What makes a good applicant?

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>So what is it that constitutes a good applicant?</p>

<p>For two years in a row, my endeavors have not been met with success. </p>

<p>What could I have done better?</p>

<p>My grades are decent, as I have more A's than B's in an unconventional grading system.</p>

<p>I achieved a 2325 (99 percentile) on the SSAT, after spending half a year making and learning vocabulary from flashcards.</p>

<p>I suspect my teacher recommendations are quite strong, as my teachers all seem to have rather positive impressions of me.</p>

<p>My interviews went very well, especially since I had already gone through the application process once, and knew what to say.</p>

<p>My ECs aren't too shabby, I have three commitments that I am interested in and willing to continue if they were available. </p>

<p>I cannot say anything for my essays, since I have not seen any other essays, but I suspect they are far more introspective and philosophical than most others, since that is the kind of person I am.</p>

<p>What could I have done better?</p>

<p>I did all I could to increase my 'strength' as an applicant, including working hard everything I could (essays, SSAT) and tried my hardest in school, developing better work habits and improving as a person.</p>

<p>Yet for all my toil, I once again have reaped no harvest.</p>

<p>So, what is it that constitutes a good applicant?</p>

<p>/end rant</p>

2

<p>Were you applying to HADES and tier one schools only? You seemed like a wonderful applicant, so unless if you were applying to E/A (or with financial aid) I’m surprised you haven’t been accepted anywhere…</p>

3

<p>TSAO schools for both years (not all of them, just some), don’t need FA.</p>

<p>What’s ironic is that in my first application (for 9th grade), I was waitlisted at both A/E -“Top 25 Waitlist” for Andover, and rejected everywhere else (other TSAO schools). </p>

<p>Oh and I am international if that makes a difference, and I live in Beijing, China.</p>

4

<p>I don’t know, man… First time trying, same as you with an 99% SSAT, but failed all of them. I feel the same as you… I’m thinking that it’s because we are international? I mean, cutting through the ******** about no discrimination based on race, I got the impression from several schools I interviewed that they didn’t like asians. I’m just middle class, barely over the FA limit. I think having rich parents give donations if you are international helps, some of my friends were accepted that way because it would be impossible otherwise…
I don’t know about you, but I think rich/powerful parents help a lot in international applications…</p>

5

<p>Yeah it really does.</p>

<p>My classmate, who failed nearly half of his classes (the best he managed was a B in Beginner Japanese), was accepted into Loomis Chaffee yesterday due to a scholarship fund his parents set-up there. His dad owns a multi-millionaire company and made a “very generous” donation to the school.</p>

6

<p>:(
Well, guess it helps.</p>

7

<p>The Andover website has several interesting articles about this year’s admitted class. The number of applications was at a historic high (about 2,700) and the percentage of students admitted was at a historic low (16.6 percent).</p>

8

<p>seiku – I think that you already know the answer. You are a strong candidate for any boarding school, no question about it. However, the competition among Asian students for a spot at the top schools is beyond fierce --without something to make you stand out from the pack (recruited athlete, parent a top government official, ECs that are beyond what any other student has, parent a top financial contributor) you just get lumped into the rest of the top-performing Asian students. </p>

<p>I don’t think that there is any secret about the discrimination against international Asian students – no school wants an overwhelming population of international students from Korea, Japan and China, it runs against the wishes of the board that runs the school. That means that competition for the few spots available is much, much worse than it is for US students. </p>

<p>The answer, of course, is to consider applying to schools other than the tippy top ones (unless you can become nationally ranked in a sport overnight). There are many excellent schools out there that offer a wealth of opportunity, schools where your intelligence, drive and determination will put you at the top of the pack and lead to some excellent college acceptances. </p>

<p>I can understand if your parents are telling you that they will only pay for one of the very top schools – the investment is enormous, even more so for an international student who will fly back and forth several times a year. However, if you can’t gain admittance to one of these top schools (and after 2 years of trying and your excellent stats, I think you can conclude that it isn’t working) maybe it is time to reevaluate whether you want to continue in your current school – or go to a boarding school in America, just not one of the very top ones.</p>

<p>My suggestion would be to see what schools still have rolling admission (I know NMH does, my son attends there) and put in an application ASAP. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that many excellent schools still have openings for a full pay student of your caliber. </p>

<p>I also think you might see some movement from the waitlist this year at top schools – so not all hope is lost. With the limited number of full-pay students, the current economic climate and the number of kids with multiple acceptances, you may be offered a spot after the April contracts are due.</p>

<p>Best of luck – you sound like you will do well no matter where you go!</p>

9

<p>I’m beginning to believe “Luck” plays a big part.</p>

<p>For example: 4 applicants, all things being equal: 1 gets accepted, 1 gets waitlisted, 2 get rejected. . . . that’s where the Luck part comes in I suppose. . .</p>

