At dinner now. I’ll get back to the rest of you after.
@coppii Please know that when I saw this, I am not trying to be insensitive or rude, but there is no other way to say this and still make my point clear.
If your parents are still working with/using lawyers in your high school admissions process, that is a major turn off for schools. Whether or not any disruption or negative situation at prior schools was your fault or not, these negative moments raise a MAJOR red flag to schools. Like I said, regardless of who was in the wrong, if leagl action was taken by your parents, schools don’t want to be involved with an applicant who they think could do the same thing to them. Obviously they don’t know your side of the story or specifics, but an applicant who currently is in the midst of a legal battle isn’t exactly the most desirable quailty for an incoming student. I’m really sorry. Your obviously upset and I can tel from your posts that this meant a lot to you but I think you need to let Exeter, Andover, and Taft go. These 3 schools are not the only schools that will make you “successful in life”. In fact, you don’t need bs to be successful! Most extremely successful people didn’t attend boarding schools! They did it all on their own:) If you are still truly set on going to bs, apply to schools with lower admissions rates which will increase your chances of getting accepted, especially if you have to repeat a year. And if boarding school doesn’t work out, it really isn’t the end of the world. Believe me, bs isn’t all that it is hyped up to be.
As once said by a wise, yet in identified source,
“ Don’t get mad. Don’t get even. Do better. Much better. Rise above. Become so engulfed in your own success that you forget it ever happened.”
Or in the words of the more well known Hannah Montana, “Life’s what you make it.” 
It’s totally normal, humans, and ok to be upset! Eat a full pint of ice cream, cry, binge watch Netflix, and then pick yourself up from the couch, dust off the cookie crumbs, and look ahead to the future. Make the best of your situation and don’t dwell on the past. Truly motivated, driven, and determined people make their own success, regardless of the situation or circumstance. If you ever need to talk, feel free to pm me:)
Yes great advice @cababe97.
@PhotographerMom once again with some brilliant and helpful advice! Before I fully reply, though, I PMd you and would really appriciate it if you could take a look at that and get back to me — no rush Thanks! Now, on to the actual response…
About the personal information, my mother is a reality TV actress, so our life is pretty out there. In concerns to online safety however, yeah, your probably right. You seem to understand that in the face of total adversity after suffering such a devastating defeat, my fingers hit the keyboard faster than my mind could process what in the world was going on. But yeah, I should take a chill pill with that. On the bright side, I don’t think many child predators (or similar) are sitting on a boarding school admissions forum lurking in the shadows on a search for kids. But again, I understand your point, thanks for looking out for me
I do think I can get my grandfather to agree. They don’t know what to do anymore. They don’t really want me to repeat a year. However, in the end, I am confident that they will see my happiness is the most important and it is better not to tear me down. They also now have told me that I should just give up because I’m, “not Exeter material”, “have no chance of getting in”, am “wasting time”, or “I dont have what Exeter is looking for”, etc. But most of them are when they are stressed/angered. That being said, IF I do reapply (which 99% I will) he did agree to full pay. I think this makes it much easier for me to get in. Because think about it like this: I’m America, 80% of the wealth is controlled by the top 20% of the country. Let’s suppose only those that are in that top 20% are the ones that DON’T apply for FA. Let’s also say that 100% of the financial demographic is represented in applying to Exeter. That means that 20% of applicants are competing for 50% of the spots — that seems like much better odds if you ask me. My logic may be duely flawed, but it is undoubtly easier to get in on full pay regardless.
I will certainly study much more and take the SSAT multiple times on my second go around. My hope is to get to at LEAST an 80 %-tile. Nothing poor is on my record like that, and they did not even knew I withdrew when I was applying to Exeter. (However, the lawyers are currently looking into it to see if, lets just say my old school called Exeter after my withdrawal and said something disparaging to sabotage my chances). Also, other than my SSAT scores, I thought my other stats like ECs were pretty good. Perhaps you could tell me where else I could improve?
Repeating 10th grade, I am open to. If I reapply, I will reapply to repeat 10th grade.
About choosing realistic schools: One way or another, I will probably end up attending another BS next year. I would only leave to go to yet another school and repeat a year, effectively losing a year off my life, if it was for something like Exeter or Taft. Otherwise I could stay at the other, lower tier school, and basically be one of the top students there which will help me in college admissions.
Like I said there are a lot of moving parts in this I’d be happy to explain in a PM. This will only work if all the stars align.
The Taft alum was young, it was her first year teaching — fresh out of college. Also, I was talking on the phone with that admissions person I know at Taft, and she told me her own son got rejected from Taft too! So I don’t expect any special treatment from that.
Now, one thing I did not respond to: You said, “Forget Exeter, Choate and Taft- move on— its over” do you mean that I should not reapply to those schools next year? And what other issues other than the ones listed here are there for me to fix before next year?
P.S. I am expecting that you know a ton of specific information about me at this point. Sometimes I mix up what I told people (naturally). So sorry if some of this wasn’t as lucid as it was for me.
Also, check that DM! I’d love to get on PMs with you so we can talk specifically about different things so that you know what is going on here in full detail and we can do the best we can.
