<p>When the admissions officers look at your full application, what do you think has the most influence in that acceptance letter? The SSAT or your Essay? Something else? And please don't say ALL, I do know all officers look at them carefully. For example if you had an applicant with a 99 ssat but mediocre essay, and another applicant with a mediocre SSAT (mid 80s to mid 90s) and a essay masterpiece, who would you want to more admit? I have a 92, is that enough for the Admissions Officers? Do you guys think getting a higher SSAT score is worth a lot more than focusing on the essays? Or vice versa?</p>
<p>Scale: Andover's 50% of students ranked mid 80s to mid 90s in the SSAT. So, 25% rank higher and 25% rank lower. (I asked, i'm not making this up)
Exeter's overall average of SSAT is about 85% (Yes, seems kind of low but I asked an admissions officer and thats what she said)
P.S. Most Admissions officers said the SSAT was usually one of the last things they go over in the admissions process. They didn't stress it as much, and they told me 92 was enough. Do you guys think so?</p>
<p>I would think the written essays are far more important that your SSAT scores, as long as your score is reasonable. If your score is above 85% I think, just focus on your essays. Getting a higher SSAT score isn't going to help you that much, and the time you spend studying to take it multiple times could be time you spend perfecting your essay.
Also I think one of the more important aspects of the application would be your current involvement with the community, such as community service, extracurriculars, etc. as well as the interview.
In my opinion, the SSAT score is the least important part of the entire application, and won't hurt you unless it's incredibly low. 92% is perfectly fine! I wouldn't stress over it (:</p>
<p>I posted this in another thread, so I'm just copying this from what I wrote earlier</p>
<p>The ssat allows the school to judge you academically relative to other students, while the essay is a place where you can really make yourself stand out among the myriad applicants. I personally feel the ssat is more important, since it's quite difficult to write a truly outstanding essay, but if you think that you're special enough (and have enough english skill) to write an essay that truly reflects who you are, then go for it.</p>
<p>Really. After that, the SSAT can knock you out of contention, if it's too low for the school. I think the essay is also important, but I suspect the "parental influence" factor limits its importance. The Wall Street Journal published an amusing article about applying to college: College</a> Application Tip: Be Yourself - WSJ.com. I don't know if that article is available to nonsubscribers, but it's worth reading. If parental meddling is that widespread for high school students, I estimate that it's also a factor for middle school students.</p>
<p>Application Gaffes (from the article)</p>
<p>Letting your mom sign her own name to your application.
Plugging in the wrong college name when answering, "Why are you applying here?"
Emailing the admissions dean 15 times to show your interest.</p>
<p>The admissions officer was wrong then... My admissions officer said 92-93% was the "year after year" average. My admissions officer may be wrong also. I hear 92-93% shot around alot more than 85%.
Andover's mean(might have been the median...) was 93%. I remember that distinctly.</p>
<p>85% is a weird number for exeter. i think exeter is the best school out there (my opinion), better than andover, and if andover's average is 93%, exeter's should be better. im shocked.</p>
<p>? What are you talking about. When were talking SSAT averages it has nothing to do with which school is better or not. Every top tier school can have an average of 99% if they wanted...would that make them better than the other BS? The logic behind that statement makes no sense.</p>
<p>I'm sorry I just didn't catch the correlation.</p>
<p>Definitely the essay. The schools don't need to fill their rosters with clones who can all score high on a test. They want diversity and an interesting student body.</p>
<p>While the OP asked about the SSAT or the ESSAY, the truly most important determinant is GRADES/TRANSCRIPT and RECS. The grades tell a school about your past performance which is the best predictor of how well you will do in the future. The recs tell about you as a person, student, and member of your school community. So do your best on the SSAT and the essay, but spend the most time on your school work!</p>
<p>Na..I dont agree. A teacher can only tell the school so much about you, your essays truly tell the school about you. I've known my teachers for a good amount of time, I don't feel they adequately give the schools a true picture of me. </p>
<p>A personal essay is the best way to convey the best parts of yourself. And pretty much everyone has All A's and B's atleast..so im not sure if grades are even that big. They just have to know that your able to do the work at the school once you get there. If they believed in all those grades we wouldnt have to take the SSAT.</p>
<p>But ya in my opinion its the essays hands down...then maybe teacher recs...then of course you have to have a reasonable SSAT. You don't need 99% from what I've read around the board.</p>
<p>Well, italianboarder and freshie, clearly there is no definite score, and this information is basically unattainable - short of going thorugh every students initial application and SSAT score and doing the dirty work.</p>
<p>Freshie, what was your admissions officers name? Out of curiosity... it sounds like something mine said, about my score and how if it was 80+ it wouldn't matter to my app. I do have some hooks though, so maybe that's only for my application - not sure.</p>
<p>My son's admission officer at Exeter said " We really don't use the SSAT scores that much here at Exeter." He also said, paraphrasing: We turned down the majority of people who had perfect ssat scores last year. We are looking for well rounded kids. </p>
<p>I hope they look at the school information closely since my son is taking 10th grade classes in 8th grade. It's hard to know what to make of teacher recs. Some teachers can be more critical or harder graders than others- how do they sort that out I wonder?</p>
<p>thnx for the input guys
yeap, every school can have a 99% average if they chose to... but they don't. perfect test scores shouldnt be the only reason to be accepted... its only a number and numbers can tell you so little about you</p>
<p>about the teacher hard grader thing, i dont think the admissions officers care so much.. i think i told them slyly (lol) that i had the hardest english teacher in the school, but they didn't give too much. every teacher can grade so drastically (even my counselor admits that my english teacher is one of the hardest graders she's ever seen, while the rest of the 9th grade class gets the easiest english teacher in the school), so admissions officers can't really tell i guess. no matter the rec or the score, i really think the interview really tells if your son stays true to the rec or is completely the antithesis... wow that was long.</p>
<p>Freshie123,
I'm expecting good recs for DS. I was just throwing that out there about differences in grading because I am a college prof . I know my students frequently feel there are differences in the expectations/grading among the faculty members in our department.<br>
Also, if you already go to a school where everyone is smart (at my DSs school (grades 7-12) the kids were interviewed and took a test to get in and several drop out each year cuz they can't handle the work load) then the teachers' expectations will be different. For ex: a teacher checking off top 10% on a rec would be less likely in a more selective school than in our local middle school. It's sort of like what will happen to the kids from BS when they apply to college- it's harder to be ranked at the top when you are already in with top kids.</p>
<p>Good to know, PA-C! My interviewer Susan Herney, is actually one of the longest standing faculty, second to only two others - both joining in 1968, in comparison to her 1972, so I would trust her opinion and judgement very much.</p>