Chances and What Else Can I Do For Class of 2029 NCSSM?

Prep School Admissions Prep School Chances
1

Hey. Hopefully you all are familiar with NCSSM in North Carolina. I am an 8th grader in CD 12. I am going to share my EXPECTED application to NCSSM by apps time in sophomore year. I would like to know if my EXPECTED application is extremely competitive for NCSSM on the overall aspect and if there is anything I can/should change (maybe on the ec side?).
Guaranteed Courses For Transcript:

6th grade: math 1 (99%)
7th grade: math 2 (99%), CDM: math 3
8th grade: AP pre-calc (100%)

9th grade: Honors Personal Finance -4.5, AP calc AB-5.0, Honors Earth and Environmental, AP stats-5.0, PE-4.0, Honors English 1 -4.5, French 2-4.0
CDM: Biology
AP self study: AP calc BC (school doesn’t offer), AP csp

10th grade: AP world-5.0, APES-5.0, AP psych-5.0, Honors French III-4.5, Honors English II-4.5, AP Human Geo-5.0, Honors Chemistry -4.5

Awards/Honors:
When I put a asterisk (*) next to an award, I am confident it will happen or already has. Majority hopefully will happen though unless I sell. Some of these, I don’t really know for sure will happen or probably won’t (?)

  1. MOP Qualifier?
  2. USAMO Silver*
  3. USAJMO hm*
  4. USACO Bronze?
  5. USAMTS Bronze*
  6. MathCounts Nationals 12th place individual, team 3rd?
  7. MathCounts State 3rd (Nats Qualifier) (at NCSSM)?
  8. 2x NC State Math Contest Comprehensive top 10 (at NCSSM)?*
  9. 3x AIME qualifier*
  10. 5x AMC 10 DHR (test wise, not year wise, 145.5 on 10b this year)*
  11. 1st place Varsity Science Olympiad?
  12. Top 10 National Science Bee*
  13. Stanford Math Tournament DHR*
  14. 9th grade MathCon Nats Gold */?
  15. 2x International RSM bronze, 2x Gold*
  16. Top 10 International Environmental Science Olympiad?
  17. 4th place NC State Math Contest Level 2*
  18. 1st Place WCU Regional Math Contest Level 2*
  19. AMC 8 distinction, DHR*
  20. National Honor Society*

Extracurriculars:
(*) and (?) again!

  1. Published research at WashU after Research Internship?
  2. 300+ volunteer hours*
  3. Co-founded Math Tutoring Business 10k+ profit and gave financial aid/tutored some for free* (Not sure about the profit yet though)
  4. Spread awareness about Quality Education UN SDG 4. Created a fundraiser for this. (Impact Project)*
  5. John Hopkins CTY Grand Honors Summer Course*
  6. Science Olympiad*
  7. NJHS/NHS treasurer*
  8. Math club President at middle school and teacher at high school (3 years)*
  9. Founder/President Model UN at hs*
  10. Investing Club VP*
  11. Physics Club Officer*
  12. NC ARML Team*

Essays: Will be about how NCSSM will help me grow as a student with tremendous opportunities I wouldn’t have had at my old school. Also more courses and course rigor. Lastly, more freedom to develop as a person.

Thank you if you made it this far and I am awaiting your feedback!

2

Extremely competitive. I have had students with far less get in. My last one had “only” taken through pre-calc and had no major math/science awards.

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3

Okay thank you.

4

You clearly have the grades and extracurriculars. One thing to keep in mind as essays are very important, they are trying to fill mission of giving enrichment to those that don’t have it, and not just picking the brightest of the bunch. You’ve clearly done well finding opportunities for yourself, so you’ll need to show how you “need” more than what’s available. Other thing they are looking for is maturity that you can handle living alway from home, ability to live with peers productively too. Good luck!

2 Likes
5

Thank you! Do I talk about how my high school doesn’t challenge me enough and implement my work ethic like I would need it to in a university like MIT?

6

I don’t think you want to criticize your current school in any way, more like point about factual things like I’ll run out of science courses since I doubled up or I have an interest in this topic which isn’t available to me. Also, while MIT is a great goal, NCSSM isn’t trying to get prestigious college acceptances, it’s trying to attract and retain local talent. While some do go on to top schools most use the tuition grant and stay in-state. Talking about work ethic needed for MIT sounds like a knock on state schools and I don’t think this is path you want. Being humble and driven and curious is a better way to look at it in my opinion.

7

Oh yeah! Thank you. I will run out of math courses in 9th grade, so I can talk about this. Then I could also talk about how the challenging course rigor in NCSSM will help me grow as a person as I adapt more difficult responsibilities. Then lastly, I could say how the extensive extra curricular opportunities at NCSSM excite me and will let me discover new paths in life. Thanks.

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