Thank you so much for everything you have done! You seem like a great mother, your son/daughter is very lucky to have you!
I’ll response to everyone else ASAP! Sorry I’m so behind, lots of tests today since it’s the last day of school!
@london203 Yep, you are right. I am not saying I should have been accepted. Heinsight is ALWAYS 20/20, I see all the flaws. However, instead of dwelling, I am trying to see how I can improve and be accepted next year!
Also, I do not only consider those two schools acceptable. It’s just, given the circumstances, its the only 2 that I consider worth all the effort and hassle with switching/repeating a grade.
Nevertheless, thanks for your input overall!
@skieurope Same as I said to London. I see the flaws. Can’t change em now.
@cababe97 Before I get into a long response, I can tell that you (along with everyone else) truly have my best interest at heart and are trying to help in any way you can — thank you for that <3
However, I have always been brought up being told I am capable of anything. And up until this, I always have been. I ate not just one, but probably 7 pints of ice cream in the past few weeks and binged multiple Netflix series. The way I picked myself up was by not accepting the defeat, and looking towards how I will better myself and improve for next year. At this point, I cannot simply give up and move on. It’s not in my vocabulary. (If you’d like to know the reasons why I DO want to go, I’d be happy to tell you!)
In regards to why I’m going: I’m not going to be successful in life or to get into a good college. I can do that on my own, and I’m confident I will regardless of whatever happens here.
Now, about the lawsuit. How would schools next year no about it? And I don’t know how much I can say here. But, the lawsuit is not for petty little things. There are a few main parts of it: [EDIT: Taking @PhotographerMom 's advice, I removed the specifics. But, just know it is not my fault and it is absolutely necessary] The moral is, I don’t think THAT is an issue with a school like Exeter that would prevent my acceptance. I doubt they would even know about it.
The point in ALL of this is. Next year, I want to reapply. And I want to get in. I am not giving up now – end of story. If I need to stay home every day this summer and study for that damn SSAT to get a 120th %-tile or something crazy in order to get in, I will. Without my dream of Exeter, I would not have survived the past 6 months. This has all around been the worst year of my life. One way or another, one day, I will end up at Exeter – I know it. I am driven as all hell, and maybe a little bit too confident, but I can do it – somehow. I know I can. So the point of all of this is that I want to get as much information as possible, and as many people as possible, combined, I am hoping that will all contribute to me getting admitted. I went for it the first time with every bit of strength I could muster. But this time, I hit the gym, and I’m gonna go for it 10x harder than that – also, I bought some buddies along with me (AKA you guys).
Well then, that certainly took a turn. I am usually pretty formal on these forums. But sometimes, I have to let the puerile part of me take over and let my imagination fly. Thanks for everything, all of you!
I hope everyone is having a good holiday time. I am writing this just to update everyone who has been so helpful to my situation. I spoke to Choate today, the conversation went fairly well. I have sort of re-evaluated Choate and done way more research on it. I would need to revisit, but I think I could see myself living happily at Choate. I still do not know exactly why I was not given my decision on time, but they said I should know by Friday. Also, I told them that I do have a means to pay for my tuition – so hopefully that helps.
I will tag some people so that they get an alert from this post. I also look forward to hearing everyone’s response to my previous posts.
@cababe97
@skieurope
@PhotographerMom
Thanks guys!
@coppii How did your talk go with Choate? We have never heard of BS making their admissions decision this late but this is happening to you.
@Concernedpr they didn’t give me a definite answer of why it was taking so long. They told me I should know my today, but as of last night emailed me and said to wait until Monday. It’s quite bizarre, but I’m praying it all works out and I get accepted. From my understanding, Choate is a great school. But, I am not so informed about it and it’s unfortunate that I will have missed the revisit days.
@coppii Good luck! Hope you hear a positive news on Monday.
@Concernedpr Thank you, so do I!
For anyone wondering, Choate rejected me. I probably could have seen this coming, though.
It was a very bizarre situation all around, though. I spoke to the school on Friday and they said that I would be hearing from them today. I went on to check the GoChoate! admissions portal as soon as I woke up, where it said that my decision was available since the same Friday that they said it was not available. I clicked on the link and was greeted, sadly, with a rejection letter.
Looking back on it, I guess it’s my fault for making my “backup” schools all amazing schools too. (Yes, Choate was a backup school for me) As a whole, there is so much I could have done differently (mainly studying for SSAT). But the biggest things were my expectations. I understood that even the most “qualified” applicants get rejected due to limited space, but I kept thinking like this: 17% acceptance rate at Exeter… well that’s nearly 20%, which is nearly 25%, so maybe I get lucky and have a 1/4 chance… That’s not so bad! Plus, if I am applying to 6 schools with a 1/4 chance, I’ll surely get into one of them, right? In reality, though, I did not realize that 75% of applicants, 3/4 get rejected.
The moral is: I had the wrong line of thinking, my fault. Everything I do from this point on regarding my admission will be much more thought out and based off of much more knowledge.
Thanks to everyone who has helped me through this mayhem!