I am looking forward to applying to Philips Academy, Philips Exeter, and Milton all as a day student (along with other safety schools). I do tennis, soccer, swimming, skiing, and sailing. Tennis, skiing, sailing competitively. I’m not sure if these schools are looking for a student who does such a wide range of athletics or if they are just focused on students with one strong suit. My grades average from an A to +A and I am a first generation American (now living in mass), the rest of my family coming from Poland. I am bilingual in English and Polish. Also at my current school, I have been a part of the student council for the past two years (class rep). I got first in my state for National History Day and attended the National competition in Washington DC. I am currently on a robotics team and the president of Math Club. I take math courses outside of school and (I’m currently in 8th grade applying for 9th) I am currently taking geometry and Alg. 2 over the summer, although these do not count towards actual math classes. I had also been invited to take a John Hopkins math course, and one is only given the opportunity if your “Terra Nova” scores are above average (same with the robotics team). I am also looking into getting a recommendation from my principal (I currently attend a private Catholic school of roughly 500 students). I participate in lots of community service (these past few months totaling at roughly 30 hours) and excel in literature/writing. I have yet to take my SSATs but, for estimation reasons, if I were to get in the 80th percentile, would I still have a chance? I will be taking two practice tests and 2 or potentially 3 actual SSATs. I do have a cousin who is applying as well and was wondering if that would potentially affect my admission chances (he most probably will get a higher percentile on the SSATs)? His focuses are on mathematics, student council, and piano, and mine seem to range from athletics to a myriad of different subjects which I am not certain high schools find appealing. Although I did play piano for several years and he has not competed in any piano-related competitions. In any case, I am a female if that were to make a difference…Overall, do I have a chance or should I not bother?
Edit: Forgot to add that I am interested in politics, mock trial, religion and I do enjoy the history of music and have a very wide span of music taste if that even makes a difference haha.
Oh and I have been taking Latin for 3 years!
A Massachusetts resident with an 80 SSAT score who is neither a recruited impact athlete or an under-represented minority has a below average chance of admission to Andover, Exeter or Milton.
As an FYI, both Andover and Exeter require you to be a resident of certain towns to apply as a day student; there are no towns which overlap the 2.
https://www.andover.edu/admission/apply
https://www.exeter.edu/admissions-and-financial-aid/application-process/how-apply/day-students
I would be living in an apartment in Back Bay Boston, although I currently live an hour south of there.
Review the links in my earlier post. For Exeter and Andover, residents of Boston can only apply as boarders.
@skieurope Actually, there are several towns, listed in your links, from which a student can be a day student at both Andover and at Exeter. These include MA towns like Boxford, Methuen, Middleton, Haverhill, and NH towns like Atkinson, Plaistow, and Salem. I may have missed a few because I just looked very quickly. For these towns, for both schools, you can choose to be a day student or a boarder.
But yes, Boston residents would need to be boarders at both Andover and Exeter.
I think Ski Europe is correct. In any case, you could not possibly be in a town from which a daily commute was possible to Milton, Andover and Exeter. With traffic in either direction or both you are looking at hours of commuting time per day. A Boston student could not be a day student at either Phillips. In addition, day spots at these schools are often “reserved” for very high level athletes or legacy ( don’t forget faculty kids are often day students as well). There are so many great private schools in these areas that many kids have a pipeline in that way or come through sports recruitment etc. I’d say with an 80% SSAT the chances would be very very low. With 95-99% I’d say chances are about 3 in 10. ( Just my opinion based on the OP). Most kids at these schools have both high grades and very high scores as well.
You should still try. As to your cousin, it really doesn’t have ANY impact on your admission at all. In addition, I think you said he is male so a day spot female is not the same as a day spot male.
IF you live 1 hour South of Boston then Milton is an obvious choice or Nobles. But the Phillips are going to be too far. Have you thought of boarding? Your chances would increase ( more spots per class) and you might have more options.
Boarding has definitely been on my mind…If I were to get into Andover or Exeter I would most probably board just because of the commute. Unlike if I got into Milton I would most likely be a day student. As for the SSAT score, I was just wondering how low I could go haha. But I am definitely aiming for the mid-90s and I will be taking the test 2 or 3 times over the next 3 months giving me a little time to study (I have been practicing for about a month already). What concerns me is my lack of being superb in one specific sport. Instead, I have many sport-related interests in which I am above average (varies between what sport) in each one but nothing too crazy.
Academically, I have the accomplishments I listed above and a few others. Along with 3 years of Latin which I heard is beneficial to getting accepted.
My error, I did not see Exeter’s full list.
Milton has few upper spots because most of their students start in the lower school then matriculate to the upper school. For Andover and Exeter, agree with others to get in as a day student you need to be from a designated town. That may significantly enhance your odds as you will be competing only with students from those towns versus students from around the world who may appear to be more interesting. I think you have great stats. Do everything you can short of moving to North Dakota to increase your odds. Good Luck!
Every chance me post should begin with “I’m full pay”/“I will be applying for aid.” Applicants are not competing against every other applicant - there are a variety of applicant pools, and the first divisions are by grade (obviously), gender and financial status. Most AOs will acknowledge that an overall acceptance rate of, say, 20% doesn’t mean 20% across the board - it often works out to closer to something more like 30% for full pay applicants and 10% for applicants requiring aid.
I have to wonder why you’re looking at schools that don’t offer your competitive sports (Exeter does not have sailing or skiing - I know this having listened to an extremely unhappy student last year lament the fact that there was no ski team). There are a number of schools that are known for sailing (Tabor and Hotchkiss are two that come to mind), ditto with skiing (St. Paul’s, Berkshire, Deerfield, etc). It makes more sense to find a school that fits you versus trying to make yourself fit what you think a school would want. It sounds like you’re early on in the process of identifying schools - I would strongly encourage you to widen the search and think about what’s really important to you in a school. Exeter and Andover are both large (~1k students) majority boarding (~80/20) 9-12/PG schools. Milton is midsize (~600), 50/50 boarding/day, with a K-8 lower school. They are completely different types of schools, and you may find that you really love a small, single sex school, or a large co-ed school - but it’s hard to know if you don’t explore.
You really should consider broadening your application list.
You seem like a very qualified and wonderful applicant. I think your chances of acceptance are high, but if you score in the 80th percentile it might hurt your applications. Generally Exeter, Andover, and Milton accept kids who score in the 85th percentile or above (the test shows them if you’ll be able to handle the workload - you’ve probably heard that before, though) but you seem able to achieve that since your grades are in the A range.
I’m also an 8th grade girl applying to those 3 schools and I’m terrified that I’ll score badly when I take the SSAT! I think the rest of my application is strong, but the SSAT does play a big role. Do you have any advice/tips?
Thanks for the advice! I just took my first SSAT and it went good I think! I don’t have much advice since I’m in the same boat beside the fact that if you do poorly on your first SSAT, take another one. They super score it so it never hurts. Also many people say to skip, but don’t. If you have 5 problems you don’t know then just circle in any bubble. Because if you get even one of those right then it makes up for the rest (if you got them all wrong). Just something I heard… GOOD LUCK!!!