Chance an international student for phillips exeter!

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

hii, I am an 8th grade student from Europe, and I’d appreaciate any feedback or advice on my application to pea and some other prestigious schools! I will be applying for 10th or 11th grade next year.

demographics: white girl from a public school in a small town (a little bit over 300 students in total), middle class (will need financial aid)

grades: the grading system in my country is a bit different, but I have all A+ on my transcript (I don’t know how the your system works in the US, but if we take all my grades in the past school year, I have gotten almost all A’s. I have gotten a few A- throughout the year for like not colouring something in a project properly but that is the extent.), my school doesn’t do ranks

testing: took two SAT practice tests on bluebook (5 and 6) and scored 800 on both math sections, but only about 680 on the english sections. not sure if I will take the ssat. planning to get certificates in english, spanish, and german. I would also get certificates in french, latin, and esperanto, but I don’t know if it’s worth it.

awards: it would take me a while to list them all, but I’ll just say that I’ve won tons of awards in math, writing, linguistics, music, and sudoku. I also competed in higher-grades levels in many of these, and have also scored well.

extracurriculars and volunteer work:

  • piano since the first grade
  • learning music theory since pre-school until sixth grade (my music school doesn’t offer music theory classes to older kids), teaching music theory to elementary school students
  • been in a band since the fifth grade (I play the piano, bass, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar there. while there are a few other pianists and guitarists in the band, I’m typically the lead player for those instruments in the songs I’m performing. occasional singer.)
  • bass since september
  • school newspaper (co-founder and editor-in-chief)
  • tutoring kids from my school (helped a classmate get from all C’s and D’s to A’s and B’s) and online
  • volunteering at the local pre-school - organising events, helping out with pre-school concerts (there are activities for children and they need someone to be there to give out candy), reading to children - basically a workshop where you read stories to kids and help them develop an interest in reading
  • volunteering at the local library - organising events; it will be my part-time job after I turn fourteen - I will basically get some of the duties of a librarian
  • occasional volunteering with the wind orchestra at my music schools (they needed a bassist)
  • the same with the string orchestra
  • tons of playing on town events, tons of volunteering on town events (cleaning the town, festivals, et cetera)

recommendations: probably fine

essay: my native language teacher says that I have a significant talent on writing, she makes all the teachers to read my work, but I’m not sure how good my essays will be in english. I don’t know what I will write about yet.

that’s itttt thank you for reading my post till the very end :two_hearts:

2

The top US boarding schools are reaches for everyone.

If you are in 8th grade now, why are you not applying for 9th grade?

3

middle school in my country is up to 9th grade. I want to finish school along my classmates.

4

Unless I missed something, this makes no sense.

5

idk how to explain it since it probably sounds dumb, but usually in the US you apply to high school in the 8th grade. in my country it’s just a year later. I just think that when I’ve already spent 8 years with this class (elementary and middle school are counted as one school in my country), I should also go through the 9th grade with them. there is also a huge ceremony at the end of middle school, and I just want to experience it along my friends. idk if that makes sense tho :grimacing:

6

Ok – you will complete 9th grade at your current school. The top US boarding schools will be reaches but take your shot.

7

thank you for your feedbackk :heart_hands: yeah I do realise that it isn’t easy to get into these schools but ig there’s no harm in trying… do you have any advice on how to improve my application?

8

All the top schools will be reaches. Obviously ninth grade is the big entry year making it easier because there are more spaces fundamentally available some schools like Lawrenceville have a big entry year in 10th grade while other schools do not, but still except some students. I’m not sure why you list out, 11th grade as unless you are a high-level athlete or some other circumstance it becomes much harder to get in and that grade. No doubt you have tons of achievements like so many of the other wonderful students on here. I do suggest as you think about your application to try to focus on the things you’re most passionate about as schools will have a hard time, figuring out where your love and talents rest.

9

I think it’s important to build a balanced list of schools—both reach options and ones where admission is very likely. I’m not sure what level of classes you’re taking or what your school offers, but that, along with your interviews, will play a major role in the process.

