I’m looking into applying to one of the elite schools; PA, PEA, and The Hills Academy. I’m also trying to find safety schools, but I can’t seem to be able to find one that has a decent acceptance rate. Any suggestions?
People will probably need more info about you to give targeted advice. However, you should easily be able to google average SSAT scores at the schools, which will tell you if you are a really strong candidate (e.g. if your SSAT is in the 90th percentile, and the school you are looking at has an average SSAT in the 40th percentile, as a quick and dirty rule, you can consider that school a likely safety for you.)
If you are a boy The Salisbury School has a 62% admit rate, Trinity Pawling has an acceptance rate of 60% with an average SSAT in the 50th percentile. Millbrook has an acceptance rate of 37% and an average SSAT in the 67th percentile. These schools are very different; Salisbury is great for serious athletes; Millbrook has it’s own accredited zoo. If you are a reasonable candidate for those tippy top schools, Berkshire would be another to look at.
You’ll have to do more research!
Lawrence Academy, in MA, has a 50% acceptance rate.
Agreed, what are you looking for? If you have stats that could get into PEA or PA you are not going to be happy at a 50%/60% acceptance rate school. IMO. Unless you are a very very chill kid who doesn’t care about how rigorous your peers or classes are.
Let us know something about your stats and what you want in a school. Then come up with a list that has some reaches, matches, safeties.
Are you a 7th grader with time to do this?
Question — are they places to find admission stats beside boardingschoolsreview.com? I find many schools are missing the acceptance rate and/or average SSAT (particularly the ones with slightly less impressive stats). Is there another resource we are missing? (Besides school website obv).
I think the Test Innovators website has some “target scores” for most private schools. https://ssatpracticetest.com/content/schools
I’m a 9th grader. Just to give some background information on my stats:
Middle School Grades:
- 8th grades: 1 B+ and mostly A’s and A+
- 6 & 7, mostly A’s some B’s/B+
High School Grades (A’s are basically A+)
- Q1: 4 A’s, 1 A-, 1 B+, 2 B-
SSAT: N/A; will take on Jan. 4
I’ve done Wrestling, and a Photography club. My middle school doesn’t offer a lot of clubs. I plan to continue Wrestling in the future.
Currently in my freshman year, I have joined the team but then left because the contribution for wrestling this year seems a lot with everything I got on my plate.
At my high school, I’m currently in one club, Dead President’s Society. It basically about history and people discuss topics about it.
I volunteer at the Public Library, but haven’t started yet due to the availability of jobs getting filled. I have several interests such as history, technology, aviation.
In my free time, I like to teach myself new historical topics, watch documentaries sometimes, as well as play video games. I also do activities with an mentor that I’ve known for several years.
I have a few, but not a lot of personal/academic accomplishments. 
I don’t think they sound like a lot, but some of the accomplishments that I have are:
- building my first & second computer
- obtaining honor roll a few times in middle school
- winning a wrestling match?
Anyway, that’s the background info.
I’m not sure if the amount of clubs I have is enough. Should that be a concern? How does my background info look? Do you think I have a chance (even a small one helps) of getting admitted to these schools?
Are you referring to The Hill School or is Hills Academy a local day school ?
Without an actual SSAT score, there is no need to speculate about Andover, Exeter, or any other elite boarding school.
I am referring to the Hill School. I’m aware that without the SSAT score, it’s a bit challenging to speculate; but I’m just wondering if all of my background info seems good.
Some schools do not report their stats because they vary so much by “pool”. It may be really tough for students from China and day students (for example) but not that selective for domestic boarders. Often, your AO can shed light on this.
@bluejay163 May I make a strong suggestion? Take 2 good practice tests and get a sense for your scores now! Jan 4th test means you will find out for the first time if you are getting a 50%ile or a 95th%-ile right at the deadline time, and those scores demand two VERY different school lists. My DD is an excellent student – the top student at her fairly large public middle school in strong district – and is a great test taker. She took one practice test and landed in high 80’s, so while it wasn’t stellar, we thought she was on track. On the real test, she bombed, I mean bombed, her verbal (30’s), bringing her score way way down to high 60’s. So we found ourselves in December with a school list that just did not make sense anymore. We researched, we leaned into the generosity of folks on this board who shared experiences and ideas and we were able to add some schools and interviews to the mix. And if she does amazing on the next SSAT, then fantastic. Great. Her reach schools will become reaches again (versus essentially a small financial donation to the kind admissions folks for the time it takes for them to say no thank you). BUT: it was a bit of scramble, to be honest.
At the risk of sounding alarmist, I will share that I do not think you will have the time you will want to have to make adjustments if you wait until you get your scores on January 15 (11 days after Jan 4th – seems to be the delay for scores).
