Hey, I am a current 8th grader that has applied to boarding school for 9th grade. I was wondering if someone could be honest about my chances of getting into boarding school. I am applying to, Exeter, Andover, Groton, SPS, Cate, Choate, and Deerfield.
Here is my basic application:
-I have perfect grades transcript wise
-My recommendations are probably pretty good, I have great relationships with all my teachers including counselor
-I’m bilingual and spent six years in the Japanese school system before going to an American school
-I was born in Sydney, lived in Tokyo and now Hong Kong
-I am half Korean, half Japanese but hold both Australian and American passports
-My essays were done only by myself and my mum but we worked really hard on them and writing is my strong suit
-My mum is a single parent and I live with her
-We are applying for financial aid
-My interviews were really well and I have stayed in contact with all my interviewers (esp Exeter we have a 15 email string and we have written each other letters)
Extra-curriculars:
-Singing: around 10 years of extreme studying including attending Interlochen for six weeks
-Piano: 8 years, pretty decent but not excelling
-Guitar: 6 years, excelling
-Dance: trained in Ballet, Lyrical, Contemporary, Musical Theatre, Jazz and Hip Hop for around 5 years
-Leadership Roles: Student Ambassador, Advisory Representative, Student Service Team, Choir President
-Service: Student Service Team, Tohoku English Trip
-Writing: I am a passionate writer and submitted several of my pieces
My SSAT score was only 84% do you think everything else will make up for that? I know it is not standard.
It’s hard to say with this little information, but I suspect if your essays and interview demonstrated desirable characteristics, at least one school will take a chance on you. Did you submit singing/piano/guitar/dance videos?
You have a very interesting background & a great profile. I hope that you are admitted to at least 3 or 4 of your targeted schools with full financial aid.
In my opinion, you deserve to be admitted to several of these schools. I hope that St. Paul’s School & Cate School accept you !
“May not”…sure, that’s always a statistical possibility. But I agree with @Publisher that the applicant is really quite interesting and talented, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he/she gets to choose among several acceptances. And I surely wouldn’t drop a negative review on an 8th grader less than a week before M9/10, let alone without an explanation.
@mmao123, What makes you say that? I think OP sounds interesting. Since your daughter is competing for a spot at one of those schools I don’t know how you would have any insight on what they’re looking for or if you’d be able to look at other students objectively. At this point in the process we usually tell the students that it’s too late to second guess their applications and all they can do is wait. I hope, for your daughter’s sake, that if people hear her express anxiety about the outcome of the process that they offer her a few kind words and call it a day.
I think you have strong chances, but there are of course some weaknesses in that being an FA applicant, particularly an international FA applicant will lower your chances. Again, I’m not saying that you have NO chance, but it is a weakness. Otherwise I think you are a VERY strong applicant when it comes to academics and ECs, it is also a great sign that you have stayed in contact with your AOs. I believe you will probably have options on M9. Make sure to comment back with your results on the official prep school results thread. Good Luck!
That would make you a domestic FA applicant, which puts you at some disadvantage compared to full pay applicants, but is not nearly as challenging as being an international FA applicant, which would be a substantial disadvantage.