Beyond finalizing your list and thinking carefully about why each school is a strong fit for you (which is crucial for interviews), I’d also suggest considering applying as a reclassed 9th grader. This can place you in a less competitive applicant pool and give you an extra year to prepare for high school and, eventually, college. It also makes your current academic record stand out more when compared to other 9th grade applicants. Just to give some perspective—last year, Groton took 3 kids for 2 spots in the Class of 2027 (rising 10th graders) out of roughly 5,000 applicants. Feel free to reply in this thread if you want help thinking through which schools might be the right fit—especially if you can share a bit more about the kinds of classes you’re taking.

1 Like
10

Hmmmm. This feels unnecessarily discouraging to me. The math doesn’t add up.

Groton does not get 5,000 apps per year. It is likely much closer to 1,500. Think about it. If its typical acceptance rate hovers around 10%, 5,000 apps would mean they accept 500 students per year. That number is greater than the total number of students in the entire school. And the school enjoys a high yield. Those two things cannot both be true.

I appreciate that setting expectations can be helpful so that young people who are new to this process see the value of expanding one’s list and applying to a broader group of schools. But I would hate to see someone get scared away by inaccurate information.

One of the things that I found helpful last year was the cautious optimism of people who had previously navigated admissions. I hope the kids who are currently applying follow the advice offered here by some of the more seasoned adults who no longer have skin in the game, yet continue to advise. They are the elder statesmen, and their advice is solid.

4 Likes
11

The suggestion to reclass as a ninth grader is a good one. For all the reasons Pathway Scholar mentioned.

12

Love the breathless enthusiasm regarding Groton, @PathwayScholar, but @cheerfulmom is correct.

Groton apps were in the 1,500 range for the years 2021-2024, then surged 11% to 1,674 in 2025, perhaps driven by the #1 Niche ranking (all rankings are ephemeral fluff) combined with the school’s ever-increasing affordability due to GRAIN (which is real, admirable, and strongly backed by both the headmaster and the board).

Some admissions algebra from Groton’s 2025 admissions press release here (which now appears dead, but was live earlier this year – you can see a chronological list of Groton press releases here, where it appears in chronological order) reveals the following:

1,674 apps
128 admits
7.6% acceptance rate
95 matriculants
74% yield
9.7 draw rate

These are stats approaching or even exceeding Andover levels, which may be why the school seems to downplay them, whether out of Grotonian modesty or a desire not to dissuade stressed-out kids from applying to a great school, I wouldn’t know.

13

Yeah, its giving a 404-Page Not Found.
Those are crazy numbers. 128 admits over five years of applicants?
When was this published? I’m wondering if there was any “melt.”

14

Those figures are for the 2024-2025 application cycle. (I cited the ~1,500 apps received annually from 2021-2024 for comparison to the erroneous figure cited of 5,000 apps per year.)

Groton’s enrollment data by class back is publicly available via the Mass DOE here.

According to the Mass DOE, Groton has enrolled 85-95 seniors a year going back to 2017-2018. So filling a class with 95 matriculants from 128 admits makes perfect sense.

Enrollments by class typically run:

(Lower School)
8th grade: +25-30
9th grade: +50-55

(Upper School)
10th-12th grades: +5-15 (over all three forms, but mostly in Forms IV and V)

Presumably the Upper School intakes, as necessary, a handful of students (primarily athletics and other hooked kids) to replace “melt” (dropouts and/or dismissals) from the typical Lower School cohort of 75-85 students.

As for the press release, most of Groton’s archived web pages are returning 404 errors at present. Maybe it’s summer housekeeping or a website overhaul.

IIRC, someone posted the 2025 admissions press release on this forum in the spring, so it seems legit, especially given how congruent it is with the Mass DOE data.

15

I sometimes forget how small Groton is.
The whole school is slightly larger than Andover and Exeter’s graduating classes.

I would definitely like to see how these draw rates compare to the bigger schools. Very impressive.

16

You will need an actual SAT or SSAT score.