Chance me? Advices, TY!

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
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I am posting this again with changes, removed useless stuff and I made changes according to different schools now. Thank you for reviewing this again, and I’d be happy to receive any advice; thank you!

Demographics:

  • Gender: Female
  • Race/Ethnicity: South Korea+China
  • Residence: China, A random second tier city, not beijing/shanghai…
  • Income Bracket: need full FA
  • Type of School attending: International
  • Grade/Age: 9th/13 (skipped grade 6)

Intended Schools:

  • Exeter
  • Andover
  • Choate
  • Emma Willard
  • Groton
  • Hotchkiss
  • 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
  • All A+ During 8th grade year

Standardized Testing:

  • SSAT: got a bad score for an asian.
  • TOEFL: ETS had some technical issue of their LogMeIn(if anyone know what this is) software downloading, and blamed me for not preparing enough so I couldn’t take it at all. Currently asking if I can get a reschedule.
  • Duolingo: I really didn’t want to take duolingo, but because of the time inconvenience and ETS not solving their problem, so I took duolingo yesterday.

Extracurriculars/Activities/Awards:

CTY High Honors

International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (China) Honorable Mention

International Mathematical Modeling Challenge Meritorious

USACO 2022 Gold 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
  • Writing a blog for 3yrs+ on coding - sharing my knowledge, 2k followers
  • Curriculum Writer for CPI(Competitive Programming Initiative) 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
  • Individual and society Teacher - pretty good i think? Probs a 8/10
  • Math Teacher - 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
  • Personal Recommendation - Got it from the prof I was doing research with. (UIUC)
  • Science teacher (Bio) - I did improve a lot and got really close, maybe 9/10

Essays:

  • Excellent in writing, and pretty sure i have strong essays and personal experiences to talk about + political topics, identity and inclusion

Interviews

  • Andover: Went for only 32 minutes, interviewer didn’t ask/mention for parent interview (REALLY ODD. I FEEL LIKE IM ALREADY REJECTED). It was more like a q&a, interviewer said andover wants students like me and put all of the stuff i said in the interview to my app. (basically what everyone gets to hear).

  • Exeter: Went for 25minutes for me and 12min w/ parent. It was more of a convo and the questions were much more deeper than andover, asked me more about what I answered from the previous question and the convo went pretty well, but still kinda the same as andover.

  • I only have Choate and Hotchkiss scheduled. Others just didn’t have space left or said THEY are going to email me to get interview scheduled.

Extra Information:

  • First time applying
  • repeating grade 9

Thank you for reading and I look forward to responses and any advice!

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Earlier thread

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Not an “extenuating circumstance”.

If you include this on an application, it will come across as whiny at best. It will add nothing positive to your application.

Additionally, you are not supposed to put every little thing that you ever done on the application; your application should be more of a highlight reel of relatively recent accomplishments.

You say that you need full FA. Even if you needed 0 FA, most of us would suggest casting a wider net.

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Everyone has imperfect teachers. This is not, and should not be commented on anywhere. It is not some special or unique or extenuating circumstance.

You list a lot of interesting achievements. Cool! Please make every single item is from middle school and that nothing is from earlier, including things like CTY High Honors. If you have listed earlier honors, and they aren’t dated, I’d try and update those scores. It is not great form to be listing your third grade High Honors and it seems to happen frequently. Each item should be dated.

If you need a lot of financial aid, apply to more schools.

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“, you are not supposed to put every little thing that you ever done on the application; your application should be more of a highlight reel of relatively recent accomplishments.”
so removing awards/ec/activities to show particular interests?

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yeah, true. And everything I’ve listed for achievements are after G7, except for CTY. I decided not to update or try testing again at a higher grade level because the fee was just too mind blowing after covid, so I should remove the cty

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I looked for more schools and decided to apply for: Lawrence, Mercersburg, NMH, and St. Paul too, and narrowed one or two of my achievements section towards stem and instruments only that are related. Can that help a bit of chance+FA? Some of them are vague about FA decision but not sure if they are genuine about international applicants getting full FA>

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I have friends (non-americans) with 100% FA at US BS

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You should ask directly about this and are right to be cautious about vague language.

Many BS work directly with organizations that provide scholarships for foreign students at US BS. The result is that these students have 100% FA but it’s not being provided (in its entirety) by the school. These tend to be based on geography. Again, a reasonable question for OP to ask because it may involve applying to/through those organizations.

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My friend at Deerfield got a scholarship without any other organizations just like a girl that I know from Exeter. However, some schools work with orgs such as Davis scholars to offer 100% scholarships but not all of them require an extra application.

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Schools charge tuition to sustain themselves. And while they do offer financial aid it is usually partial aid. Full scholarship offers, particularly to international students, are usually through larger programs which help cover fees/paperwork issues in individual countries.

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These high-ranked boarding schools typically won’t provide FULL FA (or even any) for international applicants (especially from China considering that there are so many talented students). But you look like a strong applicant overall. Good luck!

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