Type of School attending: random international school not in beijing or shanghai places like that
Grade/Age: 9th/13 (skipped grade 6 before)
Intended Schools:
Exeter
Andover
Choate
Emma Willard
Groton
Hotchkiss
Deerfield
Peddie
Blair
Middlesex
Milton
Extenuating Circumstances:
It might be an extenuating circumstance, but my physics teacher this year was awful, we barely learned anything in class and the teacher plays us useless videos most of the time and i got a weak B (we dont have A-) in physics for current grade this year as a midterm which was rlly a bummer for me since i was always that straight A+ student especially for physics,science, math, etc…
Academics:
All A, A+ during 7th grade year (no idea, we dont do GPA)
All A+ During 8th grade year (we still dont do GPA)
Standardized Testing:
Took the ssat WITHOUT ANY PREPARATION SRSLY probably getting 85-90 percentile and not gna submit if schools dont need ssat…
Extracurriculars/Activities/Awards:
CTY High Honors
International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (China) Honorable Mention
International Mathematical Modeling Challenge Meritorious
USACO 2022 reached Silver Division
John Locke Essay Competition 2023 Commendation
Best Academic Achievement Scholarship (In school)
ABRSM Grade 8 Piano Performance Pass
ABRSM Grade 5 Music Theory Merit
VIVACE Piano Competition 3rd Place (China Regionals)
Franz Liszt International Piano Competition - Merit Prize (China Regionals)
Varsity U15 Volleyball Vice Captain
Ultimate Frisbee Team
Swimming Team in my previous school (but I srsly suck at swimming now)
Golf (sadly i didnt join any competitions before)
School Clubs/community work :
Founded a Coding Club at school 2023-2024
Theres literally no other proper academic clubs at our school
Writing a blog for 3yrs+ on coding - sharing my knowledge and stuff with 2k followers
Curriculum Writer for CPI(Competitive Programming Initiative) for 1.5yr+
Ongoing research with UIUC mini crowd research, published a paper together but got rejected
LORs:
English Teacher - Great relationship. We are really close so I think a 9.5/10
I&S(Individual and society) Teach - pretty good i think? Probs a 8/10
Math Teach - no idea. He probs hates me or gna say im “average student” cuz im not talkative in class so 4/10
ICT Teacher - definitely a 10/10, she shared parts of the LOR with me
Essays:
Excellent in writing, and pretty sure i have strong essays and personal experiences to talk about + political topics, identity and inclusion
Extra Information:
Its my first time applying to all of the schools and im also repeating grade 9
Thank you for reading and I look forward to responses and any advice!
Depending on how your SSAT results come out and the distribution of your scores, if you have any other standardized testing, you may be able to submit that at a few places. My daughter applied (and was accepted) to Emma Willard last year. She attended an international school outside the US and was not satisfied with her SSAT scores. She contacted Emma Willard and asked if she could submit her MAP scores, which her school had everyone take twice a year. They agreed she could substitute the MAP scores for SSAT scores. Just letting you know a potential option. My daughter’s overall SSAT score was high enough, but one sub score was much lower than the rest so she decided not to submit.
thank you so much for your reply! I’ll definitely keep track of my ssat scores and my MAP scores this summer-i just tested was pretty good with both 99 percentile on math and english. I’m only kinda worried about my ssat reading part but apart from that, thank you for your advice!!
andover and exeter are need blind for all students, and the other schools can provide full FA for intl students (I’m pretty sure???
and I’ve got fee waivers already from all of these schools…
Peddie has exceptionally limited funds available for international applicants. However, all students who complete their application and interview by our deadline of January 15 will be considered for our selective Merit Scholarships. Learn more about affording Peddie.
This is from Peddie 's site and suggests otherwise.
You are right about Exeter and Andover.
Just saying – do your homework on this. Ask in interviews. You look like an amazing applicant, and you want to be sure you are putting your effort in the right place. There may be scholarships for people in your position. Or it could be that the one full scholarship for an international student is earmarked for someone from Mexico, and other aid for international students is limited to a smaller percentage. I don’t want to be a downer, but the language on the websites is generally vague.
RIght. Thanks for the reminder I gotta dig deeper into some questionable schools that might not be genuine on FAs. I’ve scheduled an interview with Peddie but haven’t done anything else so only if I get exceptionally good ssat score I’m not gna apply for peddie.
I think asian applicants are generally held to higher standards to fulfill the FA needs… welp thanks for that reminder
Hi, I think you have a great chance of getting into your schools - you have very strong extracurriculars!
One thing that I would do would be to remove the ABRSM grade 8 piano pass, as you didn’t get merit/distinction (your other piano awards are strong enough to cover it). Are you submitting a multimedia link for your piano?
Thanks for replying! I did get merit for my ABRSM grade 6 piano, should I replace this with the grade 8? and I am submitting two recordings of my piano performance, one is the “jingo” piece from abrsm grade 8(I got the highest score from this piece) and another piece is chopin!
I would just not put Abrsm piano. I have gr 7 distinction (made a typo in my chance me post) but I’m not submitting because it isn’t highest level (i did grade 7 a long time ago but was lazy to finish grade 8).
What Chopin piece are you playing? I’m recording op 10 no 8
no, only andover and exeter ensures need blind admission but other schools are need aware/need based or quite honest in saying that FA for international students is highly limited.
Groton, Exeter, Andover, and St. Paul are “top” need blind schools. Otherwise others are need aware. And most need blind schools I think aren’t really truly “need blind” since like for Andover during interviews they ask for parent occupation and jot them down, and from what I’ve heard they estimate your income based on that but who knows its just a rumor.
