Chance me for top boarding schools

Financial aid is need based, with need determined based on the financial aid application that your parents fill out (due February?)

Unlike colleges, most prep schools are not need-blind in acceptances. If a school likes you, but has already allotted all their financial aid to applicants they really really like, you will be waitlisted. So, if you need a lot of financial aid - say, over 90%, it can be a crap shoot.

If admissions thinks you’re really amazing, they’ll find the $. But if you aren’t viewed as a super asset in some area where they have a need, then you are a lower priority. What each school sees as a “need” varies from year to year.

You have the added problem that you are applying to enter as a junior. There are fewer openings there. Would you consider applying as a sophomore repeat?