and therefore considered after the math and English.

I’d say you have a fair shot if you clean up your way too much list of everything you have ever done and make it more relevant. You are an ORM so in a hard category. Are you applying as international?

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4

My best guess is that, based on your credentials, you will be admitted to all–or almost all–of the 10 listed prep boarding schools if you are a full-pay student.

P.S. Although you state that your list of ten schools is ranked “in order of importance” to you, I wonder whether in this case “importance” means “familiarity”. If so, I encourage you to visit as many schools as possible during revisit days to those that have extended an offer of admission to you.

I suspect that you will find the school culture as well as the location to be quite different at the Cate School than at your other nine targeted schools.

Milton has a substantial day school population, while St. Paul’s School has a 100% boarding population.

Phillips Academy at Andover may feel more like a small college than like a prep boarding school.

Deerfield students strike me as being athletic & well rounded which may contrast with some other schools on your list.

Lawrenceville is definitely worth a revisit as it is in a different area of the country than your other schools and offers a distinguishing housing situation.

Hotchkiss should be the easiest school about which to form a clear opinion. Almost all classes are held in the same building. Gorgeous location, but that is true for all of your listed schools.

I hope that you post after you receive acceptances as well as after or during your visit to each school as an accepted applicant.

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5

You seem well-qualified - and I agree with pretty much everything other people have said.

Just a bit of caution- AOs are notorious for being overly encouraging to applicants. Just because someone says something that makes it sound like you are getting in, don’t assume it to be true.

Depending upon how much you want/need to go to boarding school, I would add 1-3 lower-ranked schools that suit you onto your list. Your list looks like one that is about prestige more than one that is about whether they match you. It can’t hurt to add some schools that are more likely to accept you. Think through what you want out of your high school experience beyond name recognition. There are less competitive schools that will match you better than some of the schools on your list - I guarantee it.

I can speak to Cate if you have questions. It is very very different in vibe than other schools, and it is really important to visit it to see if it speaks to you.

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Unfortunately, I can’t edit or delete a post after a while, but I essentially forgot to change it. That list is not actually in order of preference. Just disregard that list, please!

7

Now I’m afraid I put wayyy too much information on here, and that this could be a reason as to why I am not accepted into any BS. Like I said, I’m fairly new to CC, and I had no idea that you can’t edit or delete posts after a while.

8

Do not worry. You will be fine.

Certainly Exeter, Taft, & Choate will not be offended, nor should any school on your list as the “preferential” order really coincides with familiarity at this point. I suspect that once accepted by any particular school that you will familiarize yourself with that (or those) schools as well.

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9

Given your many accomplishments and abilities, I’m sure you’ll get accepted by one or more of the excellent schools you listed. Putting too much info out here won’t torpedo your chances.

Personally, assuming there are no red flags, I think you’ll get into Taft, possibly Choate and perhaps some of the others on your list. One reason is that in addition to your many wonderful qualifications, you are full-pay. However, Exeter and Andover are need-blind, and your particular applicant group (international, Asian, wealthy) is ultracompetitive, so your chances are lower at those two.

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These are the posts that make me doubt my application! (You’re a hardwoker) Great job on all your accomplishments, and wishing you luck!