I hope your scores are amazing right out of the gate. And lots of folks have that experience! But I don’t want you to be stuck January 15th with a pit in your stomach like we were last week. At least we had the luxury of a few weeks to make the adjustments. Give yourself that gift by taking 2 tests now (2 so you don’t have a fluke score).
And, that will help you figure out what might be “safety” school for you (although many would quibble with the use of the word “safety,” I do understand what you mean so I will use it here.)
Thank you for your thoughtful advice! I will take the 2 practice tests. I’m thinking about applying to Phillips Exeter and the deadline is January 15th, so I’m not sure if it’s worth it to try since there’s a chance my SSAT scores could flunk. Do you think I should just give it a shot and see what happens or is it not worth it?
Look into single sex schools. Their acceptance rates are more forgiving.
To the OP and others thinking there are “safety schools”…a few years ago before starting this process we lurked @ March 10. We read the results thread @ people posting their surprise about not being accepted to certain schools they thought were a “safety”. One coed school in NE comes to mind - and it is almost like they sensed or knew they were a “safety” for certain applicants and those students were not accepted. These posts actually convinced us not to waste our time (or theirs) applying to a school we were not really interested in attending. Somehow, the school does find the student at the end of the day on March 10.
To add to @Golfgr8’s post, competition is tough. We also thought that with 99% SSAT and top scores including many EC’s and sports, that there would be mostly acceptances for my kid. What my kid did not realize is location, coming from the local area, there was stiff competition from many public and private school kids who were also similar in that regard. Being in a common bucket, means you will have more competition. Much more in some cases.
BS’s are really tough to get into and you should apple to many and not based solely on the name. The BS websites/Admission offices have the best information. Other sites based rankings on a number of things you might/might not care about. I have seen many schools ranked very differently. So identify what is good for you and realize there are many others with top skills.
Also, make sure your school has what you need. Check out ALL the programs you would likely be interested in doing. There can be great variances. And make sure you don’t buy the marketing of a single kid who “won the nobel prize, while playing hockey and singing on Broadway” Lots of schools highlight a couple of kids, find out which schools develop the potential of all kids, including you.
UPDATE: I’ve took the SSAT, and to my surprise I bombed the SSAT. I got a bad score (were talking about 20th precentile, 1880 scaled). I’m going to retake the test. I’m pretty sure its impossible to continue to apply with this score right?
I am sorry to hear this, it must be disapointing. Please remember you are not defined by this one test! You are still the smart kid you were before you got this news.
With this score, yes, all the “elite”/famous boarding schools are out. If you want to go to boarding school no matter what, you could look into Salisbury and Trinity Pawling. Last I knew Salisbury had rolling admissions.
Or, stay at your local public school and work on getting straight A’s and see where you are in 3 years. Good luck!
I would think a 20% makes Andover and Exeter a no go. I suppose if you’ve already done all the hard work, written great essays, gotten recommendations, etc, you may as well apply.
I don’t think you are totally out for this year unless you want to be.
Options as I see them:
A – add schools that might overlook the score
B – wait until next year
C – get a better score immediately (ways to do this: take SSAT flex test – check their website; you can take one flex test a year, and dates are flexible, take the February 8th test and call schools and let them know SSAT is coming – many will allow that, or take the ISEE – lots more dates available there)
Even if you are going for option A, I might consider taking another test in the next week or two (or at latest that Feb 8th SSAT).
If you were my child, I would do A and C. (Did you find some less selective schools to add to your list a few week ago? If not, then do it today maybe.)
I know that your disappointment may take away the joy of the project right now, but if I may encourage you not to indulge in it (not that you were necessarily; I just know I would) and rally into action instead since time is of the essence. Lots of schools have Feb 1 deadlines and even many who have January 15 deadlines, as long as your app is mostly in, they will be forgiving on the straggling item or two.
Is the 20% very different from what you were getting on practice tests? If you were getting much higher scores it may be that you bubbled things incorrectly and then there is a case to be made to take it again. But if not, I would not bother to spend money on the application fees to Andover and Exeter. If there are other less competitive schools you are interested in, I may give it a shot. Also, I don’t see upthread whether you are FP or seeking FA, the latter would make things even more of an uphill battle. If you were my child I’d say scrap the BS project for now and shift focus to being engaged and doing well in your current school. But if the applications are already done and the fees are NBD it may be worth to submit just for the ‘you never know’ theory. That is if you can submit, forget about it and move on with life. If it will suck all your emotional energy for another 2-3 months it is likely not worth it.
@417WHB excellent points. I’ll tweak my suggestions above and say they are assuming essays were written and everything else was locked and loaded and the scores were the missing piece.