<p>Okay, so I applied to several top tier boarding schools and got four waitlists and two rejections. I got in to Berkshire. I am currently debating these two courses of action:</p>
<p>a) go to berkshire
b) stay at my current private day school and reapply next year.</p>
<p>Here is a link to my chance thread:</p>
<p>Any advice would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>The schools probably thought they have nothing to offer you as you are already taking college courses. If you are in a good public school district, save all the money and go to it. If you are at the top of your PS, you’ll get into a good college. It is also difficult to pursue your extracurriculars like music at BS, which you are pursuing locally. Pursue leadership positions in ECs like School Newspaper, Debate, Model UN, and Service Organizations like local Soup Kitchens, Retirement Homes etc. Good luck!</p>
<p>Since you’ve been doing well in a good private school, I would stay put. However, if you want to re-apply next year, you need to figure out why you got 4 wl’s and 2 rejections this year with your stella stats. Recommendations? Interviews? Too many students from private schools in your area or even your school with simiar stats applied, etc.? Even with the current competitive admissions, the outcome you got is still a head-scratcher to me.</p>
<p>Why apply to Berkshire if you didn’t want to go?</p>
<p>Most of your schools are extreme reaches for anyone. Apart from tennis and violin, what extracurricular activities do you pursue? Have you shown leadership and a concern for others in any activities?</p>
<p>If you can go to the revisit day at Berkshire, I would. They will be able to answer any questions you have and respond to your concerns. If you can’t, you should consider talking to your admissions officer. Berkshire is a terrific school with a very competitive admissions rate. Congratulations on getting accepted .</p>
<p>I would stay at your home school, and reapply next year. you should not go to a school that you dont wish to attend, and it sounds like you are not keen on attending Bershire</p>
<p>If you do decide to reapply next year, I suggest not applying to any school you really don’t want to attend.</p>
<p>^^Yes, that too. It sounds like you had a great “back-up”, which is your current school. Did you see something special about Bershire and applied there? If so, I bet the school hasn’t changed since you applied. Maybe you should revisit and consider attending.</p>
<p>well the math science research was the reason we applied.</p>
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<p>“We”? Whose decision was it?</p>
<p>Can you answer the question this way:</p>
<p>Why would you choose not to go to Berkshire?</p>
<p>If math/science was the reason you are interested in Berkshire, you should know that “Berkshire’s Math Team finished tied for 2nd (out of 250 schools) in the New England Math League Competition! Andover edged Berkshire out by only 2 points, with Hotchkiss, Taft, Loomis, Groton and others following behind Berkshire.” </p>
<p>Not just big name schools do big name things.</p>
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<p>^ ^ ^ Agreed!</p>
<p>schakrab - I hear it’s a terrible school - don’t go.</p>
<p>DISCLAIMER: Dodgersmom is quite fond of an applicant who is currently on the Berkshire waiting list.</p>
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<p>Holistic admissions. Very, very competitive fields. </p>
<p>The Prep School admissions forum seems to build false impressions. </p>
<p>False impression 1: Test scores are supremely important. No, they are one factor among many. Evidence of good character is also very important. Athletic prowess is valuable. Leadership is very important. Being a good sport and caring for others is very important.</p>
<p>False impression 2: There are two best schools. No, there are many very selective schools. For some reason this board loves Exeter and Andover, but Lawrenceville, Deerfield, Groton and St. Paul’s are also extremely selective. All are reaches for every student.</p>
<p>False impression 3: Rigor of school transcript Advanced students may take advanced courses, but I think there is a risk of becoming too advanced to take high school academics seriously. If you’re taking college courses as an 8th grader, you may not be well suited to a 4 year high school.</p>
<p>Schakrab, it’s your decision. Either a or b could be the right choice. If your private school has good college placement, and offers high school, I think staying put through high school is also a great choice.</p>
<p>^^I buy “False impression 3” to a degree. It does feel that there’s something other than the applicants’ “qualifications” that was taken into consideration. Then it could be red flags in a number of other areas as well, - interview, recommendation, essays, parents interactions, etc. etc. </p>
<p>This board doesn’t “just” love Exeter and Andover. It’s true that they may “love” HADES or GLADCHEMMS more than other schools. It just so happens A & E are bigger schools and therefore have a bigger pool of people currently and prospectively associated with them, thus the greater coverage on this board.</p>
<p>Periwinkle, you have brought up an interesting topic though. We say schools are trying to put together a well balanced class, and we know the top schools are very academically challenging. To me, it means that each student doesn’t have to be always “all around excellent” - a student with leadership or a star athelete doesn’t have to be an academic star while the academically excellent “outlier” doesn’t have to be an exceptional leader or athelete. Even when admission to top schools is as tough as it is now, it’s unrealistic to ask a full pay academically exceptional student to be also a great leader or a star athelete, etc. to just get in the door. That’s why I think OP’s case was an exception instead of the norm, and why I suggested him find out the “real reason” for the 4 wl’s and 2 rejections.</p>
<p>DAndrew, you did him a disservice to suggest that there must have been a “real reason” for his results. A brilliant full-pay student is not a shoo-in at any school. There’s no need to insinuate something “must be wrong” with his recs.</p>
<p>The established pre-preps, preparing their students for the established prep schools, all run significant sports programs. They also encourage students to participate in community service, student government, the arts, etc. If you look at their web pages, you’ll see that they keep their students busy.</p>
<p>The posters on CC, many of whom come from different settings, prioritize academic “stats.” The prep schools do like to see a certain level of academic potential, but the schools do not think of themselves as only a collection of classrooms with a certificate at the end. They speak of themselves as communities or families. </p>
<p>The same sort of thing is happening on the college side of College Confidential. Some students are complaining that they weren’t accepted by certain prestigious schools, that “students with lower stats” were accepted. Holistic admissions. If you google that term, you will find many attempts to explain it. Here’s an MIT blog: [In</a> Praise Of Holistic Admissions | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/in-praise-of-holistic-admissions]In”>In Praise Of Holistic Admissions | MIT Admissions).</p>
<p>For the OP: you and your parents should speak with the counselors at your school. Ask if they can think of any reason for your results. That might give you ideas about what to work on for next year, or four years from now, when you apply to college.</p>
<p>^^^I think this is a very informative quote from the blog entry linked above:</p>
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<p>Insert “prep school name” in place of “MIT” in the above quote, and this is totally applicable to prep school admissions.</p>
<p>We all agree every school (just like every college) is choosing students to meet their school community’s needs for the year so they can form a balanced class, but the kid applied to a good number of schools. We don’t know if he is particularly <em>lacking of</em> leadership, but we do know he has extracurricular activities and is well rounded in his own way. His strength or “selling point” is his exceptional academic achievement though. Let’s face it. Prep schools, admissions tough as is, has a much limited applicant pool and are not as nearly competitive, compared with the most selective colleges. A kid like OP should have a spot in at least <em>one</em> of those schools best known for their academic rigor, just as if not more so than a star athelete who has mediocure academic ability. Facing such outcome, I would suspect there might be some “red flag” in pieces of his applications, or considerations beyond qualifications such as the consideration for “yield” might’ve played a role in those decisions.</p>