10

<p>^^No 2 people can be equal. You can’t walk around with your stats on your chest…they have to believe you would be a nice fit for the school and many other factors.</p>

11

<p>Seikuu and Justin,</p>

<p>I too scored in the 99th percentile on the SSAT, have a perfect gpa, attend an elite(public) magnet school, have many ECs and community service activities. My teachers love me and I poured my heart into my essays. What did I do wrong? </p>

<p>Rejected Non-Asian 5th Generation American</p>

12

<p>Maybe TSAO schools just don’t like people who watch Bleach (or am I making the wrong assumption here?)</p>

13

<p>It comes down to the fact that there are far more qualified applicants than there are places for those applicants. Many full pay US students with 99% SSATs, top academics, meaningful ec’s, great grades, etc. get turned down every year. Competition is even fiercer for many asians and applicants with fa needs. </p>

<p>The way to get acceptances is to apply to a range of schools that are all a good fit for you, and that you would be delighted to attend. If you only apply to the most competitive schools, then you and your parents need to be prepared for the worst but hope for the best and have good local options. This is hard to understand when an applicant is used to being at the top. </p>

<p>If your goal is to attend college in the US, at least there are many more choices then. Please select the colleges you apply to carefully and consider a range of colleges. There are many colleges from which to select.</p>

14

<p>It is impossible not to take it personally, when you see kids with lower SSAT percentile as low as 40% , not good grades, not in honors classes getting accepted in front of you where you are straight A student in SSAT 90+% with strong ECs in the same school where you simply get rejected not even waitlisted. The only hook he had which I didn’t that his dad made a great donation. So life is not fair guys, we have learned that but in harsh way though. What a waste of time? I think I wasted last 6 months dreaming about something on which I really worked hard not knowing that hard work and my calibre is not important to them. But as they say life has to move on and when one window get close another gets open, so keep smiling and don’t let these decisions affect us and stop us from working harder for the next four years of our high school.Good luck</p>

15

<p>Luck is a huge role… Will an uptight admission’s officer read your essay. Let’s say you wrote it on a funny time in your life(I wrote one on when I was recovering from a broken skull and I had depth perception problems… I was running into walls) One officer may think “What a cheeky kid?” or another might say “Man, I really love this kid’s sense of humor!”
Let’s say you wrote about your Dad’s fight with cancer.
One officer may think, “I really appreciate that this kid wrote about such a sensitive topic and I totally get it. This is a part of who he is.” Another officer, “This kid should really try to write about himself… Now I’m sad… I want some ice cream.”</p>

16

<p>I second what Italian said. In schools like Andover, where your file is read by five different people, it may not be as but; in most other schools it depends on who reads it. </p>

<p>On the same note, make your interviewer a huge advocate for you; he/she is the only guaranteed reader.</p>

17

<p>Actually, Hotchkiss told me that I would have two guaranteed readers. I think his name was Charles Bell(Math Teacher) and Adam Daan(Head Lax Coach and my Interviewer)</p>

<p>I believe that they would probably try to have at least 1 reader being a teacher or coach of one of your interests. Do you think that also?</p>

18

<ol>
<li><p>Sorry if this assumption is incorrect, but you aren’t involved in sports or music. They need 95% of their students to contribute athletically. And I wouldn’t recommend picking up a sport now, because they call tell the good athlete from the bad and the students who are passionate about sports and those who are not.
Also what about music? I heard 60% students play an instrument at Groton</p></li>
<li><p>Also, are you international. Even if you are not, Asians are overrepresented and it makes it difficut.</p></li>
<li><p>Forget about you scores. 99… who cares? I was accepted to Andover, Exeter, Hotchkiss, Groton, Middlesex, Governor’s, and Brooks. Waitlisted SPS.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I scored an 82% and then an 86%!</p>

<p>Sorry if I sounded like a jerk. Use my advice to motivate yourself</p>

19

<p>I’m Asian, have no connections or hooks whatsoever besides the fact that I’m Japanese, live in Malaysia, and used to live in America, and I still got into Loomis Chaffee</p>

<p>It may have helped that I play the piano & the saxophone, and have been for many years, but I don’t think I have that big of an advantage.</p>

<p>And I only got 89 percentile on the SSAT.</p>

<p>I think personality has a lot to do with it.</p>

<p>Also, LOTS OF LUCK.</p>

<p>But those are just my opinions and stats, I guess it just varies on the person.</p>

20

<p>@benevolent4them</p>

<p>What goes in the other 5%?</p>

<p>As to sports… well, I play chess competitively, though not many people other than the IOC define chess as a sport, and certainly not the average american. I also participate in a program called F1 in Schools (my team will be representing china at the world finals in September), would that count as ‘contributing to the school’?</p>

<p>Now I am of the opinion that schools only accept those who can contribute to the schools, both academically and in other ways. Or am I wrong?</p>